Method and system of runtime acoustic unit selection for speech synthesis
US5913193A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 30, 1996 |
| Grant date | Jun 15, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 30, 2016 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG10L13/07
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
The present invention pertains to a concatenative speech synthesis system and method which produces a more natural sounding speech. The system provides for multiple instances of each acoustic unit which can be used to generate a speech waveform representing an linguistic expression. The multiple instances are formed during an analysis or training phase of the synthesis process and are limited to a robust representation of the highest probability instances. The provision of multiple instances enables the synthesizer to select the instance which closely resembles the desired instance thereby eliminating the need to alter the stored instance to match the desired instance. This in essence minimizes the spectral distortion between the boundaries of adjacent instances thereby producing more natural sounding speech.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.