PRINTED DATA TO SPEECH SYNTHESIZER USING PHONEME-PAIR COMPARISON

• US 3,632,887 A
• Filed: 12/31/1969
• Issued: 01/04/1972
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/1968
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Daniel G. Teil, Emile A. Leipp, Jacques L. Quinio, Jean Sapaly, Jean-Sylvain R. Lienard, Michele M. T. Castellengo
• Original Assignee: Daniel G. Teil, Emile A. Leipp, Jacques L. Quinio, Jean Sapaly, Jean-Sylvain R. Lienard, Michele M. T. Castellengo
• Inventors: Leipp, Emile A., Castellengo, Michele M. T., Lienard, Jean-Sylvain R., Quinio, Jacques L., Sapaly, Jean, Teil, Daniel G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Claffy, Kathleen H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Leaheey, Jon Bradford
• Application Number:
  US04/889,653
• Time in Patent Office: 734 Days
• Field of Search: 179/1SA 35/35A 340/148,149,146.3,146.3MO,146.3Q
• US Class Current: 704/260
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/07 Concatenation rules

Abstract

Machine for converting a text printed in literal characters into speech, comprising means for converting each literal character into a corresponding binary-coded character, means for comparing groups of a variable number of successive ones of said coded characters and for deriving therefrom the phonetic equivalent of any such group in the form of a coded phoneme, and means including an address matrix for deriving from any two consecutively appearing such coded phonemes the address of a corresponding coded word assembly in a coded phoneme-pair spectrogram store. In the latter store, each spectrogram is written in the form of an assembly of binary-coded words, which represents in digitalized form the short-time spectrogram of a corresponding phoneme pair. As soon as the above-mentioned address is found, the proper word assembly is selected and extracted from the store, and the bits in said words are used to successively control in time the operation of a plurality of oscillators in number equal to that of said words in said assembly, while a sound-reproducing means is simultaneously fed from all of said oscillators.

Claims

1. A machine for converting a text printed in literal characters into speech comprising:

means for sequentially converting the literal characters of said text into binary-coded characters;

a store of coded phonemes;

means for sequentially comparing each of said coded characters to said coded phonemes and selecting from the coded phoneme store the phoneme equivalent to this character;

means for sequentially comparing a group of successive coded characters to said coded phonemes and selecting from the coded phoneme store the phoneme equivalent to this character group when the comparison of the same group except its last character to the coded phonemes has resulted in no coded phoneme selection;

an address matrix to which are sequentially applied all selected phonemes, the last phoneme of a phoneme-pair being the first phoneme of the following phoneme-pair;

a store of coded word assemblies respectively representing the spectrograms of said coded phoneme pairs and consisting in the registration of said spectrograms in the time-frequency plane in which the amplitude at a point of said time-frequency plane is selectively represented by either a one or a zero, according to the value of the spectrogram amplitude at said point with respect to a given reference value, whereby each phoneme-pair spectrogram is coded into an assembly of N-bit binary words whose bits represent the values of the amplitude at N-points regularly spaced apart along a line parallel to the frequency axis of the spectrogram;

means controlled by said address matrix for sequentially extracting from said coded word assembly store the coded word assembly corresponding to the addresses obtained at the output of said matrix;

a plurality of n oscillators having frequencies spaced apart in the speech band;

means for successively controlling said oscillators respectively by the bits of said extracted coded words;

a sound-reproducing means; and

means for connecting to said sound-reprodUcing means the output signals of said oscillators.

2. A machine for converting a text printed in literal characters into speech as set forth in claim 1, in which each coded word is associated with a first auxiliary word giving the time-interval between the successive control of the oscillators by said coded word and the next coded word, and the machine further comprises means for reading said first auxiliary word and gating means controlled by said reading means for applying said coded words to said oscillators.

3. A machine for converting a text printed in literal characters into speech as set forth in claim 1, in which each coded word is associated with a second auxiliary word giving the duration of operation of the oscillators when they are controlled by one digit of the coded word, and the machine further comprises means for reading said second auxiliary word and Start-stop means for the oscillators controlled by said reading means.

4. A machine for converting a text printed in literal characters into speech as set forth in claim 1, in which the oscillators have randomly varying frequencies in frequency bandwidths respectively allotted thereto.