Method and system for aligning natural and synthetic video to speech synthesis

• US 7,584,105 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Issued: 09/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/05/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Basso, Andrea, Beutnagel, Mark Charles, Ostermann, Joern
• Primary Examiner(s): Lerner, Martin
• Application Number:
  US11/931,093
• Publication Number:
  US 20080059194A1
• Time in Patent Office: 671 Days
• Field of Search: 704/258, 704/260, 704/270, 704/276, 704/278, 715/706, 715/203, 345/473, 348/512, 348/423.1
• US Class Current: 704/260
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 9/001 Model-based coding, e.g. wire frame
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/06 Transformation of speech into a non-audible representation, e.g. speech visualisation or speech processing for tactile aids G10L15/26 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2368 Multiplexing of audio and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4341 Demultiplexing of audio and video streams

Abstract

According to MPEG-4'"'"'s TTS architecture, facial animation can be driven by two streams simultaneously—text, and Facial Animation Parameters. In this architecture, text input is sent to a Text-To-Speech converter at a decoder that drives the mouth shapes of the face. Facial Animation Parameters are sent from an encoder to the face over the communication channel. The present invention includes codes (known as bookmarks) in the text string transmitted to the Text-to-Speech converter, which bookmarks are placed between words as well as inside them. According to the present invention, the bookmarks carry an encoder time stamp. Due to the nature of text-to-speech conversion, the encoder time stamp does not relate to real-world time, and should be interpreted as a counter. In addition, the Facial Animation Parameter stream carries the same encoder time stamp found in the bookmark of the text. The system of the present invention reads the bookmark and provides the encoder time stamp as well as a real-time time stamp to the facial animation system. Finally, the facial animation system associates the correct facial animation parameter with the real-time time stamp using the encoder time stamp of the bookmark as a reference.

Claims

1. A method of decoding data, the method comprising:

monitoring a first stream of data for a predetermined code that is associated with an animation mimic transmittal within a second stream; and

transmitting a signal to a decoder to start an animation using at least the animation mimic from the second stream and associated with the predetermined code.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined code in the first stream that is associated with the animation mimic in the second stream indicates a synchronization relationship between the first stream and the second stream.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first stream is a text stream and the second stream is an animation mimic stream.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the animation mimic is a facial mimic.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined code is placed according to one of:

between words in the first stream, inside words in the first stream, or between phonemes within the first stream.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined code points to the animation mimic.

7. A decoder comprising:

a module that decodes a predetermined code from a first stream that is associated with an animation mimic within a second stream; and

a module that starts an animation using the animation mimic based on the decoded predetermined code.

8. The decoder of claim 7, wherein the predetermined code in the first stream being associated with the animation mimic in the second stream indicates a synchronization relationship between the first stream and the second stream.

9. The decoder of claim 7, wherein the first stream is a text stream and the second stream is an animation mimic stream.

10. The decoder of claim 7, wherein a correspondence between the predetermined code and the animation mimic is established during an encoding process of the first stream.

11. The decoder of claim 7, wherein the animation mimic is a facial mimic.

12. The decoder of claim 7, wherein the predetermined code points to the animation mimic.