Sender-responsive text-to-speech processing
First Claim
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1. A method of speech synthesis, comprising the steps of:
- (a) receiving speech input from a sender;
(b) obtaining at least one distinguishing characteristic of the sender from the speech input, wherein the at least one distinguishing characteristic includes conversational information or textual information of the speech input;
(c) obtaining baseline characteristics, wherein the baseline characteristics include articulation rate, courteousness, formants, or pitch frequency that a recipient user of the system is accustomed to hearing;
(d) selecting a default text-to-speech model based on the at least one distinguishing characteristic of the sender;
(e) modifying the selected default text-to-speech model using the received speech input;
(f) receiving, at a text-to-speech system, a text input sent by the sender;
(g) processing, via a processor of the system and the text-to-speech model, the text input responsive to the at least one distinguishing characteristic of the sender to produce synthesized speech that is representative of a voice of the sender;
(h) identifying baseline characteristics of the synthesized speech;
(i) applying an acoustic feature filter to the synthesized speech, wherein the acoustic feature filter is adjusted using the baseline characteristics obtained from the received speech; and
(j) communicating the synthesized speech to the recipient user of the system.
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Abstract
A method of speech synthesis including receiving a text input sent by a sender, processing the text input responsive to at least one distinguishing characteristic of the sender to produce synthesized speech that is representative of a voice of the sender, and communicating the synthesized speech to a recipient user of the system.
37 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method of speech synthesis, comprising the steps of:
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(a) receiving speech input from a sender; (b) obtaining at least one distinguishing characteristic of the sender from the speech input, wherein the at least one distinguishing characteristic includes conversational information or textual information of the speech input; (c) obtaining baseline characteristics, wherein the baseline characteristics include articulation rate, courteousness, formants, or pitch frequency that a recipient user of the system is accustomed to hearing; (d) selecting a default text-to-speech model based on the at least one distinguishing characteristic of the sender; (e) modifying the selected default text-to-speech model using the received speech input; (f) receiving, at a text-to-speech system, a text input sent by the sender; (g) processing, via a processor of the system and the text-to-speech model, the text input responsive to the at least one distinguishing characteristic of the sender to produce synthesized speech that is representative of a voice of the sender; (h) identifying baseline characteristics of the synthesized speech; (i) applying an acoustic feature filter to the synthesized speech, wherein the acoustic feature filter is adjusted using the baseline characteristics obtained from the received speech; and (j) communicating the synthesized speech to the recipient user of the system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of speech synthesis, comprising the steps of:
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(a) obtaining at least one distinguishing characteristic of a sender from received speech input obtained during a communication session with the sender, wherein the at least one distinguishing characteristic includes conversational information or textual information of the speech input, and further obtaining baseline characteristics including articulation rate, courteousness, formants, or pitch frequency that a recipient is accustomed to hearing; (b) selecting a text-to-speech model based on the at least one distinguishing characteristic of the sender; (c) modifying the selected text-to-speech model using the at least one distinguishing characteristic of the sender; (d) receiving, at a text-to-speech (TTS) system, a text input sent by the sender in a subsequent communication session with the sender; (e) processing, via a processor of the system, the text input responsive to the modified text-to-speech model to produce synthesized speech that is representative of a voice of the sender of the text input; (f) identifying baseline characteristics of the synthesized speech; (g) applying an acoustic feature filter to the synthesized speech, wherein the acoustic feature filter is adjusted using the baseline characteristics obtained from the received speech; and (h) communicating the synthesized speech to a user of the system, the user being the recipient of the communication session. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16)
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Specification