Patent Document ID: 7979280
Application ID: 11709056

Base Claim:
1. A method for converting an input linguistic description into a speech waveform comprising: deriving at least one target unit sequence corresponding to the input linguistic description; assigning in a waveform unit database one or more waveform units to each target unit of the at least one target unit sequence; selecting for the at least one target unit sequence a plurality of alternative waveform unit sequences approximating the at least one target unit sequence, using the one or more waveform units assigned to each target unit of the at least one target unit sequence; concatenating the alternative waveform unit sequences to form alternative speech waveforms; and presenting the alternative speech waveforms to an operating person and enabling the choice of one of the presented alternative speech waveforms.

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Claim 14:
14. Method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the waveform unit sequences corresponding to waveforms chosen by the operator are used to improve the behaviour of the standard waveform unit selection by adapting the unit selection parameters to increase overlap between the default unit sequences and a large set of manually optimized unit sequences.