 |
|
|
|
|
|
 Title: |
US5327521:
Speech transformation system
[ Derwent Title ]
|
| Country: |
US United States of America
|
| |
| Inventor: |
Savic, Michael I.; Ballston Lake, NY
Tan, Seow-Hwee; Glendale, CA
Nam, Il-Hyun; Seoul, Republic of Korea
|
| Assignee: |
The Walt Disney Company, Burbank, CA
other patents from WALT DISNEY COMPANY (617665) (approx. 101)
News, Profiles, Stocks and More about this company
|
| Published / Filed: |
1994-07-05
/ 1993-08-31
|
| Application Number: |
US1993000114603
|
| IPC Code: |
Advanced:
G10L 21/00;
IPC-7:
G10L 3/00;
|
| ECLA Code: |
G10L21/00; S10L21/013M;
|
| U.S. Class: |
Current:
704/272;
704/200;
704/203;
704/E21.001;
Original:
395/002.81;
395/002.12;
395/002;
|
| Field of Search: |
381/061,62,36-40,43,45,49,50,53,54
395/2.67,2,2.7,2.79,2.81,2.87,2.12
|
| Priority Number: |
| 1993-08-31 |
US1993000114603 |
| 1992-03-02 |
US1992000845375 |
|
| Abstract: |
A high quality voice transformation system and method operates during a training mode to store voice signal characteristics representing target and source voices. Thereafter, during a real time transformation mode, a signal representing source speech is segmented into overlapping segments, analyzed to separate the excitation spectrum from the tone quality spectrum. A stored target tone quality spectrum is substituted for the source spectrum and then convolved with the actual source speech excitation spectrum to produce a transformed speech signal having the word and excitation content of the source, but the acoustical characteristics of a target speaker. The system may be used to enable a talking, costumed character, or in other applications where a source speaker wishes to imitate the voice characteristics of a different, target speaker.
|
| Attorney, Agent or Firm: |
Pretty, Schroeder, Brueggemann & Clark ;
|
| Primary / Asst. Examiners: |
Knepper, David D.;
|
| INPADOC Legal Status: |
Show legal status actions
Family Legal Status Report
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Parent Case: |
This application is a continuation of a prior pending application, application Ser. No. 07/845,375, filed on Mar. 2, 1992, now abandoned.
|
| Designated Country: |
EP JP
|
| Family: |
Show 2 known family members
|
First Claim:
Show all 11 claims |
What is claimed is:
1. For use with a costume depicting a character having a defined voice with a pre-established voice characteristic, a voice transformation system comprising:
- a microphone that is positionable to receive and transduce speech that is spoken by a person wearing the costume into a source speech signal;
- a mask that is positionable to cover the mouth of the person wearing the costume to muffle the speech of the person wearing the costume to tend to prevent communication of the speech beyond the costume, the mask enabling placement of the microphone between the mouth and the mask;
- a speaker disposed on or within the costume to broadcast acoustic waves carrying speech in the defined voice of the character depicted by the costume; and
- a voice transformation device coupled to receive the signal from the microphone representing source speech spoken by a person wearing the costume, the voice transformation device transforming the received source speech signal to a target speech signal representing the utterances of the source speech signals in the defined voice of the character depicted by the costume;
- wherein the voice transformation device stores a plurality of representations of the defined voice and transforms the voice of the person wearing the costume into the same defined voice of the character depicted by the costume, based upon association of the voice of the particular person with particular ones of the stored representations.
|
| Background / Summary: |
Show background / summary
|
| Drawing Descriptions: |
Show drawing descriptions
|
| Description: |
Show description
|
| Forward References: |
Show 151 U.S. patent(s) that reference this one
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Foreign References: |
|
| Other Abstract Info: |
DERABS G93-303736
|
| Other References: |
ICASSP'91 (1991 International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, Toronto, Ontario, 14-17 May 1991), vol. 2, IEEE, (New York, US), M. ABE: "A segment-based approach to voice conversion", pp. 765-768, see p. 765, right-hand column, lines 2-28.
ICASSP'88 (1988) International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, New York, 11-14 Apr. 1988), vol. 1, IEEE, (New York, US), V. Goncharoff et al.: "Adaptive speech modification by spectral warping", pp. 343-346, see paragraph 2: Spectral envelope modification, figure 1.
Systems and Computers in Japan, vol. 21, No. 10, 1990 (New York, US), M. Abe et al.: "A speech modification method by signal reconstruction using short-tern Fourier transform", pp. 26-33, see figure 1.
IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, vol. ASSP-28, No. 1, Feb. 1980, (New York, US), R. E. Crochiere: "A weighted overlap-add method of short-time Fourier analysis/synthesis", pp. 99-102, see abstract: figure 2.
(4 pages)
Cited by 11 patents
Onzieme Colloque sur le Traitement du Signal et des Images (Nice, 1-5 Jun. 1987), Gretsi, (Paris, FR), J. Crestel et al.: "Un systeme pour l'amelioration des communications en plongee profonde", pp. 435-438, see figure 2.
A. Oppenheim and R. Schafer, Digital Signal Processing, Prentice-Hall, (1975), pp. 284-327.
L. Rabiner and R. Schafer, Digital processing of speech Signals, Prentice-Hall, (1978), pp. 303-306.
L. Rabiner and R. Schafer, Digital Processing of Speech Signals, Prentice-Hall, (1978), pp. 411-413.
S. Roucos and A. Wilgus, "High Quality Time-Scale Modification for Speech," IEEE International Conference on Acoustic, Speech and Signal Processing, CH2118-8/85/0000-0493, pp. 493-496, (Mar. 26-29, 1985).
M. Abe, S. Nakamura, K. Shikano, and H. Kuwabara, "Voice Conversion Through Vector Quantization", IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, (Apr. 1988), pp. 655-658.
M. Abe, S. Tamura and H. Kuwabara, "A New Speech Modification Method by Signal Reconstruction", IEEE International Conference on Acoustic, Speech, and Signal Processing, (Apr. 1989), pp. 592-595.
L. Almeida and F. Silva, "Variable-Frequency Synthesis: An Improved Harmonic Coding Scheme", Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Acoustic, Speech, and Signal Processing, (Mar. 1984), pp. 27.5.1-27.5.4.
H. Bonneau and J. Gauvain, "Vector Quantization for Speaker Adaption", Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Acoustic, Speech and Signal Processing, (Apr. 1987), pp. 1434-1437.
D. Childers, "Talking Computers: Replacing Mel Blanc", Computers in Mechanical Engineering, vol. 6, No. 2 (Sep./Oct. 1987), pp. 22-31.
D. Childers, K. Wu, D. Hicks, and B. Yegnanarayana, "Voice Conversion", Speech Communication 8, (1989), pp. 147-158.
(12 pages)
D. Childers, B. Yegnanarayana, and K. Wu, "Voice Conversion: Factors Responsible for Quality", Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Acoustic, Speech, and Signal Processing, (Mar. 1985) pp. 748-751.
D. Griffin and J. Lim, "Signal Estimation from Modified Short-Time Fourier Transform", IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, vol. ASSP-32, No. 2, (Apr. 1984), pp. 236-243.
(8 pages)
Cited by 29 patents
J. Jaschul, "An Approach to Speaker Normalization for Automatic Speech Recogniation", Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Acoustic, Speech, and Signal Processing, (Apr. 1979) pp. 235-238.
M. Portnoff, "Time-Scale Modification of Speech Based on Short-Time Fourier Analysis", IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, vol. ASSP-29, No. 3, (Jun. 1981), pp. 374-390.
(17 pages)
Cited by 11 patents
T. Quatieri and R. McAulay, "Apeech Transformations Based on a Sinusoidal Representation", IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, vol. ASSP-34, No. 6, (Dec. 1986), pp. 1449-1461.
(16 pages)
Cited by 24 patents
M. Ross, H. Shaffer, A. Cohen, F. Freudberg and H. Manley, "Average Magnitude Difference Function Pitch Extractor", IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, vol. ASSP-30, No. 5, (Oct. 1974), pp. 353-362.
(10 pages)
Cited by 9 patents
S. Seneff, "System to Independently Modify Excitation and/or Spectrum of Speech Waveform Without Explicit Pitch Extraction", IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, vol. ASSP-30 No. 4, (Aug. 1982), pp. 566-578.
(13 pages)
Cited by 6 patents
S. Seneff, "Speech Transformation System (Spectrum and/or Excitation) Without Pitch Extraction", Massachusette Institute of Technology, Lincoln Laboratory, Technical Report 541, (Jul. 1980).
L. Rabiner, M. Cheng, A. Rosenberg, and C. McGonegal, "A Comparative Performance Study of Several Pitch Detection Algorithms", IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, vol. 24, No. 5, (Oct. 1976), pp. 399-404.
(20 pages)
Cited by 19 patents
J. Markel and A. Gray, Jr., linear prediction of Speech, Springer-Verlag, (1982).
|
|
 Nominate this for the Gallery...
|
|
