| Class / Patent application number | Description | Number of patent applications / Date published |
|---|
| 704261000 | Vocal tract model | 9 |
| 20090313024 | Speech Generation User Interface - A system and a method for speech generation which assist the speech of those with a disability or a medical condition such as cerebral palsy, motor neurone disease or a dysarthia following a stroke. The system has a user interface having a multiplicity of states each of which correspond to a sound and a selector for making a selection of a state or a combination of states. The system also has a processor for processing the selected state or combination of states and an audio output for outputting the sound or combination of sounds. The sounds associated with the states can be phonemes or phonics and the user interface is typically a manually operable device such as a mouse, trackball, joystick or other device that allows a user to distinguish between states by manipulating the interface to a number of positions. | 12-17-2009 |
| 20090306988 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR REDUCING SPEECH INTELLIGIBILITY WHILE PRESERVING ENVIRONMENTAL SOUNDS - An audio privacy system reduces the intelligibility of speech in an audio signal while preserving prosodic information, such as pitch, relative energy and intonation so that a listener has the ability to recognize environmental sounds but not the speech itself. An audio signal is processed to separate non-vocalic information, such as pitch and relative energy of speech, from vocalic regions, after which syllables are identified within the vocalic regions. Representations of the vocalic regions are computed to produce a vocal tract transfer function and an excitation. The vocal tract transfer function for each syllable is then replaced with the vocal tract transfer function from another prerecorded vocalic sound. In one aspect, the identity of the replacement vocalic sound is independent of the identity of the syllable being replaced. A modified audio signal is then synthesized with the original prosodic information and the modified vocal tract transfer function to produce unintelligible speech that preserves the pitch and energy of the speech as well as environmental sounds. | 12-10-2009 |
| 20100004934 | SPEECH SEPARATING APPARATUS, SPEECH SYNTHESIZING APPARATUS, AND VOICE QUALITY CONVERSION APPARATUS - A speech separating apparatus includes: a PARCOR calculating unit ( | 01-07-2010 |
| 20080288258 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SPEECH ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS - The present invention provides a speech analysis method comprising steps of obtaining a speech signal and a corresponding DEGG/EGG signal; regarding the speech signal as the output of a vocal tract filter in a source-filter model taking the DEGG/EGG signal as the input; and estimating the features of the vocal tract filter from the speech signal as the output and the DEGG/EGG signal as the input, wherein the features of the vocal tract filter are expressed by the state vectors of the vocal tract filter at selected time points, and the step of estimating is performed using Kalman filtering. | 11-20-2008 |
| 20090222269 | SENTENCE READING ALOUD APPARATUS, CONTROL METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE SAME, AND CONTROL PROGRAM FOR CONTROLLING THE SAME - An apparatus for voice synthesis includes: a word database for storing words and voices; a syllable database for storing syllables and voices; a processor for executing a process including: extracting a word from a document, generating a voice signal based on the extracted voice when the extracted word is included in the word database synthesizing a voice signal based on the extracted voice associated with the one or more syllables corresponding to the extracted word when the extracted word is not found in the word database; a speaker for producing a voice based on either of the generated and the synthesized voice signal; and a display for selectively displaying the extracted word when the voice based on the synthesized voice signal is produced by the speaker. | 09-03-2009 |
| 20090222268 | SPEECH SYNTHESIS SYSTEM HAVING ARTIFICIAL EXCITATION SIGNAL - A speech synthesis system synthesizes a speech signal corresponding to an input speech signal based on a spectral envelope of the input speech signal. A glottal pulse generator generates a time series of glottal pulses, that are processed into a glottal pulse magnitude spectrum. A shaping circuit shapes the glottal pulse magnitude spectrum based on the spectral envelope and generates a shaped glottal pulse magnitude spectrum. A harmonic null adjustment circuit reduces harmonic nulls in the shaped glottal pulse magnitude spectrum and generates a null-adjusted synthesized speech spectrum. An inverse transform circuit generates a null-adjusted time-series speech signal. An overlap and add circuit synthesizes the speech signal based on the null-adjusted time-series speech signal. | 09-03-2009 |
| 20100217601 | SPEECH PROCESSING APPARATUS AND METHOD EMPLOYING FEEDBACK - A speech processing system includes a plurality of signal analyzers that extract salient signal attributes of an input voice signal. A difference module computes the differences in the salient signal attributes. One or more control modules control a plurality of speech generators using an output signal from the difference module in a speech-locked loop (SLL), the speech generators use the output signal to generate a voice signal. | 08-26-2010 |
| 20090063156 | VOICE SYNTHESIS METHOD AND INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION METHOD, PARTICULARLY FOR MULTIPLAYER ONLINE GAMES - A voice synthesis method, said method comprising a step of choosing a synthetic voice from among a set of voices having predetermined spectral signatures and a step of recording the natural voice of a first person, the method comprising a step of transforming the natural recorded voice so as to conform with the spectral signature of the chosen synthetic voice, the natural voice thereby transformed being recorded, said method comprising a step of determining at least one situation parameter for a first character from among a set of predefined parameters, each predefined parameter being associated with a spectral alteration of the emitted voice, the determined situation parameter particularly characterizing the environment or the physical or psychological state of the character, the method comprising a step of spectrally altering the transformed natural voice so as to conform with the spectral alteration associated with the character's situation parameter. | 03-05-2009 |
| 20090063155 | ROBOT APPARATUS WITH VOCAL INTERACTIVE FUNCTION AND METHOD THEREFOR - The present invention provides a robot apparatus with a vocal interactive function. The robot apparatus receives a vocal input, and recognizes the vocal input. The robot apparatus stores a plurality of output data, an output count of each of the output data, and a weighted value of each of the output data. The robot apparatus outputs output data according to the weighted values of all the output data corresponding to the vocal input, and adds one to the output count of the output data. The robot apparatus calculates the weighted values of all the output data corresponding to the vocal input according to the output count. Consequently, the robot apparatus may output different and variable output data when receiving the same vocal input. The present invention also provides a vocal interactive method adapted for the robot apparatus. | 03-05-2009 |
