US 8,019,605 B2 · Reducing recording time when constructing a concatenative TTS voice using a reduced script and pre-recorded speech assets

Abstract

The present invention discloses a system and a method for creating a reduced script, which is read by a voice talent to create a concatenative text-to-speech (TTS) voice. The method can automatically process pre-recorded audio to derive speech assets for a concatenative TTS voice. The pre-recording audio can include sets of recorded phrases used by a speech user interface (Sill). A set of unfulfilled speech assets needed for foil phonetic coverage of the concatenative TTS voice can be determined. A reduced script can be constructed that includes a set of phrases, which when read by a voice talent result in a reduced corpus. When the reduced corpus is automatically processed, a reduced set of speech assets result. The reduced set includes each of the unfulfilled speech assets. When this reduced corpus is combined with existing speech assets the result will be a voice with a complete set of speech assets.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A method for generating a reduced script comprising:

automatically processing, by a speech recognizer, a pre-recorded audio to derive pre-recorded speech assets for a concatenative text-to-speech (TTS) voice;
determining, by a reduced script construction engine, unfulfilled speech assets needed for full phonetic coverage of the concatenative TTS voice, the unfulfilled speech assets determined from the pre-recorded speech assets and reference speech assets that are supposed to provide full phonetic coverage of the concatenative TTS voice;
and
constructing, by the reduced script construction engine, from the unfulfilled speech assets a reduced script that includes a set of phrases, for reading by a voice talent to provide a reduced recording, which when processed results in speech assets that include each of the unfulfilled speech assets.

1 more element

A method for concatenative text-to-speech (TTS) voice synthesis, comprising:

processing, by a speech recognizer, pre-recorded audio to derive pre-recorded speech assets;
receiving, by a reduced script construction engine, reference speech assets derived from a reference recording;
determining, by the reduced script construction engine, unfulfilled speech assets needed for full phonetic coverage, the unfulfilled speech assets determined from the pre-recorded speech assets and the reference speech assets;
constructing, by the reduced script construction engine, from the unfulfilled speech assets a reduced script to be read by a voice talent;
processing, by the speech recognizer, a reduced recording, recorded in response to reading of the reduced script by the voice talent, to determine reduced speech assets;
and
performing, by a concatenative TSS engine, concatenative TTS voice synthesis based on the pre-recorded voice assets and the reduced speech assets.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Reducing recording time when constructing a concatenative TTS voice using a reduced script and pre-recorded speech assets

Life of this patent

Reducing recording time when constructing a concatenative TTS voice using a reduced script and pre-recorded speech assets

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims15