Bert Van Coile

Method for electronically generating a spoken message

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.

Apparatus for electronically generating a spoken message

An improved apparatus 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 provides a phonetico-prosodic parameter generator for characterizing the message in terms of a sequence of phonetico-prosodic parameters for each carrier. An electronic memory stores the phonetico-prosodic parameters corresponding to each carrier and a controller constructs sequences of phonetico-prosodic parameters corresponding to the argument of each open slot. From the phonetico-prosodic parameters, a phonetics-to-speech converter generates a digital sound wave pattern which is converted, by a D/A converter, into an analog sound wave pattern. An output unit provides audible sound waves corresponding to the analog sound wave pattern. In a preferred embodiment, an input is provided for entering the arguments as orthographic or phonetic text which is 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.