SPEECH SAMPLES LIBRARY FOR TEXT-TO-SPEECH AND METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR GENERATING AND USING SAME

• US 20130085759A1
• Filed: 11/27/2012
• Published: 04/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: OSR Enterprises AG
• Original Assignee: VivoText Ltd.
• Inventors: HAKIM, Andres, SILBERT, Gershon
• Granted Patent: US 8,775,185 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/260
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/06 Elementary speech units used in speech synthesisers; Concatenation rules
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/07 Concatenation rules
• 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 method for converting translating text into speech with a speech sample library is provided. The method comprises converting translating an input text to a sequence of triphones; determining musical parameters of each phoneme in the sequence of triphones; detecting, in the speech sample library, speech segments having at least the determined musical parameters; and concatenating the detected speech segments.

Claims

1. A method for converting text into speech with a speech sample library, comprising:

converting an input text to a sequence of triphones;

determining musical parameters of each phoneme in the sequence of triphones;

detecting, in the speech sample library, speech segments having at least the determined musical parameters; and

concatenating the detected speech segments.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adjusting the musical parameters of speech segments prior to concatenating the speech segments.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one musical parameter is any one of:

a pitch curve, a pitch perception, duration, and a volume.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein a value of a musical vector is an index indicative of a sub range in which its respective at least one musical parameter lies.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the sequence of triphones includes overlapping triphones.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the musical parameters of each phoneme in the sequence of triphones further includes:

providing a set of numerical targets for each of the musical parameters.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein detecting the speech segments having at least the determined musical parameters further includes:

searching the speech sample library for at least one of a central phoneme, phonemic context, and a musical index indicating at least one range of at least one of the musical parameters within which at least of the numerical targets lies.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the speech segments comprises at least any one of:

a word, a string of words, and a sentence.

9. A computer software product embedded in a non-transient computer readable medium containing instructions that when executed on the computer perform the method of claim 1.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one musical parameter is any one of:

a pitch curve, a pitch perception, duration, and a volume.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein a value of a musical vector is an index indicative of a sub range in which its respective at least one musical parameter lies.

10. An apparatus for converting text into speech with a speech sample library, comprising:

an input unit for providing an input text;

a parser for converting the text into a sequence of speech segments;

a prosody predictor for determining musical parameters of each phoneme in the sequence of triphones;

a search module for detecting, in the speech sample library, speech segments having at least the determined musical parameter;

a concatenator for concatenating the detected speech segments; and

an output unit for playing the concatenated speech.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprises:

a processing unit for adjusting the musical parameters of speech segments prior to concatenating the speech segments.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the sequence of triphones includes overlapping triphones.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the prosody predictor is further configured to provide a set of numerical targets for each of the musical parameters.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the search module is further configured to search in the speech sample library for at least one of a central phoneme, phonemic context, and a musical index indicating at least one range of at least one of the musical parameters within which at least of the numerical targets lies.

17. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein each of the speech segments comprises at least any one of:

a word, a string of words, and a sentence.

18. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the speech sample library includes a plurality of recordings, each of the recordings includes a central phoneme pronounced with at least one musical parameter and in a phonemic context.