Patent · US Expired

Simultaneous plural-voice text-to-speech synthesizer

US7249021B2 · kind B2 · utility

10Cited by
11References
18Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 27, 2001
Grant dateJul 24, 2007
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 19, 2024

Classification

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

Abstract

A multiple-voice instructing unit (17) instructs pitch deforming ratio and mixing ratio to a multiple-voice synthesis unit (16). The multiple voice synthesis unit (16) generates a standard voice signal by means of waveform superimposition based on voice element data read from a voice element database (15) and prosodic information from a voice element selecting unit (14), expands/contracts the time base of the above standard voice signal based on the prosodic information and instruction information from the multiple-voice instructing unit (17) to change a voice pitch, and mixes the standard voice signal with an expansion/contraction voice signal for outputting via an output terminal (18). Accordingly, a concurrent vocalization by multiple speakers based on the same text can be implemented without the need of time-division, parallel text analyzing and prosody generating and of adding pitch converting as post-processing.

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