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This patent was reissued on Oct. 10, 2006 as patent
USRE39336
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 Title: |
US6144939:
Formant-based speech synthesizer employing demi-syllable concatenation with independent cross fade in the filter parameter and source domains
[ Derwent Title ]
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| Country: |
US United States of America
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| Inventor: |
Pearson, Steve; Santa Barbara, CA
Kibre, Nicholas; Lompoc, CA
Niedzielski, Nancy; Santa Barbara, CA
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| Assignee: |
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Osaka, Japan
other patents from MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD. (358975) (approx. 19,828)
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| Published / Filed: |
2000-11-07
/ 1998-11-25
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| Application Number: |
US1998000200327
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| IPC Code: |
Advanced:
G10L 13/04;
G10L 13/06;
Core:
G10L 13/00;
IPC-7:
G06F 15/00;
G10L 13/00;
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| ECLA Code: |
G10L13/06C;
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| U.S. Class: |
Current:
704/258;
704/200;
704/262;
704/265;
704/267;
704/268;
704/E13.01;
Original:
704/258;
704/265;
704/200;
704/262;
704/267;
704/268;
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| Field of Search: |
704/200,258,262,259,265,267
084/600,51
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| Priority Number: |
| 1998-11-25 |
US1998000200327 |
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| Abstract: |
The concatenative speech synthesizer employs demi-syllable subword units to generate speech. The synthesizer is based on a source-filter model that uses source signals that correspond closely to the human glottal source and that uses filter parameters that correspond closely to the human vocal tract. Concatenation of the demi-syllable units is facilitated by two separate cross fade techniques, one applied in the time domain to the demi-syllable source signal waveforms, and one applied in the frequency domain by interpolating the corresponding filter parameters of the concatenated demi-syllables. The dual cross fade technique results in natural sounding synthesis that avoids time-domain glitches without degrading or smearing characteristic resonances in the filter domain.
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| Attorney, Agent or Firm: |
Harness, Dickey & Pierce, P.L.C. ;
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| Primary / Asst. Examiners: |
Smits, Talivaldis I.; Nolan, Daniel A.
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| INPADOC Legal Status: |
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Family Legal Status Report
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| Designated Country: |
AT BE CH CY DE DK ES FI FR GB GR IE IT LI LU MC NL PT SE
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| Family: |
Show 12 known family members
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First Claim:
Show all 7 claims |
What is claimed is:
1. A concatenative speech synthesizer, comprising:
- a database containing (a) demi-syllable waveform data associated with a plurality of demi-syllables and (b) filter parameter data associated with said plurality of demi-syllables;
- a unit selection system for extracting selected demi-syllable waveform data and filter parameters from said database that correspond to an input string to be synthesized;
- a waveform cross fade mechanism for joining pairs of extracted demi-syllable waveform data into syllable waveform signals;
- a filter parameter cross fade mechanism for defining a set of syllable-level filter data by interpolating said extracted filter parameters; and
- a filter module receptive of said set of syllable-level filter data and operative to process said syllable waveform signals to generate synthesized speech.
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| Background / Summary: |
Show background / summary
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| Drawing Descriptions: |
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| Description: |
Show description
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| Forward References: |
Show 16 U.S. patent(s) that reference this one
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| Foreign References: |
None
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| Other Abstract Info: |
DERABS G2000-401704
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| Other References: |
"Spectral Modeling Synthesis: A Sound Analysis/Synthesis System Based on a Deterministic plus Stochastic Decomposition", Xavier Serra and Julius Smith III, Computer Music Journal, vol. 14, No. 4, p. 12, Winter 1990.
"Text To Speech Synthesizer Using Superposition of Sinusoidal Waves Generated By Synchronized Oscillators", K. Shirai, K. Hashimoto and T. Kobayashi, Department of Electrical Engineering, Waseda University, Japan, p. 39, Eurospeech 1991.
"High-Quality Speech Synthesis Using Context-Dependent Syllabic Units", Takashi Saito, Yasuhide Hashimoto, and Masaharu Sakamoto, IBM Research, Tokyo Research Laboratory, IBM Japan, Ltd., Japan, p. 381, IEEE 1996.
"Combining Concatenation and Formant Synthesis for Improved Intelligibility and Naturalness in Text-to-Speech Systems", Steve Pearson, Frode Holm and Kazue Hata, International Journal Of Speech Technology 1, p. 103, 1997.
"Residual-Based Speech Modification Algorithms for Text-to-Speech Synthesis", M. Edgington and A. Lowry, BT Laboratories, Martlesham Heath, U.K., p. 1425.
"Speech Synthesis", M. Stella, p. 435.
"A New Text-To-Speech Synthesis System", E. Lewis, University of Bristol, U. K., and M. A. A. Tatham, University of Essex, U. K., Eurospeech, p. 1235.
"Diphone Synthesis Using Unit Selection", Mark Beutnagel, Alistair Conkie, and Ann K. Syrdal, AT&T Labs-Research, New Jersey.
"A Diphone Synthesis System Based On Time-Domain Prosodic Modifications Of Speech", Christian Hamon, Eric Moulines, and Francis Charpentier, Centre National d'Etudes des Telecommunications, France, S5.7, p. 238.
"Automatic Generation Of Synthesis Units For Trainable Text-To-Speech Systems", H. Hon, A. Acero, X. Huang, J. Liu, and M. Plumpe, Microsoft Research, Redmond, Washington.
"A New Method Of Generating Speech Synthesis Units Based On Phonological Knowledge and Clustering Technique", Yuki Yoshida, Shin'ya Nakajima, Kazuo Hakoda and Tomohisa Hirokawa, NTT Human Interface Laboratories, Japan, p. 1712.
"Automatically Clustering Similar Units For Unit Selection In Speech Synthesis", Alan W. Black and Paul Taylor, Centre for Speech Technology Research, University of Edinburgh, U. K.
Combinatorial Issues In Text-To-Speech Synthesis:, Jan P. H. van Santen, Lucent Technologies, Bell Labs, New Jersey.
"High Quality Text-To-speech Synthesis: A Comparison Of Four Candidate Algorithms", T. Dutoit, Faculte Polytechnique de Mons, Belgium.
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| Continuity Data: |
| Application Number | Filed | Notes |
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US2002000288029 | | is a
reissue of |
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>US1998000200327<
| 1998-11-25 |
(granted)
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US6144939 issued 2000-11-07 2000-11-07 Formant-based speech synthesizer employing demi-syllable concatenation with independent cross fade in the filter parameter and source domains
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