System and method for pruning redundant units in a speech synthesis process

• US 9,520,123 B2
• Filed: 03/19/2015
• Issued: 12/13/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cerence Operating Company (Cerence Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Lu, Heng, Shao, Xu, Zhang, Wei, Lei, Wenhui, Breen, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): He, Jialong
• Application Number:
  US14/662,872
• Publication Number:
  US 20160275934A1
• Time in Patent Office: 635 Days
• Field of Search: 704/258
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/027 Concept to speech synthesisers; Generation of natural phrases from machine-based concepts generation of parameters for speech synthesis out of text G10L13/08
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/047 Architecture of speech synthesisers

Abstract

A system and method for concatenative speech synthesis is provided. Embodiments may include accessing, using one or more computing devices, a plurality of speech synthesis units from a speech database and determining a similarity between the plurality of speech synthesis units. Embodiments may further include retrieving two or more speech synthesis units having the similarity and pruning at least one of the two or more speech synthesis units based upon, at least in part, the similarity.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for concatenative speech synthesis comprising:

accessing, using one or more computing devices, a plurality of speech synthesis units from a speech database;

determining a similarity between the plurality of speech synthesis units, wherein determining the similarity is based upon, at least in part, a similarity factor;

retrieving two or more speech synthesis units having the similarity; and

pruning at least one of the two or more speech synthesis units based upon, at least in part, the similarity, wherein pruning is based upon, at least in part, a delta unit appearance frequency “

DUAF”

technique and wherein the DUAF is based upon, at least in part, a change in a unit appearance frequency and a change of the similarity factor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the pruning is based upon, at least in part, a delta unit appearance frequency technique and a unit appearance frequency technique.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a text input corresponding to an utterance during a massive synthesis phase associated with the concatenative speech synthesis.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining a unit set based upon, at least in part, the utterance.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

providing the unit set as feedback prior to the pruning.

6. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions, which when executed by a processor result in one or more concatenative speech synthesis operations, the operations comprising:

accessing, using one or more computing devices, a plurality of speech synthesis units from a speech database;

determining a similarity between the plurality of speech synthesis units, wherein determining the similarity is based upon, at least in part, a similarity factor;

retrieving two or more speech synthesis units having the similarity; and

pruning at least one of the two or more speech synthesis units based upon, at least in part, the similarity, wherein pruning is based upon, at least in part, a delta unit appearance frequency “

DUAF”

technique and wherein the DUAF is based upon, at least in part, a change in a unit appearance frequency and a change of the similarity factor.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the pruning is based upon, at least in part, a delta unit appearance frequency technique and a unit appearance frequency technique.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving a text input corresponding to an utterance during a massive synthesis phase associated with the concatenative speech synthesis.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, further comprising:

determining a unit set based upon, at least in part, the utterance.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising:

providing the unit set as feedback prior to the pruning.

11. A system configured to perform concatenative speech synthesis comprising:

one or more processors configured to access a plurality of speech synthesis units from a speech database and determine a similarity between the plurality of speech synthesis units, wherein determining the similarity is based upon, at least in part, a similarity factor, the one or more processors further configured to retrieve two or more speech synthesis units having the similarity, the one or more processors further configured to prune at least one of the two or more speech synthesis units based upon, at least in part, the similarity, wherein pruning is based upon, at least in part, a delta unit appearance frequency “

DUAF”

technique and wherein the DUAF is based upon, at least in part, a change in a unit appearance frequency and a change of the similarity factor.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the pruning is based upon, at least in part, a delta unit appearance frequency technique and a unit appearance frequency technique.

13. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving a text input corresponding to an utterance during a massive synthesis phase associated with the concatenative speech synthesis.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

determining a unit set based upon, at least in part, the utterance; and

providing the unit set as feedback prior to the pruning.