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:
Aug. 02, 2011
Filed:
Oct. 22, 2007
Yusuke Fujita, Kokubunji, JP;
Ryota Kamoshida, Kodaira, JP;
Kenji Nagamatsu, Fuchu, JP;
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
The present invention is a speech synthesizer that generates speech data of text including a fixed part and a variable part, in combination with recorded speech and rule-based synthetic speech. The speech synthesizer is a high-quality one in which recorded speech and synthetic speech are concatenated with the discontinuity of timbres and prosodies not perceived. The speech synthesizer includes: a recorded speech database that previously stores recorded speech data including a recorded fixed part; a rule-based synthesizer that generates rule-based synthetic speech data including a variable part and at least part of the fixed part, from received text; a concatenation boundary calculator that a concatenation boundary position in a region in which the recorded speech data and the rule-based synthetic speech data overlap, based on acoustic characteristics of the recorded speech data and the rule-based synthetic speech data that correspond to the text; a concatenative synthesizer that generates synthetic speech data corresponding to the text by concatenating the recorded speech data and the rule-based synthetic speech data that are segmented in the concatenation boundary position.