Speech synthesizing apparatus, and recording medium that stores text-to-speech conversion program and can be read mechanically

• US 6,751,592 B1
• Filed: 01/11/2000
• Issued: 06/15/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Shiga, Yoshinori
• Primary Examiner(s): Dorvil, Richemond
• Assistant Examiner(s): Opsasnick, Michael N.
• Application Number:
  US09/480,654
• Time in Patent Office: 1,617 Days
• Field of Search: 704/258, 704/260
• US Class Current: 704/258
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/07 Concatenation rules

Abstract

A text analysis section reads, from a text file, a text to be subjected to speech synthesis, and analyzes the text using a morphological analysis section, a syntactic structure analysis section, a semantic analysis section and a similarly-pronounced-word detecting section. A speech segment selecting section incorporated in a speech synthesizing section obtains the degree of intelligibility of synthetic speech for each accent phrase on the basis of the text analysis result of the text analysis section, thereby selecting a speech segment string corresponding to each accent phrase on the basis of the degree of intelligibility from one of a 0th-rank speech segment dictionary, a first-rank speech segment dictionary and a second-rank speech segment dictionary. A speech segment connecting section connects selected speech segment strings and subjects the connection result to speech synthesis performed by a synthesizing filter section.

Claims

1. A speech synthesizing apparatus comprising:

means for dissecting text data, subjected to speech synthesis, into an accent phrase unit and analyzing the accent phrase unit, thereby obtaining a text analysis result;

a speech segment dictionary that stores a plurality of speech segments and a plurality of speech parameters that correspond to each speech segment, the speech parameters being prepared for a plurality of degrees of intelligibility;

means for determining a degree of intelligibility of the accent phrase unit, on the basis of the text analysis result; and

means for selecting speech parameters stored in the speech segment dictionary corresponding to the determined degree of intelligibility of the accent phrase unit, and then connecting the speech parameters to generate synthetic speech.

2. A speech synthesizing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the text analysis result includes at least one information item concerning grammar, meaning, familiarity and pronunciation;

and

said means for determining a degree of intelligibility determines the degree of intelligibility on the basis of at least one of the information items concerning the grammar, meaning, familiarity and pronunciation.

3. A speech synthesizing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein,

the information item concerning the grammar includes at least one of a first information item indicating a part of speech included in the accent phrase unit, and a second information item indicating whether the accent phrase unit is an independent word or a dependent word,

the information item concerning the meaning includes at least one of a third information item indicating the position of the accent phrase unit in a text, and a fourth information item indicating whether or not there is an emphasis,

the information item concerning the familiarity includes at least one of a fifth information item indicating whether or not the accent phrase unit includes an unknown word, a sixth information item indicating a degree of familiarity of the accent phrase unit, and a seventh information item for determining whether or not the accent phrase unit is at least a first one of the same words in the text,

the information item concerning the pronunciation includes an eighth information item concerning phoneme information of the accent phrase unit, and a ninth information item indicating whether or not the accent phrase unit includes a word having a similar pronunciation to a word included in another accent phrase unit, and

the means for determining a degree of intelligibility of the accent phrase unit determines the degree of intelligibility on the basis of at least one of the first to ninth information items included in the text analysis result.

4. A speech synthesizing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said means for dissecting data obtains, as the seventh information item, appearance order information indicating an order of appearance among same words in the text, and

said means for determining a degree of intelligibility of the accent phrase unit determines the degree of intelligibility of the text data on the basis of the appearance order information.

5. A mechanically readable recording medium storing a text-to-speech conversion program for causing a computer to execute the steps of:

dissecting text data, to be subjected to speech synthesis, into an accent phrase unit, and analyzing the accent phrase unit to obtain a text analysis result;

determining, on the basis of the text analysis result, a degree of intelligibility of the accent phrase unit; and

selecting speech parameters corresponding to the determined degree of intelligibility of the accent phrase unit from a speech segment dictionary, in which a plurality of speech segments and a plurality of speech parameters that correspond to each speech segment are stored, on the basis of the plurality of degree of intelligibility and connecting the speech parameters to obtain synthetic speech.

6. A mechanically readable recording medium according to claim 5, wherein the text analysis result includes at least one information item concerning grammar, meaning, familiarity and pronunciation;

and

at the step of determining a degree of intelligibility of the accent phrase unit, the degree of intelligibility on the basis of at least one of the information items concerning grammar, meaning, familiarity and pronunciation is determined.

7. A mechanically readable recording medium according to claim 6 wherein,

the information item concerning the grammar includes at least one of a first information item indicating a part of speech included in the accent phrase unit, and a second information item indicating whether the accent phrase unit is an independent word or a dependent word,

the information item concerning the meaning includes at least one of a third information item indicating the position of the accent phrase unit in a text, and a fourth information item indicating whether or not there is an emphasis,

the information item concerning the familiarity includes at least one of a fifth information item indicating whether or not the accent phrase unit includes an unknown word, a sixth information item indicating a degree of familiarity of the accent phrase unit, and a seventh information item for determining whether or not the accent phrase unit is at least a first one of the same words in the text,

the information item concerning the pronunciation includes an eighth information item concerning phoneme information of the accent phrase unit, and a ninth information item indicating whether or not the accent phrase unit includes a word having a similar pronunciation to a word included in another accent phrase unit in the text, and

at the step of determining a degree of intelligibility of the accent phrase unit, the degree of intelligibility on the basis of at least one of the first to ninth information items included in the text analysis result is determined.

8. A mechanically readable recording medium according to claim 7, wherein at the step of dissecting the text data, as the seventh information item, appearance order information indicating an order of appearance among same words in the text is obtained, and

at the step of determining a degree of intelligibility, the degree of intelligibility of the text data on the basis of the appearance order information is determined.

9. A mechanically readable recording medium storing a text-to-speech conversion program for causing a computer to execute the steps of:

dissecting text data, to be subjected to speech synthesis, into an accent phrase unit to obtain a text analysis result for the accent phrase unit, the text analysis result including at least one information item concerning grammar, meaning, familiarity and pronunciation;

determining a degree of intelligibility of the accent phrase unit, on the basis of the at least one of the information items concerning the grammar, meaning, familiarity and pronunciation;

selecting speech parameters corresponding to the determined degree of intelligibility of the accent phrase unit from a speech segment dictionary, in which a plurality of speech segments and a plurality of speech parameters that correspond to each speech segment are stored, on the basis of the plurality of degree of intelligibility and connecting the speech parameters to obtain synthetic speech;

wherein the information item concerning the grammar includes at least one of a first information item indicating a part of speech included in the accent phrase unit, and a second information item indicating whether the accent phrase unit is an independent word or a dependent word;

the information item concerning the meaning includes at least one of a third information item indicating the position of the accent phrase unit in a text, and a fourth information item indicating whether or not there is an emphasis;

the information item concerning the familiarity includes at least one of a fifth information item indicating whether or not the accent phrase unit includes an unknown word, a sixth information item indicating a degree of familiarity of the accent phrase unit, and a seventh information item for determining whether or not the accent phrase unit is at least a first one of the same words in the text; and

the information item concerning the pronunciation includes an eighth information item concerning phoneme information of the accent phrase unit, and a ninth information item indicating whether or not the accent phrase unit includes a word having a similar pronunciation to a word included in another accent phrase unit in the text;

and in determining the degree of intelligibility of the accent phrase unit, the determination is executed on the basis of at least one of the first to ninth information items included in the text analysis result.