US 6,308,156 B1Granted

Microsegment-based speech-synthesis process

AssigneeG Data Software AG

InventorsWilliam Barry, Ralf Benzmüller, Andreas Luning

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Abstract

A digital speech synthesis process in which utterances in a language are recorded, and the recorded utterances are divided into speech segments which are stored so as to allow their allocation to specific phonemes. A text which is to be output as speech is converted to a phoneme chain and the stored segments are output in a sequence defined by the phoneme chain. An analysis of the text to be output as speech is carried out and thus provides information which completes the phoneme chain and modifies the timing sequence signal for the speech segments which are to be strung together for output as speech. The process uses microsegments consisting of: segments for vowel halves and semi-vowels and extending as far as the vowel middle, and a second vowel half from the vowel middle to just before the vowel end; segments for quasi-stationary vowel components cut from the middle of a vowel; consonant segments beginning shortly before the front phoneme boundary and ending shortly before the rear phoneme boundary; and segments for vowel-vowel sequences cut from the middle of a vowel-vowel transition.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A digital speech synthesis process, in which utterances of a language are recorded first, the recorded utterances are divided in speech segments, and the segments are stored allocated to defined phonemes, a text to be output as speech then being converted into a phoneme string and the stored segments are successively output in a sequence defined by said phoneme string, and an analysis of the text to be output as speech is carried out and thus provided information supplementing the phoneme string, such information modifying the series of statistical values signal of the speech segments to be concatenated for the speech output, characterized in that microsegments are used as speech segments, such microsegments consisting of:

Segments for vowel halves and semi-vowel halves, vowels between consonants being split into two microsegments, a first vowel half beginning shortly after the beginning of the vowel and extending up to the middle of the vowel, and a second vowel half extending from the middle of the vowel up to just before the end of the vowel, whereby the segments for vowel halves and semi-vowel halves in a consonant-vowel or vowel-consonant sequence are identical for each of the articulation places of the adjacent consonant, namely labial, alveolar or velar;
Segments for quasi-stationary vowel parts, such segments being cut from the middle of a vowel;
Consonantal segments beginning shortly after the front sound boundary and ending shortly before the rear sound boundary;
and
Segments for vowel-vowel sequences, which are cut from the middle of a vowel-vowel transition.

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Segments for vowel halves and semi-vowel halves, vowels between consonants being split into two microsegments, a first vowel half beginning shortly after the beginning of the vowel and extending up to the middle of the vowel, and a second vowel half extending from the middle of the vowel up to just before the end of the vowel;
Segments for quasi-stationary vowel parts, such segments being cut from the middle of a vowel;
Consonantal segments beginning shortly after the front sound boundary and ending shortly before the rear sound boundary;
and
Segments for vowel-vowel sequences, which are cut from the middle of a vowel-vowel transition
wherein the analysis detects phrase boundaries and the phoneme string is extended in said places with lengthening symbols to form a symbol string, a lengthening of the playback duration taking place on the markings within the time domain when the microsegments are concatenated;
and
wherein the lengthening of the playback duration for phrase-final syllables takes place with closed syllables starting with the second microsegment of the vowel by increasing the shortening level for a longer playback duration in each case by one step, and with open syllables for the second microsegment of the vowel by increasing the shortening level for a longer playback duration by two steps.

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Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.