Patent Document ID: 8731932
Application ID: 12852164

Base Claim:
1. A method comprising: combining a first database of first text-to-speech voice units and a second database of second text-to-speech voice units, the first text-to-speech voice units originating from a different speaker than the second text-to-speech voice units, to yield a combined database; storing the combined database as if the combined database were from a single speaker; determining a selection policy based on a current emotional context; selecting from the combined database, based on the selection policy, voice units of a phonetic category for a synthetic voice, to yield selected voice units, wherein the selected voice units comprise a first voice unit from the first text-to-speech voice units and a second voice unit from the second text-to-speech voice units; and synthesizing speech based on the selected voice units.

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Claim 2:
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the speech is synthesized without parameterizing the first text-to-speech voice units and the second text-to-speech voice units.