Method and apparatus for automatic assignment of duration values for synthetic speech
First Claim
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1. A system for computing phonetic sound pronunciation duration values, comprising:
- computer text memory storing computer text;
phoneme memory storing phonemes representing pronunciation of said text and, corresponding to each of said phonemes, duration value data including a minimum duration value, a maximum duration value, the difference value between the maximum duration value and the minimum duration value, and a duration interval value which is defined in terms of a predetermined number of duration value intervals;
duration rule memory storing duration rules and corresponding duration modification values, each duration modification value being defined in terms of the predetermined number of duration value intervals; and
a processor, coupled to the computer text memory, the phoneme memory and the duration rule memory, for using the duration rules to test the phonemes representing the computer text to determine if any of the duration rules are satisfied and for computing a pronunciation duration value based on modification values of satisfied duration rules.
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Abstract
The present invention automatically determines sound duration values, based on context, for phonetic symbols which are produced during text-to-speech conversion. The context-dependent and static attributes of the phonetic symbols are checked and specified. Then, the phonetic symbols are processed by a set of sequential duration-specification rules which set the duration value for each phonetic symbol.
19 Citations
18 Claims
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1. A system for computing phonetic sound pronunciation duration values, comprising:
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computer text memory storing computer text; phoneme memory storing phonemes representing pronunciation of said text and, corresponding to each of said phonemes, duration value data including a minimum duration value, a maximum duration value, the difference value between the maximum duration value and the minimum duration value, and a duration interval value which is defined in terms of a predetermined number of duration value intervals; duration rule memory storing duration rules and corresponding duration modification values, each duration modification value being defined in terms of the predetermined number of duration value intervals; and a processor, coupled to the computer text memory, the phoneme memory and the duration rule memory, for using the duration rules to test the phonemes representing the computer text to determine if any of the duration rules are satisfied and for computing a pronunciation duration value based on modification values of satisfied duration rules. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A system for computing phonetic sound pronunciation duration values, comprising:
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means for obtaining computer text from a computer text memory; means for retrieving, from a phoneme memory, phonemes representing pronunciation of the computer text; means for retrieving for each retrieved phoneme, from said phoneme memory, duration value data including a minimum duration value, a maximum duration value, the difference value between the maximum duration value and the minimum duration value, and a duration interval value which is defined in terms of a predetermined number of duration value intervals; means for using duration rules stored in a duration rule memory to test the phonemes representing the computer text to determine if any of the duration rules are satisfied; means for retrieving, from the duration rule memory, duration modification values corresponding to satisfied duration rules, each duration modification value being defined in terms of the predetermined number of duration value intervals; and means for computing a pronunciation duration value based on the duration modification values of satisfied duration rules. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10)
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11. A computer-readable storage medium storing program code for causing a computer to perform the steps of:
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obtaining computer text from a computer text memory; retrieving, from a phoneme memory, phonemes representing pronunciation of the computer text; retrieving for each retrieved phoneme, from said phoneme memory, duration value data including a minimum duration value, a maximum duration value, the difference value between the maximum duration value and the minimum duration value, and a duration interval value which is defined in terms of a predetermined number of duration value intervals; using duration rules stored in a duration rule memory to test the phonemes representing the computer text to determine if any of the duration rules are satisfied; retrieving, from the duration rule memory, duration modification values corresponding to satisfied duration rules, each duration modification value being defined in terms of the predetermined number of duration value intervals; and computing a pronunciation duration value based on the duration modification values of satisfied duration rules. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14)
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15. A method for computing phonetic sound pronunciation duration values, comprising:
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obtaining computer text from a computer text memory; retrieving, from a phoneme memory, phonemes representing pronunciation of the computer text; retrieving for each retrieved phoneme, from said phoneme memory, duration value data including a minimum duration value, a maximum duration value, the difference value between the maximum duration value and the minimum duration value, and a duration interval value which is defined relative to a predetermined number of duration value intervals; using duration rules stored in a duration rule memory to test the phonemes representing the computer text to determine if any of the duration rules are satisfied; retrieving, from the duration rule memory, duration modification values corresponding to satisfied duration rules, each duration modification value being defined relative to the predetermined number of duration value intervals; and computing a pronunciation duration value based on the duration modification values of satisfied duration rules. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18)
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Specification