Method and System for Generating, Rating, and Storing a Pronunciation Corpus

• US 20080082316A1
• Filed: 09/26/2007
• Published: 04/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Chi Shing Kwan, Chun Y.U. Tsui
• Original Assignee: Chi Shing Kwan, Chun Y.U. Tsui
• Inventors: Kwan, Chi Shing, Tsui, Chun Yu
• Application Number:
  US11/861,281
• Publication Number:
  US 20080082316A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/4
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/04 Speaking with audible presentation of the material to be studied G09B5/04
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/06 Foreign languages with audible presentation of material to be studied G09B5/04
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/00 Electrically-operated educational appliances working with questions and answers G09B7/00; simulators G09B9/00; advertising or displaying in general G09F
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/00 Electrically-operated teaching apparatus or devices working with questions and answers mechanically operated G09B3/00; computing arrangements G06F
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems

Abstract

A method and system of generating, rating, and storing a pronunciation corpus is provided. The system (“Dico”) is an interactive system resident on a data network such as the Internet or intranet. Dico provides a platform for maintaining and serving the corpus in such a way that the corpus can be expanded continuously with new phrases and new pronunciations received from the users of Dico. A user of Dico can take the role of a contributor or a listener. Contributors use Dico'"'"'s contribution tool to contribute new pronunciations and phrases to Dico'"'"'s corpus. Listeners use Dico'"'"'s playback tool to listen to the contributed pronunciations in Dico'"'"'s corpus. Listeners can also rate the contributed pronunciations using Dico'"'"'s rating tool. Dico uses the ratings to determine the quality of the contributed pronunciations and use this information to rank the pronunciations. The collective actions and knowledge of Dico'"'"'s users enable Dico to determine the best pronunciations for each phrase in its corpus.

Claims

1. A method for accessing and generating a pronunciation corpus of phrases, comprising:

under control of one of a plurality of client systems, carrying out, independently of other client systems, at least one action selected from a set including;

sending to a server system a pronunciation for a phrase in the corpus;

sending to the server system a request for at least one pronunciation for at least one phrase in the corpus; and

receiving from the server system the at least one requested pronunciation,

under control of the server system, carrying out, in no particular order, at least one action selected from a set including;

receiving from a client system a pronunciation for a phrase in the corpus;

receiving from a client system a request for at least one pronunciation for at least one phrase in the corpus; and

sending to the requesting client system the at least one requested pronunciation.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the set, under control of a client system, includes playing back a received pronunciation.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the set, under control of a client system, includes sending to the server system a phrase for inclusion in the corpus;

4. The method of claim 1 including, under control of the server system, receiving a phrase for inclusion in the corpus, whereby the corpus can be expanded continuously with new phrases and new pronunciations received from the client systems.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the set, under control of a client system, includes sending to the server system at least one rating for the at least one received pronunciation.

6. The method of claim 1 including, under control the server system, receiving at least one rating for the at least one sent pronunciation.

7. The method of claim 1 including, under control of the server system, generating a measure of quality of the at least one pronunciation for a phrase in the corpus;

and when there are a plurality of pronunciations for the same phrase in the corpus, a measure of quality relative to the at least one other pronunciation for the same phrase.

8. The method of claim 6 including, under control of the server system, utilizing the at least one received rating to generate a measure of quality of the at least one pronunciation for a phrase in the corpus;

and when there are a plurality of pronunciations for the same phrase in the corpus, a measure of quality relative to the at least one other pronunciation for the same phrase, whereby comparatively higher quality pronunciations for each phrase in the corpus can be identified, and at least one of the higher quality pronunciations for each phrase can be sent to a client system.

9. A method for accessing a pronunciation corpus using one of a plurality of client systems, carrying out, independently of other client systems, at least one action selected from a set including:

sending to a server system a pronunciation for a phrase in the corpus;

sending to the server system a request for at least one pronunciation for at least one phrase in the corpus; and

receiving from the server system the at least one requested pronunciation.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the set includes sending to the server system a phrase for inclusion in the corpus.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the set includes sending to the server system at least one rating for the at least one received pronunciation.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the set further includes sending to the server system at least one rating for the at least one received pronunciation.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the sending includes inputting the written form of the phrase in a client system using a suitable input component of the client system.

14. The method of claim 9 wherein the sending a pronunciation includes recording, to a suitable encoding, the pronunciation to be stored in a suitable storage medium of the client system and sending the stored encoding of the pronunciation to the server system.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the sending includes uploading the stored encoding to the server system.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the sending includes attaching the stored encoding to an email and sending the email to the server system.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein the encoding is a computer format for multimedia materials.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein the encoding is a computer format for video and audio materials.

19. The method of claim 9 wherein the sending of a pronunciation includes capturing the utterance of a phrase by a suitable input component of the client system while the client system is partially under control of a suitable program and the program sending a suitable encoding of the utterance to the server system.

20. The method of claim 9 wherein the request includes the written form of the at least one phrase.

21. The method of claim 20 includes generating the written form by inputting the written form in a suitable program.

22. The method of claim 9 wherein the client systems and the server system communicate via one or a combination of communication networks selected from a set including the Internet, a mobile telephone network, a local area network, a satellite communication network, a mobile data network, a packet-switched network, a telephone network, and a circuit-switched network.

23. The method of claim 9 wherein the receiving includes playing back of the at least one pronunciation using a suitable output component of the client system.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the output component is a telephone.

25. The method of claim 9 wherein the receiving includes storing a suitable encoding of the at least one pronunciation in a suitable storage medium of the client system.

26. The method of claim 9 wherein the receiving includes receiving a listing of the at least one pronunciation and displaying the listing in the client system, selecting a pronunciation from the listing, and playing back the selected pronunciation using a suitable output component of the client system under the control of a suitable program.

27. The method of claim 9 wherein the receiving includes receiving a suitable encoding of the at least one pronunciation as an attachment to an email sent by the server system to the client system.

28. The method of claim 11 wherein the rating is represented by a numerical value.

29. The method of claim 11 includes inputting the rating in a suitable program.

30. A method for generating a pronunciation corpus and making the corpus available for use by a plurality of client systems wherein a server system carries out, in no particular order, at least one action selected from a set including:

receiving from a client system a pronunciation for a phrase in the corpus;

receiving from a client system a request for at least one pronunciation for at least one phrase in the corpus; and

sending to the requesting client system the at least one requested pronunciation.

31. The method of claim 30 including receiving from a client system a phrase for inclusion in the corpus.

32. The method of claim 30 including gathering, independently from the client systems, phrases for inclusion in the corpus.

33. The method of claim 30 including receiving from a client system at least one rating for the at least one sent pronunciation.

34. The method of claim 31 further including receiving from a client system at least one rating for the at least one sent pronunciation.

35. The method of claim 31 wherein the receiving includes receiving the written form of the phrase from a client system.

36. The method of claim 30 wherein the receiving of a pronunciation includes receiving a suitable encoding of the pronunciation.

37. The method of claim 36 wherein the receiving a suitable encoding includes receiving an upload of the encoding.

38. The method of claim 36 wherein the receiving a suitable encoding includes receiving the encoding as an attachment to an email sent from a client system to the server system.

39. The method of claim 30 wherein the receiving of a pronunciation includes receiving an utterance of the phrase while a client system is partial under control of a suitable program and receiving an encoding of the utterance sent by the program.

40. The method of claim 30 wherein the request includes the written form of the at least one phrase.

41. The method of claim 30 wherein the client systems and the server system communicate via one or a combination of communication networks selected from a set including the Internet, a mobile telephone network, a local area network, a satellite communication network, a mobile data network, a packet-switched network, a telephone network, and a circuit-switched network.

42. The method of claim 30 wherein the sending includes sending a listing of the at least one pronunciation and in response to a pronunciation being selected by the client system, sending a suitable encoding of the selected pronunciation.

43. The method of claim 30 including generating a measure of quality of the at least one pronunciation for a phrase in the corpus;

and when there are a plurality of pronunciations for the same phrase in the corpus, a measure of quality relative to the at least one other pronunciation for the same phrase.

44. The method of claim 33 including utilizing the at least one received rating to generate a measure of quality of the at least one pronunciation for a phrase in the corpus;

and when there are a plurality of pronunciations for the same phrase in the corpus, a measure of quality relative to the at least one other pronunciation for the same phrase.

45. A client system for accessing a pronunciation corpus including:

a component configured to send to a server system a pronunciation for a phrase in the corpus;

a component configured to send to the server system a request for at least one pronunciation for at least one phrase in the corpus; and

a component configured to receive from the server system the at least one requested pronunciation.

46. The client system of claim 45 includes a component configured to send to the server system a phrase for inclusion in the corpus.

47. The client system of claim 45 includes a component configured to send to the server system at least one rating for the at least one received pronunciation.

48. The client system of claim 46 further includes a component configured to send to the server system at least one rating for the at least one received pronunciation.

49. The client system of claim 45 includes a storage medium configured to store a suitable encoding of a pronunciation.

50. The client system of claim 45 wherein the component configured to send a pronunciation includes an input component configured to record a pronunciation in a suitable encoding.

51. The client system of claim 45 wherein the component configured to send a request includes an input component configured for inputting the written form of a phrase.

52. The client system of claim 45 wherein the component configured to receive includes an output component configured to play back a pronunciation.

53. The client system of claim 45 wherein the component configured to receive includes a display component configured to display a listing of at least one pronunciation.

54. The client system of claim 53 wherein the display component includes a component configured for selecting a pronunciation from the listing.

55. The client system of claim 54 wherein the display component is a browser.

56. The client system of claim 45 includes an executive component configured to execute a suitable program configured to record a pronunciation in a suitable encoding.

57. The client system of claim 56 further includes an executive component configured to execute a suitable program configured to send a suitable encoding of a pronunciation to the server system.

58. The client system of claim 46 wherein the component configured to send further includes an input component configured for inputting the written form of a phrase.

59. The client system of claim 47 further includes a component configured for inputting a rating.

60. A server system for generating a pronunciation corpus and making the corpus available for use by a plurality of client systems including:

a component configured to receive from a client system a pronunciation for a phrase in the corpus;

a component configured to receive from a client system a request for at least one pronunciation for at least one phrase in the corpus; and

a component configured to send to the requesting client system the at least one requested pronunciation.

61. The server system of claim 60 includes a component configured to receive from a client system a phrase for inclusion in the corpus.

62. The server system of claim 60 includes a component configured to receive from a client system at least one rating for the at least one sent pronunciation.

63. The server system of claim 61 further includes a component configured to receive from a client system at least one rating for the at least one sent pronunciation.

64. The server system of claim 60 includes a storage medium configured to store a suitable encoding of a pronunciation.

65. The server system of claim 64 further includes a storage medium configured to store a phrase.

66. The server system of claim 65 further includes a storage medium configured to store an association of a phrase and a pronunciation.

67. The server system of claim 60 wherein the component configured to send includes a component configured to send a pronunciation in a suitable encoding.

68. The server system of claim 60 wherein the component configured to send includes a component configured to send a listing of at least one pronunciation.

69. The server system of claim 60 includes an executive component configured to execute a suitable program configured to generate a measure of quality of the at least one pronunciation for a phrase in the corpus;

and when there are a plurality of pronunciations for the same phrase in the corpus, a measure of quality relative to the at least one other pronunciation for the same phrase.

70. The server system of claim 62 includes an executive component configured to execute a suitable program configured to utilize the at least one rating to generate a measure of quality of the at least one pronunciation for a phrase in the corpus;

and when there are a plurality of pronunciations for the same phrase in the corpus, a measure of quality relative to the at least one other pronunciation for the same phrase.