Method and apparatus for assigning word prominence to new or previous information in speech synthesis
US7313523B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | May 14, 2003 |
| Grant date | Dec 25, 2007 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 16, 2025 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG10L13/04
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method and apparatus is provided for generating speech that sounds more natural. In one embodiment, word prominence and latent semantic analysis are used to generate more natural sounding speech. A method for generating speech that sounds more natural may comprise generating synthesized speech having certain word prominence characteristics and applying a semantically-driven word prominence assignment model to specify word prominence consistent with the way humans assign word prominence. A speech representative of a current sentence is generated. The determination is made whether information in the current sentence is new or previously given in accordance with a semantic relationship between the current sentence and a number of preceding sentences. A word prominence is assigned to a word in the current sentence in accordance with the information determination.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.