A VOICE PLAYBACK SYSTEM

摘要

The present invention relates to the fields of voice play back and digital signal processing and in particular applied to the field of language learning. Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) packages are software packages used by students to assist them in learning a language. A significant disadvantage of existing CALL packages is that the speech clips used tend to be clips recorded using speakers who are speaking slowly and deliberately. The CALL package merely plays the selected clips back to the user. The resulting speech tends to be somewhat artificial, i.e. the speech is deliberate. The resulting speech is also clearer and much more defined than the conversational, idiomatic speech one would expect to hear on the streets or in everyday life. This results in the problem that students using only these packages have a low level of recognition of colloquial, "everyday" speech. The present invention overcomes this disadvantage by providing a voice playback system having an input means for accepting a segmented speech clip and a characteristic associated with each segment of the speech clip. A time scale modification means alters the duration of individual segments of the speech clip, wherein the level of alteration for the individual segment is determined with reference to the associated characteristic of the individual segment. The altered clips are then combined into an altered duration speech clip.