Microcomputer-based system for speech synthesis from a large English text data base

Abstract

The basic goal for the described project is selective and interactive production of synthetic speech from a large data base such as a training manual. In a training environment at a sophisticated computer control console, an operator should learn more effectively and efficiently if both aural and visual senses are used and if his eyes and hands are free to concentrate on the panel before him. The system described includes an operator-directed control strategy to selectively retrieve that part of text which is to be spoken, a considerable amount of text preprocessing in non-real time to obtain synthesizer control parameters, and a microcomputerized cascade terminal analog speech synthesizer. The preprocessing of the English text utilizes an extensive set of translation rules, dictionary lookup of complete words, and morph lexicon lookup of parts of words to produce 123 distinct allophone designators with corresponding stress, pitch, and duration designators. Storage requirements for the preprocessed speech control parameters to be supplied to the real-time speech synthesized are approximately 120 bits/sec of synthesized speech. Example recordings of the synthetic speech produced by this system will be presented. [Work supported by the Naval Ocean Systems Center.]