Voice quality edit device and voice quality edit method

A voice quality edit method of generating a new voice quality feature by editing a part or all of voice quality features each consisting of acoustic features regarding a corresponding voice quality using a voice quality edit device,

• the voice quality edit device including:
• a voice quality feature database holding the voice quality features;
• and
• a speaker attribute database holding, for each of the voice quality features held in the voice quality feature database, an identifier enabling a user to expect a voice quality of a corresponding voice quality feature,
• said voice quality edit method comprising:
• setting a weight for each of the acoustic features of a corresponding voice quality;
• calculating display coordinates of each of the voice quality features held in the voice quality feature database, based on (i) the acoustic features of a corresponding voice quality feature and (ii) the weights set for the acoustic features in said setting;
• displaying, for each of the voice quality features held in the voice quality feature database, the identifier held in the speaker attribute database on a corresponding set of the display coordinates in the plural sets generated in said calculating in a display device;
• receiving designated coordinates;
• and
• (i) calculating a distance between (1) the designated coordinates received in said receiving and (2) the display coordinates of each of a part or all of the voice quality features held in the voice quality feature database, and (ii) mixing the acoustic features of the part or all of the voice quality features together based on a ratio between the calculated distances in order to generate a new voice quality feature.

A program for generating a new voice quality feature by editing a part or all of voice quality features each consisting of acoustic features regarding a corresponding voice quality, said program causing

• a computer including:
• a voice quality feature database holding the voice quality features;
• and
• a speaker attribute database holding, for each of the voice quality features held in the voice quality feature database, an identifier enabling a user to expect a voice quality of a corresponding voice quality feature,
• to execute:
• setting a weight for each of the acoustic features of a corresponding voice quality;
• calculating display coordinates of each of the voice quality features held in the voice quality feature database, based on (i) the acoustic features of a corresponding voice quality feature and (ii) the weights set for the acoustic features in said setting;
• displaying, for each of the voice quality features held in the voice quality feature database, the identifier held in the speaker attribute database on a corresponding set of the display coordinates in the plural sets generated in said calculating in a display device;
• receiving designated coordinates;
• and
• (i) calculating a distance between (1) the designated coordinates received in said receiving and (2) the display coordinates of each of a part or all of the voice quality features held in the voice quality feature database, and (ii) mixing the acoustic features of the part or all of the voice quality features together based on a ratio between the calculated distances in order to generate a new voice quality feature.

A voice quality edit system that generates a new voice quality feature by editing a part or all of voice quality features each consisting of acoustic features regarding a corresponding voice quality, said voice quality edit system comprising

• a first terminal, a second terminal, and a server, which are connected to one another via a network,
• each of said first terminal and said second terminal includes:
• a voice quality feature database holding the voice quality features;
• a speaker attribute database holding, for each of the voice quality features held in said voice quality feature database, an identifier enabling a user to expect a voice quality of a corresponding voice quality feature;
• a weight setting unit configured to set a weight for each of the acoustic features of a corresponding voice quality and send the weight to said server;
• an inter-voice-quality distance calculation unit configured to (i) extract an arbitrary pair of voice quality features from the voice quality features held in said voice quality feature database, (ii) weight the acoustic features of each of the voice quality features in the extracted arbitrary pair, using the respective weights held in said server, and (iii) calculate a distance between the voice quality features in the extracted arbitrary pair after the weighting;
• a scaling unit configured to calculate plural sets of the display coordinates of the voice quality features held in said voice quality feature database based on the distances calculated by said inter-voice-quality distance calculation unit using a plurality of the arbitrary pairs;
• a display unit configured to display, for each of the voice quality features held in said voice quality feature database, the identifier held in said speaker attribute database on a corresponding set of the display coordinates in the plural sets calculated by said scaling unit;
• a position input unit configured to receive designated coordinates;
• and
• a voice quality mix unit configured to (i) calculate a distance between (1) the designated coordinates received by said position input unit and (2) the display coordinates of each of a part or all of the voice quality features held in said voice quality feature database, and (ii) mix the acoustic features of the part or all of the voice quality features together based on a ratio between the calculated distances in order to generate a new voice quality feature, and
• said server includes a weight storage unit configured to hold the weight sent from any of said first terminal and said second terminal.