Communication apparatus and system acting on speaker voices

• US 7,349,848 B2
• Filed: 07/11/2006
• Issued: 03/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Shiraishi, Goro, Kudo, Junichi, Tange, Akira, Akabane, Makoto, Yano, Hajime, Yamada, Keiichi
• Primary Examiner(s): MCFADDEN, SUSAN IRIS
• Application Number:
  US11/484,189
• Publication Number:
  US 20060253286A1
• Time in Patent Office: 623 Days
• Field of Search: 704/260
• US Class Current: 704/260
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/08 Text analysis or generation of parameters for speech synthesis out of text, e.g. grapheme to phoneme translation, prosody generation or stress or intonation determination

Abstract

A communication apparatus includes a storage unit, a receiving unit and a searching unit, all acting on speaker voice data. A communication system includes an accumulating unit, a requesting unit, a transmitting unit and a receiving unit, all acting on synthetic speech data.

Claims

1. A communication apparatus comprising:

a storage unit configured to store phoneme data of a plurality of speaker voices;

a receiving unit configured to receive speaker voice identification data for identifying selected speaker voice among a plurality of speaker voices, said speaker voice identification data being selected by a user on another apparatus and supplied therefrom to said communication apparatus;

a searching unit configured to search said storage unit for phoneme data which correspond to said speaker voice identification data received by said receiving unit; and

transmitting unit configured to transmit said phoneme data retrieved by said searching unit to said another apparatus.

2. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a fee-charge control unit configured to control a fee-charge operation for said user in accordance with said phoneme data transmitted from said transmitting unit.

3. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said fee-charge control unit sends, to an external settlement center, fee-charge data corresponding to said phoneme data transmitted from said transmitting unit.

4. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said storage unit stores prosody data for each of said plurality of speaker voices, said searching unit searches for said prosody data along with said phoneme data retrieved by said searching unit, and said transmitting unit transmits said prosody data along with said phoneme data to said another apparatus.

5. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a text-to-speech synthesis processing unit configured to link said phoneme data of said speaker voice retrieved by said searching unit to convert input data into a synthetic speech.

6. The communication apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said speaker voice identification data includes at least two selected speaker voices and said text-to-speech synthesis processing unit can convert said input data into a synthetic speech including at least two speaker voices based on said speaker voice identification data.

7. The communication apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said input data includes at least two parts and said text-to-speech synthesis processing unit converts each part of said input data corresponding to each of said two selected speaker voices.

8. The communication apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said receiving unit receives said input data from said another apparatus and said transmitting unit transmits said synthetic speech made from said input data to said another apparatus.

9. The communication apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising a fee-charge control unit configured to control a fee-charge operation for said user in accordance with said phoneme data transmitted from said transmitting unit, wherein said fee-charge control unit controls control a fee-charge operation for said user in accordance with said synthetic speech transmitted by said transmitting unit.

10. The communication apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said input data are at least one of voice data and text data.

11. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said storage unit stores script data;

said receiving unit receives script identification data for identifying said script data selected by a user on said another apparatus and transmitted therefrom;

said searching unit searches said storage unit for said script data corresponding to said script identification data received by said receiving unit; and

said transmitting unit transmits said script data along with said phoneme data retrieved by said searching unit to said another apparatus.

12. The communication apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said storage unit stores said script data in a classified manner.

13. The communication apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising:

a text-to-speech synthesis processing unit configured to link said phoneme data of said speaker voice retrieved by said searching unit to convert said script data corresponding to said script identification data into a synthetic speech;

wherein said transmitting unit transmits said synthetic speech instead of said phoneme data to said another apparatus.

14. The communication apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said script data are at least one of voice data and text data.

15. A communication system comprising:

a accumulating unit configured to accumulate synthetic speeches generated by linking a plurality of pieces of phoneme data corresponding to a speaker voice on the basis of script data;

a requesting unit configured to request a user-specified synthetic speech from the synthetic speeches accumulated in said accumulating unit;

a transmitting unit configured to transmit said user-specified synthetic speech from said accumulating unit in response to the request from said requesting unit; and

a receiving unit configured to receive said synthetic speech transmitted by said transmitting unit.

16. The communication system according to claim 15, further comprising a fee-charge control unit configured to control a fee-charge operation for said user in accordance with said synthetic speech transmitted by said transmitting unit.

17. The communication system according to claim 16, wherein said fee-charge control unit transmits, to an external settlement center, fee-charge data corresponding to said synthetic speech transmitted by said transmitting unit.

18. The communication system according to claim 16, further comprising a prepaid card loading unit configured to accommodate a prepaid card, wherein said fee-charge control unit updates fee-charge information in said prepaid card on the basis of fee-charge data corresponding to said synthetic speech transmitted by said transmitting unit.

19. The communication system according to claim 15, wherein said accumulating unit accumulates synthetic speeches generated by said plurality of pieces of phoneme data and prosody data corresponding to said speaker voice on the basis of script data.

20. The communication system according to claim 15, further comprising:

a storage unit configured to store phoneme data of a plurality of speaker voices;

searching unit configured to search said storage unit for the phoneme data of a user-specified speaker voice; and

a text-to-speech synthesis processing unit configured to link the phoneme data of said user-specified speaker voice retrieved by said searching unit to convert said script data into a synthetic speech;

wherein said accumulating unit accumulates said synthetic speech obtained by said text-to-speech synthesis processing unit.

21. The communication apparatus according to claim 20, wherein said text-to-speech synthesis processing unit can convert said script into a synthetic speech including at least two speaker voices.

22. The communication apparatus according to claim 21, wherein said script data includes at least two parts and said text-to-speech synthesis processing unit converts each part of said input data into different voices respectively.

23. The communication system according to claim 20, wherein said storage unit further stores script data and said text-to-speech synthesis processing unit links the phoneme data of said speaker voice retrieved by said searching unit to convert said script data stored in said storage unit into a synthetic speech.

24. The communication system according to claim 20, wherein said storage unit stores said script data in a classified manner;

said searching unit searches said storage unit for user-specified script data; and

said text-to-speech synthesis processing unit links the phoneme data of said speaker voice retrieved by said searching unit to convert said user-specified script data into a synthetic speech.

25. The communication system according to claim 15, further comprising an input unit configured to directly input said script data.

26. The text-to-speech synthesis apparatus according to claim 15, further comprising a communication unit configured to receive said script data via a network.

27. The communication system according to claim 15, wherein said script data are at least one of voice data and text data.

28. A communication apparatus comprising:

an accumulating unit configured to accumulate synthetic speeches generated by linking a plurality of pieces of phoneme data corresponding to a speaker voice on the basis of script data;

a receiving unit configured to receive synthetic speech identification data for identifying

a synthetic speech specified by a user and received from another apparatus and stored in said storage unit; and

a transmitting unit for searching said storage unit for a synthetic speech on the basis of said synthetic speech identification data received by said receiving unit and transmitting the retrieved synthetic speech to another apparatus.

29. The communication apparatus according to claim 28, further comprising a fee-charge control unit configured to control a fee-charge operation for said user in accordance with said synthetic speech transmitting from said transmitting unit.

30. The communication apparatus according to claim 29, wherein said fee-charge control unit transmits, to an external settlement center, fee-charge data corresponding to the synthetic speech transmitted by said transmitting unit.

31. The communication apparatus according to claim 28, wherein said accumulating unit accumulates synthetic speeches generated by a plurality of pieces of phoneme data and prosody data corresponding to said speaker voice on the basis of said script data.

32. The communication apparatus according to claim 28, further comprising:

a storage unit configured to store phoneme data of a plurality of speaker voices;

searching unit configured to search said storage unit for the phoneme data of a user-specified speaker voice; and

a text-to-speech synthesis processing unit configured to link the phoneme data of said user-specified speaker voice retrieved by said searching unit to convert said script data into a synthetic speech;

wherein said accumulating unit accumulates said synthetic speech obtained by said text-to-speech synthesis processing unit.

33. The communication apparatus according to claim 32, wherein said text-to-speech synthesis processing unit can convert said script data into a synthetic speech including at least two speaker voices.

34. The communication apparatus according to claim 33, wherein said script data includes at least two parts and said text-to-speech synthesis processing unit converts each part of said input data into different voices respectively.

35. The communication apparatus according to claim 34, wherein said storage unit further stores script data and said text-to-speech synthesis processing unit links the phoneme data of said speaker voice retrieved by said searching unit to convert said script data stored in said storage unit into a synthetic speech.

36. The communication apparatus according to claim 34, wherein said storage unit stores said script data in a classified manner, said searching unit searches said storage unit for user-specified script data, and said text-to-speech synthesis processing unit links said phoneme data of said speaker voice retrieved by said searching unit to convert said retrieved script data into a synthetic speech.

37. The communication apparatus according to claim 34, further comprising a communication unit configured to receive said script data via a network.

38. The communication apparatus according to claim 34, wherein said script data are at least one of voice data and text data.

39. A communication method comprising the steps of:

receiving speaker voice identification data for identifying selected speaker voice among a plurality of speaker voices, said speaker voice identification data being selected by a user on another apparatus and supplied therefrom;

searching previously stored phoneme data of said plurality of speaker voices for phoneme data which correspond to said speaker voice identification data received in said receiving step; and

transmitting said phoneme data retrieved in said searching step to said another apparatus.

40. A recording medium storing a communication program comprising the steps of:

receiving speaker voice identification data for identifying selected speaker voice among a plurality of speaker voices, said speaker voice identification data being selected by a user on another apparatus and supplied therefrom;

searching previously stored phoneme data of said plurality of speaker voices for phoneme data which correspond to said speaker voice identification data received in said receiving step; and

transmitting said phoneme data retrieved in said searching step to said another apparatus.