Systems and methods for document narration with multiple characters having multiple moods

• US 8,954,328 B2
• Filed: 01/14/2010
• Issued: 02/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• 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): ROBERTS, SHAUN A
• Application Number:
  US12/687,213
• Publication Number:
  US 20100324903A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,853 Days
• Field of Search: 704/258, 704/260, 704/266, 434/317
• US Class Current: 704/260
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems

Abstract

Disclosed are techniques and systems to provide a narration of a text in multiple different voices. Further disclosed are techniques and systems for providing a plurality of characters at least some of the characters having multiple associated moods for use in document narration.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:

providing by the computing device a user interface for user selection of a character from a plurality of characters and a user selection of a mood for the character, from multiple preconfigured moods associated with the character, with the moods being instantiations of a voice model associated with the character, with each instantiation of the voice model having one or more attributes of the voice model pre-modified to provide corresponding moods for the character;

receiving, by the computing device, a user selection of the character from the user interface and a user selection of the mood for the character, with the mood selected from the plural ones of the predefined moods;

rendering on a display device associated with the computing device an electronic representation of text;

associating by the computing device, the user selected character and user selected mood of the character to one or more groupings of words in the electronic representation of the text rendered on the display device;

and

generating, by the computing device, an audible output corresponding to the one or more groupings of words by applying text corresponding to the one or more groupings of words to a text to speech synthesizer using the instantiation of the voice model corresponding to the selected character and the selected mood.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the character has at least two instantiated voice models that comprise different languages and with each of the two voice models having a mood attribute.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein selection of a character and mood for the character is provided by the interface that includes a menu that comprises the plurality of characters, with each of the characters comprising:

a graphical depiction that represents an entity; and

the instantiations of the voice models associated with the character.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the mood attribute comprises reading speed.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the mood attribute comprises volume.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein providing the plurality of characters further comprises:

providing by the computer a user interface to edit a character to change at least a first mood of the plural moods associated with the user selected character by varying one or more attributes associated with a first voice model of the character.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

modifying the voice model 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 user selected character associated with the voice model, modifying the age of the user selected character and modifying a pitch of the voice model.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein each one of the instantiations of the voice model, varies the one or more mood attributes to provide instantiations of the character as normal, happy, sad, tired, energetic, fast talking, slow talking, hushed voice, or loud voice, with the moods provided by varying one or more of the attributes of speed of playback, volumes, pitch, of a voice model or of recording different voices corresponding to the different moods.

9. A computer program product tangibly stored by a computer readable hardware storage device, the computer program product comprising instructions for causing a processor to:

provide a user interface for user selection of a character from a plurality of characters and a user selection of a mood for the character, from multiple preconfigured moods associated with the character, with the moods being instantiations of a voice model associated with the character, with each instantiation of the voice model having one or more attributes of the voice model pre-modified to provide corresponding moods for the character;

cause a representation of text to be rendered by a display device;

receive a user selection of the character and user selection of a mood for the character;

associate the user selected character and mood of the selected character to one or more groupings of words in the representation of the text rendered on the display device;

and

generate an audible output corresponding to the one or more groupings of words by applying text corresponding to the one or more groupings of words to a text to speech synthesize using the instantiation of the voice model corresponding to the selected character and the selected mood for the selected character.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein the character has at least two instantiated voice models that comprise different languages and with each of the two voice models having a mood attribute.

11. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein selection of a character and mood for the character is provided by the interface that includes a menu that comprises the plurality of characters, with each of the characters comprising:

a graphical depiction that represents an entity; and

the instantiations of the voice models associated with the character.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the mood attribute comprises reading speed.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the mood attribute comprises volume.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the instructions to provide the plurality of characters further comprise instructions to:

provide a user interface to edit a character to change at least a first mood of the plural moods associated with the user selected character by varying one or more attributes associated with a first voice model of the character.

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

modify the voice model 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 user selected character associated with the voice model, modifying the age of the user selected character and modifying a pitch of the voice model.

16. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein each one of the instantiations of the voice model, varies the one or more mood attributes to provide instantiations of the character as normal, happy, sad, tired, energetic, fast talking, slow talking, hushed voice, or loud voice, with the moods provided by varying one or more of the attributes of speed of playback, volumes, pitch, of a voice model or of recording different voices corresponding to the different moods.

17. A system comprising:

a memory;

a display device; and

a computing device coupled to the memory and the display device, the computing device configured to;

retrieve a representation of text stored in the system;

render on the display device a user interface for user selection of a character from a plurality of characters and a user selection of a mood for the character, from multiple preconfigured moods associated with the character, with the moods being instantiations of a voice model associated with the character, with each instantiation of the voice model having one or more attributes of the voice model pre-modified to provide corresponding moods for the character;

receive a user selection of the character and user selection of a mood for the character;

render a representation of the text on a display device associated with the computing device;

associate the user selected character and mood of the selected character to one or more groupings of words in the representation of the text rendered on the display device;

apply a voice model corresponding to the user selected character and mood to the portion of words in a text file corresponding to the document; and

generate an audible output corresponding to the one or more groupings of words by applying text corresponding to the one or more groupings of words to a text to speech synthesize using the instantiation of the voice model corresponding to.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the mood attribute comprises a mood attribute selected from the group consisting of reading speed, pitch and volume.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein selection of a character and mood for the character is provided by the interface that includes a menu that comprises the plurality of characters, with each of the characters comprising:

a graphical depiction that represents an entity and

the instantiations of the voice models associated with the character.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the processor is further configured to:

provide a user interface to edit a character to change at least a first mood of the plural moods associated with the user selected character by varying one or more attributes associated with a first voice model of the character.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the processor is further configured to:

modify the voice model 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 user selected character associated with the voice model, modifying the age of the user selected character and modifying a pitch of the voice model.

22. The system of claim 19 wherein each one of the instantiations of the voice model, varies the one or more mood attributes to provide instantiations of the character as normal, happy, sad, tired, energetic, fast talking, slow talking, hushed voice, or loud voice, with the moods provided by varying one or more of the attributes of speed of playback, volumes, pitch, of a voice model or of recording different voices corresponding to the different moods.