SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR NAME PRONUNCIATION

• US 20130231917A1
• Filed: 03/02/2012
• Published: 09/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Naik, Devang K.
• Granted Patent: US 10,134,385 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/9
• 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 13/086 Detection of language
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/187 Phonemic context, e.g. pronunciation rules, phonotactical constraints or phoneme n-grams

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for associating a phonetic pronunciation with a name by receiving the name, mapping the name to a plurality of monosyllabic components that are combinable to construct the phonetic pronunciation of the name, receiving a user input to select one or more of the plurality, and combining the selected one or more of the plurality of monosyllabic components to construct the phonetic pronunciation of the name.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a name;

mapping the name to a plurality of monosyllabic components that are combinable to construct a phonetic pronunciation of the name;

receiving a user input to select one or more of the plurality of monosyllabic components; and

combining the selected one or more of the plurality of monosyllabic components to construct the phonetic pronunciation of the name.

2. The method of claim 1 comprising outputting the phonetic pronunciation via a user interface.

3. The method of claim 2 comprising receiving a second user input to select or reject the phonetic pronunciation.

4. The method of claim 1 comprising displaying a first portion of the plurality of monosyllabic components via a user interface.

5. The method of claim 4 comprising displaying a second portion of the monosyllabic components in response to a user selection of one of the first portion of the plurality of monosyllabic components.

6. The method of claim 1 comprising receiving the name from a user associated contact list.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the name includes at least one of a first name and last name.

8. The method of claim 1 comprising querying a data store that includes one or more of the monosyllabic components associated with the name.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the monosyllabic components include components associated with one or more languages or locales.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein constructing the phonetic pronunciation of the name includes generating an audio file.

11. A system comprising:

a user interface arranged to receive the name;

a processor arranged to map the name to a plurality of monosyllabic components that are combinable to construct the phonetic pronunciation of the name;

the user interface arranged to receive a user input to select one or more of the plurality of monosyllabic components; and

the processor arranged to combine the selected one or more of the plurality of monosyllabic components to construct the phonetic pronunciation of the name.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the user interface is arranged to provide the phonetic pronunciation.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the user interface is arranged to receive a second user input to select or reject the phonetic pronunciation.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the user interface is arranged to display a first portion of the plurality of monosyllabic components.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the user interface is arranged to display a second portion of the monosyllabic components in response to a user selection of one of the first portion of the plurality of monosyllabic components.

16. The system of claim 11 wherein the processor is arranged to receive the name from a user associated contact list.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the name is in text format.

18. The system of claim 11 comprising a data store, wherein the processor is arranged to query the data store that includes one or more of the monosyllabic components associated with the name.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the monosyllabic components include components associated with one or more languages orlocales.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein constructing the phonetic pronunciation of the name includes generating an audio file.

21. A method comprising:

providing a plurality of pronunciation guessers, each of the plurality of pronunciation guessers being associated with a phonetic alphabet of a language or locale;

determining a user language or a user locale;

associating a first phonetic alphabet with the user language or the user locale;

receiving at each pronunciation guesser a representation of the name;

guessing, at each pronunciation guesser, a phonetic pronunciation of one or more components of the name;

mapping the phonetic pronunciation of the one or more components of the name guessed by each of the plurality of pronunciation guessers to the first phonetic alphabet to generate a list of guessed pronunciations;

receiving an audio pronunciation of the name; and

selecting a combination of components from the list of guessed pronunciations that, when pronounced, substantially matches the audio pronunciation of the name.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the one or more components of the name include at least one of a sound unit, a phoneme, a mono-syllabic component, a mono-syllabic component with a particular type of stress, and portion of a word.

23. The method of claim 21 comprising receiving an input identifying the user language or user locale.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein at least one of the plurality of pronunciation guessers and the type of each of the plurality of pronunciation guessers is determined based on the user language or the user locale.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the type of pronunciation guesser includes the type of language or locale associated with the pronunciation guesser.

26. A system for determining the pronunciation of a name comprising:

a plurality of pronunciation guessers, each of the plurality of pronunciation guessers being associated with a phonetic alphabet of a language or locale, each of the plurality of pronunciation guessers arranged to receive a representation of the name;

a processor arranged to determine a language or locale associated with a user and associate a first phonetic alphabet with the language or locale associated with the user;

each of the plurality of pronunciation guessers arranged to guess a phonetic pronunciation of one or more components of the name;

a phonetic mapper arranged to map the phonetic pronunciation of the one or more components of the name guessed by each of the plurality of pronunciation guessers to the first phonetic alphabet to generate a list of guessed pronunciations; and

a recognizer arranged to receive an audio pronunciation of the name and select a combination of components from the list of guessed pronunciations that, when pronounced, substantially matches the audio pronunciation of the name.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the one or more components of the name include at least one of a sound unit, a phoneme, a mono-syllabic component, a mono-syllabic component with a particular type of stress, and portion of a word.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein the processor identifies the language or locale associated with the user.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein at least one of the plurality of pronunciation guessers and the type of each of the plurality of pronunciation guessers is determined based on the language or locale associated with the user.

30. The system of claim 26, wherein the type of pronunciation guesser includes the type of language or locale associated with the pronunciation guesser.

31. A method for determining usage of phonetic pronunciations of a name comprising:

receiving the name;

storing one or more phonetic pronunciations associated with the name;

receiving an indication of the one or more phonetic pronunciations associated with the name from one or more user devices; and

determining usage data associated with the one or more phonetic pronunciations associated with the name.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the indication includes the one or more phonetic pronunciations.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the indication includes a selection of the one or more phonetic pronunciations from the one or more user devices.

34. The method of claim 31, wherein the usage data includes an amount of instances that the indication is received during a period of time.

35. The method of claim 31 comprising providing at least one of the phonetic pronunciations associated with the name to a first user device based on the usage data.

36. A system for determining usage of phonetic pronunciations of a name comprising:

a server arranged to receive the name;

a data store arranged to store one or more phonetic pronunciations associated with the name; and

wherein the server is arranged to receive an indication of the one or more phonetic pronunciations associated with the name from one or more user devices and determine usage data associated with the one or more phonetic pronunciations associated with the name.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein the indication includes the one or more phonetic pronunciations.

38. The system of claim 36, wherein the indication includes a selection of the one or more phonetic pronunciations from the one or more user devices.

39. The system of claim 36, wherein the usage data includes an amount of instances that the indication is received during a period of time.

40. The system of claim 36, wherein the server is arranged to provide at least one of the phonetic pronunciations associated with the name to a first user device based on the usage data.