EP0725501B1 - Means for audible presentation of digitally coded traffic information using a speech synthesizer - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a device according to the preamble of the main claim.

The Radio Data System (RDS) enables additional and inaudible transmission of digital data in parallel to broadcast programs in one data channel. Specifications of the radio data system for VHF radio are inter alia in the publication Tech. 3244 - E, March 1984 of the European Union Broadcasting Union (EBU). Radio receivers with suitable RDS decoders can record and decode transmitted data in addition to broadcast reception with the same receiver. The data is transmitted in 32 groups of 108 bits each, with each group being assigned a specific service. Group 8a is provided for transmission of digitally coded traffic announcements.

The structure and coding of these traffic reports are specified in the standard proposal ALERT C, November 1990, issued by the RDS ATT ALERT Consortium. The essential elements of a traffic report are the location of the event (location) and the event (event). This information is cataloged, which means that every traffic-relevant location and every traffic-relevant event is assigned a unique code. The concatenation of places in the place table along existing roads reflects the course. In addition to the usual facilities of a receiver with an RDS decoder facilities for decoding, storage, processing and output of the traffic reports are required to use the traffic message channel TMC (Traffic Message Channel).

By coding the traffic announcements and the conversion into speech intended only in the receiver, it is possible to have the traffic announcements, independently of the place to which the traffic reports relate, and independent of the broadcasting station which broadcasts these traffic announcements, a voice output in that of the respective User understood language. It only requires means for generating speech in the language to be output. As a rule, a driver will buy a car radio equipped with a voice output device which is able to output the traffic reports in his own language. For this purpose, words and sentences are stored in the radio receiver, which describe in particular the events and their dimensions, for example "traffic jam", "three kilometers in length".

Other elements of the speech output are place names for which codes are transmitted in the traffic reports. For purposes of voice output, the place names belonging to the codes are stored in a table which is stored in a memory assigned to the radio receiver. Preferably, such a memory is arranged on an exchangeable data carrier, for example a chip card. This one has the Advantage that the table need not include all codes and place names of all geographical areas in which the radio receiver may be operated. Furthermore, with constant changes to this list of locations is to be expected because over time, the road network and the associated places - such as motorway junctions - changed or new roads are built. A user therefore has in the arrangement of the memory on an exchangeable disk, the opportunity to acquire a disk for the area he has traveled in case of changes and to procure at less frequented by him areas only before driving a current disk. Such a Rundfunkempfünger is disclosed in DE 3536820A1.

The object of the present invention is to enable the speech output of the digitally coded traffic reports such that the place names are output as far as usual in the language to be output, even if a data carrier is used for a geographical area in which another language is spoken.

This object is achieved in that are stored in the table, the place names in a first language and if available in at least one other language that is checked for each voice a place name, whether the place name is stored in the table in the language to be issued and that in the presence of the place name in that language and in the absence of the first language is read.

The device according to the invention has the advantage that those place names which are known in a foreign language with respect to the respective geographical area are output in this language. Thus, for example, with the aid of the device according to the invention with French as a language to be issued a motorist in Germany the place name "Aix la Chapelle" instead of "Aachen" announced.

The inventive device also has the advantage that the required storage space for the table compared to a monolingual table is only slightly larger, since most place names exist only in the valid language for each area.

A development of the device according to the invention is that in the memory also a description of the table is stored, which contains the geographical area to which the table applies, the first language, the number of other languages and the other languages.

As a result, the information required to use the table can already be queried when switching on the receiver with the inserted chip card or when inserting the chip card. In addition, the access to each individual belonging to a code records is much easier.

In this development storage space for the identification of the individual place names in the other languages is saved by the fact that the table contains one place code in the first language and existing place names in the other languages and place placeholders instead of non-existent place names in the other languages are. For quickly locating and reading the place names in the other language also contributes to an advantageous embodiment of the development, which consists in that the place names are stored in the other languages together with the place name in the first language in an order which the order in corresponds to the table description.

Depending on requirements, it may be provided in the device according to the invention that the language to be output is fixed by a voice generating device in the radio receiver or that the language to be output is selectable in the radio receiver. The latter increases the cost of the radio receiver, but can bring benefits for logistical reasons, since then the usability for users of multiple languages is maintained in the production of a radio receiver.

Fig. 1

die als sogenannter Header gespeicherte Beschreibung der Tabelle,

Fig. 2

einen Teil der Tabelle,

Fig. 3

ein Blockschaltbild eines Rundfunkempfängers, der für die Verkehrsmeldungen in einer Sprache ausgelegt ist und

Fig. 4

ein Blockschaltbild eines Rundfunkempfängers, bei dem verschiedene Sprachen für die Ausgabe gewählt werden können.

Embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the drawing with reference to several figures and explained in more detail in the following description. It shows:

Fig. 1

the description of the table stored as a so-called header,

Fig. 2

a part of the table,

Fig. 3

a block diagram of a radio receiver, which is designed for traffic announcements in a language and

Fig. 4

a block diagram of a radio receiver, in which different languages can be selected for the output.

Identical parts are provided in the figures with the same reference numerals. Although the embodiments and parts thereof are shown as block diagrams. However, this does not mean that the circuit arrangement according to the invention is limited to a realization with the aid of individual circuits corresponding to the blocks. Rather, the circuit arrangement according to the invention can be realized in a particularly advantageous manner with the aid of highly integrated circuits. It can digital Signal processors are used, which perform the processing steps shown in the block diagrams with appropriate programming. The embodiments, together with further circuit arrangements within an integrated circuit, can form essential parts of a radio receiver.

The header shown in Fig. 1 contains a RDS country code RDS-CC indicating which country the table is designed for. This is, for example, E0 D. In the second place is an identifier of the language stored as an endonym, that is, the language of the area in which the locations are located. In this case de = German. Furthermore, in the header, the number of exonyms, that is, the other languages specified in the example given two languages. This is followed by the identifier of the first exonym, for example en = English and the second exonym fr = French.

In the part of a table shown in Fig. 2, for which the header shown in Fig. 1 applies, identifiers are indicated in the left column, the endonyms in the second column, and exonyms in English and French in the third and fourth columns listed. If there are no exonyms because foreign-language place names are not common in the respective case, a placeholder is entered that contains one or more characters that are different from all other characters. The order of the exonyms in the table is identical to the order of the corresponding languages in the header. Thus, an identifier of individual exonyms is not required.

It may be advantageous to select a notation in the table which facilitates speech production, in particular a phonetic transcription. In the illustration of the embodiment, however, was the clarity half the usual form for an optical output form selected.

Of the radio receivers only parts and functions are shown in Figures 3 and 4, which are required to explain the speech output according to the invention. A traffic message processing device 21 is supplied with the signals of the group 8a at 22 from an RDS decoder, not shown. According to the ALERT specification mentioned above, these data essentially contain information about the location, the type, the probable duration, the size and the direction of an event. This information is decoded and selected in the device 21, which is preferably realized in the form of a microcomputer or a digital signal processor. A selection takes place in accordance with the selection criteria supplied via an input unit 23, so that, for example, only those traffic reports are displayed which relate to the entered road section in an entered direction.

Already for the decoding of the traffic reports 25 stored data are required in a location list, for example, the nearest to the place mentioned in the traffic message places in the course of a road and the affiliation to an area. These and other details are stored in a location list on a chip card 24 and can be read like other information described later using a reader present in the receiver. In the illustrated example, it can be seen that location # 4711 belongs to an area 2009 and that the neighboring locations are 4710 and 4712. In addition, 25 identifiers are included in the location list, which serve to read the place names and other names from Table 1. For example, the identifier 15 may mean the word Cologne and the identifier 81 may mean the word North. By using the identifier, preferably a have constant number of jobs, is saved in a significant amount of storage space.

The thus decoded traffic reports are supplied to a voice synthesis device 26 whose output signals are supplied to the speaker 16 via the digital / analog converter 14 and the audio amplifier 15. The device 26 can also be realized in an advantageous manner with the aid of a digital signal processor to which a program 27 is available. The data necessary for the speech synthesis are supplied from the table 1, which is stored on the smart card 24, to an event set list 2, a carrier set list 3 and a segment library 4. The synthesis then takes place in that language in which the event set list 2, the carrier set list 3 and the segment library 4 are created. Speech synthesis methods are known per se. A method specifically tailored to the issue of coded traffic reports is described in the co-pending patent application "Method of Outputting Digitally Encoded Traffic Messages Using Synthesized Speech" filed concurrently by the Applicant.

In Table 1 are in addition to the verbal place names also numbers, such as in connection with the junction 15. Since it is naturally important to hear the number of a port in the language in which the rest of the output is done in the Table 1, the number 15 filed as a number. In speech synthesis, a special part of the segment library 4 is used, in which the pronunciation of the numbers is stored in the respective language of the recipient. Furthermore, in Table 1, the place names are in the usual font, so that with the help of the smart card 24 also an optical speech output can be made.

In Table 1, apart from the place names in the language of the respective area (endonyms), place names from other languages (exonyms) are stored, as long as they are common. In the case of Cologne, so for example in the French language Cologne. The receiver of Fig. 3 may, with the aid of a selector 28 in these cases, select the location designation in the language of the receiver. In the case shown, for example, from the languages English, Dutch, German and French. If no place name is stored under the language of the recipient, which will be the case in the majority of the locations of a country, then the place name given in Table 1 is used for speech synthesis.

Another measure for improving the speech quality is that the place names supplied in a language other than the language of the recipient are fed to a prosody conversion 29. Such conversion is known per se and alters the speech melody towards the recipient's language.

After switching on the receiver, by special operation or when exchanging the chip card, the speech synthesis is configured. For example, a German-speaking recipient includes a smart card with a location list including Table 1 for France. After switching on, the receiver recognizes on the header (FIG. 1) that it is a chip card with a location list for France, which also contains German-language place names. Then the receiver on the prosody converter selects the conversion of French prosody into German prosody. Furthermore, every time you access the location list or the table, it is generally checked whether a place has a German-language name or not. If there is no German-language designation, the "Quellenprosodie" (here French) in the "Zielprosodie" (here German) is transferred.

In the receiver according to FIG. 4, the event set list and the carrier set list are present in several languages, namely in German, English and French as event set lists 2de, 2en, 2fr and support set lists 3de, 3e and 3fr. In addition, the segment library 4 'is extended by special segments of the added languages, all languages having been spoken by the same speaker. This allows the traffic reports to be output in several languages. With the selection device 28 and the prosody conversion 29, the place names contained in the location list can be adapted to the respectively selected language.

Claims (6)

1. Device for the voice output of digitally encoded traffic messages which contain codes for describing locations within a geographical area and which are received by means of a broadcast radio receiver, where voice output is effected by taking a location name which corresponds to the respective code from a table which is stored in a memory associated with the broadcast radio receiver, characterized in that the table stores the location names in a first language and, if available, in at least one further language, in that the voice output of a respective location name involves checking whether the location name is stored in the table in the language which is to be output, and in that if it is present then the location name is read in this language and if it is not present then it is read in the first language.
2. Device according to Claim 1, characterized in that the memory also stores a description of the table which contains the geographical area to which the table applies, the first language, the number of further languages, and the further languages.
3. Device according to Claim 2, characterized in that for a respective code the table contains the location names in the first language and available location names in the further languages, and in that wildcards are stored instead of unavailable location names in the further languages.
4. Device according to Claim 3, characterized in that the location names in the further languages are respectively stored together with the location name in the first language in an order which corresponds to the order in the table description.
5. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the language to be output is firmly prescribed by a voice generation device in the broadcast radio receiver.
6. Device according to one of Claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the language to be output can be selected in the broadcast radio receiver.

Images