On demand TTS vocabulary for a telematics system

• US 20060031062A1
• Filed: 08/06/2004
• Published: 02/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cerence Operating Company (Cerence Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Eide, Ellen M., Hamza, Wael, Bakis, Raimo
• Granted Patent: US 8,046,213 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/201
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3629 Guidance using speech or audio output, e.g. text-to-speech text to speech systems per se G10L13/00
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/04 Details of speech synthesis systems, e.g. synthesiser structure or memory management

Abstract

A driving directions system loads into memory a limited subset of prerecorded, spoken utterances of geographic names from a mass media storage. The subset of spoken utterances may be limited, for example, to the geographic names within a predetermined radius (e.g., a few miles) of the driver'"'"'s present location. The present location of the driver may be manually entered into the driving directions system by the driver, or automatically determined using a global positioning system (“GPS”) receiver. As the vehicle moves from its present location, the driving directions system loads into memory new names from the mass media storage and overwrites, if necessary, those which are now geographically out of range. Based on the current location of the driving, the driving directions system can audibly output geographic names from the run-time memory.

Claims

1. A driving directions system, comprising:

a run-time memory for receiving a subset of utterances of geographic names based on a location of a vehicle, a final destination, and at least one map.

2. The driving directions system of claim 1, further comprising a location means for obtaining the location of the vehicle.

3. The driving directions system of claim 2, wherein the location means comprises a user-interface for manually inputting the location of the vehicle.

4. The driving directions system of claim 3, wherein the user-interface comprises a graphical user-interface.

5. The driving directions system of claim 2, wherein the location means comprises a global positioning system (GPS) receiver.

6. The driving directions system of claim 1, further comprising a map storage means for storing the at least one map.

7. The driving directions system of claim 6, wherein the map storage means comprises at least one of a CD-ROM and a DVD-ROM.

8. The driving directions system of claim 6, wherein the map storage means is located locally within the vehicle.

9. The driving directions system of claim 6, wherein the map storage means is located remotely outside of the vehicle.

10. The driving directions system of claim 9, wherein the map storage means is accessed via a network.

11. The driving directions system of claim 10, wherein the network is an Internet.

12. The driving directions system of claim 1, further comprising an utterance storage means for storing the utterances of geographic names.

13. The driving directions system of claim 12, wherein the utterance storage means comprises at least one of a CD-ROM and a DVD-ROM.

14. The driving directions system of claim 12, wherein the utterance storage means is located locally within the vehicle.

15. The driving directions system of claim 12, wherein the utterance storage means is located remotely outside of the vehicle.

16. The driving directions system of claim 15, wherein the utterance storage means is accessed via a network.

17. The driving directions system of claim 16, wherein the network is an Internet.

18. The driving directions system of claim 1, further comprising an index containing pointers to the utterances of geographic names.

19. The driving directions system of claim 18, wherein the index comprises a large geographic region portion.

20. The driving directions system of claim 19, wherein the large geographic region portion corresponds to one of a continent and a country.

21. The driving directions system of claim 19, wherein the large geographic region portion comprises a local geographic region portion.

22. The driving directions system of claim 21, wherein the local geographic region portion corresponds to a predetermined area in the large geographic region portion.

23. The driving directions system of claim 1, wherein the utterances of the geographic names are recorded by a plurality of speakers, and wherein each of the plurality of speakers records the geographic names in a speech style corresponding to a local geographic region.

24. The driving directions system of claim 23, wherein the speech style corresponding to the local geographic region comprises at least one of a language, dialect and accent of the local geographic region.

25. The driving directions system of claim 1, wherein the utterances of the geographic names are stored in a compressed format.

26. The driving directions system of claim 1, further comprising a speech playback means for audibly outputting at least one of the subset of utterances based on the location of the vehicle, the final destination, and the at least one map.

27. The driving directions system of claim 26, wherein at the least one of the subset of the utterances is decompressed prior to the speech playback means audibly outputting the at least one of the subset of the utterances.

28. The driving directions system of claim 1, wherein the utterances of geographic names comprise digitally encoded audio files.

29. The driving directions system of claim 28, wherein the digitally encoded audio files comprise WAVE files.

30. The driving directions system of claim 1, further comprising a destination means for receiving a final destination.

31. The driving directions system of claim 30, wherein the destination means comprises a user-interface for manually inputting a final destination.

32. The driving directions system of claim 31, wherein the user-interface is a graphical user-interface.

33. A driving directions system, comprising:

a large storage media for storing utterances of geographic names;

a location determination module for obtaining a location of a vehicle;

a storage manager for (a) receiving the location from the location determination module, (b) retrieving a subset of the utterances of geographic names from the large storage media based on the location, and (c) storing the subset of the utterances of geographic names in a working storage;

a dialog manager for receiving (d) the location from the location determination module;

(e) a final destination, and (f) a map;

wherein the dialog manager retrieves at least one of the subset of the utterances from the working storage based on (d), (e) and (f); and

wherein the dialog manager audibly outputs the at least one of the subset of the utterances.

34. The driving directions system of claim 33, wherein the working storage comprises a run-time memory.

35. The driving directions system of claim 34, wherein the run-time memory comprises a random access memory (RAM).

36. A driving directions system, comprising:

an utterance storage means for storing compressed, digitally-encoded utterances of geographic names;

a location determination means for obtaining a location of a vehicle;

a storage manager for (a) receiving the location from the location determination means, (b) retrieving a subset of the compressed, digitally-encoded utterances of geographic names from the utterance storage means, wherein the subset comprises compressed, digitally-encoded utterances of geographic names geographically located within a predetermined area surrounding the location, (c) decompressing the subset of the compressed, digitally-encoded utterances into uncompressed utterances, and (d) storing the uncompressed utterances in a working storage; and

a dialog manager for receiving (e) the location from the location determination means;

(f) a final destination from a destination input means, and (g) a map from a map storage means;

wherein the dialog manager retrieves at least one of the uncompressed utterances from the working storage based on (e), (f) and (g); and

wherein the dialog manager instructs a speech playback means to audibly output the at least one of the uncompressed utterances.

37. The driving directions system of claim 36, wherein the geographic names comprise at least one of streets, cities, towns, counties, and points of interest.