Speech synthesis from a spectrographic trace

Claim 1

A method of synthesizing an acoustical signal from a spectrograph trace in which component frequency portions of sound are incrementally plotted against time over a predetermined time period with the intensity of the components being represented by varying density of the plots at corresponding frequency-time points, said method comprising the stEps of: scanning said trace successively for said incremental frequency portions over said period and deriving analog signals of amplitude as a function of the density of the plot of the respective frequencies; synchronously with the scanning of the trace generating oscillation signals at the respective scanning frequencies during said period and amplitude-modulating said oscillation signals by the analog signals of amplitude to produce amplitude-modulated oscillation signals; recording said amplitude-modulated oscillation signals upon a medium in a multiplicity of tracks; scanning said medium and generating automatically in response to the scanning of the medium a reproduction of the recorded signals to produce a synthesized acoustic signal corresponding to a summation of the amplitude-modulated signals.

Claim 2

A method of synthesizing an acoustical signal from a spectrograph trace in which component frequency portions of sound are incrementally plotted against time over a predetermined time period with the intensity of the components being represented by varying density of the plots at corresponding frequency-time points, said method comprising the stEps of: scanning said trace successively for said incremental frequency portions over said period and deriving analog signals of amplitude as a function of the density of the plot of the respective frequencies; synchronously with the scanning of the trace generating oscillation signals at the respective scanning frequencies during said period and amplitude-modulating said oscillation signals by the analog signals of amplitude to produce amplitude-modulated oscillation signals; recording said amplitude-modulated oscillation signals upon a medium in a multiplicity of tracks; scanning said medium and generating automatically in response to the scanning of the medium a reproduction of the recorded signals to produce a synthesized acoustic signal corresponding to a summation of the amplitude-modulated signals.

Claim 10

A method of synthesizing an acoustical signal from a spectrographic trace in which component frequency portions of sound are incrementally plotted against time over a predetermined time period with the intensity of the components being represented by varying density of the plots at corresponding frequency-time points, said method comprising the steps of: scanning said trace successively for said incremental frequency portions over said period and deriving analog signals of amplitude as a function of the density of the plot of the respective frequencies; synchronously with the scanning of the trace generating oscillation signals at the respective scanning frequencies during said period and amplitude-modulating said oscillation signals by the analog signals of amplitude to produce amplitude-modulated oscillation signals; recording said amplitude-modulated oscillation signals upon a medium; and scanning said medium and generating automatically in response to the scanning of the medium a reproduction of the recorded signals to produce a synthesized acoustic signal corresponding to a summation of the amplitude-modulated signals, each amplitude-modulated oscillation signal but the first being combined with a previously recorded amplitude-modulated oscillation signal during a previous scan whereby the final recording represents a summation of all of said amplitude-modulated oscIllation signals on a single track.

Claim 11

A method of synthesizing an acoustical signal from a spectrographic trace in which component frequency portions of sound are incrementally plotted against time over a predetermined time period with the intensity of the components being represented by varying density of the plots at corresponding frequency-time points, said method comprising the steps of: scanning said trace successively for said incremental frequency portions over said period and deriving analog signals of amplitude as a function of the density of the plot of the respective frequencies; synchronously with the scanning of the trace generating oscillation signals at the respective scanning frequencies during said period and amplitude-modulating said oscillation signals by the analog signals of amplitude to produce amplitude-modulated oscillation signals; recording said amplitude-modulated oscillation signals upon a medium; and scanning said medium and generating automatically in response to the scanning of the medium a reproduction of the recorded signals to produce a synthesized acoustic signal corresponding to a summation of the amplitude-modulated signals, each amplitude-modulated oscillation signal but the first being combined with a previously recorded amplitude-modulated oscillation signal during a previous scan whereby the final recording represents a summation of all of said amplitude-modulated oscIllation signals on a single track.

Claim 15

A method of analyzing an acoustic input, comprising the steps of: a. detecting successive incremental frequency bands of the acoustic input and resonating a mechanical element at the band frequency with an oscillation amplitude representing the intensity of the corresponding frequency band; b. recording for each incremental frequency band detected in step (a), a visible plot with the amplitude of the corresponding frequency band at each instant of time during a time interval represented by a corresponding degree of darkness of the plot, thereby forming a spectrographic trace in which component frequency waves of the acoustic input are incrementally plotted against time over a given time period with the intensity of the component waves indicated by relative darkness of the plots at the corresponding frequency-time points; c. optically scanning said trace successively for said incremental frequencies and deriving an electrical output of an amplitude varying with time in accordance with the relative darkness of the plot of the corresponding frequency; d. generating an electrical oscillation of a frequency corresponding to each of the scanned frequencies in step (c) and amplitude modulating the electrical oscillation with the corresponding electrical output of step (c) to form amplitude-modulated oscillation signals; e. electrically combining the amplitude-modulated oscillation signals of step (d) for the incremental frequencies; and f. automatically converting the combined amplitude-modulated oscillation signals of step (e) into an acoustic output.

Claim 16

A method of analyzing an acoustic input, comprising the steps of: a. detecting successive incremental frequency bands of the acoustic input and resonating a mechanical element at the band frequency with an oscillation amplitude representing the intensity of the corresponding frequency band; b. recording for each incremental frequency band detected in step (a), a visible plot with the amplitude of the corresponding frequency band at each instant of time during a time interval represented by a corresponding degree of darkness of the plot, thereby forming a spectrographic trace in which component frequency waves of the acoustic input are incrementally plotted against time over a given time period with the intensity of the component waves indicated by relative darkness of the plots at the corresponding frequency-time points; c. optically scanning said trace successively for said incremental frequencies and deriving an electrical output of an amplitude varying with time in accordance with the relative darkness of the plot of the corresponding frequency; d. generating an electrical oscillation of a frequency corresponding to each of the scanned frequencies in step (c) and amplitude modulating the electrical oscillation with the corresponding electrical output of step (c) to form amplitude-modulated oscillation signals; e. electrically combining the amplitude-modulated oscillation signals of step (d) for the incremental frequencies; and f. automatically converting the combined amplitude-modulated oscillation signals of step (e) into an acoustic output.

Claim 19

An apparatus for the synthesis of an acoustic output from a spectrographic trace in which component frequency portions of an original sound are incrementally plotted against time over a predetermined time period with the intensity of the components being represented by varying density of the plots at corresponding frequency-time points, said apparatus comprising: scanning means for repetitively scanning said trace successively for said incremental frequencies and deriving for each of the scanned frequencies analog signals of an amplitude varying with the time in proportion to the density of the plots of the respective component frequencies; oscillator means operatively connected with said scanning means for producing respective oscillation signal corresponding to each of the scanning frequencies; amplitude-modulating means connected with said scanning means and with said oscillator means for producing an amplitude-modulated oscillation signal as a function of time for each of the scanned frequencies; means for combining at least some of said amplitude-modulated oscillation signals; and electroacoustic transducer means for producing an acoustical output corresponding to the combined amplitude-modulated oscillation signals.

Claim 20

An apparatus for the synthesis of an acoustic output from a spectrographic trace in which component frequency portions of an original sound are incrementally plotted against time over a predetermined time period with the intensity of the components being represented by varying density of the plots at corresponding frequency-time points, said apparatus comprising: scanning means for repetitively scanning said trace successively for said incremental frequencies and deriving for each of the scanned frequencies analog signals of an amplitude varying with the time in proportion to the density of the plots of the respective component frequencies; oscillator means operatively connected with said scanning means for producing respective oscillation signal corresponding to each of the scanning frequencies; amplitude-modulating means connected with said scanning means and with said oscillator means for producing an amplitude-modulated oscillation signal as a function of time for each of the scanned frequencies; means for combining at least some of said amplitude-modulated oscillation signals; and electroacoustic transducer means for producing an acoustical output corresponding to the combined amplitude-modulated oscillation signals.

Claim 24

An apparatus for the synthesis of an acoustic output from a spectrographic trace in which component frequency portions of an original sound are incrementally plotted against time over a predetermined time period with the intensity of the components being represented by varying density of the plots at corresponding frequency-time points, said apparatus comprising: scanning means for repetitively scanning said trace successively for said incremental frequencies and deriving for each of the scanned frequencies analog signals of an amplitude varying with the time in proportion to the density of the plots of the respective component frequencies; oscillator means operatively connected with said scanning means for producing respective oscillation signal corresponding to each of the scanning frequencies; amplitude-modulating means connected with said scanning means and with said oscillator means for producing an amplitude-modulated oscillation signal as a function of time for each of the scanned frequencies; means for combining at least some of said amplitude-modulated oscillation signals; and electroacoustic transducer means for producing an acoustical output corresponding to the combined amplitude-modulated oscillation signals, said means for combining said amplitude-modulated oscillation signals including a pair of synchronously driven recording tracks, recording means associated with each of said tracks, playback means associated with each of said tracks, cancellation means associated with each of said tracks, and switch means operable to connect the recording means of one of said tracks to said amplitude-modulating means and the playback means of the other of said tracks to said recording means of said one of said tracks to record the amplitude-modulated oscillation signal of the frequency currently scanned by said scanning means upon said one of said tracks concurrently with a previously recorded amplitude-modulated oscillation signal from said other track, while cancelling the recorded signal on said other track.

Claim 25

An apparatus for the synthesis of an acoustic output from a spectrographic trace in which component frequency portions of an original sound are incrementally plotted against time over a predetermined time period with the intensity of the components being represented by varying density of the plots at corresponding frequency-time points, said apparatus comprising: scanning means for repetitively scanning said trace successively for said incremental frequencies and deriving for each of the scanned frequencies analog signals of an amplitude varying with the time in proportion to the density of the plots of the respective component frequencies; oscillator means operatively connected with said scanning means for producing respective oscillation signal corresponding to each of the scanning frequencies; amplitude-modulating means connected with said scanning means and with said oscillator means for producing an amplitude-modulated oscillation signal as a function of time for each of the scanned frequencies; means for combining at least some of said amplitude-modulated oscillation signals; and electroacoustic transducer means for producing an acoustical output corresponding to the combined amplitude-modulated oscillation signals, said means for combining said amplitude-modulated oscillation signals including a pair of synchronously driven recording tracks, recording means associated with each of said tracks, playback means associated with each of said tracks, cancellation means associated with each of said tracks, and switch means operable to connect the recording means of one of said tracks to said amplitude-modulating means and the playback means of the other of said tracks to said recording means of said one of said tracks to record the amplitude-modulated oscillation signal of the frequency currently scanned by said scanning means upon said one of said tracks concurrently with a previously recorded amplitude-modulated oscillation signal from said other track, while cancelling the recorded signal on said other track.

Claim 26

An apparatus for the synthesis of an acoustic output from a spectrographic trace in which component frequency portions of an original sound are incrementally plotted against time over a predetermined time period with the intensity of the components being represented by varying density of the plots at corresponding frequency-time points, said apparatus comprising: scanning means for repetitively scanning said trace successively for said incremental frequencies and deriving for each of the scanned frequencies analog signals of an amplitude varying with the time in proportion to the density of the plots of the respective component frequencies; oscillator means operatively connected with said scanning means for producing respective oscillation signals corresponding to each of the scanning frequencies; amplitude-modulating mEans connected with said scanning means and with said oscillator means for producing an amplitude-modulated oscillation signal as a function of time for each of the scanned frequencies; means for combining at least some of said amplitude-modulated oscillation signals; electroacoustic transducer means for producing an acoustical output corresponding to the combined amplitude-modulated oscillation signals; sound-analyzing means for producing said trace and including vibratory means having a resonance-shifting member, means responsive to an acoustical input for energizing said vibratory means; and means responsive to the amplitude of vibration of said vibratory means at successive resonant frequencies thereof for forming said trace.

Claim 27

An apparatus for the synthesis of an acoustic output from a spectrographic trace in which component frequency portions of an original sound are incrementally plotted against time over a predetermined time period with the intensity of the components being represented by varying density of the plots at corresponding frequency-time points, said apparatus comprising: scanning means for repetitively scanning said trace successively for said incremental frequencies and deriving for each of the scanned frequencies analog signals of an amplitude varying with the time in proportion to the density of the plots of the respective component frequencies; oscillator means operatively connected with said scanning means for producing respective oscillation signals corresponding to each of the scanning frequencies; amplitude-modulating mEans connected with said scanning means and with said oscillator means for producing an amplitude-modulated oscillation signal as a function of time for each of the scanned frequencies; means for combining at least some of said amplitude-modulated oscillation signals; electroacoustic transducer means for producing an acoustical output corresponding to the combined amplitude-modulated oscillation signals; sound-analyzing means for producing said trace and including vibratory means having a resonance-shifting member, means responsive to an acoustical input for energizing said vibratory means; and means responsive to the amplitude of vibration of said vibratory means at successive resonant frequencies thereof for forming said trace.