Motorola Corporation

Motorola Mobility LLC

Thomas Lawrence Reinke

Marc Andre Boillot

John Gregory Harris

Jaime Andres Borras

Zaffer S Merchant

The use of SOLA speech time compression/expansion in the present invention method as a means to alter a speaker's talking rate by adjusting the speech rate at which people hear their own voice. A person speaks at a certain comfort rate, which is established and maintained by their own auditory system's capability to hear their own voice as they speak i.e., it is a self-auditory feedback mechanism. Changing the rate () at which a talker hears their own voice () will accordingly change their talking rate. This effect is achieved in this invention by employing a real time processing method (-, FIG.) that temporarily adjusts the speech rate in an effort to impose this psychoacoustic condition which coerces the speaker into changing their talking rate. This invention permits users to adjust the comfort rate at which they normally speak () or to adjust the rate at which others speak to them through the use of a speech processing device or system.

Psychoacoustic method and system to impose a preferred talking rate through auditory feedback rate adjustment

Human hearing perceives loudness based on critical bands corresponding to different frequency ranges. As a sound's frequency spectrum increases beyond a critical band into a previously unexcited critical band, the perception is that the sound has increased in loudness. To take advantage of this principle, a filter is applied to a speech signal so as to expand the formant bandwidths of formants in the speech sample.

Method and apparatus for enhancing loudness of an audio signal

The present invention () permits a user to speed up and slow down speech without changing the speakers pitch (). It is a user adjustable feature to change the spoken rate to the listeners' preferred listening rate or comfort. It can be included on the phone as a customer convenience feature without changing any characteristics of the speakers voice besides the speaking rate with soft key button () combinations (in interconnect or normal). From the users perspective, it would seem only that the talker changed his speaking rate, and not that the speech was digitally altered in any way. The pitch and general prosody of the speaker are preserved. The following uses of the time expansion/compression feature are listed to compliment already existing technologies or applications in progress including messaging services, messaging applications and games, real-time feature to slow down the listening rate.

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Fairbom, OH, United States of America

Thomas Lawrence Reinke