Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

Hideharu Nishida

Akira Tsukihashi

Takeo Inoue

Hiroki Ohnishi

Takeshi Yumura

Masanori Miyatake

Naoyuki Yoden

Shozo Sugishita

Kayo Yoshimura

An apparatus for reading out textual information with synthesized speech comprises: a buffer memory 24 for buffering character codes of textual information; a keyword/ read-out region storing unit 22 which stores previously specified keyword and region of the textual information, the region being to be read out and including the keyword; a read-out region retrieving unit 23 which retrieves the keyword from the buffered character codes, and which, when the keyword exists, causes character codes corresponding to the read-out region, to be outputted from the buffer memory 24; a speech synthesizing unit 26 which converts the outputted character codes into a synthesized speech signal; and a loudspeaker 14 for outputting the synthesized speech signal in the form of synthesized speech. In textual information of various kinds such as textual information received by a teletext multiplex FM radio, or that of an electronic newspaper, only a portion which relates to a keyword that is previously specified by the user is sounded with synthesized speech, thereby enabling the user to obtain only required information.

Apparatus for reading out textual information with synthesized speech,

The present invention relates to an audio signal coding and decoding device for coding and decoding an audio signal using an adaptive differential coding system. The audio signal coding and decoding device according to the present invention comprises an adaptive differential pulse code modulation coding device for coding an audio signal, an adaptive differential pulse code modulation decoding device for decoding the audio signal coded, an integrator provided in the preceding stage of the coding device and for decreasing the variation between unit samples of the input audio signal of the coding device, and a differentiator provided in the succeeding stage of the decoding device and for processing the audio signal decoded by the decoding device so that the variation decreased by the integrator is restored to the original one. Since the integrator is provided in the preceding stage of the coding device, the variation between the unit samples of the input audio signal of the coding device is decreased. Therefore, a prediction error signal obtained by the coding device is decreased. As a result, quantizer step-size is decreased, resulting in a reduced quantization error.

Audio signal coding and decoding device

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Habikino, Japan

Hideharu Nishida