Systems and methods for multiple voice document narration

• US 8,370,151 B2
• Filed: 01/14/2010
• Issued: 02/05/2013
• 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 C., Albrecht, Paul, Chapman, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): RIDER, JUSTIN W
• Application Number:
  US12/687,196
• Publication Number:
  US 20100318362A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,118 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 where the portions of the text narrated using the different voices are selected by a user.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:

displaying on a display device text from an electronic document that has a sequence of words the sequence of words rendered by one or more computing devices in a user interface rendered on a display device;

applying, by one or more computer devices, in response to a user-based selection of a first portion of words in the sequence of words, a first indicium to the user-selected first portion of words in the sequence of words;

associating, by the one or more computer devices, a first narration voice to the first portion of words in the sequence of words; and

associating, by the one or more computers, a second, different narration voice to a second portion of words in the sequence of words, the second portion of the words in the sequence of words being different from the first portion of words in the sequence of words.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the second portion of words in the sequence of words are user selected, the method further comprises:

applying, in response to the user selected second portion of words in the sequence of words, a second indicium.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the second portion of words in the sequence of words do not have an assigned indicium.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

applying, by the one or more computing devices in response to a user-based selection of a third portion of words in the sequence of words, a second indicium to the user-selected third portion of words in the sequence of words; and

associating a third narration voice to the third portion of words in the sequence of words.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the first and second narration voices are selected from the group consisting of text-to-speech synthesized voice, an audio recording of speech and a voice model that defines and controls features of the voice.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the first and second narration voices are audio recordings of speech.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving the user selection of one of a plurality of narration voices to associate with the selected first portion of words in response to a user selecting a voice model from a drop down menu.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating, by the one or more computer systems, an audible output corresponding to the words in the sequence of words, with the words in the first portion of words narrated using the first narration voice and the words in the second portion of words remaining unselected and being narrated using the second narration voice.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the second narration voice comprises a default narration voice.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first indicium comprises a highlighting applied over the user-based selection of the first portion of words in the sequence of words.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

modifying one or both of the first and second narration voices 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.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically identifying by the one or more computers third portions of text in the sequence of words; and

automatically associating by the one or more computers the third portions of text with a third, different narration voice model.

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

display an electronic document having sequence of words in a user interface rendered on a display device;

apply in response to a user-based selection of a first portion of words in the sequence of words, a first indicium to the user-selected first portion of words in the sequence of words;

associate a first narration voice to the first portion of words in the sequence of words; and

associate a second, different narration voice to a second portion of words in the sequence of words, the second portion of the words in the sequence of words being different from the first portion of words in the sequence of words.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the second portion of words in the sequence of words are user selected and the computer program product further comprises instructions for causing the processor to:

apply, in response to the user selected second portion of words in the sequence of words, a second indicium.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the second portion of words in the sequence of words do not have an assigned indicium.

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

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

associate a third narration voice to the third portion of words in the sequence of words.

17. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the computer program product further comprises instructions for causing the processor to:

display a drop down menu including a plurality of narration voice models; and

receive the user selection of one of a plurality of narration voice models to associate with the selected first portion of words.

18. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer program product further comprises instructions for causing the processor to:

generate an audible output corresponding to the words in the sequence of words, with the words in the first portion of words narrated using the first narration voice and the words in the second portion of words remaining unselected and being narrated using the second narration voice.

19. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer program product further comprises instructions for causing the processor to:

modify one or both of the first and second narration voices 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 13, further comprising instructions to:

automatically identify third portions of text in the sequence of words; and

automatically associate the third portions of text with a third, different narration voice model.

21. A system comprising:

a display device;

a memory; and

a computing device configured to;

access an electronic version of a document;

display a sequence of words from the electronic document in a user interface rendered on the display device;

apply in response to a user-based selection of a first portion of words in the sequence of words from the document, a first indicium to the user-selected first portion of words in the sequence of words;

associate a first narration voice to the first portion of words in the sequence of words; and

associate a second narration voice to a second portion of words in the sequence of words, the second portion of the words in the sequence of words being different from the first portion of words in the sequence of words.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the second portion of words in the sequence of words are user selected and the computing device is further configured to:

apply, in response to the user selected second portion of words in the sequence of words, a second indicium.

23. The system of claim 21 wherein the second portion of words in the sequence of words do not have an assigned indicium and the system automatically associates the second narration voice with a default narration voice.

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

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

associate a third narration voice to the third portion of words in the sequence of words.

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

generate an audible output corresponding to the words in the sequence of words, with the words in the first portion of words narrated using the first narration voice and the words in the second portion of words remaining unselected and being narrated using the second narration voice.

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

modify one or both of the first and second narration voices 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; and

automatically associate the third portions of text with a third, different narration voice model.