Speech synthesis apparatus and method
First Claim
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1. Speech synthesis apparatus comprising:
- a language generator responsive to input information indicative of at least the content of a desired speech output, to generate a corresponding text-form utterance;
a text-to-speech converter for converting text-form utterances received from the language generator into speech form; and
an assessment arrangement for assessing the overall quality of the speech form produced by the text-to-speech converter from an input text-form utterance whereby to selectively produce a modification indicator when it determines that the current speech form is inadequate;
the language generator being responsive to the assessment arrangement producing a said modification indication, to generate a new version of the text-form utterance concerned.
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Abstract
A speech synthesizer has a language generator for generating a text-form utterance from input semantic information and a text-to-speech converter for converting the text-from utterance into speech form. The overall quality of the speech-form utterance produced by the text-to-speech converter, is assessed and if judged inadequate, the language generator is triggered to produce a new version of the text-form utterance. The assessment of the overall quality of the speech form utterance is preferably effected by a classifier fed with feature values generated during the conversion process operated by the text-to-speech converter.
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16 Claims
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1. Speech synthesis apparatus comprising:
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a language generator responsive to input information indicative of at least the content of a desired speech output, to generate a corresponding text-form utterance;
a text-to-speech converter for converting text-form utterances received from the language generator into speech form; and
an assessment arrangement for assessing the overall quality of the speech form produced by the text-to-speech converter from an input text-form utterance whereby to selectively produce a modification indicator when it determines that the current speech form is inadequate;
the language generator being responsive to the assessment arrangement producing a said modification indication, to generate a new version of the text-form utterance concerned. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method of generating speech output comprising the steps of:
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(a) in response to input information indicative of at least the content of a desired speech output, generating a corresponding text-form utterance;
(b) converting the text-form utterances generated in step (a) into speech form;
(c) assessing the overall quality of the speech form produced in step (b) selectively producing a modification indicator when the current speech form is assessed as inadequate; and
(d) upon a modification indicator being produced instep (c), generating a new version of the text-form utterance that gave rise to the modification indicator. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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Specification