The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 21, 1999
Filed:
Oct. 01, 1996
Michael Abraham Tanenblatt, New York, NY (US);
Lucent Technologies Inc., Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
The present invention discloses a computer prosody user interface operable to visually tailor the prosody of a text to be uttered by a text-to-speech system. The prosody user interface, permits users to alter a synthesized voice along one or more dimensions on a word-by-word basis. In one embodiment of the present invention, the prosody user interface is operable to alter the speaking rate relative word duration and the word prominence of a synthesized voice. Specifically, one or more words are selected using presentation means, and speech parameters corresponding to the speaking rate relative word duration and the word prominence are manipulated using speech parameter manipulation means. Modifications to the speech parameters are accompanied by visual changes to the presentation means, thereby providing a visual feel to the computer prosody user interface. To hear the modifications to the speech parameters, the present invention transmits a text string to a text-to-speech synthesizer program, wherein the text string comprises the text and escape sequences corresponding to the speech parameters set using the speech parameter manipulation means.