Patent · US Expired

Text-to-speech synthesis system

US4685135A · kind A · utility

35Cited by
6References
27Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 5, 1981
Grant dateAug 4, 1987
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 5, 2001

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG10L13/08
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A text-to-speech synthesis system receives digital code representative of characters from a local or remote source, and converts those character codes into speech. A set of allophone rules is contained in a memory and each incoming character set is matched with the proper character set to describe the sound of that particular character set. A microcontroller is dedicated to the comparison procedure which provides allophonic code when a match is made. The allophonic code is provided to a speech producing system which has a system microcontroller for controlling the retrieval, from a read-only memory, of digital signals representative of the individual allophone parameters. The addresses at which such allophone parameters are located are directly related to the allophonic code. A dedicated microcontroller concatenates the digital signals representative of the allophone parameters, including code indicating stress and intonation patterns for the allophones. An LPC speech synthesizer receives the digital signals and provides analog signals corresponding thereto to a loud speaker to produce speech-like sounds with stress and intonation.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.