Formant-based speech synthesizer employing demi-syllable concatenation with independent cross fade in the filter parameter and source domains
US6144939A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 25, 1998 |
| Grant date | Nov 7, 2000 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 25, 2018 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG10L13/07
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
The concatenative speech synthesizer employs demi-syllable subword units to generate speech. The synthesizer is based on a source-filter model that uses source signals that correspond closely to the human glottal source and that uses filter parameters that correspond closely to the human vocal tract. Concatenation of the demi-syllable units is facilitated by two separate cross fade techniques, one applied in the time domain to the demi-syllable source signal waveforms, and one applied in the frequency domain by interpolating the corresponding filter parameters of the concatenated demi-syllables. The dual cross fade technique results in natural sounding synthesis that avoids time-domain glitches without degrading or smearing characteristic resonances in the filter domain.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.