Harris Corporation

Stephen S Walker

Norman C Seiler

A coding scheme which uses Shannon-Fano coding for data headers to identify the type of command signal, uses a first set of formant data in the command signal to generate second sets of formant data for sound class initialization, and uses delta modulation to update the initialized sound class and for sound type transitions. The header indicates initialization of sound classes, repeat of the previous command, updating the previous command or end of word. Given types of command signals and sound classes have the same header and the data portion of the command signal defines which type of command signal is present. A unique delta modulation scheme is used wherein an increment, decrement or no change is indicated by a 11, a 00 or a 10 or 01 wherein each pair represents the delta modulation bit for a parameter, one in the present frame and one in the previous frame for that parameter. A repeat code with no data is used when the delta modulation bit for all parameters change from the previous frame.

Speech data encoding scheme

A formant-based multi-path speech synthesizer is reconfigurable to use common elements for different types of sounds. A pitch generator or a noise generator is connected to a glottal signal path for vowel or aspirate sound, respectively. The pole and zero filters normally part of the fricative signal path which produces fricative or stop sounds are used in the glottal signal path for nasal sounds. The output of a spectral filter in the glottal signal path bypasses the cascaded formant filters and is connected directly to the glottal path attenuator for voice bar sounds. The output of the first formant filter is rectified and modulates the noise signal in the fricative path and the glottal and fricative signal paths are summed for voiced fricative sounds. To minimize spectral tilt, the third and fourth formant filters and the pole filter are peak filters. The glottal path attenuator is at the end of the glottal signal path to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio.

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Lilburn, GA, United States of America

Stephen S Walker