Patents by Inventor Mark Beutnagel
Mark Beutnagel has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Patent number: 9564121Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems, computer-implemented methods, and computer-readable storage media for unit selection synthesis. The method causes a computing device to add a supplemental phoneset to a speech synthesizer front end having an existing phoneset, modify a unit preselection process based on the supplemental phoneset, preselect units from the supplemental phoneset and the existing phoneset based on the modified unit preselection process, and generate speech based on the preselected units. The supplemental phoneset can be a variation of the existing phoneset, can include a word boundary feature, can include a cluster feature where initial consonant clusters and some word boundaries are marked with diacritics, can include a function word feature which marks units as originating from a function word or a content word, and/or can include a pre-vocalic or post-vocalic feature. The speech synthesizer front end can incorporates the supplemental phoneset as an extra feature.Type: GrantFiled: August 7, 2014Date of Patent: February 7, 2017Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.Inventors: Alistair D. Conkie, Mark Beutnagel, Yeon-Jun Kim, Ann K. Syrdal
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Publication number: 20140350940Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems, computer-implemented methods, and computer-readable storage media for unit selection synthesis. The method causes a computing device to add a supplemental phoneset to a speech synthesizer front end having an existing phoneset, modify a unit preselection process based on the supplemental phoneset, preselect units from the supplemental phoneset and the existing phoneset based on the modified unit preselection process, and generate speech based on the preselected units. The supplemental phoneset can be a variation of the existing phoneset, can include a word boundary feature, can include a cluster feature where initial consonant clusters and some word boundaries are marked with diacritics, can include a function word feature which marks units as originating from a function word or a content word, and/or can include a pre-vocalic or post-vocalic feature. The speech synthesizer front end can incorporates the supplemental phoneset as an extra feature.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 7, 2014Publication date: November 27, 2014Inventors: Alistair D. CONKIE, Mark BEUTNAGEL, Yeon-Jun KIM, Ann K. SYRDAL
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Patent number: 8805687Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems, computer-implemented methods, and computer-readable storage media for unit selection synthesis. The method causes a computing device to add a supplemental phoneset to a speech synthesizer front end having an existing phoneset, modify a unit preselection process based on the supplemental phoneset, preselect units from the supplemental phoneset and the existing phoneset based on the modified unit preselection process, and generate speech based on the preselected units. The supplemental phoneset can be a variation of the existing phoneset, can include a word boundary feature, can include a cluster feature where initial consonant clusters and some word boundaries are marked with diacritics, can include a function word feature which marks units as originating from a function word or a content word, and/or can include a pre-vocalic or post-vocalic feature. The speech synthesizer front end can incorporates the supplemental phoneset as an extra feature.Type: GrantFiled: September 21, 2009Date of Patent: August 12, 2014Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.Inventors: Alistair D. Conkie, Mark Beutnagel, Yeon-Jun Kim, Ann K. Syrdal
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Patent number: 8566098Abstract: A system and method are disclosed for synthesizing speech based on a selected speech act. A method includes modifying synthesized speech of a spoken dialogue system, by (1) receiving a user utterance, (2) analyzing the user utterance to determine an appropriate speech act, and (3) generating a response of a type associated with the appropriate speech act, wherein in linguistic variables in the response are selected, based on the appropriate speech act.Type: GrantFiled: October 30, 2007Date of Patent: October 22, 2013Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.Inventors: Ann K Syrdal, Mark Beutnagel, Alistair D Conkie, Yeon-Jun Kim
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Publication number: 20110071836Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems, computer-implemented methods, and computer-readable storage media for unit selection synthesis. The method causes a computing device to add a supplemental phoneset to a speech synthesizer front end having an existing phoneset, modify a unit preselection process based on the supplemental phoneset, preselect units from the supplemental phoneset and the existing phoneset based on the modified unit preselection process, and generate speech based on the preselected units. The supplemental phoneset can be a variation of the existing phoneset, can include a word boundary feature, can include a cluster feature where initial consonant clusters and some word boundaries are marked with diacritics, can include a function word feature which marks units as originating from a function word or a content word, and/or can include a pre-vocalic or post-vocalic feature. The speech synthesizer front end can incorporates the supplemental phoneset as an extra feature.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 21, 2009Publication date: March 24, 2011Applicant: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.Inventors: Alistair D. CONKIE, Mark BEUTNAGEL, Yeon-Jun KIM, Ann K. SYRDAL
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Publication number: 20090112596Abstract: A system and method are disclosed for synthesizing speech based on a selected speech act. A method includes modifying synthesized speech of a spoken dialogue system, by (1) receiving a user utterance, (2) analyzing the user utterance to determine an appropriate speech act, and (3) generating a response of a type associated with the appropriate speech act, wherein in linguistic variables in the response are selected, based on the appropriate speech act.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 30, 2007Publication date: April 30, 2009Applicant: AT&T Lab, Inc.Inventors: Ann K. Syrdal, Mark Beutnagel, Alistair D. Conkie, Yeon-Jun Kim
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Publication number: 20080077407Abstract: A system, method and computer-readable media are disclosed for improving speech synthesis. A text-to-speech (TTS) voice database for use in a TTS system is generated by a method comprising labeling a voice database phonemically and applying a pre-/post-vocalic distinction to the phonemic labels to generate a TTS voice database. When a system synthesizes speech using speech units from the TTS voice database, the database provides phonemes for selection using the pre-/post-vocalic distinctions which improve unit selection to render the synthetic speech more natural.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 26, 2006Publication date: March 27, 2008Applicant: AT&T Corp.Inventors: Mark Beutnagel, Alistair Conkie, Yeon-Jun Kim, Ann K. Syrdal
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Publication number: 20080059194Abstract: According to MPEG-4's TTS architecture, facial animation can be driven by two streams simultaneously—text, and Facial Animation Parameters. In this architecture, text input is sent to a Text-To-Speech converter at a decoder that drives the mouth shapes of the face. Facial Animation Parameters are sent from an encoder to the face over the communication channel. The present invention includes codes (known as bookmarks) in the text string transmitted to the Text-to-Speech converter, which bookmarks are placed between words as well as inside them. According to the present invention, the bookmarks carry an encoder time stamp. Due to the nature of text-to-speech conversion, the encoder time stamp does not relate to real-world time, and should be interpreted as a counter. In addition, the Facial Animation Parameter stream carries the same encoder time stamp found in the bookmark of the text.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 31, 2007Publication date: March 6, 2008Applicant: AT&T Corp.Inventors: Andrea Basso, Mark Beutnagel, Joern Ostermann
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Publication number: 20050119877Abstract: According to MPEG-4's TTS architecture, facial animation can be driven by two streams simultaneously—text, and Facial Animation Parameters. In this architecture, text input is sent to a Text-To-Speech converter at a decoder that drives the mouth shapes of the face. Facial Animation Parameters are sent from an encoder to the face over the communication channel. The present invention includes codes (known as bookmarks) in the text string transmitted to the Text-to-Speech converter, which bookmarks are placed between words as well as inside them. According to the present invention, the bookmarks carry an encoder time stamp. Due to the nature of text-to-speech conversion, the encoder time stamp does not relate to real-world time, and should be interpreted as a counter. In addition, the Facial Animation Parameter stream carries the same encoder time stamp found in the bookmark of the text.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 7, 2005Publication date: June 2, 2005Applicant: AT&T Corp.Inventors: Andrea Basso, Mark Beutnagel, Joern Ostermann