SESSION TEXT-TO-SPEECH CONVERSION

• US 20180166065A1
• Filed: 04/19/2017
• Published: 06/14/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Kepner, Jason, Thomas, Evelyn R., Ruzyski, David, Dewey, Jeremy L., Hall, Martin, McCammon, Joshua R., Giscombe, Stephen E., Cooper, Thomas, Ludwig, Dana
• Granted Patent: US 10,311,857 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/30 Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/533 for prompting the player, e.g. by displaying a game menu
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/87 Communicating with other players during game play, e.g. by e-mail or chat
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/033 Voice editing, e.g. manipulating the voice of the synthesiser
• 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: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression

Abstract

Examples described herein provide various devices that enable users to participate in a multiplayer session. The examples allow a user that is unable to speak, or that is incapable of speaking, to participate in an in-session voice chat by inputting text and having the text converted to speech (e.g., synthesized voice data) that can then be sent to other devices participating in the session. The user enables a text-to-speech conversion feature on his or her own device. Based on the enabled feature, functionality enabling text to be entered is activated and the entered text is converted into speech data.

Claims

1. A device for receiving text to be converted to speech within a session, the device comprising:

one or more processing units; and

a computer-readable medium having encoded thereon computer-executable instructions to configure the one or more processing units to;

receive first input that enables a feature that allows the text to be input during a session;

cause game content to be displayed within a user interface on a display screen associated with the device;

based on the enabled feature, cause a text window to be displayed within the user interface;

receive one or more subsequent inputs that select the text to be converted to speech;

cause the text to be displayed in the text window; and

based on reception of a command, convert the text into speech data; and

send the speech data to other devices participating in the session.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the speech data comprises synthesized voice.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the instructions further configure the one or more processing units to:

determine a title of the session;

access a conversion model that includes a library of utterances commonly spoken by participants while participating in the title of the session; and

use the conversion model to convert the text into the speech data.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the instructions further configure the one or more processing units to cause a virtual text entry interface to be displayed within the user interface along with the text window, wherein the one or more subsequent inputs are received via the virtual text entry interface.

5. The device of claim 4, wherein the virtual text entry interface is displayed over the game content.

6. The device of claim 4, wherein the virtual text entry interface comprises standard text entry options rendered by a platform component of the device and the virtual text entry interface is useable by a title of the session via an application programming interface.

7. The device of claim 4, wherein the virtual text entry interface comprises custom text entry options rendered by a title of the session, the custom text entry options including words or phrases commonly used in the title of the session.

8. The device of claim 4, wherein the virtual text entry interface comprises custom text entry options rendered by a platform component of the device, the custom text entry options being defined by a user of the device.

9. The device of claim 8, wherein the one or more subsequent inputs comprise a sequence of inputs preconfigured to select a particular custom text entry option.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the one or more subsequent inputs comprise a sequence of inputs preconfigured to select a word or phrase to be entered in the text window.

11. The device of claim 1, wherein a setting associated with the enabled feature indicates whether synthesized voice communications based on the text comprises a female synthesized voice or a male synthesized voice.

12. A method comprising:

receiving, at a first device participating in a session, first input that enables a feature that allows text to be input during the session;

causing game content to be displayed within a user interface on a display screen associated with the first device;

based on the enabled feature, causing a text window to be displayed on the display screen;

receiving one or more subsequent inputs that select the text;

causing the text to be displayed in the text window;

based on reception of a command, sending the text to a text-to-speech (TTS) conversion service;

receiving speech data associated with the text from the TTS conversion service; and

sending the speech data to other devices participating in the session.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising causing a virtual text entry interface to be displayed within the user interface on the display screen along with the text window, wherein the one or more subsequent inputs are received via the virtual text entry interface.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the virtual text entry interface comprises standard text entry options rendered by a platform component of the device and the virtual text entry interface is useable by a title of the session via an application programming interface.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the virtual text entry interface comprises custom text entry options rendered by a title of the session, the custom text entry options including words or phrases commonly used in the title of the session.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the virtual text entry interface comprises custom text entry options rendered by a platform component of the device, the custom text entry options being defined by a user of the first device.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the one or more subsequent inputs comprise a sequence of inputs preconfigured to select a particular custom text entry option.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein a setting associated with the enabled feature indicates whether synthesized voice communications based on the text comprises a female synthesized voice or a male synthesized voice.

19. A device for converting text to speech within a session, the device comprising:

one or more processing units; and

a computer-readable medium having encoded thereon computer-executable instructions to configure the one or more processing units to;

receive data indicating that a feature that converts text to speech has been enabled on a first device;

receive, from the first device, text data;

determine a title of the session;

access a conversion model that includes a library of utterances commonly spoken by participants while participating in the title of the session;

use the conversion model to convert the text data into speech data; and

send the speech data to the first device or other devices participating in the session.

20. The device of claim 19, wherein the instructions further configure the one or more processing units to use machine learning techniques to update the conversion model based on the text data converted into the speech data.