Document reading system, read control method, and recording medium

• US 6,397,183 B1
• Filed: 11/13/2000
• Issued: 05/28/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Baba, Hitomi, Kanada, Momoko, Fukushima, Takahiro, Nakao, Makiko
• Primary Examiner(s): Dorvil, Richemond
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nolan, Daniel A.
• Application Number:
  US09/709,458
• Time in Patent Office: 561 Days
• Field of Search: 704/260,270,258,271
• US Class Current: 704/260
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/16 Sound input; Sound output speech processing G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems

Abstract

The present invention has an architecture capable of eliminating a necessity for previously designating in a document, when reading aloud the document, attributes for reading aloud. Focusing on utilizing the document with attributes, a document reading system analyzes contents of the attributes and reads aloud texts in the document with a voice synthesizing module. The attributes are set irrespective of reading aloud conditions. A basic reading condition setting module sets the reading aloud conditions for the entire document. An individual reading condition setting module sets the reading aloud condition for every attribute. A selective reading module, when reading aloud the document, in principle, reads aloud the text with reference to the basic reading aloud condition set by the basic reading condition setting module, and selectively reads aloud the text having the individual reading aloud condition given a higher priority than the basic reading aloud condition.

Claims

1. A document reading system for analyzing contents of a document with attributes and reading aloud texts in the document by use of a voice synthesizing module, comprising:

a basic reading condition setting module for setting the basic reading aloud conditions for the entire document, the attributes being set irrespective of the reading aloud conditions;

an individual reading condition setting module for setting the individual reading aloud condition for every attribute, and

a selective reading module for reading aloud the text with reference to the basic reading aloud condition set by said basic reading condition setting module, and for selectively reading aloud the text having an individual reading aloud condition with a higher priority than the basic reading aloud condition.

2. A document reading system according to claim 1, wherein the reading aloud condition is any one of at least a quality, a volume and an accent of a reading voice, and a selection of whether to read or not.

3. A document reading system according to claim 1, wherein the reading aloud condition set for every attribute by said individual reading condition setting module is related to an essential meaning of the attribute, and an essential meaning designated by the attribute can be associated from the reading aloud voice.

4. A document reading system according to claim 1, further comprising a reading condition storage module for storing the reading aloud conditions.

5. A document reading system according to claim 1, wherein the attribute serves to control displaying the document.

6. A document reading system according to claim 1, wherein the document is an HTML document, and the attribute is tag data.

7. A document reading control method of reading aloud texts in a document by use of a voice synthesizing module, comprising:

judging an attribute, in the document, for controlling display of the document; and

changing a condition of reading aloud the text of which the display is controlled by the attribute on the basis of a result of the judgement.

8. A document reading control method according to claim 7, wherein the reading aloud condition is changed corresponding to a category of the attribute.

9. A storage medium readable by a computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the computer to perform method steps for displaying content data, for reading aloud texts in a document by use of a voice synthesizing module, the method steps comprising:

judging an attribute in the document, for controlling display of the document; and

changing a condition of reading aloud the text of which the display is controlled by the attribute on the basis of a result of the judgement.

10. A storage medium readable by a computer, according to claim 9, for making a computer further comprising:

a step of changing the reading aloud condition corresponding

to a category of the attribute.