Patents by Inventor Reishi Kondo
Reishi Kondo 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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Publication number: 20170345412Abstract: A speech processing device according to an aspect of the present invention examines precision and quality of each piece of data stored in a database so that it is able to generate highly stable synthesized speech close to human voice A speech processing device according to an aspect of the present invention includes a first storing means for storing an original-speech F0 pattern being an F0 pattern extracted from recorded speech and first determination information associated with the original-speech F0 pattern, and a first determining means for determining whether or not to reproduce an original-speech F0 pattern, in accordance with first determination information.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 17, 2015Publication date: November 30, 2017Applicant: NEC CorporationInventors: Yasuyuki MITSUI, Reishi KONDO
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Patent number: 9520125Abstract: There are provided a speech synthesis device, a speech synthesis method and a speech synthesis program which can represent a phoneme as a duration shorter than a duration upon modeling according to a statistical method. A speech synthesis device 80 according to the present invention includes a phoneme boundary updating means 81 which, by using a voiced utterance likelihood index which is an index indicating a degree of voiced utterance likelihood of each state which represents a phoneme modeled by a statistical method, updates a phoneme boundary position which is a boundary with other phonemes neighboring to the phoneme.Type: GrantFiled: June 8, 2012Date of Patent: December 13, 2016Assignee: NEC CorporationInventors: Yasuyuki Mitsui, Masanori Kato, Reishi Kondo
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Patent number: 9443538Abstract: There is provided a waveform processing device for changing power of each pitch waveform of a segment in order to acquire a natural synthesis speech. A power calculation means 71 selects pitch waveforms one by one from a group of pitch waveforms corresponding to a segment, and calculates a scalar indicating power of a selected pitch waveform. A normalization degree calculation means 72 calculates a degree of normalization which is an index indicating a degree of normalization of a pitch waveform selected by the power calculation means 71, as a function value of an increasing function using the scalar as a variable. A change coefficient calculation means 73 calculates a change coefficient for changing an amplitude value of a pitch waveform selected by the power calculation means 71 based on the scalar and the degree of normalization. An amplitude change means 74 multiplies an amplitude value at each sampling point of a pitch waveform selected by the power calculation means 71 by the change coefficient.Type: GrantFiled: June 26, 2012Date of Patent: September 13, 2016Assignee: NEC CorporationInventors: Masanori Kato, Reishi Kondo, Yasuyuki Mitsui
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Patent number: 9324316Abstract: There is provided a prosody generator that generates prosody information for implementing highly natural speech synthesis without unnecessarily collecting large quantities of learning data. A data dividing means 81 divides into subspaces the data space of a learning database as an assembly of learning data indicative of the feature quantities of speech waveforms. A density information extracting means 82 extracts density information indicative of the density state in terms of information quantity of the learning data in each of the subspaces divided by the data dividing means 81. A prosody information generating method selecting means 83 selects either a first method or a second method as a prosody information generating method based on the density information, the first method involving generating the prosody information using a statistical technique, the second method involving generating the prosody information using rules based on heuristics.Type: GrantFiled: May 10, 2012Date of Patent: April 26, 2016Assignee: NEC CORPORATIONInventors: Yasuyuki Mitsui, Reishi Kondo, Masanori Kato
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Publication number: 20150279373Abstract: A voice response apparatus, method and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium are disclosed. The voice response apparatus may include a memory storing instructions, and one or more processors configured to process the instructions to detect an input voice from an input signal using a first frequency bandwidth, output a response voice including predetermined amount of components of a second frequency bandwidth, and set the first frequency bandwidth so that the first frequency bandwidth and the second frequency bandwidth do not overlap each other.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 30, 2015Publication date: October 1, 2015Inventors: Ken HANAZAWA, Reishi Kondo
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Publication number: 20140149116Abstract: There are provided a speech synthesis device, a speech synthesis method and a speech synthesis program which can represent a phoneme as a duration shorter than a duration upon modeling according to a statistical method. A speech synthesis device 80 according to the present invention includes a phoneme boundary updating means 81 which, by using a voiced utterance likelihood index which is an index indicating a degree of voiced utterance likelihood of each state which represents a phoneme modeled by a statistical method, updates a phoneme boundary position which is a boundary with other phonemes neighboring to the phoneme.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 8, 2012Publication date: May 29, 2014Applicant: NEC CORPORATIONInventors: Yasuyuki Mitsui, Masanori Kato, Reishi Kondo
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Publication number: 20140136192Abstract: There is provided a waveform processing device for changing power of each pitch waveform of a segment in order to acquire a natural synthesis speech. A power calculation means 71 selects pitch waveforms one by one from a group of pitch waveforms corresponding to a segment, and calculates a scalar indicating power of a selected pitch waveform. A normalization degree calculation means 72 calculates a degree of normalization which is an index indicating a degree of normalization of a pitch waveform selected by the power calculation means 71, as a function value of an increasing function using the scalar as a variable. A change coefficient calculation means 73 calculates a change coefficient for changing an amplitude value of a pitch waveform selected by the power calculation means 71 based on the scalar and the degree of normalization. An amplitude change means 74 multiplies an amplitude value at each sampling point of a pitch waveform selected by the power calculation means 71 by the change coefficient.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 26, 2012Publication date: May 15, 2014Applicant: NEC CORPORATIONInventors: Masanori Kato, Reishi Kondo, Yasuyuki Mitsui
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Patent number: 8630857Abstract: Disclosed is a speech synthesizing apparatus including a segment selection unit that selects a segment suited to a target segment environment from candidate segments, includes a prosody change amount calculation unit that calculates prosody change amount of each candidate segment based on prosody information of candidate segments and the target segment environment, a selection criterion calculation unit that calculates a selection criterion based on the prosody change amount, a candidate selection unit that narrows down selection candidates based on the prosody change amount and the selection criterion, and an optimum segment search unit than searches for an optimum segment from among the narrowed-down candidate segments.Type: GrantFiled: February 15, 2008Date of Patent: January 14, 2014Assignee: NEC CorporationInventors: Masanori Kato, Reishi Kondo, Yasuyuki Mitsui
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Publication number: 20140012584Abstract: There is provided a prosody generator that generates prosody information for implementing highly natural speech synthesis without unnecessarily collecting large quantities of learning data. A data dividing means 81 divides into subspaces the data space of a learning database as an assembly of learning data indicative of the feature quantities of speech waveforms. A density information extracting means 82 extracts density information indicative of the density state in terms of information quantity of the learning data in each of the subspaces divided by the data dividing means 81. A prosody information generating method selecting means 83 selects either a first method or a second method as a prosody information generating method based on the density information, the first method involving generating the prosody information using a statistical technique, the second method involving generating the prosody information using rules based on heuristics.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 10, 2012Publication date: January 9, 2014Applicant: NEC CorporationInventors: Yasuyuki Mitsui, Reishi Kondo, Masanori Kato
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Patent number: 8620663Abstract: A speech synthesis system includes a server device and a client device. The server device stores speech element information and speech element identification information in association with each other so that, in a case that speech element information representing respective speech elements included in speech uttered by a speech registering user are arranged in the order of arrangement of the speech elements in the speech, at least one of speech element identification information identifying the respective speech element information has different information from information arranged in accordance with a predetermined rule. The client device transmits speech element identification information to the server device based on accepted text information. The client device executes a speech synthesis process based on the speech element information received from the server device.Type: GrantFiled: June 22, 2009Date of Patent: December 31, 2013Assignee: NEC CorporationInventors: Reishi Kondo, Masanori Kato, Yasuyuki Mitsui
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Patent number: 8606583Abstract: This speech synthesis system includes a server device and a client device. The client device accepts text information representing text, and transmits a speech element request to the server device. The server device stores speech element information. The server device receives the speech element request transmitted by the client device and, in response to the received speech element request, transmits speech element information to the client device so that the speech element information is received by the client device in a different order from an order of arrangement of speech elements in speech corresponding to the text. The client device executes a speech synthesis process by rearranging the speech element information so that speech elements represented by the received speech element information are arranged in the same order as the order of arrangement of the speech elements in the speech corresponding to the text.Type: GrantFiled: June 22, 2009Date of Patent: December 10, 2013Assignee: NEC CorporationInventors: Reishi Kondo, Masanori Kato, Yasuyuki Mitsui
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Publication number: 20130325477Abstract: A speech synthesis system includes: a training database storing training data which is set of features extracted from speech waveform data; a feature space division unit which divides a feature space which is a space concerning to the training data into partial spaces; a sparse or dense state detection unit which detects a sparse or dense state to each partial space which is the divided feature space, generates sparse or dense information which is information indicating the sparse or dense state and outputs the sparse or dense information; and a pronunciation information correcting unit which corrects pronunciation information which is used for speech synthesis based on the outputted sparse or dense information.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 17, 2012Publication date: December 5, 2013Applicant: NEC CorporationInventors: Yasuyuki Mitsui, Reishi Kondo, Masanori Kato
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Patent number: 8407054Abstract: A speech synthesis device is provided with: a central segment selection unit for selecting a central segment from among a plurality of speech segments; a prosody generation unit for generating prosody information based on the central segment; a non-central segment selection unit for selecting a non-central segment, which is a segment outside of a central segment section, based on the central segment and the prosody information; and a waveform generation unit for generating a synthesized speech waveform based on the prosody information, the central segment, and the non-central segment. The speech synthesis device first selects a central segment that forms a basis for prosody generation and generates prosody information based on the central segment so that it is possible to sufficiently reduce both concatenation distortion and sound quality degradation accompanying prosody control in the section of the central segment.Type: GrantFiled: April 28, 2008Date of Patent: March 26, 2013Assignee: NEC CorporationInventors: Masanori Kato, Yasuyuki Mitsui, Reishi Kondo
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Publication number: 20110137655Abstract: A speech synthesis system includes a server device and a client device. The server device stores speech element information and speech element identification information in association with each other so that, in a case that speech element information representing respective speech elements included in speech uttered by a speech registering user are arranged in the order of arrangement of the speech elements in the speech, at least one of speech element identification information identifying the respective speech element information has different information from information arranged in accordance with a predetermined rule. The client device transmits speech element identification information to the server device based on accepted text information. The client device executes a speech synthesis process based on the speech element information received from the server device.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 22, 2009Publication date: June 9, 2011Inventors: Reishi Kondo, Masanori Kato, Yasuyuki Mitsui
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Publication number: 20110115469Abstract: An optical fiber electric current sensor includes a polarization-splitter (13) that splits light outputted from a sensor fiber (11) into two polarization planes of which polarization directions are perpendicular to each other, a depolarizer (17) that depolarizes each of the polarization components from the polarization-splitter (13), light receiving element that converts the two lights that were depolarized by the depolarizer (17) to a first signal (S1) and a second signal (S2) respectively, and a signal processing unit (15) that, based on the first signal (S1) and the second signal (S2), determines the magnitude of a Faraday rotation applied to the linearly-polarized light, and thereby calculates a value of the current to be measured.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 15, 2009Publication date: May 19, 2011Applicants: THE TOKYO ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY, INCORPORATED, TAKAOKA ELECTRIC MFG. CO., LTD.Inventors: Reishi Kondo, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Shinsuke Nasukawa, Taro Kuramochi, Toshiharu Yamada, Eiji Itakura
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Publication number: 20110106538Abstract: This speech synthesis system includes a server device and a client device. The client device accepts text information representing text, and transmits a speech element request to the server device. The server device stores speech element information. The server device receives the speech element request transmitted by the client device and, in response to the received speech element request, transmits speech element information to the client device so that the speech element information is received by the client device in a different order from an order of arrangement of speech elements in speech corresponding to the text. The client device executes a speech synthesis process by rearranging the speech element information so that speech elements represented by the received speech element information are arranged in the same order as the order of arrangement of the speech elements in the speech corresponding to the text.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 22, 2009Publication date: May 5, 2011Inventors: Reishi Kondo, Masanori Kato, Yasuyuki Mitsui
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Publication number: 20100305949Abstract: It is possible to provide a speech synthesis device, speech synthesis method, and speech synthesis program which can improve a speech quality and reduce a calculation amount with a preferable balance between them. The speech synthesis device includes: a sub-score calculation unit (60/65) which calculates a segment selection sub-score for selecting an optimal segment; and a candidate narrowing unit (70/73) for narrowing the candidates according to the number of the candidate segments and the segment selection sub score. The speech synthesis device performs candidate narrowing by the sub score calculation unit (60/65) and the candidate narrowing unit (70/73) in the candidate selection process when generating a synthesized speech from an input text.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 25, 2008Publication date: December 2, 2010Inventors: Masanori Kato, Yasuyuki Mitsui, Reishi Kondo
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Publication number: 20100223058Abstract: A speech synthesis device includes a pitch pattern generation unit (104) which generates a pitch pattern by combining, based on pitch pattern target data including phonemic information formed from at least syllables, phonemes, and words, a standard pattern which approximately expresses the rough shape of the pitch pattern and an original utterance pattern which expresses the pitch pattern of a recorded speech, a unit waveform selection unit (106) which selects unit waveform data based on the generated pitch pattern and upon selection, selects original utterance unit waveform data corresponding to the original utterance pattern in a section where the original utterance pattern is used, and a speech waveform generation unit (107) which generates a synthetic speech by editing the selected unit waveform data so as to reproduce prosody represented by the generated pitch pattern.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 28, 2008Publication date: September 2, 2010Inventors: Yasuyuki Mitsui, Reishi Kondo
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Publication number: 20100211393Abstract: A speech synthesis device is provided with: a central segment selection unit for selecting a central segment from among a plurality of speech segments; a prosody generation unit for generating prosody information based on the central segment; a non-central segment selection unit for selecting a non-central segment, which is a segment outside of a central segment section, based on the central segment and the prosody information; and a waveform generation unit for generating a synthesized speech waveform based on the prosody information, the central segment, and the non-central segment. The speech synthesis device first selects a central segment that forms a basis for prosody generation and generates prosody information based on the central segment so that it is possible to sufficiently reduce both concatenation distortion and sound quality degradation accompanying prosody control in the section of the central segment.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 28, 2008Publication date: August 19, 2010Inventors: Masanori Kato, Yasuyuki Mitsui, Reishi Kondo
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Publication number: 20100076768Abstract: Disclosed is a speech synthesizing apparatus including a segment selection unit that selects a segment suited to a target segment environment from candidate segments, includes a prosody change amount calculation unit that calculates prosody change amount of each candidate segment based on prosody information of candidate segments and the target segment environment, a selection criterion calculation unit that calculates a selection criterion based on the prosody change amount, a candidate selection unit that narrows down selection candidates based on the prosody change amount and the selection criterion, and an optimum segment search unit than searches for an optimum segment from among the narrowed-down candidate segments.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 15, 2008Publication date: March 25, 2010Applicant: NEC CORPORATIONInventors: Masanori Kato, Reishi Kondo, Yasuyuki Mitsui