US5592585A
Expired / Lapsed
US
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Method for electronically generating a spoken message
Assignee: Nuance Communications Inc
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Filing: 1995-01-26
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Granted: 1997-01-07
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Expires: 2015-01-26
Abstract
Abstract An improved method for generating a spoken message is of the type formed by (i) first recording speech and (ii) then utilizing the recording so as to obtain at least one carrier, each carrier having at least one fixed part and at least one open slot, and then (iii) inserting an argument into each open slot. The improvement involves applying a prosody transplantation technique to the recording in order to obtain a sequence of phonetico-prosodic parameters for each carrier; identifying in each sequence sections of phonetico-prosodic parameters corresponding to the argument of each open slot; and substituting each of the sections by open slot data comprising at least position information indicating the position of each open slot. In a preferred embodiment, the arguments are entered as orthographic or phonetic text and converted to phonetico-prosodic parameters as well, so that the entire spoken message can be synthesized by a phonetics-to-speech system, resulting in enhanced consistency, even when the carriers are generated from the recording of different human subjects.
Inventors
- 👤 Bert Van Coile
- 👤 Stefaan Willems
- 👤 Steven Leys
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-30 15:56
CPC Classifications
G; G10; G10L; G10L13/00; G10L13/08; G10L13/02; G10L13/06; G10L13/04
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 30
Claim 1
Independent Claim
140 words
An improved method for generating a spoken message of the type formed by (i) first recording speech and (ii) then utilizing the recording so as to obtain at least one carrier, each carrier having at least one fixed part and at least one open slot, and then (iii) inserting an argument into each open slot, wherein the improvement comprises: a) applying a prosody transplantation technique to the recording in order to obtain a sequence of phonetico-prosodic parameters for each carrier; b) identifying in each sequence sections of phonetico-prosodic parameters corresponding to the argument of each open slot; c) substituting each of the sections by open slot data comprising at least position information indicating the position of each open slot; d) assigning to each thus obtained sequence an identifier; and e) storing the thus obtained sequences with their identifiers in memory.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
140 words
An improved method for generating a spoken message of the type formed by (i) first recording speech and (ii) then utilizing the recording so as to obtain at least one carrier, each carrier having at least one fixed part and at least one open slot, and then (iii) inserting an argument into each open slot, wherein the improvement comprises: a) applying a prosody transplantation technique to the recording in order to obtain a sequence of phonetico-prosodic parameters for each carrier; b) identifying in each sequence sections of phonetico-prosodic parameters corresponding to the argument of each open slot; c) substituting each of the sections by open slot data comprising at least position information indicating the position of each open slot; d) assigning to each thus obtained sequence an identifier; and e) storing the thus obtained sequences with their identifiers in memory.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
74 words
A method according to claim 1, wherein said predetermined message further comprises at least one phrase, said method further comprising: a) applying a prosody transplantation technique to each of said phrases in order to obtain a further sequence of phonetico-prosodic parameters for each of said phrases; b) assigning to each of said further sequences each time a further identifier; c) storing the thus obtained further sequences with their respective further identifier in said memory.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
141 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message, starting from phonetico-prosodic parameters generated by application of the method according to claim 2, said method comprising: a) selecting those carriers and phrases composing the message to be generated and generating the identifiers assigned to said selected carriers; b) addressing in said memory said selected carriers and phrases by means of their assigned identifiers; c) reading said addressed carriers and phrases from said memory; d) supplying in orthographic form each argument to be filled in in said open slots of said selected carriers and assigning each argument to a respective open slot within said selected carriers; e) generating phonetico-prosodic parameters from said orthographic form; f) filling in said phonetico-prosodic parameters of said arguments in their assigned open slots; g) transforming said phonetico-prosodic parameters of said carriers and phrases with their arguments into speech.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
24 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message according to claim 3, wherein said carriers and phrases are concatenated before being transformed into speech.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
141 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message, starting from phonetico-prosodic parameters generated by application of the method according to claim 2, said method comprising: a) selecting those carriers and phrases composing the message to be generated and generating the identifiers assigned to said selected carriers; b) addressing in said memory said selected carriers and phrases by means of their assigned identifiers; c) reading said addressed carriers and phrases from said memory; d) supplying in phonetic transcription each argument to be filled in in said open slots of said selected carriers and assigning each argument to a respective open slot within said selected carriers; e) generating phonetico-prosodic parameters from said phonetic transcription; f) filling in said phonetico-prosodic parameters of said arguments in their assigned open slots; g) transforming said phonetico-prosodic parameters of said carriers and phrases with their arguments into speech.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
24 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message according to claim 5, wherein said carriers and phrases are concatenated before being transformed into speech.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
143 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message, starting from phonetico-prosodic parameters generated by application of the method according to claim 2, said method comprising: a) selecting those carriers and phrases composing the message to be generated and generating the identifiers assigned to said selected carriers; b) addressing in said memory said selected carriers and phrases by means of their assigned identifiers; c) reading said addressed carriers and phrases from said memory; d) supplying in orthographic form and/or phonetic transcription each argument to be filled in in said open slots of said selected carriers and assigning each argument to a respective open slot within said selected carriers; e) generating phonetico-prosodic parameters from said argument; f) filling in said phonetico-prosodic parameters of said arguments in their assigned open slots; g) transforming said phonetico-prosodic parameters of said carriers and phrases with their arguments into speech.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
24 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message according to claim 7, wherein said carriers and phrases are concatenated before being transformed into speech.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
17 words
A method according to claim 2, wherein upon applying said prosody transplantation enriched phonetic transcription is generated.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
144 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message, starting from phonetico-prosodic parameters generated by application of the method according to claim 9, said method comprising: a) selecting those carriers and phrases composing the message to be generated and generating the identifiers assigned to said selected carriers; b) addressing in said memory said selected carriers and phrases by means of their assigned identifiers; c) reading said addressed carriers and phrases from said memory; d) supplying in orthographic form each argument to be filled in in said open slots of said selected carriers and assigning each argument to a respective open slot within said selected carriers; e) generating enriched phonetic transcription from said orthographic form; f) filling in said enriched phonetic transcription of said arguments in their assigned open slots; g) transforming said enriched phonetic transcription of said carriers and phrases with their arguments into speech.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
144 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message, starting from phonetico-prosodic parameters generated by application of the method according to claim 9, said method comprising: a) selecting those carriers and phrases composing the message to be generated and generating the identifiers assigned to said selected carriers; b) addressing in said memory said selected carriers and phrases by means of their assigned identifiers; c) reading said addressed carriers and phrases from said memory; d) supplying in phonetic transcription each argument to be filled in in said open slots of said selected carriers and assigning each argument to a respective open slot within said selected carriers; e) generating enriched phonetic transcription from said phonetic transcription; f) filling in said enriched phonetic transcription of said arguments in their assigned open slots; g) transforming said enriched phonetic transcription of said carriers and phrases with their arguments into speech.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
51 words
A method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the following characteristics, lexical information of the open slot, syntactical information of the open slot, intonation model of the open slot, is determined for each of said sections and each time added to the open slot data of the sequence.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
138 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message, starting from phonetico-prosodic parameters generated by application of the method according to claim 12, said method comprising: a) selecting those carriers composing the message to be generated and generating the identifiers assigned to said selected carrierss; b) addressing in said memory said selected carriers by means of their assigned identifiers; c) reading said addressed carriers from said memory; d) supplying in orthographic form each argument to be filled in in said open slots of said selected carriers and assigning each argument to a respective open slot within said selected carriers; e) generating phonetico-prosodic parameters from said orthographic form and according to said characteristics; f) filling in said phonetico-prosodic parameters of said arguments in their assigned open slots; g) transforming said phonetico-prosodic parameters of said carriers with their arguments into speech.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
30 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message according to claim 13, wherein said message is formed by at least two carriers which are concatenated before being transformed into speech.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
138 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message, starting from phonetico-prosodic parameters generated by application of the method according to claim 12, said method comprising: a) selecting those carriers composing the message to be generated and generating the identifiers assigned to said selected carriers; b) addressing in said memory said selected carriers by means of their assigned identifiers; c) reading said addressed carriers from said memory; d) supplying in phonetic transcription each argument to be filled in in said open slots of said selected carriers and assigning each argument to a respective open slot within said selected carriers; e) generating phonetico-prosodic parameters from said phonetic transcription and according to said characteristics; f) filling in said phonetico-prosodic parameters of said arguments in their assigned open slots; g) transforming said phonetico-prosodic parameters of said carriers with their arguments into speech.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
30 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message according to claim 15, wherein said message is formed by at least two carriers which are concatenated before being transformed into speech.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
140 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message, starting form phonetico-prosodic parameters generated by application of the method according to claim 12, said method comprising: a) selecting those carriers composing the message to be generated and generating the identifiers assigned to said selected carriers; b) addressing in said memory said selected carriers by means of their assigned identifiers; c) reading said addressed carriers from said memory; d) supplying in orthographic form and/or phonetic transcription each argument to be filled in in said open slots of said selected carriers and assigning each argument to a respective open slot within said selected carriers; e) generating phonetico-prosodic parameters from said argument and according to said characteristics; f) filling in said phonetico-prosodic parameters of said arguments in their assigned open slots; g) transforming said phonetico-prosodic parameters of said carriers with their arguments into speech.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
30 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message according to claim 17, wherein said message is formed by at least two carriers which are concatenated before being transformed into speech.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
133 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message, starting from phonetico-prosodic parameters generated by application of the method according to claim 1, said method comprising: a) selecting those carriers composing the message to be generated and generating the identifiers assigned to said selected carriers; b) addressing in said memory said selected carriers by means of their assigned identifiers; c) reading said addressed carriers from said memory; d) supplying in orthographic form each argument to be filled in in said open slots of said selected carriers and assigning each argument to a respective open slot within said selected carriers; e) generating phonetico-prosodic parameters from said orthographic form; f) filling in said phonetico-prosodic parameters of said arguments in their assigned open slots; g) transforming said phonetico-prosodic parameters of said carriers with their arguments into speech.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
30 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message according to claim 19, wherein said message is formed by at least two carriers which are concatenated before being transformed into speech.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
133 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message, starting from phonetico-prosodic parameters generated by application of the method according to claim 1, said method comprising: a) selecting those carriers composing the message to be generated and generating the identifiers assigned to said selected carriers; b) addressing in said memory said selected carriers by means of their assigned identifiers; c) reading said addressed carriers from said memory; d) supplying in phonetic transcription each argument to be filled in in said open slots of said selected carriers and assigning each argument to a respective open slot within said selected carriers; e) generating phonetico-prosodic parameters from said phonetic transcription; f) filling in said phonetico-prosodic parameters of said arguments in their assigned open slots; g) transforming said phonetico-prosodic parameters of said carriers with their arguments into speech.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
30 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message according to claim 21, wherein said message is formed by at least two carriers which are concatenated before being transformed into speech.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
135 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message, starting from phonetico-prosodic parameters generated by application of the method according to claim 1, said method comprising: a) selecting those carriers composing the message to be generated and generating the identifiers assigned to said selected carriers; b) addressing in said memory said selected carriers by means of their assigned identifiers; c) reading said addressed carriers from said memory; d) supplying in orthographic form and/or phonetic transcription each argument to be filled in in said open slots of said selected carriers and assigning each argument to a respective open slot within said selected carriers; e) generating phonetico-prosodic parameters from said argument; f) filling in said phonetico-prosodic parameters of said arguments in their assigned open slots; g) transforming said phonetico-prosodic parameters of said carriers with their arguments into speech.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
30 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message according to claim 23, wherein said message is formed by at least two carriers which are concatenated before being transformed into speech.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
146 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message, starting from phonetico-prosodic parameters generated by application of the method according to claim 24, said method comprising: a) selecting those carriers and phrases composing the message to be generated and generating the identifiers assigned to said selected carriers; b) addressing in said memory said selected carriers and phrases by means of their assigned identifiers; c) reading said addressed carriers and phrases from said memory; d) supplying in orthographic form and/or phonetic transcription each argument to be filled in in said open slots of said selected carriers and assigning each argument to a respective open slot within said selected carriers; e) generating enriched phonetic transcription from said arguments; f) filling in said enriched phonetic transcription of said arguments in their assigned open slots; g) transforming said enriched phonetic transcription of said carriers and phrases with their arguments into speech.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
17 words
A method according to claim 1, wherein upon applying said prosody transplantation enriched phonetic transcription is generated.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
137 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message, starting from enriched phonetic transcription generated by application of the method according to claim 26, said method comprising: a) selecting those carriers composing the message to be generated and generating the identifiers assigned to said selected carriers; b) addressing in said memory said selected carriers by means of their assigned identifiers; c) reading said addressed carriers from said memory; d) supplying in orthographic form each argument to be filled in in said open slots of said selected carriers and assigning each argument to a respective open slot within said selected carriers; e) generating enriched phonetic transcription from said orthographic form; f) filling in said enriched phonetic transcription of said arguments in their assigned open slots; g) transforming said enriched phonetic transcription of said carriers with their arguments into speech.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
137 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message, starting from enriched phonetic transcription generated by application of the method according to claim 26, said method comprising: a) selecting those carriers composing the message to be generated and generating the identifiers assigned to said selected carriers; b) addressing in said memory said selected carriers by means of their assigned identifiers; c) reading said addressed carriers from said memory; d) supplying in phonetic transcription each argument to be filled in in said open slots of said selected carriers and assigning each argument to a respective open slot within said selected carriers; e) generating enriched phonetic transcription from said phonetic transcription; f) filling in said enriched phonetic transcription of said arguments in their assigned open slots; g) transforming said enriched phonetic transcription of said carriers with their arguments into speech.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim
139 words
A method for electronically generating a spoken message, starting from enriched phonetic transcription generated by application of the method according to claim 26, said method comprising: a) selecting those carriers composing the message to be generated and generating the identifiers assigned to said selected carriers; b) addressing in said memory said selected carriers by means of their assigned identifiers; c) reading said addressed carriers from said memory; d) supplying in orthographic form and/or phonetic transcription each argument to be filled in in said open slots of said selected carriers and assigning each argument to a respective open slot within said selected carriers; e) generating enriched phonetic transcription from said arguments; f) filling in said enriched phonetic transcription of said arguments in their assigned open slots; g) transforming said enriched phonetic transcription of said carriers with their arguments into speech.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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Cited
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USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 2000-01-07 | 2000-07-08 | 2001-01-07 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 2004-01-07 | 2004-07-08 | 2005-01-07 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 2008-01-07 | 2008-07-08 | 2009-01-07 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |