Speech translation device and method

• US 20080027705A1
• Filed: 03/23/2007
• Published: 01/31/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Koga, Toshiyuki
• Application Number:
  US11/727,161
• Publication Number:
  US 20080027705A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/44 Statistical methods, e.g. probability models
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence

Abstract

A speech translation device includes a speech input unit, a speech recognition unit, a machine translation unit, a parameter setting unit, a speech synthesis unit, and a speech output unit, and a speech volume value of speech data to be outputted is determined from plural likelihoods obtained by the speech recognition/machine translation. With respect to a word with a low likelihood, the speech volume value is made small and is made hard to transmit to the user, and on the other hand, with respect to a word with a high likelihood, the speech volume value is made large and is especially emphasized and is transmitted to the user.

Claims

1. A speech translation device comprising:

a speech input unit configured to acquire speech data of an arbitrary language;

a speech recognition unit configured to obtain recognition data by performing a recognition processing of the speech data of the arbitrary language and to obtain a recognition likelihood of each of segments of the recognition data;

a translation unit configured to translate the recognition data into translation data of another language other than the arbitrary language and to obtain a translation likelihood of each of segments of the translation data;

a parameter setting unit configured to set a parameter necessary for performing speech synthesis from the translation data by using the recognition likelihood and the translation likelihood;

a speech synthesis unit configured to convert the translation data into speech data for speaking in the another language by using the parameter for each of the segments; and

a speech output unit configured to output a speech sound from the speech data of the another language.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the parameter setting unit sets the parameter by using one or plural likelihoods obtained for each segment of the arbitrary language in the speech recognition unit, and one or plural likelihoods obtained for each segment of the another language in the translation unit.

3. The device according to claim 1, wherein the parameter setting unit sets a speech volume value as the parameter.

4. The device according to claim 3, wherein the parameter setting unit increases the speech volume value as the likelihood becomes high.

5. The device according to claim 1, wherein the parameter setting unit sets one of a pitch, a tone, and a speaking rate as the parameter.

6. The device according to claim 1, wherein the likelihood obtained by the speech recognition unit is a similarity calculated when the speech data of the arbitrary language is compared with previously stored phoneme data, or an output probability value of a word or a sentence calculated by trellis calculation.

7. The device according to claim 1, wherein the likelihood obtained by the translation unit is a weight value corresponding to a part of speech classified by morphological analysis as a result of the morphological analysis in the translation unit, or certainty at a time when a translation word for a word is calculated.

8. The device according to claim 1, wherein the parameter setting unit sets the parameter by using a weighted average of the respective likelihoods or an integrated value of the respective likelihoods for the respective segments of the arbitrary language or the respective segments of the another language.

9. The device according to claim 1, wherein the segment is one of a sentence, a morpheme, a vocabulary and a word.

10. The device according to claim 1, wherein the translation unit stores a correspondence relation between a segment of the arbitrary language and a segment of the another language, and performs translation based on the correspondence relation.

11. A speech translation method comprising:

acquiring speech data of an arbitrary language;

obtaining recognition data by performing a recognition processing of the speech data of the arbitrary language and obtaining a recognition likelihood of each of segments of the recognition data;

translating the recognition data into translation data of another language other than the arbitrary language and obtaining a translation likelihood of each of segments of the translation data;

setting a parameter necessary for performing speech synthesis from the translation data by using the recognition likelihood and the translation likelihood;

converting the translation data into speech data for speaking in the another language by using the parameter for each of the segments; and

outputting a speech sound from the speech data of the another language.

12. A program product stored in a computer readable medium for speech translation, the program product comprising instructions of:

acquiring speech data of an arbitrary language;

obtaining recognition data by performing a recognition processing of the speech data of the arbitrary language and obtaining a recognition likelihood of each of segments of the recognition data;

translating the recognition data into translation data of another language other than the arbitrary language and obtaining a translation likelihood of each of segments of the translation data;

setting a parameter necessary for performing speech synthesis from the translation data by using the recognition likelihood and the translation likelihood o;

converting the translation data into speech data for speaking in the another language by using the parameter for each of the segments; and

outputting a speech sound from the speech data of the another language.