Telephonic communications – Audio message storage – retrieval – or synthesis – Voice activation or recognition
Reexamination Certificate
1998-06-16
2001-09-11
Tsang, Fan (Department: 2645)
Telephonic communications
Audio message storage, retrieval, or synthesis
Voice activation or recognition
C379S067100, C379S088160, C379S088190, C379S088270, C379S093240, C704S258000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06289085
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a voice mail system, a voice synthesizing device and a method therefor for reading the content of an electronic text mail in a voice of a feature inherent to each sender of the electronic mail.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There has been a use of a voice mail system which outputs the content of an electronic mail in a voice.
As an example of such voice mail system, Japanese Published Unexamined Patent PUPA 5-260082(reference 1) discloses a first text reading device for providing a voice output of a text by using phonemes of vowel sounds corresponding to an identifier (ID) of the sending side and a second text reading device in which the sending terminal sent an electronic mail with a parameter included therein and the receiving terminal provided a voice output of a text by using the received parameter.
However, the first text reading device disclosed in the reference 1 had to register phonemes in correlation to the ID of the sending side in each of the terminals so that it was cumbersome to set the phonemes and it was hard to change the setting once the phonemes has been set in the terminal.
It addition, the first text reading device selected phonemes of only the vowel sounds for voice output of the text so that it was not capable of providing a voice output of a text in a voice feature including a consonant inherent to each of users who sent an electronic mail.
In addition, because the first text reading device can correlate only one sender ID to only one set of phonemes, it is necessary to register in each terminal a plurality of phonemes of the same content with only the sender ID altered when the user who sent an electronic mail having a plurality of IDs attempts to voice output in a same voice feature using whatever ID so that resource in the terminal devise is wasted and the number of phonemes which can be registered is reduced.
Further, the second text reading device disclosed in the reference 1 sends an electronic mail with phonemes of vowel sounds and a pitch of the voice of the sending user included therein so that the data quantity of the electronic mail tends to increase and invites a congestion in the communication network.
Further, once the voice feature data has been spread over the terminals within the network, it is difficult to limit the use of the voice feature data and the voice feature data may be used by an unauthorized third party leading to a disadvantage of the author of the voice feature data.
Further, there may be a need to limit the usable range of the voice feature data to prevent unsuitable occasion from taking place such as voice outputting the mail to a customer in a casual rhythm, for example, when there is a possibility that a voice feature data in a casual rhythm is stored in the customer's terminal device.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a voice mail system, a voice synthesizing device and a method therefor in which the voice feature in the voice output of an electronic mail is easily set up while a text can be outputted in a voice in a voice feature inherent to each of users who sent the electronic mail.
It is another object of this invention to provide a voice mail system, a voice synthesizing device and a method therefor which is capable of outputting a text in a voice of a voice feature inherent to each of users who sent the electronic mail without adding to each of electronic mails data (voice feature data) indicating the voice feature of the voice when outputted.
It is another object of this invention to provide a voice mail system, a voice synthesizing device and a method therefor in which each voice feature data may be shared with any number of sending IDs while preventing waste of resources of terminals caused by registering a plurality of same voice feature data even when the same user has a plurality of IDs and allowing many voice feature data to be registered in each of terminals.
It is another object of this invention to provide a voice mail system, a voice synthesizing device and a method therefor which can limit the use of voice feature data to a given time period even after the voice feature data have been spread over the network for preventing disadvantages to the author caused by an unauthorized use by a third party.
It is another object of this invention to provide a voice mail system, a voice synthesizing device and a method therefor which can limit the usable range of the voice feature data to prevent unsuitable use of the voice feature data.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
To achieve the above objects, a mode of the voice mail system of this invention (a first voice mail system) provides a voice mail system comprising a plurality of terminal devices connected through a network as communication nodes, in which said terminal devices each comprising; voice feature control means for controlling each of said voice feature data which indicates each of voice features of a plurality of voices in correlation with one or more identifier which are unique within the network, mail reception means for receiving a mail containing at least a communication message and said identifier, voice synthesizer means for synthesizing a voice which represents the content of the communication message contained in the received mail in a voice feature indicated by said voice feature data which is controlled in correlation with said identifier contained in the received mail, and voice output means for outputting said synthesized voice.
Another mode of the voice mail system of this invention (a second voice mail system) provides a voice mail system comprising one or more terminal devices and one or more voice mail server devices connected through a network as communication nodes, in which said voice mail server device comprising; voice feature control means for controlling each of said voice feature data which indicates each of voice features of a plurality of voices in correlation with one or more identifiers which are unique within the network, mail reception means for receiving a mail containing at least a communication message and said identifier, voice synthesizer means for synthesizing a voice which represents the content of the communication message contained in the received mail in a voice feature indicated by said voice feature data which is controlled in correlation with said identifier contained in the received mail, and voice output means for outputting said synthesized voice to one or more of said plurality of terminal devices in response to a request from one or more of said plurality of terminal devices.
In another mode of the voice mail system of this invention, each of said terminal devices is provided with mail sending means for sending said mail to other communication node through said network.
In another mode of the voice mail system of this invention, said mail contains at least a communication message and said identifier of the sending party and said voice synthesizer means synthesizes a voice representing the content of the communication message contained in said received mail in a voice feature which said voice feature data indicates in correlation with said identifier of the sending party contained in said received mail.
Another mode of the voice mail system of this invention further comprises voice data extracting means for extracting voice feature data indicating each of voices inputted and sending it to each of said communication nodes through said network in correlation with one or more identifiers each being unique within said network, and said voice feature data control means receiving said extracted voice feature data through the network for controlling the received voice feature data in correlation with one or more identifiers which are unique within the network.
In another mode of the voice mail system of this invention, each of said communication nodes comprises clock means for measuring an operating time, each of said voice feature data including time limit data indicating the limit of using that voice feature data, and said voice synth
Miyashita Shichiro
Saito Takashi
Escalante Ovidio
International Business Machines - Corporation
Tassinari, Jr. Robert P.
Tsang Fan
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