Speech synthesis apparatus and method
First Claim
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1. Speech synthesis apparatus comprising:
- a language generator arranged to be responsive to semantic input information indicative of at least the content of a desired speech output, to generate a corresponding text-form utterance;
a text-to-speech converter for converting text-form utterances received from the language generator into speech form; and
an assessment arrangement for assessing overall quality of the speech form produced by the text-to-speech converter from an input text-form utterance whereby to selectively produce an inadequacy indicator in response to the assessment arrangement determining that the current speech form is of inadequate overall quality, the language generator being arranged to respond to the assessment arrangement producing one of said inadequacy indications, to generate from the same said semantic input information, and without corrective input from the assessment arrangement, a new but differently worded version of the text-form utterance concerned.
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Abstract
A speech synthesizer has a language generator for generating a text-form utterance from input semantic information and a text-to-speech converter for converting the text-from utterance into speech form. The overall quality of the speech-form utterance produced by the text-to-speech converter, is assessed and if judged inadequate, the language generator is triggered to produce a new version of the text-form utterance. The assessment of the overall quality of the speech form utterance is preferably effected by a classifier fed with feature values generated during the conversion process operated by the text-to-speech converter.
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Citations
9 Claims
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1. Speech synthesis apparatus comprising:
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a language generator arranged to be responsive to semantic input information indicative of at least the content of a desired speech output, to generate a corresponding text-form utterance; a text-to-speech converter for converting text-form utterances received from the language generator into speech form; and an assessment arrangement for assessing overall quality of the speech form produced by the text-to-speech converter from an input text-form utterance whereby to selectively produce an inadequacy indicator in response to the assessment arrangement determining that the current speech form is of inadequate overall quality, the language generator being arranged to respond to the assessment arrangement producing one of said inadequacy indications, to generate from the same said semantic input information, and without corrective input from the assessment arrangement, a new but differently worded version of the text-form utterance concerned. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A method of generating speech output comprising the steps of:
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(a) in response to semantic input information indicative of at least the content of a desired speech output, generating a corresponding text-form utterance; (b) converting the text-form utterances generated in step (a) into speech form; (c) assessing overall quality of the speech form produced in step (b) and selectively producing an inadequacy indicator when the current speech form is assessed as of inadequate overall quality; and (d) upon an inadequacy indicator being produced in step (c), generating from the same said semantic input information, and without corrective input from the assessment in step (c) a new but differently worded version of the text-form utterance that gave rise to the inadequacy indicator. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8)
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9. Speech synthesis apparatus comprising:
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a language generator arranged to generate, from semantic input information indicative of at least the content of a desired speech output, a corresponding text-form utterance; a text-to-speech converter for converting said text-form utterance into speech form; and an assessment arrangement for assessing overall quality of said speech form whereby to selectively produce an inadequacy indicator when the current speech form is assessed as being of inadequate overall quality, the language generator being arranged to respond to the production of said inadequacy indication, to generate from the same said semantic input information, and without corrective input from the assessment arrangement, a new but differently worded version of the text-form utterance concerned.
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Specification