Playback control apparatus, playback control method, and medium for playing a program including segments generated using speech synthesis

• US 9,576,569 B2
• Filed: 05/15/2015
• Issued: 02/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Saeki, Takaaki, Hirose, Yukiyoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Opsasnick, Michael N
• Application Number:
  US14/714,094
• Publication Number:
  US 20150248272A1
• Time in Patent Office: 648 Days
• Field of Search: 704/260
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/00 Input/output interfacing specifically adapted for electrophonic musical tools or instruments
• 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

A playback control apparatus includes a playback controller configured to control playback of first content and second content. The first content is to output first sound which is generated based on text information using speech synthesis processing. The second content is to output second sound which is generated not using the speech synthesis processing. The playback controller causes an attribute of content to be played back to be displayed on the screen, the attribute indicating whether or not the content is to output sound which is generated based on text information using speech synthesis processing.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus comprising:

a circuitry configured to control output of a program including first content including first sound which is generated based on text information provided from a first source using speech synthesis processing,

wherein the circuitry is configured to control output of source information which is related to the first source, and

wherein the circuitry is configured to determine text to be read aloud in an event a count of total number of characters in the text information is more than a predetermined value, a predetermined text is read aloud.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the circuitry is configured to control output of the source information on timing related to timing of output of the first content.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the source information is output by sound.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the circuitry is configured to control output of the source information at the beginning or the end of the output of the first content.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the program includes second content including second sound which is generated based on text information provided from a second source different from the first source using speech synthesis processing.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

the first sound is generated with a first tone of speech, and

the second sound is generated with a second tone of speech which is different from the first tone of speech.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the program includes third content, the third content including third sound which is not generated using the speech synthesis processing.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the circuitry is configured to read aloud the text information based on the count of the total number of characters in the text information.

9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, in an event the count of the total number of characters is less than the predetermined value, the text information is read aloud.

12. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the source information includes a name of website related to the first source.

13. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the source information includes information of uniform resource locator to the first source.

10. A method performed by an information processing apparatus, the method comprising:

outputting a program including first content including first sound which is generated based on text information provided from a source using speech synthesis processing, and

controlling output of source information which is related to the source,

wherein in an event a count of total number of characters in the text information is more than a predetermined value, text to be read aloud is determined, and a predetermined text is read aloud.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon, a set of computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform steps comprising:

outputting a program including first content including first sound which is generated based on text information provided from a first source using speech synthesis processing, and

controlling output of source information which is related to the first source,

wherein in an event a count of total number of characters in the text information is more than a predetermined value, text to be read aloud is determined, and a predetermined text is read aloud.