Systems and methods document narration

• US 8,346,557 B2
• Filed: 01/14/2010
• Issued: 01/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: T Play Holdings LLC (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: K-NFB Reading Technology Inc.
• Inventors: Kurzweil, Raymond, Albrecht, Paul, Chapman, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): RIDER, JUSTIN W
• Application Number:
  US12/687,199
• Publication Number:
  US 20100324902A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,083 Days
• Field of Search: 704/258, 704/260
• US Class Current: 704/260
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/062 Combinations of audio and printed presentations, e.g. magnetically striped cards, talking books, magnetic tapes with printed texts thereon
• 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

Disclosed are techniques and systems to provide a narration of a text in multiple different voices. In some aspects, systems and methods described herein can include receiving a user-based selection of a first portion of words in a document where the document has a pre-associated first voice model and overwriting the association of the first voice model, by the one or more computers, with a second voice model for the first portion of words.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:

receiving by a computer a user-based selection of a first portion of words in a document, at least a portion of the document being displayed on a user interface on a display device, the document being pre-associated with a first voice model;

applying, by the computer, in response to the user-based selection of the first portion of words, a first set of indicia to the user-selected first portion of words in the document; and

overwriting, by the computer, the pre-association of the first voice model with a second, different voice model for the first portion of words.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the words in the first portion of words are narrated using the second voice model and at least some of the other words in the document are narrated using the first voice model.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein

the first voice model was associated with the document, prior to receiving the user-based selection of the first portion of words.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the words in the first portion of words are narrated using the second voice model and remaining words in the document are narrated using the first voice model.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first voice model is a default voice model.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

applying, in response to a user-based selection of a second portion of words in the document, a second highlighting indicium to the user-selected second portion of words in the document; and

associating a third voice model to the second portion of words.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein during reading of document, words in the first portion of words are narrated using the second voice model, words in the second portion of words are narrated using the third voice model and remaining words are narrated using the first voice model.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving by the computer, a user selection of the second, different voice model from one of a plurality of narration voice models to associate with the selected portion of words.

9. The method of claim 8

wherein the narration voice models are user-modifiable.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein receiving the user selection comprises receiving the selection in response to a user selecting a voice model from a drop down menu.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating, by the computer, an audible output corresponding to the words in the document where the words in the first portion of words are narrated using the first voice model and the remaining words are narrated using one or more other voice models.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

modifying one or both of the first and second voice models by at least one of modifying a reading speed associated with the voice model, modifying a volume associated with the voice model, modifying the gender of the character associated with the voice model, modifying the age of the character and modifying a language of the voice model.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically identifying by the one or more computers second portions of text in the sequence of words to be associated with a third, different narration voice model.

14. A computer program product residing on a computer readable medium, the computer program product comprising instructions for causing a processor to:

receive a user-based selection of a first portion of words in an electronic document, at least of portion of the document being displayed on a user interface on a display device, the electronic document pre-associated with a first voice model;

apply, in response to the user-based selection of the first portion of words, a first set of indicia to the user-selected first portion of words in the document; and

overwrite the pre-association of the first voice model with a second, different voice model for the first portion of words.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer program product further comprises instructions for causing the processor to:

narrate the words in the first portion of words using the second voice model and

narrate at least some of the other words in the document using the first voice model.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer program product further comprises instructions for causing the processor to:

narrate the words in the first portion of words using the second voice model; and

narrate remaining words in the document using the first voice model.

17. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer program product further comprises instructions for causing the processor to:

apply, in response to a user-based selection of a second portion of words in the document, a second highlighting indicium to the user-selected second portion of words in the document; and

associate a third voice model to the second portion of words.

18. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer program product further comprises instructions for causing the processor to:

receive a user selection of the second different voice model from one of a plurality of narration voice models to associate with the at least some portions of the document.

19. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer program product further comprises instructions for causing the processor to:

modify one or both of the first and second voice models by at least one of modifying a reading speed associated with the voice model, modifying a volume associated with the voice model, modifying the gender of the character associated with the voice model, modifying the age of the character and modifying a language of the voice model.

20. The computer program product of claim 14, further comprising instructions to:

automatically identify second, different portions of text in the sequence of words to be associated with a narration voice model.

21. A system comprising:

a memory; and

a computing device configured to;

load an electronic representation of a document;

receive a user-based selection of a first portion of words in the document, at least of portion of the document being displayed in a user interface on a display device, the document being pre-associated with a first voice model;

apply, in response to the user-based selection of the first portion of words, a first set of indicia to the user-selected first portion of words in the document; and

overwrite the pre-association of the first voice model, by the one or more computers, with a second, different voice model for the first portion of words.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the computing device is further configured:

narrate the words in the first portion of words using the second voice model and

narrate at least some of the other words in the document using the first voice model.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the computing device is further configured to:

narrate the words in the first portion of words using the second voice model; and

narrate remaining words in the document using the first voice model.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the computing device is further configured to:

apply, in response to a user-based selection of a second portion of words in the document, a second highlighting indicium to the user-selected second portion of words in the document; and

associate a third voice model to the second portion of words.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein the computing device is further configured to:

receive a user selection of the second different voice model from one of a plurality of narration voice models to associate with the at least some portions of the document.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein the computing device is further configured to:

modify one or both of the first and second voice models by at least one of modifying a reading speed associated with the voice model, modifying a volume associated with the voice model, modifying the gender of the character associated with the voice model, modifying the age of the character and modifying a language of the voice model.

27. The system of claim 21, further configured to:

automatically identify third portions of text in the sequence of words to be associated with a narration voice model.