On demand TTS vocabulary for a telematics system

• US 8,311,804 B2
• Filed: 10/24/2011
• Issued: 11/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cerence Operating Company (Cerence Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Bakis, Raimo, Eide, Ellen Marie, Hamza, Wael Mohamed
• Primary Examiner(s): PULLIAS, JESSE SCOTT
• Application Number:
  US13/279,626
• Publication Number:
  US 20120095676A1
• Time in Patent Office: 386 Days
• Field of Search: 701/419, 701/426, 701/428, 701/430
• US Class Current: 704/8
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3629 Guidance using speech or audio output, e.g. text-to-speech text to speech systems per se G10L13/00
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/04 Details of speech synthesis systems, e.g. synthesiser structure or memory management

Abstract

A driving directions system loads into memory a limited subset of prerecorded, spoken utterances of geographic names from a mass media storage. The subset of spoken utterances may be limited, for example, to the geographic names within a predetermined radius (e.g., a few miles) of the driver'"'"'s present location. The present location of the driver may be manually entered into the driving directions system by the driver, or automatically determined using a global positioning system (“GPS”) receiver. As the vehicle moves from its present location, the driving directions system loads into memory new names from the mass media storage and overwrites, if necessary, those which are now geographically out of range. Based on the current location of the driving, the driving directions system can audibly output geographic names from the run-time memory.

Claims

1. A driving directions system capable of accessing a database comprising a storage memory storing a plurality of geographic names, wherein each of the plurality of geographic names is associated with at least one stored prerecorded spoken utterance of the associated geographic name, and wherein at least some of the plurality of geographic names are associated with a plurality of stored prerecorded spoken utterances of the associated geographic name, each pronounced according to a respective speech style of a particular region and/or pronounced in a particular language associated with the particular region, the driving directions system comprising:

a location determination module for determining the location of the driving directions system;

a run-time memory for temporarily storing at least some geographic names and the associated prerecorded spoken utterances associated with a route from a starting location to a destination location, the geographic names and associated prerecorded spoken utterances associated with the route forming a first set; and

a storage manager to successively store subsets of the geographic names and the associated spoken utterances in the run-time memory by retrieving from the database only a subset of the geographic names and associated spoken utterances from the first set that are within a predetermined distance from a current location of the driving directions system, and storing the subset in the run-time memory, the storage manager further configured to periodically retrieve successive subsets from the remote database as the location of the driving directions system changes along the route, and to store the successive subsets in the run-time memory, wherein the geographic names and the associated spoken utterances that become out of range as the location changes are overwritten by portions of the next successive subset retrieved and stored in the run-time memory.

2. The driving directions system of claim 1, wherein the location determination module comprises a user-interface for manually inputting the location of the driving directions system.

3. The driving directions system of claim 2, wherein the user-interface comprises a graphical user-interface.

4. The driving directions system of claim 1, wherein the location determination module comprises a global positioning system (GPS) receiver.

5. The driving directions system of claim 1, further comprising a map storage means for storing at least one map.

6. The driving directions system of claim 5, further comprising a speech playback means for audibly outputting at least one of the prerecorded spoken utterances based on the location of the vehicle, the destination location, and the at least one map.

7. The driving directions system of claim 6, wherein the least one of the prerecorded spoken utterances is decompressed prior to the speech playback means audibly outputting the at least one of the subset of the utterances.

8. The driving directions system of claim 1, wherein the storage memory comprises at least one of a CD-ROM and a DVD-ROM.

9. The driving directions system of claim 1, wherein the storage memory is accessed via a network.

10. The driving directions system of claim 9, wherein the network is an Internet.

11. The driving directions system of claim 1, further comprising an index containing pointers to the prerecorded spoken utterances of geographic names.

12. The driving directions system of claim 11, wherein the index comprises a large geographic region portion.

13. The driving directions system of claim 12, wherein the large geographic region portion corresponds to one of a continent and a country.

14. The driving directions system of claim 12, wherein the large geographic region portion comprises a local geographic region portion.

15. The driving directions system of claim 14, wherein the local geographic region portion corresponds to a predetermined area in the large geographic region portion.

16. The driving directions system of claim 1, wherein the prerecorded spoken utterances of the geographic names are stored in a compressed format.

17. The driving directions system of claim 1, wherein the prerecorded spoken utterances of geographic names comprise digitally encoded audio files.

18. The driving directions system of claim 17, wherein the digitally encoded audio files comprise WAVE files.

19. A method for use in a driving directions system capable of accessing a database comprising a storage memory storing a plurality of geographic names, wherein each of the plurality of geographic names is associated with at least one stored prerecorded spoken utterance of the associated geographic name, and wherein at least some of the plurality of geographic names are associated with a plurality of stored prerecorded spoken utterances of the associated geographic name each pronounced according to a respective speech style of a particular region and/or pronounced in a particular language associated with the particular region, the method comprising acts of:

determining a location of the driving directions system;

identifying geographic names and the associated prerecorded spoken utterances associated with a route from a starting location to a destination location, the geographic names and associated prerecorded spoken utterances forming a first set;

successively storing subsets of the geographic names and the associated spoken utterances in a run-time memory by retrieving from the database only a subset of the geographic names and the associated spoken utterances from the first set that are within a predetermined distance from a current location of the driving directions system and storing the subset in the run-time memory;

periodically retrieving successive subsets from the remote database as the location of the driving directions system changes along the route and storing the successive subsets in the run-time memory;

overwriting the geographic names and the associated spoken utterances that become out of range as the location changes with portions of the next successive subset; and

storing the plurality of geographic names and the corresponding prerecorded utterances in a run-time memory.

20. At least one computer readable storage device storing instructions that, when executed on at least one processor, performs method for use in a driving directions system capable of accessing a database comprising a storage memory storing a plurality of geographic names, wherein each of the plurality of geographic names is associated with at least one stored prerecorded spoken utterance of the associated geographic name, and wherein at least some of the plurality of geographic names are associated with a plurality of stored prerecorded spoken utterances of the associated geographic name each pronounced according to a respective speech style of a particular region and/or pronounced in a particular language associated with the particular region, the method comprising acts of:

determining a location of the driving directions system;

identifying geographic names and the associated prerecorded spoken utterances associated with a route from a starting location to a destination location, the geographic names and associated prerecorded spoken utterances forming a first set;

successively storing subsets of the geographic names and the associated spoken utterances in a run-time memory by retrieving from the database only a subset of the geographic names and the associated spoken utterances from the first set that are within a predetermined distance from a current location of the driving directions system and storing the subset in the run-time memory;

periodically retrieving successive subsets from the remote database as the location of the driving directions system changes along the route and storing the successive subsets in the run-time memory;

overwriting the geographic names and the associated spoken utterances that become out of range as the location changes with portions of the next successive subset; and

storing the plurality of geographic names and the corresponding prerecorded utterances in a run-time memory.