Method and apparatus for synthesizing speech

• US 6,029,134 A
• Filed: 09/20/1996
• Issued: 02/22/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Nishiguchi, Masayuki, Matsumoto, Jun
• Primary Examiner(s): Dorvil, Richemond
• Application Number:
  US08/718,241
• Time in Patent Office: 1,250 Days
• Field of Search: 704/258, 704/206, 704/216, 704/268, 704/266, 704/207, 704/208, 704/262, 704/263
• US Class Current: 704/268
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/093 using sinusoidal excitation models
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/10 the excitation function being a multipulse excitation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/27 characterised by the analysis technique

Abstract

A speech synthesizing method and apparatus arranged to use a sinusoidal waveform synthesis technique provide for preventing degradation of acoustic quality caused by the shift of the phase when synthesizing a sinusoidal waveform. A decoding unit decodes the data from an encoding side. The decoded data is transformed into the voiced/unvoiced data through a bad frame mask unit. Then, an unvoiced frame detecting circuit detects an unvoiced frame from the data. If there exist two or more continuous unvoiced frames, a voiced sound synthesizing unit initializes the phases of a fundamental wave and its harmonic into a given value such as 0 or π/2. This makes it possible to initialize the phase shift between the unvoiced and the voiced frames at a start point of the voiced frame, thereby preventing degradation of acoustic quality such as distortion of a synthesized sound caused by dephasing.

Claims

1. A speech synthesizing method including the steps of sectioning an input signal derived from a speech signal into frames and deriving a pitch for each sectioned frame, said method comprising the steps of:

determining whether data for synthesizing speech of each frame contains a voiced sound or an unvoiced sound;

synthesizing a voiced sound with a fundamental wave of said pitch and its harmonic when the data of a frame is determined to contain a voiced sound; and

constantly initializing phases of said fundamental wave and its harmonic into a given value when the data of a frame is determined to contain an unvoiced sound.

2. The speech synthesizing method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the phases of the fundamental wave and its harmonic are initialized at the time of shifting from a frame determined to contain the unvoiced sound to a frame determined to contain the voiced sound.

3. The speech synthesizing method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of initializing is performed when it is determined there exist two or more continuous frames that contain the unvoiced sound.

4. The speech synthesizing method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the input signal is a linear predictive coding residual obtained by performing a linear predictive coding operation with respect to the speech signal.

5. The speech synthesizing method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the phases of the fundamental wave and its harmonic are initialized into zero or π

/2.

6. A speech synthesizing apparatus arranged to section an input signal derived from a speech signal into frames and to derive a pitch for each frame, comprising:

means for determining whether data of each frame contains a voiced sound or an unvoiced sound;

means for synthesizing a voiced sound with a fundamental wave of the pitch and its harmonic when the data of a frame is determined to contain a voiced sound; and

means for initializing the phase of said fundamental wave and its harmonic to a given value when the data of the frame is determined to contain an unvoiced sound.

7. The speech synthesizing apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein said means for initializing initializes the phases of said fundamental wave and its harmonic at a time of shifting from a frame determined to contain the unvoiced sound to a frame determined to contain the voiced sound.

8. The speech synthesizing apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein said means for determining determines when there exist two or more continuous frames determined to contain the unvoiced sound, whereupon the phases of said fundamental wave and its harmonic are initialized to the given value.

9. The speech synthesizing apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein said initializing means includes phase means that initializes the phases of said fundamental wave and its harmonic into zero or π

/2.

10. The speech synthesizing apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein said input signal is a linear predictive coding residual obtained by performing a linear predicative coding operation with respect to a speech signal.