| US 7,349,847 B2 | ||
| Speech synthesis apparatus and speech synthesis method | ||
| Yoshifumi Hirose, Soraku-gun (Japan); Natsuki Saito, Katano (Japan); and Takahiro Kamai, Soraku-gun (Japan) | ||
| Assigned to Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Osaka (Japan) | ||
| Filed on Feb. 13, 2006, as Appl. No. 11/352,380. | ||
| Application 11/352380 is a continuation of application No. PCT/JP2005/017285, filed on Sep. 20, 2005. | ||
| Claims priority of application No. 2004-299365 (JP), filed on Oct. 13, 2004; and application No. 2005-198926 (JP), filed on Jul. 07, 2005. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2006/0136213 A1, Jun. 22, 2006 | ||
| Int. Cl. G10L 13/08 (2006.01); G10L 13/00 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 704—260 [704/258] | 13 Claims |
| 1. A speech synthesis apparatus for synthesizing speech using speech elements so as to transform a voice characteristic of
the speech, said speech synthesis apparatus comprising:
an element storing unit operable to store speech elements;
a function storing unit operable to store transformation functions for respectively transforming voice characteristics of
the speech elements;
a voice characteristic designating unit operable to receive a voice characteristic designated by a user;
a prosody generating unit operable to obtain text data, estimate a prosody from a phoneme included in the text data, and generate
prosody information which indicates the phoneme and the prosody;
a similarity deriving unit operable to derive a degree of similarity by comparing an acoustic characteristic of one of the
speech elements stored in said element storing unit with an acoustic characteristic of a speech element which is used for
generating one of the transformation functions stored in said function storing unit and which is specific to the transformation
function;
a selecting unit operable to select, from said element storing unit, a speech element corresponding to the phoneme and the
prosody indicated in the prosody information, and select, from said function storing unit, a transformation function for transforming
a voice characteristic of the selected speech element into the voice characteristic received by said voice characteristic
designation unit, based on the degree of similarity derived for the selected speech element by said similarity deriving unit
and the voice characteristic received by said voice characteristic designation unit; and
a transforming unit operable to apply the transformation function selected by said selecting unit to the selected speech element,
and to transform the voice characteristic of the selected speech element into the voice characteristic received by said voice
characteristic designation unit.
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