Patents by Inventor Stefaan Willems

Stefaan Willems 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).

  • Apparatus and method for electronically generating a spoken message
    Patent number: 6052664
    Abstract: The present invention describes an apparatus and method for generating phonetico-prosodic parameters of a predetermined message starting from a source message. The predetermined message comprises carriers and phrases. The phonetico-prosodic parameters of the carriers and the phrases are stored in a memory after having been generated off-line. The invention also comprises an apparatus and method for electronically generating a spoken message starting from phonetico-prosodic parameters, stored in said memory. The carriers comprise fixed parts and open slots filled with arguments. The phonetico-prosodic parameters of the arguments to be filled in in the open slots are generated at run time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 1997
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2000
    Assignee: Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V.
    Inventors: Bert Van Coile, Stefaan Willems, Steven Leys
  • Apparatus for electronically generating a spoken message
    Patent number: 5727120
    Abstract: 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.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 1996
    Date of Patent: March 10, 1998
    Assignee: Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V.
    Inventors: Bert Van Coile, Stefaan Willems, Steven Leys
  • Method for electronically generating a spoken message
    Patent number: 5592585
    Abstract: 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.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 1995
    Date of Patent: January 7, 1997
    Assignee: Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.C.
    Inventors: Bert Van Coile, Stefaan Willems, Steven Leys