Speech synthesizer

Abstract

The present invention relates to a technology capable of providing a hearer with an easy-to-hear synthetic speech to the hearer. The speech synthesizer includes an input unit receiving an input of a sentence, a generation unit generating synthetic speech data from the sentence inputted to the input unit, an accumulation unit accumulating the sentence inputted to the input unit, a collation unit acquiring, when a sentence is newly inputted to the input unit, a collation target sentence that should be collated with this new sentence from the accumulation unit, and calculating a variation degree of the new sentence from the collation target sentence through the collation between the new sentence and the collation target sentence, a calculation unit calculating a variation coefficient corresponding to the variation degree, and a correction unit correcting the synthetic speech data with the variation coefficient.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a basic configuration of a speech synthesizer in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a collation method setting window according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a collation mode setting window according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a variation coefficient maximum value/minimum value setting window according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an interpolation interval setting window according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the mode of [collation with just-anterior sentence] according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the mode of [collation with all of collating target sentences] according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a first calculation example of a variation degree according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of a second calculation example of the variation degree according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a process in the speech synthesizer in the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a table showing an example of data for generating the synthetic speech according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a table showing a pitch pattern according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13A is an explanatory diagram showing a speed coefficient according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13B is an explanatory diagram showing a pitch coefficient according to the embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 14 is a diagram of a basic configuration of the speech synthesizer in a modified example of the present invention.

Claims

1. A speech synthesizer comprising: an input unit receiving an input of a sentence;a generation unit generating synthetic speech data from the sentence inputted to the input unit;an accumulation unit accumulating the sentence inputted to the input unit;a collation unit acquiring, when a sentence is newly inputted to the input unit, a collation target sentence that should be collated with this new sentence from the accumulation unit, and calculating a variation degree of the new sentence from the collation target sentence through the collation between the new sentence and the collation target sentence;a calculation unit calculating a variation coefficient corresponding to the variation degree; anda correction unit correcting the synthetic speech data with the variation coefficient.

2. A speech synthesizer according to claim 1, wherein the collation unit segments each of the new sentence and the collation target sentence into a plurality of segmental parts according to a predetermined rule, and obtains a variation degree of the new sentence from the collation target sentence with respect to each of the plurality of segmental parts, andthe calculation unit calculates the variation coefficient for every variation degree.

3. A speech synthesizer according to claim 1, wherein the collation unit makes the collation between the sentences belonging to a predetermined collation range.

4. A speech synthesizer according to claim 3, wherein the collation unit makes the collation between a predetermined number of sentences.

5. A speech synthesizer according to claim 3, wherein the collation unit makes the collation between the sentences contained in a predetermined time range.

6. A speech synthesizer according to claim 1, wherein the collation unit makes the collation between at least the new sentence and a sentence inputted just anterior to this new sentence.

7. A speech synthesizer according to claim 1, wherein the collation unit collates, when a plurality of sentences is acquired as the collation target sentences from the accumulation unit, the new sentence with the plurality of sentences, respectively.

8. A speech synthesizer according to claim 1, wherein the calculation unit calculates a speed coefficient as the variation coefficient, and the correction unit corrects a phoneme length of the new sentence with the speed coefficient.

9. A speech synthesizer according to claim 1, wherein the calculation unit calculates a pitch coefficient as the variation coefficient, andthe correction unit corrects a pitch pattern of the new sentence with the pitch coefficient.

10. A speech synthesizer according to claim 1, wherein the calculation unit calculates a volume coefficient as the variation coefficient, andthe correction unit corrects a volume of the new sentence with the volume coefficient.

11. A speech synthesizer according to claim 2, further comprising an adjusting unit setting, if a change occurs in the variation coefficient between a certain segmental part of the new sentence and a segmental part subsequent to the certain segmental part and when there is no silence interval between these segmental parts, an interpolation interval and adjusting the variation coefficient so that a variation coefficient corresponding to the certain segmental part gently changes to a variation coefficient corresponding to the subsequent segmental part.

12. A program for causing a computer to execute the steps of: generating synthetic speech data from a sentence inputted to an input unit;acquiring, when a sentence is newly inputted to the input unit, a collation target sentence that should be collated with this new sentence from an accumulation unit accumulating the sentence inputted to the input unit, and calculating a variation degree of the new sentence from the collation target sentence through collation between the new sentence and the collation target sentence;calculating a variation coefficient corresponding to the variation degree; andcorrecting the synthetic speech data with the variation coefficient.