Patent ID: 7676368

Claim:
An information processing apparatus comprising: text input means for entering text data; recording means for recording at least one piece of first information and second information corresponding to each piece of said first information; first detecting means for detecting a text matching said first information recorded in said recording means from said text data entered through said text input means; replacing means for replacing said first information detected by said first detecting means with said corresponding second information by referring to said first information and said second information recorded by said recording means; and speech data generating means for generating speech data corresponding to said text data by performing text-to-speech synthesis on said text data with said first information replaced with said second information by said replacing means, said speech generating means generating speech in a first voice for text data with a first attribute and generating speech in a second voice for text data with a second attribute, wherein the text data is an electronic mail message, the first attribute and the second attribute are determined based on the symbols and number of symbols added to each line of the electronic mail message, and a portion of the electronic mail message is classified as having the first attribute if written by a recipient of the electronic mail message and a portion of the electronic mail message is classified as having the second attribute if written by others, and said first voice speaks at a faster rate than the second voice.