Sony France S.a.

Sony Corporation

Pierre Yves Oudeyer

Kenichiro Kobayashi

Makoto Akabane

Nobuhide Yamazaki

Tomoaki Nitta

Toshiyuki Kumakura

Erika Kobayashi

Method and apparatus for controlling the operation of an emotion synthesizing device, notably of the type where the emotion is conveyed by a sound, having at least one input parameter whose value is used to set a type of emotion to be conveyed, by making at least one parameter a variable parameter over a determined control range, thereby to confer a variability in an amount of the type of emotion to be conveyed. The variable parameter can be made variable according to a variation model over the control range, the model relating a quantity of emotion control variable to the variable parameter, whereby said control variable is used to variably establish a value of said variable parameter. Preferably the variation obeys a linear model, the variable parameter being made to vary linearly with a variation in a quantity of emotion control variable.

Method and apparatus for controlling the operation of an emotion synthesizing device

The emotion is to be added to the synthesized speech as the prosodic feature of the language is maintained. In a speech synthesis device, a language processorgenerates a string of pronunciation marks from the text, and a prosodic data generating unitcreates prosodic data, expressing the time duration, pitch, sound volume or the like parameters of phonemes, based on the string of pronunciation marks. A constraint information generating unitis fed with the prosodic data and with the string of pronunciation marks to generate the constraint information which limits the changes in the parameters to add the so generated constraint information to the prosodic data. A emotion filter, fed with the prosodic data, to which has been added the constraint information, changes the parameters of the prosodic data, within the constraint, responsive to the feeling state information, imparted to it. A waveform generating unitsynthesizes the speech waveform based on the prosodic data the parameters of which have been changed.

Method and apparatus for speech synthesis, program, recording medium, method and apparatus for generating constraint information and robot apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Paris, France

Pierre Yves Oudeyer