Voice processing method based on the emotion and instinct states of a robot

• US 7,065,490 B1
• Filed: 11/28/2000
• Issued: 06/20/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Asano, Yasuharu, Pao, Hongchang
• Primary Examiner(s): Hudspeth, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sked, Matthew J
• Application Number:
  US09/723,813
• Time in Patent Office: 2,030 Days
• Field of Search: 704/260, 704/231, 704/272, 704/1, 704/270, 704/258, 370/310, 707/1
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 2200/00 Computerized interactive toys, e.g. dolls
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/033 Voice editing, e.g. manipulating the voice of the synthesiser
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/04 Details of speech synthesis systems, e.g. synthesiser structure or memory management

Abstract

An voice synthesizing unit performs voice synthesizing processing, based on the state of emotion of a robot at an emotion/instinct model unit. For example, in the event that the emotion state of the robot represents “not angry”, synthesized sound of “What is it?” is generated at the voice synthesizing unit. On the other hand, in the event that the emotion state of the robot represents “angry”, synthesized sound of “Yeah, what?” is generated at the voice synthesizing unit, to express the anger. Thus, a robot with a high entertainment nature is provided.

Claims

1. A speech processing device built into a robot, said speech processing device comprising:

speech processing means for processing a speech input including extracting control pitch information or phonemics information; and

control means for controlling speech processing by said speech processing means, based on a state of said robot;

wherein the state is determined by an action, an emotion state, and an instinct state of the robot;

wherein said emotion and instinct states are determined on the basis of values corresponding to a plurality of states of an emotion model and an instinct model, respectively;

wherein the value corresponding to each state within the emotion model and within the instinct model are linked in a mutually stimulating manner and changed based on said control pitch information or said phonemics information;

wherein said speech processing means comprises speech recognizing means for recognizing the speech input;

and wherein said robot takes actions corresponding to a reliability of the speech recognition results output from said speech recognizing means, or the emotion state of said robot is changed based on said reliability.

2. The speech processing device according to claim 1, wherein said speech processing means comprises speech synthesizing means for performing speech synthesizing processing and outputting synthesized sound;

and wherein said control means control the speech synthesizing processing by said speech synthesizing means, based on the state of said robot.

3. The speech processing device according to claim 2, wherein said control means control phonemics information and pitch information output by said speech synthesizing means.

4. The speech processing device according to claim 2, wherein said control means control the speech speed or volume of synthesized sound output by said speech synthesizing means.

5. The speech processing device according to claim 1, wherein said control means recognizes the action which said robot is taking, and controls speech processing by said speech processing means based on the load regarding that action.

6. The speech processing device according to claim 5, wherein said robot takes actions corresponding to resources which can be appropriated to speech processing by said speech processing means.

7. A speech processing method for a speech processing device built into a robot, said method comprising:

a speech processing step for processing a speech input including extracting control pitch information or phonemics information; and

a control step for controlling speech processing in said speech processing step, based on the state of said robot;

wherein the state is determined by an action, an emotion state, and an instinct state of the robot;

wherein said emotion and instinct states are determined on the basis of values corresponding to a plurality of states of an emotion model and an instinct model, respectively;

wherein the value corresponding to each state within the emotion model and within the instinct model are linked in a mutually stimulating manner and changed based on said control pitch information or said phonemics information;

wherein said speech processing step performs a speech recognizing step of recognizing the speech input;

and wherein said robot takes actions corresponding to a reliability of the speech recognition results output from said speech recognizing step, or the emotion state of said robot is changed based on said reliability.

8. A recording medium recording programs to be executed by a computer, for causing a robot to perform speech processing, said program comprising:

a speech processing step for processing a speech input including extracting control pitch information or phonemics information; and

a control step for controlling speech processing in said speech processing step, based on the state of said robot;

wherein the state is determined by an action, an emotion state, and an instinct state of the robot;

wherein said emotion and instinct states are determined on the basis of values corresponding to a plurality of states of an emotion model and an instinct model, respectively;

wherein the value corresponding to each state within the emotion model and within the instinct model are linked in a mutually stimulating manner and changed based on said control pitch information or said phonemics information;

wherein said speech processing step performs a speech recognizing step of recognizing the speech input;

and wherein said robot takes actions corresponding to a reliability of the speech recognition results output from said speech recognizing step, or the emotion state of said robot is changed based on said reliability.