VOICE SELECTION SUPPORTING DEVICE, VOICE SELECTION METHOD, AND COMPUTER-READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM

• US 20160189704A1
• Filed: 03/10/2016
• Published: 06/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation), Toshiba Solutions Corporation (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Hirano, Kaoru, Suzuki, Masaru
• Granted Patent: US 9,812,119 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/268 Morphological analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/295 Named entity recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/027 Concept to speech synthesisers; Generation of natural phrases from machine-based concepts generation of parameters for speech synthesis out of text G10L13/08
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/10 Prosody rules derived from text; Stress or intonation

Abstract

A voice selection supporting device according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an acceptance unit that accepts input of a text, an analysis knowledge storage unit that stores therein text analysis knowledge to be used for characteristic analysis for the input text, an analysis unit that analyzes a characteristic of the text by referring to the text analysis knowledge, a voice attribute storage unit that stores therein a voice attribute of each voice dictionary, an evaluation unit that evaluates similarity between the voice attribute of the voice dictionary and the characteristic of the text, and a candidate presentation unit that presents, based on the similarity, a candidate for the voice dictionary suitable for the text.

Claims

1. A voice selection supporting device comprising:

an acceptance unit that accepts input of a text;

an analysis knowledge storage unit that stores therein text analysis knowledge to be used for characteristic analysis for the input text;

an analysis unit that analyzes a characteristic of the text by referring to the text analysis knowledge;

a voice attribute storage unit that stores therein a voice attribute of each voice dictionary;

an evaluation unit that evaluates similarity between the voice attribute of the voice dictionary and the characteristic of the text; and

a candidate presentation unit that presents, based on the similarity, a candidate for the voice dictionary suitable for the text.

2. The voice selection supporting device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a dictionary storage unit that stores therein the voice dictionary;

a voice synthesis unit that, based on an instruction from a user, converts all or a part of the input text into a voice by using the voice dictionary of the presented candidate for the voice dictionary, and presents the voice to the user;

a selection acceptance unit that accepts a selection instruction for the voice dictionary from the user; and

a result output unit that outputs a selection result.

3. The voice selection supporting device according to claim 1, wherein

the voice attribute storage unit stores therein the voice attribute of the voice dictionary such that the similarity of the voice dictionary is lowered with respect to the text having the predetermined characteristic.

4. The voice selection supporting device according to claim 2, further comprising:

a history storage unit that stores therein, as a selection history, the selection result received from the result output unit and the text; and

an update unit that updates the voice attribute of the voice dictionary based on the selection history stored in the history storage unit.

5. A voice selection method comprising the steps of:

accepting input of a text;

analyzing a characteristic of the text by referring to text analysis knowledge to be used for characteristic analysis for the input text;

evaluating similarity between a voice attribute of a voice dictionary and the characteristic of the text; and

presenting, based on the similarity, a candidate for the voice dictionary suitable for the text.

6. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium that stores therein a computer program, the computer program causing a computer to execute a voice selection method, the method comprising:

accepting input of a text;

analyzing a characteristic of the text by referring to text analysis knowledge to be used for characteristic analysis for the input text;

evaluating similarity between a voice attribute of a voice dictionary and the characteristic of the text; and

presenting, based on the similarity, a candidate for the voice dictionary suitable for the text.