Method of and System for Modifying Messages

• US 20080275700A1
• Filed: 05/17/2005
• Published: 11/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Bodlaender, Maarten Peter, Schellingerhout, Nicolaas Willem, Bingley, Peter
• Application Number:
  US11/569,179
• Publication Number:
  US 20080275700A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/235
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/08 Text analysis or generation of parameters for speech synthesis out of text, e.g. grapheme to phoneme translation, prosody generation or stress or intonation determination
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence

Abstract

The invention describes a method of and a system for modifying an input message (IM) containing audio content, which method comprises the steps of converting the audio content (A) of the input message (IM) into elements of a text representation (TR), segmenting the audio content (A) of the input message (IM) into constituent phonetic elements (A_s), correlating to the text representation (TR), rendering the text representation (TR) in a form suitable for editing the text representation (TR) in accordance with editing input, and altering the correlating phonetic elements (A_s) of the audio content (A) in accordance with the edited text representation (TR′) so as to give a modified audio content (A′) of an output message (OM).

Claims

1. A method of modifying an input message (IM) containing audio content, which method comprises the steps of:

converting the audio content (A) of the input message (IM) into elements of a text representation (TR);

segmenting the audio content (A) of the input message (IM) into constituent phonetic elements (A_s) correlating to the text representation (TR);

rendering the text representation (TR) into a form suitable for editing;

modifying the text representation (TR) in accordance with editing input; and

altering the correlating phonetic elements (A_s) of the audio content (A) in accordance with the edited text representation (TR′

) so as to give a modified audio content (A′

) of an output message (OM).

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein editing the text representation (TR) comprises insertion, duplication, deletion or re-arrangement of elements in the text representation (TR) so as to give the modified text representation (TR′

).

3. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein alteration of the phonetic elements (A_s) of the audio content (A) comprises duplication, deletion or re-arrangement of segments of the audio content (A) and/or insertion of phonetic elements into the audio content.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein editing the text representation (TR) comprises insertion of mark-ups at specific positions in the text representation (TR) so as to give the modified text representation (TR′

).

5. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein alteration of the phonetic elements (A_S) of the audio content (A) comprises alteration of characteristics of the phonetic elements (A_S).

6. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein audio smoothing techniques are applied to the altered audio content (A′

) so as to give smooth transitions between adjacent phonetic elements.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the input message (IM) contains a corresponding video content (V), and the method comprises the steps of:

segmenting the video content (V) of the input message (IM) into corresponding frame segments (V_S) correlating to the text representation (TR); and

altering the correlating frame segments (V_S) of the video content (V) in accordance with the edited text representation (TR′

) or the altered phonetic elements (A′

) of the audio content (A) so as to give a modified video content (V′

) of an output message (OM).

8. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein video smoothing techniques are applied to the modified video content (V′

) so as to give smooth transitions between consecutive frame segments in the modified video content (V′

).

9. A method of assembling and sending a message, which method comprises the steps of:

capturing audio and optional video contents (A, V) of an input message (IM);

altering the audio and optional video contents (A, V) of the input message (IM) by using a method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8 so as to give an output message (OM);

replaying the output message (OM) to a user for confirmation of correctness; and

sending the output message (OM) after the user has confirmed its correctness.

12. A messaging system (1) for assembling and sending a message, comprising

an audio input (2) for recording audio content (A) of the input message (IM) and, optionally, a video input (3) for recording video content (V) of the input message (IM);

an alteration unit (10, 11) for altering the audio and optional video (A, V) contents of the input message (IM) by using a method as claimed in claim 1 so as to give a modified output message (OM′

);

an audio output (20) and, optionally, a video output (8) for replaying the modified content (A′

, V′

) of the output message (OM) to a user for confirmation of correctness; and

a sending unit (13) for sending the output message (OM) after the user has confirmed its correctness.

13. A computer program product directly loadable into the memory of a programmable message modifying system (1) comprising software code portions for performing the steps of the method as claimed in claim 1, when said product is run on the message modifying system (1).

10. A system (1) for modifying an input message (IM), comprising

an audio input (2) for recording audio content (A) of the input message (IM);

a converter (5) for converting the audio content (A) of the input message (IM) into elements of a text representation (TR);

an audio segmenting unit (6) for segmenting the audio content (A) of the input message (IM) into constituent phonetic elements (A_s) correlating to the text representation (TR);

a rendering unit (8) for rendering the text representation (TR) into a form suitable for editing;

an editor (9) for allowing editing of the text representation (TR); and

an audio alteration unit (10) for altering the correlating phonetic elements (A_S) in accordance with the edited text representation (TR′

) so as to give a modified audio content (A′

) of an output message (OM).

11. A system as claimed in claim 10, comprising a video input (3) for recording video content (V) of the input message (IM);

a video segmentation unit (7) for segmenting the video content (V) of the input message (IM) into corresponding frame segments (V_S) correlating to the text representation (TR);

a video alteration unit (11) for altering the correlating frame segments (V_S) of the video content (V) in accordance with the modified text representation (TR′

) or the altered phonetic elements (A′

) of the audio content (A) so as to give a modified video content (V′

) of an output message (OM); and

an audio/video re-combining unit (12) for re-combining the audio and video (A′

, V′

) contents so as to give an output message (OM).