Email text-to-speech conversion in sender's voice
First Claim
1. A method for performing a text-to-speech conversion of an email, wherein the email includes multiple parts created by multiple human authors, the method comprising:
- determining that the email is to be sent to a particular destination;
detecting that the email message includes a first part from a first author and a second part from a second author;
retrieving a first voice characteristic of the first author;
retrieving a second voice characteristic of the second author; and
transferring the first and second voice characteristics to the particular destination.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
Multiple authors'"'"' voices can be used in a text-to-speech (TTS) conversion of an email thread so that each part of the thread is read in that author'"'"'s voice. A tag is used to identify which text portion corresponds to which author. Voice characteristics can be originated from an author'"'"'s sending device or can be centrally stored in a voice characteristic database at a unified messaging server and provided to a recipient of the email thread. A similar approach can be used in a single document such as a change-tracked document that is being edited by multiple authors. The different voice characteristics of authors corresponding to different parts of the document can be accessed for TTS conversion so that a person listening on an audio device (e.g., phone, VoIP phone, cell phone, etc.) can identify the author of a specific part without the use of text or other displayed information. Voice characteristics can be centrally stored and delivered to users of audio devices to be used with a variety of text communications.
208 Citations
18 Claims
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1. A method for performing a text-to-speech conversion of an email, wherein the email includes multiple parts created by multiple human authors, the method comprising:
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determining that the email is to be sent to a particular destination;
detecting that the email message includes a first part from a first author and a second part from a second author;
retrieving a first voice characteristic of the first author;
retrieving a second voice characteristic of the second author; and
transferring the first and second voice characteristics to the particular destination. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11)
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8. A method for performing a text-to-speech conversion of text, wherein the text includes multiple parts created by multiple human authors, the method comprising:
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detecting that the text includes a first part from a first author and a second part from a second author;
retrieving a first voice characteristic of the first author;
retrieving a second voice characteristic of the second author; and
transferring the first and second voice characteristics to the particular destination. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10)
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12. A method for playing a text-to-speech conversion of text, wherein the text includes multiple parts created by multiple human authors, the method comprising:
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detecting that the text includes a first part from a first author and a second part from a second author;
retrieving a first voice characteristic of the first author;
retrieving a second voice characteristic of the second author;
performing a text-to-speech conversion of the first part using the first voice characteristic; and
performing a text-to-speech conversion of the first part using the first voice characteristic. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. An apparatus for performing a text-to-speech conversion of an email, wherein the email includes multiple parts created by multiple human authors, the apparatus comprising:
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a processor;
a machine-readable medium including one or more instructions executable by a processor for;
determining that the email is to be sent to a particular destination;
detecting that the email message includes a first part from a first author and a second part from a second author;
retrieving a first voice characteristic of the first author;
retrieving a second voice characteristic of the second author; and
transferring the first and second voice characteristics to the particular destination.
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18. A machine-readable medium including instructions executable by a processor for performing a text-to-speech conversion of an email, wherein the email includes multiple parts created by multiple human authors, the machine-readable medium comprising one or more instructions for:
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determining that the email is to be sent to a particular destination;
detecting that the email message includes a first part from a first author and a second part from a second author;
retrieving a first voice characteristic of the first author;
retrieving a second voice characteristic of the second author; and
transferring the first and second voice characteristics to the particular destination.
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Specification