Information access system and recording medium

• US 6,161,093 A
• Filed: 10/01/1998
• Issued: 12/12/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/1993
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Ogawa, Hiroaki, Watari, Masao, Iwahashi, Yusuke, Minamino, Katsuki, Watanabe, Kazuo, Omote, Masanori, Asano, Yasuharu, Kagami, Tetsuya, Akabane, Makoto, Ishii, Kazuo, Kato, Yasuhiko
• Primary Examiner(s): Zele, Krista
• Assistant Examiner(s): Opsasnick, Michael N.
• Application Number:
  US09/164,316
• Time in Patent Office: 803 Days
• Field of Search: 704/260, 704/270, 704/275, 704/276
• US Class Current: 704/270
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/001 Teaching or communicating with blind persons G09B21/02 - G09B21/06 take precedence

Abstract

A book database stores at least phonetic signal information including phoneme information and rhythm information as document data, a central system transmits phonetic signal information stored on the book database to a terminal and the terminal receives the phonetic signal information is then carried out at the terminal and the document is then recited via synthesized sounds.

Claims

1. An information access system comprising:

a central system having a database in which information is stored, the central system including searching means for searching the database; and

a terminal coupled to the central system which can access information on the database;

wherein the database stores at least phonetic signal information including phoneme information and rhythm information, the central system transmits phonetic signal information stored in the database to the terminal, and the terminal receives the phonetic signal information transmitted from the central system; and

further

wherein said phonetic signal information are items related to publications, and the searching means is configured to search the database for phonetic signal information relating to the publications corresponding to a keyword sent from the terminal.

2. An information access system according to claim 1 wherein said terminal further includes speech synthesizing means for synthesizing speech from the phonetic signal information.

3. An information access system according to claim 1 wherein said terminal further includes recording means for recording the phonetic signal information on a recording medium.

4. An information access system according to claim 3 wherein said terminal further includes playback means for playing back the phonetic signal information recorded on the recording medium.

5. An information access system according to claim 2 wherein the terminal further includes mark application means for applying a mark to a prescribed position of the synthesized sound outputted by the speech synthesizing means and further wherein the speech synthesizing means resynthesizes and outputs the synthesized sounds from the position of the applied mark.

29. An information access system according to claim 3 wherein the recording medium is capable of being recorded with phonetic signal information including phoneme information and rhythm information.

30. An information access system according to claim 1 wherein the central system further includes an authoring system which produces phonetic signal information from information relating to the document and stores the phonetic signal information at the database.

31. An information access system according to claim 30 wherein the authoring system further includes editing means for editing the phonetic signal information.

32. An information access system according to claim 31 wherein the authoring system further includes speech synthesizing means for synthesizing speech from the phonetic signal information.

33. An information access system according to claim 30 wherein the authoring system further includes analyzing means for analyzing the document text data and generating phonetic signal information based on the analysis results.

34. An information access system according to claim 33 wherein the authoring system further includes mistaken reading correction means for correcting words which have been read incorrectly from document text data in the analysis means analysis results.

35. An information access system according to claim 33 wherein the authoring system further includes speech input means for inputting speech, extracting means for extracting rhythm information for speech inputted by the speech input means and correction means for correcting mistaken analysis results from the analysis means based on rhythm information for the speech extracted by the extracting means.

36. An information system according to claim 33 wherein the authoring system further includes character reading means for reading characters from the document and generating the text data.

37. An information access system according to claim 36 wherein the authoring system further includes speech synthesizing means for synthesizing speech from the output from the character reading means and correction means for correcting errors made in reading characters from the document using the character reading means based on synthesized sounds outputted by the speech synthesizing means.

38. An information access system according to claim 33 wherein the authoring system changes graphics data for the document into text data which describes the graphics data and the analysis means analyzes the text data which describes the graphics data.

39. An information access system according to claim 33 wherein said document text data includes an abstract of the items recorded in the document.

40. An information access system according to claim 33 wherein the authoring system further includes abstract inputting means for taking the abstract of the recorded items of the document as text data for the document for inputting to the analysis means.

41. An information system according to claim 2 wherein said central system further includes fast reading information making means for making fast reading information for reading documents quickly, wherein the fast reading information is stored in the database together with phonetic signal information relating to the document and the speech synthesizing means outputs quick reading synthesized sounds for the document based on the quick reading information.

42. An information access system according to claim 41 wherein the fast reading information is a keyword extracted from the document.

43. An information access system according to claim 41 wherein the fast reading information is the contents information for the document.

44. An information access system according to claim 43 wherein the central system further includes contents producing means for producing contents information for the document.

45. An information access system according to claim 1 wherein said terminal further includes broadcast receiving means for receiving urgent broadcasts relating to urgent precautions and reporting means for bringing news of the urgent precautions.

46. An information access system according to claim 45 wherein the central system and the terminal carry out wireless communications.

47. An information access system according to claim 46 wherein the terminal is battery operated.

48. An information access system according to claim 47 wherein the central system is connected to a further central system via a network and is further equipped with a network control means for controlling the exchange of information with the further central system.

49. An information access system according to claim 48 wherein the central system is connected to a plurality of terminals.

50. An information access system according to claim 1 wherein the keyword is attribute data expressing the attributes of the document, a relationship table expressing the relationship between the attribute data and the document corresponding to the attribute data is stored on the database, and the search means executes searches with reference to the relationship table.

51. An information access system according to claim 50 wherein unique document identity numbers or attribute identity numbers for identification are assigned respectively to the document or the attribute data and the relationship table describes the corresponding relationship using the document identity number and the attribute identity number.

52. An information access system according to claim 51 wherein the central system is further equipped with past search information recording means for storing document identity numbers and attribute identity numbers which were searched in the past, wherein the search means searches by initially referring to the past search information recording means.

53. An information access system according to claim 50 wherein the attribute data is constituted by items for which speech has been recognized, and the search means carries out the search from the - phonetic signal information relating to the document corresponding to the attribute data for which the plausibility of the speech recognition results is highest.

54. An information access system according to claim 50, said attribute data being the document title, name of publisher, name of the author, day of issue, page number or field.

55. An information access system according to claim 1, the central system being further equipped with search scope storage means for storing the scope of the search, wherein the search means carries out the search within the search scope stored in the search scope storage means.

56. An information access system according to claim 1, said central system being further equipped with search frequency storage means for storing the frequency with which the phonetic signal information relating to the document is searched for by the search means, wherein the search means refers to the search frequency storage means and searches sequentially from the group of items of phonetic signal information relating to documents of a high search frequency.

57. An information access system according to claim 1 wherein the input means is further equipped with keyword output means for outputting from the keywords a prescribed number of characters, starting from the front, output control means for controlling the outputting of the keywords from the keyword output means, and selecting means for selecting the desired items from the keywords outputted from the keyword output means.

6. An information access system comprising:

a central system including a database for storing information relating to publications; and

a terminal coupled to the central system;

wherein said terminal includes;

speech inputting means for inputting speech information, and

sound analyzing means for analyzing speech information inputted to the speech inputting means and sending sound analysis results to the central system, and further wherein said central system includes;

central speech recognition means for recognizing speech information using sound analyzing means sound analysis results sent from the terminal, and

central control means for carrying out a prescribed processing in accordance with speech recognition results of the central speech recognition means the central control means configured to search for and transmit to the terminal information relating to publications on the database in accordance with speech recognition results.

7. An information access system according to claim 6 wherein said central control means sends the speech recognition results from the central speech recognition means to the terminal.

8. An information access system according to claim 7 wherein said terminal further includes speech recognition result correction means for correcting a mistakenly recognized portion of the central speech recognition means recognition results transmitted from the central control means, and further wherein the central speech recognition means confirms speech by dictation and correction results from the speech recognition result correction means are sent to the central system.

9. An information access system according to claim 8 wherein the speech recognition result correction means includes a shuttle ring jog dial.

10. An information access system according to claim 7 wherein the central speech recognition means confirms speech by dictation, the speech inputting means re-inputs speech when the speech recognition results from the central speech recognition means transmitted from the central control means are mistaken and the central speech recognition means recognizes speech which was re-inputted to the speech inputting means again, in accordance with the speech recognition results.

11. An information access system according to claim 7 wherein the terminal further includes speech synthesizing means for synthesizing speech in accordance with central speech recognition means speech recognition results transmitted from the central control means.

12. An information access system according to claim 7 wherein said terminal further includes terminal speech recognition means for recognizing speech based on sound analysis means sound analysis results and terminal side control means for carrying out prescribed processing corresponding to terminal speech recognition means speech recognition results.

13. An information access system according to claim 7 wherein the terminal further includes speech synthesizing means for synthesizing speech in accordance with information relating to the document transmitted by the central control means.

14. An information access system according to claim 7 wherein the terminal transmits the scope of vocabulary to become the speech recognition target to the central system and the central speech recognition means carries out speech recognition within the vocabulary scope transmitted by the terminal.

15. An information access system according to claim 7 wherein sound analysis means sound analysis results are compressed and sent the central system.

16. An information access system according to claim 7 wherein the terminal further includes a Braille display or Braille printer for outputting information relating to the document transmitted by the central control means.

17. An information access system according to claim 6 wherein the speech is uttered in word or syllable units.

18. An information access system according to claim 2 or 13 wherein the terminal further includes recording means for recording on the recording medium synthesized sounds composed by the speech synthesizing means.

19. An information access system according to claim 13 wherein the terminal further includes synthesized sound control means for controlling synthesized sounds composed and outputted by the speech synthesizing means.

20. An information access control system according to claim 19 wherein the synthesized sound control means controls the tonal quality of the synthesized sounds.

21. An information access system according to claim 19 wherein the synthesized sound control means controls the speed of utterance of the synthesized sounds.

22. An information access system according to claim 19 wherein the synthesized sound control means controls the amplitudes of the voices for the synthesized sounds.

23. An information access system according to claim 19 wherein the synthesized sound control means includes a jog dial or a shuttle ring.

24. An information access system according to claim 18 wherein the terminal further includes playback means for playing back synthesized sounds recorded on the recording medium.

25. An information access system according to claim 24 wherein the playback means plays back the synthesized sounds in reverse.

26. An information access system according to claim 13, wherein the speech synthesizing means further includes characteristic compensating means for compensating the synthesized sounds in accordance with prescribed hearing characteristics.

27. An information access system according to claim 26 wherein the prescribed hearing characteristics may be varied.

28. An information access system according to claim 26 wherein the characteristic compensating means is a filter.