Unit selection based speech synthesis for converting short text message into voice message in mobile phones

Abstract

Mobile phone is a hand-held communication device, the popularity of which has increased unbelievably over the past few years. This is not only because of the ability to make calls but also due to the Short Messaging Service (SMS) provided. Although, the number of people using mobiles is a myriad, there are still people who depend on landline phones for communication. The only way of communication in a landline phone is through voice/speech. Landline phones are not compatible with the short message service provided by mobile phones due to the absence of a screen to display the message received. E-mail is another means of communication, by which digital messages are sent from an author to one or more recipients. The SMS sent from a mobile phone to a landline number or other mobile phone is converted into voice and sent via e-mail to the recipient. The system aims at sending the text message, as a 3 step process First among them is pre-processing, second is synthesis of speech and finally, transmission. During pre-processing, the shorthand notations in the text message are converted into proper English form. In the second part, this pre-processed text is converted into speech. The final step covers the process of sending the synthesized voice message to the recipient. This system comes in handy when people with speech impairment want to send messages to other people, in the form of voice.