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. 18, 2001
Filed:
Jan. 19, 1994
Masahide Kaneko, Tokyo, JP;
Atsushi Koike, Tokyo, JP;
Yoshinori Hatori, Kawasaki, JP;
Seiichi Yamamoto, Urawa, JP;
Norio Higuchi, Urawa, JP;
Kokusai Denshin Denwa Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A picture synthesizing apparatus, and method for synthesizing a moving picture of a person's face having mouth-shape variations from a train of input characters, wherein the method steps comprise developing from the train of input character a train of phonemes, utilizing a speech synthesis technique outputting, for each phoneme, a corresponding vocal sound feature including articulation mode and its duration of each corresponding phoneme of the train of phonemes. Determining for each phoneme a mouth-shape feature corresponding to each phoneme on the basis of the corresponding vocal sound feature, the mouth-shape feature including the degree of opening of the mouth, the degree of roundness of the lips, the height of the lower jaw in a raised and a lowered position, and the degree to which the tongue is seen. Determining values of mouth-shape parameters, for each phoneme, for representing a concrete mouth-shape on the basis of the mouth-shape feature; and controlling the values of the mouth-shape parameters for each phoneme, for each frame of the moving picture in accordance with the duration of each phoneme, thereby synthesizing the moving picture having mouth-shape variations matched with a speech output audible in case of reading the train of input characters.