Converting text-to-speech and adjusting corpus

• US 7,617,105 B2
• Filed: 05/27/2005
• Issued: 11/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cerence Operating Company (Cerence Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Zhu, Wei Bin, Shi, Qin, Zhang, Wei, Chai, Hai Xin
• Primary Examiner(s): Opsasnick; Michael N
• Application Number:
  US11/140,190
• Publication Number:
  US 20050267758A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,628 Days
• Field of Search: 704/260, 704/267
• US Class Current: 704/260
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/10 Prosody rules derived from text; Stress or intonation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/04 Time compression or expansion

Abstract

A method for text to speech conversion and for adjusting a corpus. The method includes a text analysis step for parsing the text to obtain descriptive prosody annotations of the text based on a TTS model generated from a first corpus, a prosody parameter prediction step for predicting the prosody parameter of the text according to the result of the text analysis step, a speech synthesis step for synthesizing speech of the text based on the prosody parameter of the text, adjusting according to a target speech speed for the synthesized speech when necessary.

Claims

1. A method for text to speech conversion, comprising:

a text analysis step for parsing the text to obtain descriptive prosody annotations of the text based on a text to speech model generated from a first corpus;

a prosody parameter prediction step for predicting the prosody parameter of the text according to the result of text analysis step; and

a speech synthesis step for synthesizing speech of said text based on said predicted prosody parameter of the text;

Wherein descriptive prosody annotations of the text include prosody structure of the text, the prosody structure of the text is adjusted according to a target speech speed for the synthesized speech,

wherein said descriptive prosody annotations of the text further include pronunciation and accent annotation;

wherein said prosody parameters of the text include the value of pitch, duration and energy;

wherein said prosody structure includes prosody word, prosody phrase and intonation phrase;

wherein said prosody structure of the text is adjusted by adjusting the distribution of the prosody phrase length of the text;

wherein said first corpus has a first distribution of prosody phrase length corresponding to a first threshold for prosody boundary probability under a first speech speed, the distribution of the prosody phrase length of the text is adjusted by the following steps;

adjusting the distribution of the prosody phrase length of the first corpus by adjusting the first threshold for prosody boundary probability; and

carrying out said text analysis step by parsing the text according to the adjusted first corpus, and

further comprising;

acoustically evaluating the synthesized speech of the text; and

adjusting the prosody structure of the text according to the acoustic evaluation result,

wherein said target speech speed corresponds to a second speech speed of a second corpus,

wherein said prosody structure includes prosody phrase, said prosody structure of the text is adjusted by adjusting the distribution of the prosody phrase length of the text to a target distribution,

wherein said first corpus having a first distribution for prosody phrase length corresponding to a first threshold for prosody boundary probability under a first speech speed, said second corpus having a second distribution for prosody phrase length corresponding to a second threshold for prosody boundary probability under said second speech speed, the prosody structure of the text is adjusted by the following steps;

adjusting the first threshold for prosody boundary probability according to the target speech speed, such that the distribution for prosody phrase length of the first corpus matches that of the second corpus; and

carrying out the text analysis step by parsing the text according to the adjusted first corpus, and

wherein the prosody parameter is adjusted according to the target speech speed;

wherein the duration of the prosody parameter is adjusted according to the target speech speed;

wherein the prosody phrase length distribution of the text is adjusted with a curve fitting method;

wherein the prosody phrase length distribution of the text is adjusted by adjusting the distribution of prosody phrase with maximum length or maximum phrase number,

wherein adjusting the prosody structure of the text further comprises adjusting the intonation phrase of the text.