System and method for synthetically generated speech describing media content

• US 8,831,948 B2
• Filed: 06/06/2008
• Issued: 09/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Roberts, Linda, Nguyen, Hong Thi, Schroeter, Horst J.
• Primary Examiner(s): PULLIAS, JESSE SCOTT
• Application Number:
  US12/134,714
• Publication Number:
  US 20090306985A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,286 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 704/260
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/58 Use of machine translation, e.g. for multi-lingual retrieval, for server-side translation for client devices or for real-time translation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/033 Voice editing, e.g. manipulating the voice of the synthesiser
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/04 Details of speech synthesis systems, e.g. synthesiser structure or memory management
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/086 Detection of language
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/10 Prosody rules derived from text; Stress or intonation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2013/083 Special characters, e.g. punctuation marks

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and computer readable-media for providing an automatic synthetically generated voice describing media content, the method comprising receiving one or more pieces of metadata for a primary media content, selecting at least one piece of metadata for output, and outputting the at least one piece of metadata as synthetically generated speech with the primary media content. Other aspects of the invention involve alternative output, output speech simultaneously with the primary media content, output speech during gaps in the primary media content, translate metadata in foreign language, tailor voice, accent, and language to match the metadata and/or primary media content. A user may control output via a user interface or output may be customized based on preferences in a user profile.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a metadata request from a user, wherein the metadata request is associated with a primary media content and comprises a gesture;

selecting a piece of metadata for output to yield selected metadata, the selected metadata being responsive to the metadata request regarding the primary media content and received during presentation of the primary media content; and

outputting, with the primary media content, the selected metadata as synthetically generated speech, the synthetically generated speech having an accent, wherein the accent is selected from a plurality of accents based on the selected metadata.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected metadata is output alternatively.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the synthetically generated speech is output simultaneously with the primary media content.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the synthetically generated speech is output during gaps in the primary media content.

5. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

determining the metadata is in a foreign language, where the accent corresponds to the foreign language; and

translating the metadata to another language from the foreign language before output.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata request from the user further comprises an oral command.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the metadata request specifies output of the selected metadata to occur by one of:

on demand, during playback of primary media content, immediately preceding playback of primary media content, immediately following playback of primary media content, and at a regular interval.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein user preferences for outputting the selected metadata are stored in a user profile.

9. A system comprising:

a processor;

a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored which, when executed on the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

receiving a metadata request from a user, wherein the metadata request is associated with a primary media content and comprises a gesture;

selecting a piece of the metadata for output to yield selected metadata, the selected metadata being responsive to the metadata request regarding the primary media content and received during presentation of the primary media content; and

outputting, with the primary media content, the selected metadata as synthetically generated speech, the synthetically generated speech having an accent, wherein the accent is selected from a plurality of accents based on the selected metadata.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the selected metadata is output alternatively.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the synthetically generated speech is output simultaneously with the primary media content.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the synthetically generated speech is output during gaps in the primary media content.

13. The system of claim 9, the computer-readable storage medium having additional instructions stored which result in the operations further comprising:

determining the metadata is in a foreign language, where the accent corresponds to the foreign language; and

translating the metadata to another language from the foreign language before output.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the metadata request from the user further comprises an oral command.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the metadata request specifies output of the selected metadata to occur by one of:

on demand, during playback of primary media content, immediately preceding playback of primary media content, immediately following playback of primary media content, and at a regular interval.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein user preferences for outputting the selected metadata are stored in a user profile.

17. A computer-readable storage device having instructions stored which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving a metadata request from a user, wherein the metadata request is associated with a primary media content and comprises a gesture;

selecting a piece of metadata for output to yield selected metadata, the selected metadata being responsive to the metadata request regarding the primary media content and received during presentation of the primary media content; and

outputting, with the primary media content, the selected metadata as synthetically generated speech, the synthetically generated speech having an accent, wherein the accent is selected from a plurality of accents based on the selected metadata.

18. The computer-readable storage device of claim 17, wherein the selected metadata is output alternatively.

19. The computer-readable storage device of claim 17, wherein the synthetically generated speech is output simultaneously with the primary media content.

20. The computer-readable storage device of claim 19, wherein the synthetically generated speech is output during gaps in the primary media content.

21. The computer-readable storage device of claim 17, the instructions further comprising:

determining the metadata is in a foreign language, where the accent corresponds to the foreign language; and

translating the metadata to another language from the foreign language before output.

22. The computer-readable storage device of claim 17, wherein the metadata request from the user further comprises an oral command.

23. The computer-readable storage device of claim 22, wherein the metadata request specifies output of the selected metadata to occur by one of:

on demand, during playback of primary media content, immediately preceding playback of primary media content, immediately following playback of primary media content, and at a regular interval.

24. The computer-readable storage device of claim 17, wherein user preferences for outputting the selected metadata are stored in a user profile.