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:
Jan. 25, 2005
Filed:
Jan. 29, 2002
Edwin R. Addison, Millersville, MD (US);
H. Donald Wilson, White Plains, NY (US);
Gary Marple, Boxborough, MA (US);
Anthony H. Handal, Westport, CT (US);
Nancy Krebs, Severn, MD (US);
Edwin R. Addison, Millersville, MD (US);
H. Donald Wilson, White Plains, NY (US);
Gary Marple, Boxborough, MA (US);
Anthony H. Handal, Westport, CT (US);
Nancy Krebs, Severn, MD (US);
Lessac Technology, Inc., White Plains, NY (US);
Abstract
A preferred embodiment of the method for converting text to speech using a computing device having a memory is disclosed. Text, being made up of a plurality of words, is received into the memory of the computing device. A plurality of phonemes are derived from the text. Each of the phonemes is associated with a prosody record based on a database of prosody records associated with a plurality of words. A first set of the artificial intelligence rules is applied to determine context information associated with the text. The context influenced prosody changes for each of the phonemes is determined. Then a second set of rules, based on Lessac theory to determine Lessac derived prosody changes for each of the phonemes is applied. The prosody record for each of the phonemes is amended in response to the context influenced prosody changes and the Lessac derived prosody changes. Then a reading from the memory sound information associated with the phonemes is performed. The sound information is amended, based on the prosody record as amended in response to the context influenced prosody changes and the Lessac derived prosody changes to generate amended sound information for each of the phonemes. Then the sound information is outputted to generate a speech signal.