Text-to-speech synthesis system
First Claim
1. A test-to-speed synthesis system for converting printed data as represented by digital characters into audible synthesized speech, said system comprising:
- allophone rule means having a plurality of allophonic code signals corresponding to the digital characters which are representative of the printed data, wherein the allophonic code signals are determinative of the respective allophone subset variants of each of the recognized phonemes in a given spoken language as modified by the speech environment in which the particular phoneme occurs;
allophone rules processor means having an input for receiving the digital characters representative of printed data and operably coupled to said allophone rule means for searching the allophone rule means to provide an allophonic code signal output corresponding to the digital characters received by sid allophone rules processor means from the allophonic code signals of said allophone rule means; and
synthesized speech producing means operably coupled to said allophone rules processor means for receiving said allophonic code signal output therefrom to produce an audible synthesized speech-like sound in response to said allophonic code signal output from said allophone rules processor means.
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Abstract
A text-to-speech synthesis system receives digital code representative of characters from a local or remote source, and converts those character codes into speech. A set of allophone rules is contained in a memory and each incoming character set is matched with the proper character set to describe the sound of that particular character set. A microcontroller is dedicated to the comparison procedure which provides allophonic code when a match is made. The allophonic code is provided to a speech producing system which has a system microcontroller for controlling the retrieval, from a read-only memory, of digital signals representative of the individual allophone parameters. The addresses at which such allophone parameters are located are directly related to the allophonic code. A dedicated microcontroller concatenates the digital signals representative of the allophone parameters, including code indicating stress and intonation patterns for the allophones. An LPC speech synthesizer receives the digital signals and provides analog signals corresponding thereto to a loud speaker to produce speech-like sounds with stress and intonation.
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. A test-to-speed synthesis system for converting printed data as represented by digital characters into audible synthesized speech, said system comprising:
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allophone rule means having a plurality of allophonic code signals corresponding to the digital characters which are representative of the printed data, wherein the allophonic code signals are determinative of the respective allophone subset variants of each of the recognized phonemes in a given spoken language as modified by the speech environment in which the particular phoneme occurs; allophone rules processor means having an input for receiving the digital characters representative of printed data and operably coupled to said allophone rule means for searching the allophone rule means to provide an allophonic code signal output corresponding to the digital characters received by sid allophone rules processor means from the allophonic code signals of said allophone rule means; and synthesized speech producing means operably coupled to said allophone rules processor means for receiving said allophonic code signal output therefrom to produce an audible synthesized speech-like sound in response to said allophonic code signal output from said allophone rules processor means. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A method for producing audible synthesized speech from printed data as represented by digital characters, said method comprising:
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storing a plurality of allophone rules corresponding to the digital characters which are representative of the printed data, wherein the allophone rules are determinative of the respective allophone subset variants of each of the recognized phonemes in a given spoken language as modified by the speech environment in which the particular phoneme occurs; providing digital characters representative of the printed data so as to define respective digital character sets; searching the allophone rules for a match to a digital character set; providing an allophonic code signal corresponding to the matched digital character set; storing digital signals representative of allophone-defining speech parameters identifying the respective allophone subset variants of each of the recognized phonemes in a given spoken language as modified by the speech environment in which the particular phoneme occcurs; reading out the particular digital signals corresponding to the allophonic code signal; concatenating the read out digital signals; providing digitally coded pitch parameters and intonation to the concatenated digital signals; transmitting the concatenated digital signals to a speech synthesizer; generating analog signals representative of synthesized speech by the speech synthesizer corresponding to the concatenated digital signals received thereby; and directing the analog signals representative of synthesized speech to an audio output means to produce audible synthesized speech-like sounds. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27)
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Specification