METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR VOICE SYNTHESIS

• US 20150149181A1
• Filed: 07/02/2013
• Published: 05/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Continental Automotive France (Continental AG), Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Automotive France (Continental AG), Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Delahaye, Vincent
• Application Number:
  US14/411,952
• Publication Number:
  US 20150149181A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/260
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/06 Elementary speech units used in speech synthesisers; Concatenation rules
• 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

Abstract

Method and system for generating audio signals (9) representative of a text (3) to be converted, the method includes the steps of:

• • providing a database (1) of acoustic units,
  • identifying a list of pre-calculated expressions (10), and recording, for each pre-calculated expression, an acoustic frame (7) corresponding to it being pronounced,
  • decomposing, by virtue of correlation calculations, each recorded acoustic frame into a sequenced table (5) including a series of acoustic unit references modulated by amplitude (α(i)A) and temporal (α(i)T) form factors ,
  • identifying in the text the pre-calculated expressions and decomposing the rest (12) into phonemes,
  • inserting in place of each pre-calculated expression the corresponding sequenced table, and
  • preparing a concatenation of acoustic units (19) according to the text to be converted.

Claims

1. A method for generating a set of sound signals (9) representative of a text (3) to be converted into audio signals intelligible to a user, comprising the following steps:

a) supply, in a database (1), a set of acoustic units, each acoustic unit corresponding to the synthetic acoustic formation of a phoneme or of a diphoneme, said database (1) comprising acoustic units corresponding to the whole set of phonemes or diphonemes used for a given language,

b) identify a list of pre-calculated expressions (10), each pre-calculated expression comprising one or more complete word texts,

c) record, for each pre-calculated expression, an acoustic frame (7) corresponding to the pronouncing of said pre-calculated expression,

d) decompose, by virtue of cross-correlation calculations, each recorded acoustic frame into a sequenced table (5) comprising a series of acoustic unit references from the database modulated at least by one amplitude form factor (α

(i)A) and by one temporal form factor (α

(i)T),

e1) search through the text (3) to be converted, identify at least a first portion of the text (11) corresponding to at least one pre-calculated expression and decompose into phonemes at least a second portion of the text (12) which does not comprise a pre-calculated expression,

e2) insert in place of each pre-calculated expression the equivalent recording from the sequenced table (5), and select, for each phoneme of the second portion of the text (12), one acoustic unit from the database (1),

f) prepare a concatenation of acoustic units (19) corresponding to the first and second portions of text (11, 12), in a manner ordered according to the text (3) to be converted,

g) generate the audio signals (9) corresponding to said concatenation of acoustic units.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the steps b), c) and d) are carried out offline during preparatory works.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the memory space occupied by the sequenced tables (5) is at least five times smaller than the memory space occupied by the acoustic frames of the pre-calculated expressions.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the memory space occupied by the sequenced tables (5) is less than 10 Megabytes, whereas the amount of memory occupied by the acoustic frames of the pre-calculated expressions is greater than 100 Megabytes.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the acoustic units are diphones.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said method is implemented within a navigation aid unit carried onboard a vehicle.

11. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the memory space occupied by the sequenced tables (5) is at least five times smaller than the memory space occupied by the acoustic frames of the pre-calculated expressions.

12. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the memory space occupied by the sequenced tables (5) is less than 10 Megabytes, whereas the amount of memory occupied by the acoustic frames of the pre-calculated expressions is greater than 100 Megabytes.

13. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the memory space occupied by the sequenced tables (5) is less than 10 Megabytes, whereas the amount of memory occupied by the acoustic frames of the pre-calculated expressions is greater than 100 Megabytes

7. A device for generating a set of sound signals (9) representative of a text (3) to be converted into audio signals intelligible to a user, the device comprising:

an electronic control unit (90) comprising a voice synthesis engine,

a database (1), comprising a set of acoustic units corresponding to the whole set of phonemes or diphonemes used for a given language,

a list of pre-calculated expressions (10), each pre-calculated expression comprising one or more complete word texts,

at least one sequenced table (5), which comprises, for one pre-calculated expression, a series of acoustic unit references from the database (1) modulated at least by one amplitude form factor (α

(i)A) and by one temporal form factor (α

(i)T),

said electronic unit being designed to;

e1) search through the text (3) to be converted, identify at least a first portion of the text (11) corresponding to at least one pre-calculated expression and decompose into phonemes at least one second portion of the text (12) which does not comprise a pre-calculated expression,

e2) insert in place of each pre-calculated expression the equivalent recording from the sequenced table (5), and select, for each phoneme of the second portion of the text (12), one acoustic unit from the database (1),

f) prepare a concatenation of acoustic units corresponding to the first and second portions of text (11, 12), in a manner ordered according to the text (3) to be converted,

g) generate the audio signals (9) corresponding to said concatenation of acoustic units.

8. The device as claimed in claim 7, further comprising an offline analysis unit (2) designed to:

d) decompose, by virtue of cross-correlation calculations, each recorded acoustic frame corresponding to a pre-calculated expression from the list of pre-calculated expressions (10), into a sequenced table (5) comprising a series of acoustic units from the database modulated at least by one amplitude form factor (α

(i)A) and by one temporal form factor (α

(i)T).

9. The device as claimed in claim 8, wherein the memory space occupied by the sequenced tables (5) is at least five times smaller than the memory space occupied by the acoustic frames of the pre-calculated expressions, preferably wherein the memory space occupied by the sequenced tables (5) is less than 10 Megabytes, whereas the amount of memory occupied by the acoustic frames of the pre-calculated expressions is greater than 100 Megabytes.

10. The display device as claimed in claim 7, wherein the electronic control unit (90) is a navigation aid unit carried onboard a vehicle.

14. The display device as claimed in claim 8, wherein the electronic control unit (90) is a navigation aid unit carried onboard a vehicle.