Patent ID: 8438029

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving, by a computing device, speech data corresponding to one or more spoken utterances of a particular speaker; recognizing textual elements of a first input text corresponding to the speech data; determining confidence levels associated with the recognized textual elements; adapting speech-synthesis parameters of one or more decision trees based on the speech data, recognized textual elements, and associated confidence levels, wherein each adapted decision tree is configured to map individual elements of a text to individual of the speech-synthesis parameters, and wherein adapting the speech-synthesis parameters of one or more decision trees comprises: selecting a top node of the one or more decision trees, wherein the top node comprises one or more sub-nodes, wherein each of the one or more sub-nodes is associated with a selected textual element of the first input text; determining a probability threshold; for each of the one or more sub-nodes: determining a probability that the selected textual element has the feature associated with the sub-node, the probability based on the associated confidence levels, determining whether the probability that the selected textual element has the associated feature exceeds the probability threshold, and in response to determining that the probability of the selected textual element having the associated feature exceeds the probability threshold, selecting the sub-node; determining whether a sub-node of the one or more sub-nodes has been selected; and in response to determining that a selected sub-node of the one or more sub-nodes has been selected: determining that the first input text has the associated feature, and selecting the selected sub-node as the top node; receiving a second input text; mapping the second input text to a set of speech-synthesis parameters using the one or more adapted decision trees; and generating a synthesized spoken utterance corresponding to the second input text using the set of speech-synthesis parameters, wherein at least some of the speech-synthesis parameters in the set of speech-synthesis parameters are configured to simulate the particular speaker.