Patent · US Expired

Method and system for recorded word concatenation

US6601030B2 · kind B2 · utility

16Cited by
9References
13Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateNov 23, 1998
Grant dateJul 29, 2003
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 23, 2018

Classification

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

Abstract

A method and system are provided for performing recorded word concatenation to create a natural sounding sequence of words, numbers, phrases, sounds, etc. for example. The method and system may include a tonal pattern identification unit that identifies tonal patterns, such as pitch accents, phrase accents and boundary tones, for utterances in a particular domain, such as telephone numbers, credit card numbers, the spelling of words, etc.; a script designer that designs a script for recording a string of words, numbers, sounds etc., based on an appropriate rhythm and pitch range in order to obtain natural prosody for utterances in the particular domain and with minimum coarticulation between concatenative units; a script recorder that records a speaker's utterances of the domain strings; a recording editor that edits the recorded strings by marking the beginning and end of each word, number etc. in the string and including or inserting pauses according to the tonal patterns; and a concatenation unit that concatenates the edited recording into a smooth and natural sounding string of words, numbers, letters of the alphabet, etc., for audio output.

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