Speech-conversion processing apparatus and method
First Claim
1. A speech-conversion processing apparatus, comprising:
- a character-string structure analyzer operable to analyze a character-string structure within address data selected for speech conversion in accordance with speech-conversion rule data to identify specific elements of an address, where the specific elements of the address of the character-string structure comprises a street name;
a general purpose dictionary in which text data of common words are stored in association with corresponding pronunciation symbols;
an individually-created general dictionary in which data associated with pronunciation symbols not stored in the general purpose dictionary is stored;
a pronunciation-symbol dictionary in which speech-conversion pronunciation symbols are specifically associated with character strings of a specific element of the address of the character-string structure, wherein the pronunciation-symbol dictionary comprises speech-conversion symbols specifically associated with character strings of street names;
a data reader operable to search the pronunciation-symbol dictionary, the individually-created general dictionary, and the general purpose dictionary, according to a predetermined scheme, for a character string of the specific element of the address, the character string being obtained by dividing the address data into the specific elements of the address based on a result of the analysis performed by the character-string structure analyzer, and to read data associated with the speech-conversion pronunciation symbols;
a speech data creator operable to create speech data for all the elements of address character strings in accordance with the data associated with the speech-conversion pronunciation symbols; and
a speech generation section operable to generate speech from the speech data created by the speech data creator;
wherein in the predetermined scheme the pronunciation-symbol dictionary is searched first.
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Abstract
An address character-string structure analyzer analyzes an address character-string structure with respect to address data selected from input data for speech conversion, in accordance with data stored in the address speech-conversion application-rule data storage section. A street speech-conversion structure data element divider divides the address data into structure elements. A street-name speech-conversion pronunciation symbol dictionary is provided. When the structure elements contain a street name, an address speech-conversion data-storage-section selector/reader searches the dictionary and reads pronunciation symbols for the street name. For another structure element, a general dictionary, an individually-created general dictionary, individually-created phonetic-symbol dictionary, or the like is searched and pronunciation symbols are read. When the processing for all elements is completed, speech data is created and reproduced in accordance with general speech data.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. A speech-conversion processing apparatus, comprising:
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a character-string structure analyzer operable to analyze a character-string structure within address data selected for speech conversion in accordance with speech-conversion rule data to identify specific elements of an address, where the specific elements of the address of the character-string structure comprises a street name; a general purpose dictionary in which text data of common words are stored in association with corresponding pronunciation symbols; an individually-created general dictionary in which data associated with pronunciation symbols not stored in the general purpose dictionary is stored; a pronunciation-symbol dictionary in which speech-conversion pronunciation symbols are specifically associated with character strings of a specific element of the address of the character-string structure, wherein the pronunciation-symbol dictionary comprises speech-conversion symbols specifically associated with character strings of street names; a data reader operable to search the pronunciation-symbol dictionary, the individually-created general dictionary, and the general purpose dictionary, according to a predetermined scheme, for a character string of the specific element of the address, the character string being obtained by dividing the address data into the specific elements of the address based on a result of the analysis performed by the character-string structure analyzer, and to read data associated with the speech-conversion pronunciation symbols; a speech data creator operable to create speech data for all the elements of address character strings in accordance with the data associated with the speech-conversion pronunciation symbols; and a speech generation section operable to generate speech from the speech data created by the speech data creator; wherein in the predetermined scheme the pronunciation-symbol dictionary is searched first. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A computer-implemented speech-conversion processing method, comprising:
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analyzing, with a character-string structure analyzer, a character-string structure with respect to address data selected for speech conversion in accordance with address speech-conversion rule data to identify specific elements of an address, where the specific elements of the address of the character-string structure comprises a street name; storing, in a general purpose dictionary, text data of common words in association with corresponding pronunciations symbols; storing, in an individually-created general dictionary, data association with pronunciation symbols not stored in the general purpose dictionary; storing, in a pronunciation-symbol dictionary, data specifically associated with pronunciation symbols corresponding to character strings within a specific element of the address of the character-string structure, wherein the pronunciation-symbol dictionary comprises speech-conversion symbols specifically associated with character strings of street names; searching, with a data reader, the pronunciation-symbol dictionary, the individually-created general dictionary, and the general purpose dictionary, according to a predetermined scheme, for a character string within the specific element of the address, the character string being obtained by dividing the address data into the specific elements of the address in accordance with a result of the analysis of the character-string structure; reading, with the data reader, data associated with pronunciation symbols; creating, with a speech data creator, speech data for all elements of the character strings in accordance with the read data associated with the pronunciation symbols; and generating, with a speech generation section, speech from the speech data created; wherein in the predetermined scheme the pronunciation-symbol dictionary is searched first.
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Specification