Speech-synthesizer timepiece

• US 4,287,584 A
• Filed: 03/07/1979
• Issued: 09/01/1981
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/1978
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Tanimoto, Akira, Saizi, Mituhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Miska, Vit W.
• Application Number:
  US06/018,174
• Time in Patent Office: 909 Days
• Field of Search: 58/4 A, 58/12-15, 58/38 A, 58/38 R, 58/575, 58/58, 58/152 R, 58/152 B, 368/28, 368/63, 368/75, 368/251, 368/272
• US Class Current: 368/63
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 13/00 Producing acoustic time signals
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/00 Speech or audio signals analysis-synthesis techniques for redundancy reduction, e.g. in vocoders; Coding or decoding of speech or audio signals, using source filter models or psychoacoustic analysis in musical instruments G10H

Abstract

A speech-synthesizer timepiece disclosed herein is adapted to provide audible sounds indicative of time and/or calender information. The audible sounds are followed by an adjective phrase which represents such a unit of the preceding time and/or calender information as month, day, day of the week, hours, and minutes. The adjective phrase consists of one or more audible sounds like that indicative of the body of the time and/or calender information.

Claims

1. A speech synthesizer timepiece capable of producing audible sounds indicative of updated time and updated calender information, comprising,

means for producing said updated time and updated calendar information and for developing time information output signals and calender information output signals indicative, respectively, of said updated time information and said updated calender information;

input means for selecting desired time information or desired calender information for audible sound producing purposes;

memory means for storing a plurality of sound-related codes therein;

a first voice initial address circuit means responsive to said time information output signals and said calender information output signals and to the selection made via said input means for developing a first set of voice initial addresses representative of the location in said memory means storing the sound-related codes indicative of at least a portion of the desired time or calender information selected via said input means;

a second voice initial address circuit means responsive to the selection made via said input means for developing a second set of voice initial addresses representative of the location in said memory means storing the sound related codes indicative of an adjective phrase describing the body of the desired time or calendar information;

locating means responsive to said first and second set of voice initial addresses from said voice initial address circuit means for locating selected ones of said sound-related codes in said memory means, said memory means generating first and second output signals in a predetermined order in response thereto, said first output signals from said memory means representing said desired time or calendar information, each of said second output signals from said memory means being developed subsequent to the development of a corresponding one of said first output signals and representing said adjective phrase describing the body of said desired time or calendar information represented by said corresponding one of said first output signals; and

audible sound generation means responsive to said first and second output signals from said memory means for developing audible sounds in accordance with said first output signals from said memory means and for developing audible sounds in accordance with said second output signals from said memory means, each said audible sounds corresponding to said second output signls being developed subsequent to a corresponding one of the audible sounds developed from said first output signals.

2. The speech synthesizer timepiece of claim 4 wherein:

said desired time information represented by said first output signals comprises hour and minute information;

said desired calender information represented by said first output signals comprises month information, day information, and day-of-the-week information;

said adjective phrases represented by said second output signals describing the body of said hour and minute information comprises hour and minute, respectively;

said adjective phrases represented by said second output signals describing the body of said month information, said day information, and said day-of-the-week information comprises month, day, and day-of-the-week, respectively; and

said memory means generates said first output signals representing said hour information and said minute information, or said month information, said day information, and said day-of-the-week information prior to the generation of said second output signals representing said adjective phrases.

3. The speech synthesizer timepiece of claim 2 wherein said input means comprises a plurality of keys, said plurality of keys including a month selecting key, a day selecting key, a day-of-the-week selecting key, an hour selecting key, a minute selecting key, and an ALL key, said ALL key utilized for selecting both said desired time information and ssid desired calendar information to produce audible sounds indicative of the selected month, the selected day, the selected day-of-the-week, the selected hour, and the selected minute.

4. The speech synthesizer timepiece of claim 1 wherein said locating means comprises an address counter means for locating said selected ones of said sound-related codes in said memory means in response to said first and second set of voice initial addresses from said voice initial address circuit means;

wherein said speech synthesizer timepiece further comprises means for resetting said address counter means for preventing the location of said selected ones of said sound-related codes in said memory means by said address counter means.