IMPROVED AUTOMATED VOICE SYNTHESIS EMPLOYING ENHANCED PROSODIC TREATMENTOF TEXT, SPELLING OF TEXT AND RATE OF ANNUNCIATION

摘要

Improved automated synthesis of human audible speech from text is disclosed. Performance enhancement of the underlying text comprehensibility is obtained through prosodic treatment of the synthesized material, improved speaking rate treatment, and improved methods of spelling words or terms for thesysstem user. Prosodic shaping of text sequences appropriate for the discourse in large groupings of text segments, with prosodic boundaries developed to indicateconceptual units within the text groupings, is implemented in a preferred embodiment.