Speech synthesis apparatus and method

A speech synthesis apparatus comprising:

• means for storing, for each exemplary text segment containing a fixed form portion having a fixed text segment and an unfixed form portion on which an arbitrary text segment can be specified by a user, exemplary text segment data including context connected with the unfixed form portion and speech waveform data of the fixed form portion;
• information relating to the fixed form portion to be
• means, responsive to an instruction by a user, for selecting data from among the exemplary text segment data and inputting a text segment corresponding to the unfixed form portion of the selected exemplary text segment data;
• means for generating parameter data of at least the unfixed form portion on the basis of the inputted text segment of the unfixed form portion and corresponding context information, and generating synthesized speech from the generated parameter data;
• and
• means for concatenating speech waveform data of the generated synthesized speech of the unfixed form portion to the stored speech waveform data of the fixed form portion, and generating synthesized speech from the concatenated speech waveform data.

A speech synthesis method comprising the steps of:

• providing a database for storing, for each exemplary text segment containing a fixed form portion having a fixed text segment and an unfixed form portion on which an arbitrary text segment can be specified by a user, exemplary text segment data including context information relating to the fixed form portion to be connected with the unfixed form portion and parameter data obtained by analyzing a speech corresponding to the fixed form portion;
• in response to an instruction by a user, selecting data from among the exemplary text segment data and inputting a text segment corresponding to the unfixed form portion of the selected exemplary text segment data;
• generating parameter data of at least the unfixed form portion on the basis of the inputted text segment of the unfixed form portion and corresponding context information;
• and
• concatenating the generated parameter data of the unfixed form portion to the stored parameter data of the fixed form portion, and generating synthesized speech from the concatenated parameter data.

A speech synthesis method comprising the steps of:

• providing a database for storing, for each exemplary text segment containing a fixed form portion having a fixed text segment and an unfixed form portion on which an arbitrary text segment can be specified by a user, exemplary text segment data including context information relating to the fixed form portion to be connected with the unfixed form portion and speech waveform data of the fixed form portion;
• in response to an instruction by a user, selecting data from among the exemplary text segment data and inputting a text segment corresponding to the unfixed form portion of the selected exemplary text segment data;
• generating parameter data of at least the unfixed form portion on the basis of the inputted text segment of the unfixed form portion and corresponding context information, and generating synthesized speech from the generated parameter data;
• and
• concatenating speech waveform data of the generated synthesized speech of the unfixed form portion to the stored speech waveform data of the fixed form portion, and generating synthesized speech from the concatenated speech waveform data.

A storage medium storing computer-executable program code for performing speech synthesis, the program code comprising:

• means for causing a computer to store on a database, for each exemplary text segment containing a fixed form portion having a fixed text segment and an unfixed form portion on which an arbitrary text segment can be specified by a user, exemplary text segment data including context information relating to the fixed form portion to be connected with the unfixed form portion and parameter data obtained by analyzing a speech corresponding to the fixed form portion;
• means for causing a computer to select data from among the exemplary text segment data and inputting a text segment corresponding to the unfixed form portion of the selected exemplary text segment data in response to an instruction by a user;
• means for causing a computer to generate parameter data of at least the unfixed form portion on the basis of the inputted text segment of the unfixed form portion and corresponding context information;
• and
• means for causing a computer to concatenate the generated parameter data of the unfixed form portion to the stored parameter data of the fixed form portion, and generate synthesized speech from the concatenated parameter data.

A storage medium storing computer-executable program code for performing speech synthesis, the program code comprising;

• means for causing a computer to store on a database, for each exemplary text segment containing a fixed form portion having a fixed text segment and an unfixed form portion on which an arbitrary text segment can be specified by a user, exemplary text segment data including context information relating to the fixed form portion to be connected with the unfixed form portion and speech waveform data of the fixed form portion;
• means for causing a computer to select data from among the exemplary text segment data and inputting a text segment corresponding to the unfixed form portion of the selected exemplary text segment data in response to an instruction by a user;
• means for causing a computer to generate parameter data of at least the unfixed form portion on the basis of the inputted text segment of the unfixed form portion and corresponding context information, and generate synthesized speech from the generated parameter data;
• and
• means for causing a computer to concatenate speech waveform data of the generated synthesized speech of the unfixed form portion to the stored speech waveform data of the fixed form portion, and generate synthesized speech from the concatenated speech waveform data.