SPEECH SYNTHESIS APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF

• US 20160140953A1
• Filed: 10/30/2015
• Published: 05/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: KWON, Jae-sung
• Application Number:
  US14/928,259
• Publication Number:
  US 20160140953A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/04 Details of speech synthesis systems, e.g. synthesiser structure or memory management
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/047 Architecture of speech synthesisers
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/07 Concatenation rules
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/10 Prosody rules derived from text; Stress or intonation

Abstract

A speech synthesis apparatus and method is provided. The speech synthesis apparatus includes a speech parameter database configured to store a plurality of parameters respectively corresponding to speech synthesis units constituting a speech file, an input unit configured to receive a text including a plurality of speech synthesis units, and a processor configured to select a plurality of candidate unit parameters respectively corresponding to a plurality of speech synthesis units constituting the input text, from the speech parameter database, to generate a parameter unit sequence of a partial or entire portion of the text according to probability of concatenation between consecutively concatenated candidate unit parameters, and to perform a synthesis operation based on hidden Markov model (HMM) using the parameter unit sequence to generate an acoustic signal corresponding to the text.

Claims

1. A speech synthesis apparatus comprising:

a speech parameter database configured to store a plurality of parameters respectively corresponding to speech synthesis units constituting a speech file;

an input unit configured to receive a text including a plurality of speech synthesis units; and

a processor configured to

select a plurality of candidate unit parameters respectively corresponding to the plurality of speech synthesis units included in the received text, from the plurality of parameters stored in the speech parameter database,

generate a parameter unit sequence of a partial or entire portion of the text according to probability of concatenation between consecutively concatenated candidate unit parameters of the selected plurality of candidate unit parameters, and

perform a synthesis operation based on a hidden Markov model (HMM) using the parameter unit sequence and thereby generate an acoustic signal corresponding to the text.

2. The speech synthesis apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein, to generate the parameter unit sequence of the partial or entire portion of the text, the processor:

sequentially combines candidate unit parameters of the selected plurality of candidate unit parameters,

searches for a concatenation path of the sequentially combined candidate unit parameters according to probability of concatenation between the candidate unit parameters, and

combines candidate unit parameters corresponding to the concatenation path.

3. The speech synthesis apparatus as claimed in claim 2, further comprising:

a storage configured to store an excitation signal model,

wherein, to generate the acoustic signal corresponding to the text, the processor;

applies the excitation signal model to the text to generate a HMM speech parameter corresponding to the text, and

applies the parameter unit sequence to the generated HMM speech parameter.

4. The speech synthesis apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein:

the storage further stores a spectrum model required to perform the synthesis operation; and

,

to generate the HMM speech parameter corresponding to the text, the processor applies the excitation signal model and the spectrum model to the text.

5. A method comprising:

receiving a text including a plurality of speech synthesis units;

selecting a plurality of candidate unit parameters respectively corresponding to the plurality of speech synthesis units included in the received text, from a plurality of parameters corresponding to speech synthesis units constituting a speech file and that are stored in a speech parameter database;

generating a parameter unit sequence of a partial or entire portion of the text according to probability of concatenation between consecutively concatenated candidate unit parameters of the selected plurality of candidate unit parameters; and

performing a synthesis operation based on a hidden Markov model (HMM) using the parameter unit sequence and thereby generate an acoustic signal corresponding to the text.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the generating the parameter unit sequence comprises:

sequentially combining candidate unit parameters of the selected plurality of candidate unit parameters;

searching for a concatenation path of the sequentially combined candidate unit parameters according to probability of concatenation between the candidate unit parameters; and

combining candidate unit parameters corresponding to the concatenation path to generate the parameter unit sequence of the partial or entire portion of the text.

7. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the performing the synthesis operation comprises:

applying an excitation signal model to the text to generate a HMM speech parameter corresponding to the text; and

applying the parameter unit sequence to the generated HMM speech parameter to generate the acoustic signal.

8. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the searching for the concatenation path uses a searching method via a viterbi algorithm.

9. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein to generate the HMM speech parameter, the method further comprises:

applying a spectrum model required to perform the synthesis operation to the text to generate a HMM speech parameter corresponding to the text.

10. A non-transitory computer readable recording medium storing a program that, when executed by a hardware processor, causes the following to be performed:

receiving a text including a plurality of speech synthesis units;

selecting a plurality of candidate unit parameters respectively corresponding to the plurality of speech synthesis units included in the received text, from a plurality of parameters corresponding to speech synthesis units constituting a speech file and that are stored in a speech parameter database;

generating a parameter unit sequence of a partial or entire portion of the text according to probability of concatenation between consecutively concatenated candidate unit parameters of the selected plurality of candidate unit parameters; and

performing a synthesis operation based on a hidden Markov model (HMM) using the parameter unit sequence and thereby generate an acoustic signal corresponding to the text.