Speech synthesis apparatus and method
First Claim
1. A speech synthesizer having an output stage for converting a phonetic description to an acoustic output, the output stage including a database of recorded utterance segments, in which the output stage:
- a. converts the phonetic description to a plurality of time-varying parameters;
b. interprets the parameters as a key for accessing the database to identify an utterance segment in the database, and c. outputs the identified utterance segment;
in which the output stage further comprises an output waveform synthesizer that can generate an output signal from the parameters, whereby, in the event that the parameters describe an utterance segment for which there is no corresponding recording in the database, the parameters are passed to the output waveform synthesizer to generate an output signal.
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Abstract
A speech synthesizer and a method for synthesizing speech are disclosed. The synthesizer has an output stage for converting a phonetic description to an acoustic output. The output stage includes a database of recorded utterance segments. The output stage operates: a. to convert the phonetic description to a plurality of time-varying parameters; and b. to interpret the parameters as a key for accessing the database to identify an utterance segment in the database. The output stage then outputs the identified utterance segment. The output stage further comprises an output waveform synthesizer that can generate an output signal from the parameters. Therefore, in the event that the parameters describe an utterance segment for which there is no corresponding recording in the database, the parameters are passed to the output waveform synthesizer to generate an output signal.
186 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A speech synthesizer having an output stage for converting a phonetic description to an acoustic output, the output stage including a database of recorded utterance segments, in which the output stage:
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a. converts the phonetic description to a plurality of time-varying parameters;
b. interprets the parameters as a key for accessing the database to identify an utterance segment in the database, and c. outputs the identified utterance segment;
in which the output stage further comprises an output waveform synthesizer that can generate an output signal from the parameters, whereby, in the event that the parameters describe an utterance segment for which there is no corresponding recording in the database, the parameters are passed to the output waveform synthesizer to generate an output signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method of synthesizing speech comprising:
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a. generating from a phonetic description a plurality of time-varying parameters that describe an output waveform;
b. interpreting the parameters to identify an utterance segment within a database of such segments that corresponds to the audio output defined by the parameters and retrieving the segment to create an output waveform; and
c. outputting the output waveform;
in which, if no utterance segment is identified in the database in step b, as corresponding to thc parameters, an output waveform for output in step c is generated by synthesis. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification