Method and system for configurable allocation of sound segments for use in concatenative text-to-speech voice synthesis
First Claim
1. A method of dynamically allocating speech segments used in a concatenative text-to-speech engine, the method comprising:
- determining memory capacity of a user computer adapted for playing a CTTS voice, wherein the user computer includes a data storage unit;
sorting the speech segments according to their frequency of access during speech synthesis; and
partitioning the speech segments between the computer memory and the data storage unit depending upon their frequency of access during speech synthesis.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and computer program product for synthesizing concatenative speech by allocating speech segments based upon their frequency of access during speech synthesis and storing frequently used speech segments in memory where they can be easily and quickly accessed. Speech data is recorded in separate files from which individual speech units are identified. The method and system of the present invention analyzes the frequency of access of each speech unit during synthesis and uses this data to sort the speech units according to their frequency of access. Those speech units that are accessed more frequently than others are loaded into memory where they can be accessed quickly during subsequent speech synthesis. Other speech units that are not used as frequently can be stored on a data storage disk. The invention can also dynamically adapt to changes in the frequency of speech unit access by moving units from memory to disk or vice versa depending upon their frequency of access or to account for a change in the user'"'"'s system requirements.
17 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of dynamically allocating speech segments used in a concatenative text-to-speech engine, the method comprising:
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determining memory capacity of a user computer adapted for playing a CTTS voice, wherein the user computer includes a data storage unit;
sorting the speech segments according to their frequency of access during speech synthesis; and
partitioning the speech segments between the computer memory and the data storage unit depending upon their frequency of access during speech synthesis. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer usable program code for dynamically allocating speech segments used in a concatenative text-to-speech engine, said computer program product including:
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computer usable program code for determining memory capacity of a user computer adapted for playing of a CTTS voice, wherein the user computer includes a data storage unit;
computer usable program code for sorting the speech segments according to their frequency of access during speech synthesis; and
computer usable program code for partitioning the speech segments between the computer memory and the data storage unit depending upon their frequency of access during the speech synthesis. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A system for dynamically allocating speech segments used in a concatenative text-to-speech engine, the system comprising:
a computer, the computer including;
a memory unit;
a data storage unit adapted to store at least one file containing a plurality of speech segments; and
a processor for sorting the speech segments based upon their frequency of access during speech synthesis, the processor adapted to allocate the frequently used speech segments to the memory unit. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
Specification