Text to speech
First Claim
1. A method for converting text to speech using a computing device having memory, comprising:
- (a) receiving text into said memory of said computing device;
(b) applying a set of the lexical parsing rules to parse said text into a plurality of components;
(c) associating pronunciation, and meaning information with said components;
(d) applying a set of phrase parsing rules to generate marked up text;
(e) phonetically parsing said marked up text using phonetic parsing rules;
(f) parsing said marked up text using Lessac expressive parsing rules; and
(g) storing a plurality of sounds in memory, each of said sounds being associated with said pronunciation information; and
(h) recalling the sounds associated with said text to generate a raw speech signal from said marked up text after said parsing using phonetic and expressive parsing rules.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A preferred embodiment of the method for converting text to speech using a computing device having a memory is disclosed. Text, being made up of a plurality of words, is received into the memory of the computing device. A plurality of phonemes are derived from the text. Each of the phonemes is associated with a prosody record based on a database of prosody records associated with a plurality of words. A first set of the artificial intelligence rules is applied to determine context information associated with the text. The context influenced prosody changes for each of the phonemes is determined. Then a second set of rules, based on Lessac theory to determine Lessac derived prosody changes for each of the phonemes is applied. The prosody record for each of the phonemes is amended in response to the context influenced prosody changes and the Lessac derived prosody changes. Then a reading from the memory sound information associated with the phonemes is performed. The sound information is amended, based on the prosody record as amended in response to the context influenced prosody changes and the Lessac derived prosody changes to generate amended sound information for each of the phonemes. Then the sound information is outputted to generate a speech signal.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for converting text to speech using a computing device having memory, comprising:
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(a) receiving text into said memory of said computing device;
(b) applying a set of the lexical parsing rules to parse said text into a plurality of components;
(c) associating pronunciation, and meaning information with said components;
(d) applying a set of phrase parsing rules to generate marked up text;
(e) phonetically parsing said marked up text using phonetic parsing rules;
(f) parsing said marked up text using Lessac expressive parsing rules; and
(g) storing a plurality of sounds in memory, each of said sounds being associated with said pronunciation information; and
(h) recalling the sounds associated with said text to generate a raw speech signal from said marked up text after said parsing using phonetic and expressive parsing rules. - View Dependent Claims (2)
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3. A method for converting text to speech using a computing device having a memory, comprising:
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(a) receiving a text comprising a plurality of words into said memory of said computing device;
(b) deriving a plurality of phonemes from said text;
(c) associating with each of said phonemes a prosody record based on a database of prosody records associated with a plurality of words;
(d) applying a first set of the artificial intelligence rules to determine context information associated with said text;
(e) for each of said phonemes;
(i) determining context influenced prosody changes;
(ii) applying a second set of rules based on Lessac theory to determine Lessac derived prosody changes;
(iii) amending the prosody record in response to said context influenced prosody changes and said Lessac derived prosody changes;
(iv) reading from said memory sound information associated with said phonemes;
(v) amending said sound information based on the prosody record as amended in response to said context influenced prosody changes and said Lessac derived prosody changes to generate amended sound information; and
(f) outputting said sound information to generate a speech signal. - View Dependent Claims (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method for converting text to speech using a computing device having a memory, comprising:
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(a) receiving a text comprising a plurality of words into said memory of said computing device;
(b) deriving a plurality of phonemes from said text;
(c) associating with each of said phonemes a prosody record based on a database of prosody records associated with a plurality of words;
(d) applying a first set of the artificial intelligence rules to determine context information associated with said text;
(e) determining prosody changes for each of said phonemes to generate determined prosody changes;
(f) reading from said memory sound information associated with said phonemes;
(g) amending said sound information based on the prosody record as amended in response to said determined prosody changes;
(h) varying said determined prosody changes in said speech signal in a manner which is random or which appears to be random, whereby increased realism is achieved in output speech; and
(i) outputting said sound information to generate a speech signal.
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Specification