Abstract: A computer-implemented method for automatically analyzing, predicting, and/or modifying acoustic units of prosodic human speech utterances for use in speech synthesis or speech recognition. Possible steps include: initiating analysis of acoustic wave data representing the human speech utterances, via the phase state of the acoustic wave data; using one or more phase state defined acoustic wave metrics as common elements for analyzing, and optionally modifying, pitch, amplitude, duration, and other measurable acoustic parameters of the acoustic wave data, at predetermined time intervals; analyzing acoustic wave data representing a selected acoustic unit to determine the phase state of the acoustic unit; and analyzing the acoustic wave data representing the selected acoustic unit to determine at least one acoustic parameter of the acoustic unit with reference to the determined phase state of the selected acoustic unit. Also included are systems for implementing the described and related methods.

Abstract: A system-effected method for synthesizing speech, or recognizing speech including a sequence of expressive speech utterances. The method can be computer-implemented and can include system-generating a speech signal embodying the sequence of expressive speech utterances. Other possible steps include: system-marking the speech signal with a pitch marker indicating a pitch change at or near a first zero amplitude crossing point of the speech signal following a glottal closure point, at a minimum, at a maximum or at another location; system marking the speech signal with at least one further pitch marker; system-aligning a sequence of prosodically marked text with the pitch-marked speech signal according to the pitch markers; and system outputting the aligned text or the aligned speech signal, respectively. Computerized systems, and stored programs for implementing method embodiments of the invention are also disclosed.

Abstract: A system-effected method for synthesizing speech, or recognizing speech including a sequence of expressive speech utterances. The method can be computer-implemented and can include system-generating a speech signal embodying the sequence of expressive speech utterances. Other possible steps include: system-marking the speech signal with a pitch marker indicating a pitch change at or near a first zero amplitude crossing point of the speech signal following a glottal closure point, at a minimum, at a maximum or at another location; system marking the speech signal with at least one further pitch marker; system-aligning a sequence of prosodically marked text with the pitch-marked speech signal according to the pitch markers; and system outputting the aligned text or the aligned speech signal, respectively. Computerized systems, and stored programs for implementing method embodiments of the invention are also disclosed.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method for automatically analyzing, predicting, and/or modifying acoustic units of prosodic human speech utterances for use in speech synthesis or speech recognition. Possible steps include: initiating analysis of acoustic wave data representing the human speech utterances, via the phase state of the acoustic wave data; using one or more phase state defined acoustic wave metrics as common elements for analyzing, and optionally modifying, pitch, amplitude, duration, and other measurable acoustic parameters of the acoustic wave data, at predetermined time intervals; analyzing acoustic wave data representing a selected acoustic unit to determine the phase state of the acoustic unit; and analyzing the acoustic wave data representing the selected acoustic unit to determine at least one acoustic parameter of the acoustic unit with reference to the determined phase state of the selected acoustic unit. Also included are systems for implementing the described and related methods.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method for automatically analyzing, predicting, and/or modifying acoustic units of prosodic human speech utterances for use in speech synthesis or speech recognition. Possible steps include: initiating analysis of acoustic wave data representing the human speech utterances, via the phase state of the acoustic wave data; using one or more phase state defined acoustic wave metrics as common elements for analyzing, and optionally modifying, pitch, amplitude, duration, and other measurable acoustic parameters of the acoustic wave data, at predetermined time intervals; analyzing acoustic wave data representing a selected acoustic unit to determine the phase state of the acoustic unit; and analyzing the acoustic wave data representing the selected acoustic unit to determine at least one acoustic parameter of the acoustic unit with reference to the determined phase state of the selected acoustic unit. Also included are systems for implementing the described and related methods.

Abstract: Disclosed are novel embodiments of a speech synthesizer and speech synthesis method for generating human-like speech wherein a speech signal can be generated by concatenation from phonemes stored in a phoneme database. Wavelet transforms and interpolation between frames can be employed to effect smooth morphological fusion of adjacent phonemes in the output signal. The phonemes may have one prosody or set of prosody characteristics and one or more alternative prosodies may be created by applying prosody modification parameters to the phonemes from a differential prosody database. Preferred embodiments can provide fast, resource-efficient speech synthesis with an appealing musical or rhythmic output in a desired prosody style such as reportorial or human interest.

Abstract: The inventive system can automatically annotate the relationship of text and acoustic units for the purposes of: (a) predicting how the text is to be pronounced as expressively synthesized speech, and (b) improving the proportion of expressively uttered speech as correctly identified text representing the speaker's message. The system can automatically annotate text corpora for relationships of uttered speech for a particular speaking style and for acoustic units in terms of context and content of the text to the utterances. The inventive system can use kinesthetically defined expressive speech production phonetics that are recognizable and controllable according to kinesensic feedback principles. In speech synthesis embodiments of the invention, the text annotations can specify how the text is to be expressively pronounced as synthesized speech.

Abstract: A method of, and system for, acoustically coding text for use in the synthesis of speech from the text. The method includes marking the text to be spoken with one or more graphic symbols to indicate to a speaker a desired prosody to impart to the spoken text. The markups can include grapheme-phoneme pairs each wherein a visible prosodic-indicating grapheme is employed with written text and a corresponding digital phoneme is functional in the digital domain. The invention is useful in the generation of appealing, humanized machine speech for a wide range of applications, including voice mail systems, electronically enabled appliances, automobiles, computers, robotic assistants, games and the like, in spoken books and magazines, drama and other entertainment.

Abstract: Disclosed are novel embodiments of a speech synthesizer and speech synthesis method for generating human-like speech wherein a speech signal can be generated by concatenation from phonemes stored in a phoneme database. Wavelet transforms and interpolation between frames can be employed to effect smooth morphological fusion of adjacent phonemes in the output signal. The phonemes may have one prosody or set of prosody characteristics and one or more alternative prosodies may be created by applying prosody modification parameters to the phonemes from a differential prosody database. Preferred embodiments can provide fast, resource-efficient speech synthesis with an appealing musical or rhythmic output in a desired prosody style such as reportorial or human interest.

Abstract: In accordance with a present invention speech recognition is disclosed. It uses a microphone to receive audible sounds input by a user into a first computing device having a program with a database consisting of (i) digital representations of known audible sounds and associated alphanumeric representations of the known audible sounds and (ii) digital representations of known audible sounds corresponding to mispronunciations resulting from known classes of mispronounced words and phrases. The method is performed by receiving the audible sounds in the form of the electrical output of the microphone. A particular audible sound to be recognized is converted into a digital representation of the audible sound. The digital representation of the particular audible sound is then compared to the digital representations of the known audible sounds to determine which of those known audible sounds is most likely to be the particular audible sound being compared to the sounds in the database.

Abstract: In accordance with a present invention speech training system is disclosed. It uses a microphone to receive audible sounds input by a user into a first computing device having a program with a database consisting of (i) digital representations of known audible sounds and associated alphanumeric representations of the known audible sounds, and (ii) digital representations of known audible sounds corresponding to mispronunciations resulting from known classes of mispronounced words and phrases. The method is performed by receiving the audible sounds in the form of the electrical output of the microphone. A particular audible sound to be recognized is converted into a digital representation of the audible sound. The digital representation of the particular audible sound is then compared to the digital representations of the known audible sounds to determine which of those known audible sounds is most likely to be the particular audible sound being compared to the sounds in the database.

Abstract: A preferred embodiment of the method for converting text to speech using a computing device having a memory is disclosed. The inventive method comprises examining a text to be spoken to an audience for a specific communications purpose, followed by marking-up the text according to a phonetic markup systems such as the Lessac System pronunciation rules notations. A set of rules to control a speech to text generator based on speech principles, such as Lessac principles. Such rules are of the tide normally implemented on prior art text-to-speech engines, and control the operation of the software and the characteristics of the speech generated by a computer using the software. A computer is used to speak the marked-up text expressively.

Abstract: A preferred embodiment of the method for converting text to speech using a computing device having a memory is disclosed. Text, being made up of a plurality of words, is received into the memory of the computing device. A plurality of phonemes are derived from the text. Each of the phonemes is associated with a prosody record based on a database of prosody records associated with a plurality of words. A first set of the artificial intelligence rules is applied to determine context information associated with the text. The context influenced prosody changes for each of the phonemes is determined. Then a second set of rules, based on Lessac theory to determine Lessac derived prosody changes for each of the phonemes is applied. The prosody record for each of the phonemes is amended in response to the context influenced prosody changes and the Lessac derived prosody changes. Then a reading from the memory sound information associated with the phonemes is performed.

Abstract: In accordance with a present invention speech recognition is disclosed. It uses a microphone to receive audible sounds input by a user into a first computing device having a program with a database consisting of (i) digital representations of known audible sounds and associated alphanumeric representations of the known audible sounds and (ii) digital representations of known audible sounds corresponding to mispronunciations resulting from known classes of mispronounced words and phrases. The method is performed by receiving the audible sounds in the form of the electrical output of the microphone. A particular audible sound to be recognized is converted into a digital representation of the audible sound. The digital representation of the particular audible sound is then compared to the digital representations of the known audible sounds to determine which of those known audible sounds is most likely to be the particular audible sound being compared to the sounds in the database.