Traffic information apparatus comprising a message memory and a speech synthesizer

• US 5,970,456 A
• Filed: 04/12/1996
• Issued: 10/19/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Mannesmann VDO AG (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Zeegers, Donald, De Vergnette, Bernard, Patillot, Jean-Marc
• Primary Examiner(s): Hudspeth, David R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): SAX, ROBERT L
• Application Number:
  US08/631,383
• Time in Patent Office: 1,285 Days
• Field of Search: 395/2.77, 395/2.79, 395/2.75, 704/275
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/091 Traffic information broadcasting broadcasting communication H04H
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0969 having a display in the form of a map
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems

Abstract

The apparatus comprises a microcontroller (7) which receives codes representing vocabulary elements, a speech synthesizer (20) which generates, in analog form, phonemes for a loudspeaker (5) which correspond to the vocabulary elements represented by said codes, and a vocabulary memory (8, 23) which can be addressed by means of codes.

In accordance with the invention the memory contains, in correspondence with a given code, the ASCII characters of the word or the groups of words designated by this code, to be displayed on a display screen (10), as well as a sequence of digital data which defines the pronunciation thereof. The apparatus comprises means (22, 7, 21) for applying said sequence of digital data to the speech synthesizer (20) when the latter is to supply the loudspeaker (5) with the vocabulary element represented by the code. Moreover, a memory containing proper names and controlled in accordance with the invention is accommodated on a removable card (23).

Claims

1. A traffic information apparatus, comprising

a vocabulary memory which contains descriptions of vocabulary elements, in which each vocabulary element description can be addressed by means of a code number designating a vocabulary element, the memory containing, for each vocabulary element, digital data describing the relevant vocabulary element,

and a speech synthesizer for generating the phonemes corresponding to the representation of said vocabulary elements in the form of speech, characterized in that

for at least some vocabulary elements, the memory contains the alphanumerical characters of the relevant vocabulary element as well as a sequence of digital data which defines the pronunciation of the relevant vocabulary element,

and the apparatus comprises means for reading said sequence of digital data in the memory and for applying it to the speech synthesizer.

2. A traffic information apparatus as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the memory contains names of location points with the alphanumerical characters of these names as well as a sequence of digital data which defines their pronunciation.

3. A traffic information apparatus as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that at least a part of the vocabulary memory is accommodated on a removable card.

4. A traffic information apparatus as claimed in claim 3, characterized in that the removable card contains the data concerning the names of location points.

5. A module for generating traffic information messages which comprises, or is connected to, a vocabulary memory and means for reading therein digital data which constitute the description of vocabulary elements, each vocabulary element description being addressable by means of a code number designating a vocabulary element, characterized in that it comprises means for reading in the memory, for at least some vocabulary elements, on the one hand the alphanumerical characters of the relevant vocabulary element and on the other hand a sequence of digital data which defines the pronunciation of the relevant vocabulary element.

6. A module for generating traffic information messages as claimed in claim 5, characterized in that it comprises means for reading in the memory names of location points with the alphanumerical characters of these names as well as a sequence of digital data which defines their pronunciation.

7. Apparatus for generating speech comprising:

a. a computer readable medium embodying a vocabulary data structure comprising a plurality of vocabulary elements, the data structure storing for each vocabulary element at least

i. a first respective field containing at least one respective alphanumeric character code corresponding to that vocabulary element; and

ii. a second respective field containing at least one respective digital pronunciation code corresponding to that vocabulary element;

b. means, responsive to a selection of a particular vocabulary element, for reading the second respective field corresponding to the particular vocabulary element;

c. a speech synthesizer, responsive to the reading means, for generating a single respective phoneme for each respective pronunciation code in an output signal of the reading means.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the apparatus is for generating traffic information and at least one of the vocabulary elements is a place name.

9. A computer readable medium embodying a vocabulary data structure a plurality of vocabulary elements, the data structure comprising, for each vocabulary element,

a. a first respective field containing at least one respective alphanumeric character code corresponding to that vocabulary element;

and

b. a second respective field containing at least one respective digital pronunciation code corresponding to that vocabulary element, which pronunciation code is different from a corresponding character code in the first field and which pronunciation code unambiguously specifies a single respective phoneme with respect to which the corresponding character code is ambiguous, the single respective phoneme being for output by a speech synthesizer.

10. The medium of claim 9 arranged for insertion into a traffic information device wherein at least one of the first respective fields stores a place name.