Data processing: speech signal processing – linguistics – language – Speech signal processing – Synthesis
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-03
2001-12-25
Dorvil, Richemond (Department: 2641)
Data processing: speech signal processing, linguistics, language
Speech signal processing
Synthesis
C704S260000, C704S270000, C704S272000, C704S275000, C704S278000, C463S040000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06334104
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a sound effects affixing system. More to particularly, this invention relates to a sound effects affixing system and a sound effects affixing method for affixing sound effects automatically to a text document.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
Formerly, this kind of system for affixing sound effect to the text reading is utilized for the purpose of provision of presence to the reading speech. As the conventional system of this kind, for instance, the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 7-72888 discloses an information processing device which enables speech output to which the sound effects are affixed by extracting environment of the scene using natural language processing.
FIG. 1
is a view showing a constitution of the information processing device proposed therein. Referring to
FIG. 1
, the information processing device comprises a key board
1010
for inputting a sentences, a document input unit
1020
, a memory
1030
for storing therein the inputted sentences, a natural language processing unit
1040
for analyzing the sentences, a characters characteristic extraction unit
1060
for extracting characteristic of the characters who appear in the inputted sentences, a speech synthesizing unit
1090
for synthesizing speech using characteristic of the characters, an environment extraction unit
1050
for extracting environment described in the sentences from the sentences, a sound effects generation unit
1070
for generating the sound effects from the extracted environment, and a sound output unit
1080
mixing synthesizing synthesized speech with the sound effects to output sound with some effect processing (reverb, echo, and so on).
FIG. 2
is a view showing a constitution of the environment extraction unit
1050
. Referring to
FIG. 2
, the environment extraction unit
1050
consists of an environment extracting section
1110
and an environment table
1120
.
FIG. 3
is a view showing one example of the environment table
1120
.
Next, there is described about a part concerning sound effects affixing referring to
FIGS. 1
,
2
, and
3
.
The sentences inputted from the key board
1010
, or the document input unit
1020
are accumulated in the memory
1030
as the text data. The natural language processing unit
1040
implements a morpheme analysis and a construction analysis to analyze natural language in relation to accumulated sentences in the memory
1030
.
On the other hand, the environment extraction unit
1050
extracts environment from result of analysis of the text outputted from the natural language processing unit
1040
.
In the case of extraction of the environment, firstly, the environment extraction unit
1050
extracts pair of the subject and verb from the text to query the index of sound to the environment table
1121
shown in FIG.
3
. For instance, when it is obtained that:
a subject: wind
a verb: blow
from a part of “The wind blows at the top of the hill”, the environment extraction unit
1050
outputs an index “natural 2”
1230
of the corresponding sound effects based on referring to the environment table
1120
(FIG.
3
).
Thus the information processing device inputs the obtained index of the sound
1230
to the sound effects generation unit
1070
to generate the sound effects whose index is obtained, before inputting to the sound output unit
1080
.
However, in the above described information processing device, although it is capable of affixing the sound effects, there exists also following problems:
The first problem is that the processing of the sound effects affixing is complicated, so that time of processing and retrieval becomes long.
The reason is that the information processing device is implementing the natural language processing in relation to the whole sentences.
The second problem is that it does not make the use of the onomatopoeias as being the concrete representation of the sound.
The reason is that the information processing device is implementing the processing which pays attention to only the subject and verb of the sentences.
The third problem is that it is incapable of being affixed the background music to the sentences.
The reason is that it is the same reason as that of the second problem.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention, in order to overcome the above mentioned problems, to provide a sound effects affixing system and a sound effects affixing method which is capable of being processed in a short time.
It is another object of the present invention, to provide a sound effects affixing system and a sound effects affixing method for affixing sound effects faithfully to sound representation within the text document.
It is still another object of the present invention, to provide a background music affixing device for affixing background music automatically.
There will be described outline of the present invention. The present invention acquires onomatopoeias, sound source names, and subjective words of sentences in order to select sound effects corresponding thereto.
Here, the subjective word is defined that the subjective word means a word (for instance, Mild, Sharp, Metallic, and so forth) such as an adjective and so forth utilized by describing the sound.
More concretely, the device of the present invention comprises a keyword extraction means for acquiring the onomatopoeias, the sound source names, and the subjective words from the sentences and a sound retrieval means for retrieving the sound effects using these keywords.
Further, the present invention selects background music from a music database in answer to number of appearance of the subjective words appears in the sentences. More concretely, the device of the present invention comprises a keyword extraction means for acquiring the subjective words from the sentences, a keyword counting means for counting the subjective word appears in the sentences, and a sound retrieval means for retrieving music data according to the subjective words.
In the description of the sound, there is characteristic to be utilized onomatopoeias, sound source names, and subjective words frequently, therefore, the keyword extraction means acquires these kinds of keywords from the sentences.
The sound retrieval means selects the sound effects corresponding to the sentences by retrieving the sound effects data using obtained keywords.
Further, when music is affixing to the sentences, the keyword extraction means acquires only subjective words as keywords from the sentences.
The keyword counting means counts the number of each subjective words obtained. When the count number exceeds the threshold value, the sound retrieval means retrieves the music according to this subjective word because it can be regarded the tendency of the sentences is like the subjective word represents.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, in order to achieve the above-mentioned objects, there is provided a sound effects affixing method which comprises steps of a step for acquiring a sentences in every prescribed unit from inputted text data, a step for extracting at least one kind in onomatopoeias, sound source names, and subjective words within said sentences, a step for retrieving corresponding sound effects from sound database with any of extracted the onomatopoeias, the sound source names, and the subjective words, and a step for outputting synthesized speech for reading said sentences synchronized with retrieved sound effects corresponding to one of the onomatopoeias, the sound source names, and the subjective words.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, there is provided a sound effects affixing method, wherein the prescribed unit is any of a passage, a sentence, or a paragraph.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sound effects affixing device which comprises a text acquisition means for acquiring a sentences in every prescribed unit from an inputted text data, an onomatopoeias extraction means for
Dorvil Richemond
Foley & Lardner
NEC Corporation
Nolan Daniel A
LandOfFree
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