JPH0934483A - Method and device for voice output - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide easy adjustability for the volume of voice output by furnishing a voice output means which outputs a voice having a volume corresponding to the area of image factors as part of a synthesized picture displayed. SOLUTION: An image database 4 stores a plurality of image factors, and a voice synthesizing means 6 synthesizes the image factors read out of the database 4. A display means 3 displays a synthesized picture obtained, and an input means 1 enters an instruction to change the area of image factors as part of the displayed image. A changing means changes the area based on the instruction, and a speaker 8 as a voice output means outputs a voice having a volume corresponding to the area of part of the picture factors. This configuration attains changing the area of part of the picture factors based on the given instruction, outputting the voice of volume corresponding to the changed area, and making the volume of the outputted voice in correspondence to the area of the image, so that the user is easy to understand the control of the volume to lead to achievement of easy controllability.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an audio output device and method for controlling the volume of audio output using a graphical user interface.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when outputting sound from a computer, the volume is adjusted by a mechanical volume switch, a volume adjustment command input from a keyboard, a slide bar displayed on the screen, or the like.

[0003]

However, when a mechanical volume switch is provided, the cost of the device increases. When using the volume control command, the operator must remember the command. The slide bar is also not intuitive to the operator, and there is a problem that the operation method is difficult to understand, especially for children.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to solve the above problems and provide an audio output device and method capable of easily adjusting the volume of audio output.

[0005]

In order to achieve such an object, the invention described in claim 1 combines an image database storing a plurality of image elements with the image element read from the image database. Means, a means for displaying a composite image obtained by combining, an input means for inputting an instruction to change the area of a part of the image elements in the displayed image, and the above-mentioned means based on the instruction. It is characterized by comprising a changing means for changing the area and a sound outputting means for outputting a sound of a volume corresponding to the area of the part of the image elements.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the image database has a first form indicating that the volume of the part of the image elements is zero and a second form indicating that the volume is maximum. And a form is stored, and the change unit is obtained by interpolating the first form, the second form, or the first and second forms based on an instruction input from the input unit. It is characterized by displaying an intermediate form.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the image database stores a plurality of forms of the part of the image elements, and the changing means is a form different from the form currently displayed from the plurality of forms. Is selected and displayed.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention, the composite image is a face image and the part of the image elements is a mouth image.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is further provided text holding means for storing text data, and conversion means for converting the text read from the text holding means into voice, and the voice output means has the conversion. It is characterized in that the voice converted by the means is output.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, a synthesizing step of synthesizing the plurality of image elements, which is read from an image database storing a plurality of image elements in advance, and a display for displaying a synthesized image obtained by the synthesizing. A step, an input step of inputting an instruction to change the area of some image elements in the displayed image, a changing step of changing the area based on the instruction, and an area of some of the image elements And an output step of outputting a voice of a corresponding volume.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the image database, the first form indicating that the volume of the part of the image elements is zero and the second form indicating that the volume is maximum. The form is stored, and the changing step interpolates the first form, the second form, or the first and second forms based on the instruction input in the input step. It is characterized by displaying any of the obtained intermediate forms.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, the image database stores a plurality of forms of the part of the image elements in advance, and the changing step includes a form currently displayed from the plurality of forms. It is characterized by selecting and displaying a different form.

According to a ninth aspect of the invention, the composite image is a face image and the part of the image elements is a mouth image.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, text data is stored in advance in the text holding means, and the method further comprises a conversion step of converting the text read from the text holding means into voice, and the outputting step. It is characterized in that the voice converted by the converting step is output.

According to the first or sixth aspect of the present invention, a plurality of image elements read from the image database are combined and displayed, and the area of some image elements in the displayed image is changed. An instruction is input, the area of some of the image elements is changed based on the instruction, and a sound of a volume corresponding to the changed area is output.

According to the second or seventh aspect of the present invention, the image database has the first form indicating that the volume of some image elements is zero, and that the volume is maximum. The second form shown in FIG. 2 is stored, and either the first form, the second form, or the intermediate form obtained by interpolating the first and second forms based on the input instruction. Is displayed, and a sound of a volume corresponding to the area of a part of the displayed image is output.

According to the third or eighth aspect of the present invention, the image database stores in advance a plurality of forms of some image elements, and the images are currently displayed based on the input instruction. A form different from the form is selected and displayed, and a sound with a volume corresponding to the area of a part of the displayed image is output.

According to the invention of claim 4 or claim 9, a face image is displayed as a composite image, the area of the mouth image therein is changed, and the area of the changed mouth image is changed. The sound of the volume associated with is output.

According to the fifth or tenth aspect of the present invention, the text read out from the text holding means is converted into a voice, and the voice is output at a volume corresponding to the changed area.

[0020]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an audio output device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes an input means for inputting a command and data from a user, which is composed of a keyboard and a pointing device such as a mouse. Reference numeral 2 is a display control means for controlling the display of an image in response to the input from the input means 1, and 3 is a display means for displaying the image output from the display control means 2. An image database 4 stores image elements such as faces displayed on the display means.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the image elements stored in the image database 4. The image database 4 includes “eyes”, “nose”, “mouths”, which are constituent elements of human face images.
It has image element files of "contour" and "hair". As shown in FIG. 2, each image element file stores the form of a default image of each component and the form of a modified image obtained by modifying the default image. The default image and the deformed image are scalable and can be enlarged or reduced based on the input from the input means 1 or the like.

The display control means 2 takes out a required image from each image element file, changes the size as necessary, synthesizes the images, and displays them on the display means 3. Further, the display control means 2 can form an intermediate image of a plurality of forms by interpolating a plurality of forms of one image element stored in one image file.

The text holding means 5 saves the input text to be the target of speech synthesis. When a voice synthesis start command is input from the input means 1, the central control means 10
Reads the text from the input text holding means 6,
Transfer to the voice synthesizer 6. Then, the voice synthesizing means 6
Synthesize speech based on the transferred text.

The central control means 10 controls the volume control means 7 according to the volume instruction input from the input means 1. The volume control means 7 expands the voice input from the voice synthesis means 6 under the control of the central control means 10 and outputs it to the speaker 8.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the operation of the central control means 10 of FIG. Further, FIG. 4 shows an example of a face image displayed on the display means 3 in accordance with the operation shown in the flowchart of FIG. The operation of the audio output device will be described with reference to FIGS. In step (abbreviated as S) 101 (FIG. 3), “eyes”, “nose”, from the image files stored in the image database 4 are displayed via the display control means 2.
The default images of the image data elements “mouth”, “outline” and “hair” are read out, the read out default images are combined, and the image 41 (FIG. 4) is displayed on the display means 3.

In S102, it is determined whether or not the mouth portion, which is an example of "a part of image elements" in the displayed face image, is designated by the pointing device. The mouth portion can be designated by, for example, moving the mouse pointer over the mouth and pressing the mouse button as shown in the image 42 (FIG. 4).

The central control unit 10 can determine that the mouth has been designated on the condition that the pointer is located at the mouth and the mouse button is pressed. When the mouth part is not designated, the process returns to S102. If the mouth portion has been designated, the process proceeds to S103, the image in which the mouth is opened moderately is read from the image database 4, and is displayed on the display unit in place of the default image of the mouth. S103
An image 43 (FIG. 4) shows an example of the image displayed in.

In S104, the volume control means 7 is set so as to expand the voice to a medium level. Further, the text is read from the text holding means and transferred to the voice synthesizing means 6.
Then, the voice synthesizing unit 6 synthesizes the voice, and the volume control unit 7
Expands the sound to a medium level, and the sound is output from the speaker 8. In S105, the voice synthesizing means 6 determines whether or not the voice output is completed. If the voice output has not ended, the process proceeds to S106, and if the voice output has ended, S1
Proceed to 15.

In S106, it is detected whether or not the mouth portion is designated by the pointing device. When the mouth part is not designated, the process returns to S105. S1
If the mouth portion is designated in 06, it is determined whether or not an instruction to enlarge the mouth image is input (S10).
7). The mouth image can be magnified by holding the mouse button and moving the pointer away from the center of the mouth. S10
If it is not the operation of enlarging the mouth image in step 7, S11
Go to 0.

If the operation is to enlarge the image of the mouth in S107, the volume control means 7 is operated according to the amount of movement of the mouse.
Is used to increase the amplification factor of voice (S108). S109
Then, by interpolating the image with the mouth wide open and the image with the mouth wide open, an image of the mouth open according to the amount of movement of the mouse is formed and displayed on the display unit 3. However, the image of the mouth opened in various sizes is prepared in advance, and an appropriate image is read according to the amount of movement of the mouse to display the image on the display unit 3.
May be displayed. An image 44 (FIG. 4) shows an example of the image displayed in S109.

In S110, it is determined whether or not an instruction to reduce the size of the mouth image has been input. The mouth image can be reduced by holding the mouse button down and moving the pointer toward the center of the mouth. When an instruction to make the mouth smaller is input, the amplification factor of the volume by the voice control means is made smaller according to the amount of movement of the mouse (S
111). Further, the image of the small mouth is read from the image database 4 via the display control unit 2, displayed on the display unit 3 (S112), and the process returns to S105.

For example, when the pointer is away from the mouth image as in the image 45 (FIG. 4) and the instruction to reduce the mouth is not input in S110, it is determined whether or not the instruction to stop the voice output is input. It is determined (S113). The voice can be stopped by, for example, clicking the mouth image in the face image displayed on the display unit 3. In this case, the central control means 10 determines in S113 that an instruction to stop the sound output is input on condition that the pointer is on the mouth image and the mouse button is pressed.

If it is not instructed to stop the output in S113, the process returns to S105. If the instruction to stop the output is input in S113, the speech synthesis by the speech synthesis unit 6 is stopped (S114), and the closed default image from the mouth image file is extracted from the "mouth" image file in the image database 4. It is read out and replaced with the mouth portion of the face image that has already been displayed and displayed (S115). The image displayed in S115 is shown in the image 46 (FIG. 4). It returns to S102 after S115.

(Others) In the first embodiment, a mouse as a pointing device is used to indicate the image of the mouth.
The "designating means" for the image is sufficient as long as it can designate the image of the mouth displayed on the display means, and may be another input device such as a pen or a digitizer.

In FIG. 4, an arrow is displayed as an example of the pointer, but it is sufficient if the pointer can display that the mouth displayed on the display means is designated. For example, a pointer in the shape of a microphone as shown in FIG. 5 is used. May be.

In the first embodiment, the image is switched to an image in which the mouth is opened when the sound is started to be output.
It is not limited to this. For example, the mouth part may be moved as a moving image like an animation. In this case, the movement of the mouth may be increased according to the volume of the voice.

In the first embodiment, the voice synthesis is started by clicking the mouth image with the pointer, but the voice output is started by moving the icon representing the text to be output as voice to the mouth portion. May be.

In the first embodiment, the sound is output to the speaker, but the "output means" of the sound is not limited to the speaker, and for example, by outputting to the sound recording deck,
It may be recorded on a recording tape for a long time.

In the first embodiment, the image of the "mouth" is designated by using the pointing device and enlarged or reduced, but it may be enlarged or reduced by the keyboard instead of the pointing device.

Although the voice is stopped by clicking the image of the mouth in the first embodiment, the voice may be stopped by clicking the "stop" button displayed on the screen, for example.

The present invention can be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or a single device. The present invention can also be implemented by loading a program into a system or device. It goes without saying that the recording medium in which such a program is written is subject to the effect of Article 101 of the Patent Law of the present patent application.

[0043]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the invention described in claim 1 or 6, the plurality of image elements read from the image database are combined and displayed, and the image is displayed. An instruction to change the area of some of the image elements is input, the area of some of the image elements is changed based on the instruction, and a sound with a volume corresponding to the changed area is output. In this way, since the volume of the output voice is associated with the area of the image, the control of the volume is easy for the user to understand, and the control is easy.

According to the second or seventh aspect of the invention, the first form, the second form, or the first and second forms of the image element are interpolated based on the input instruction. One of the obtained intermediate forms is displayed, and a sound of a volume corresponding to the area of a part of the displayed image is output. It is necessary to compare with the case where all the forms are stored in advance, because the forms of all the images to be displayed are not stored in advance and the intermediate form between the first form and the second form is interpolated and output. Storage capacity of various data can be reduced.

According to the invention described in claim 3 or claim 8, the image database stores a plurality of forms of some image elements in advance and is currently displayed based on the input instruction. A form different from the form is selected and displayed, and a sound with a volume corresponding to the area of a part of the displayed image is output. Since a plurality of forms to be displayed are stored in advance, the area of the displayed image can be easily changed.

According to the fourth or ninth aspect of the invention, a face image is displayed as a composite image, the area of the mouth image therein is changed, and the changed area of the mouth image is changed. The sound of the volume associated with is output. Since the volume is controlled by an instruction to the mouth-shaped graphical interface, it is easy for the user to intuitively understand the volume control and the volume control becomes easy. Particularly, by stopping the sound output when the area is the minimum, the start and stop of the sound output can be easily controlled.

According to the fifth or tenth aspect of the invention, the text read from the text holding means is converted into a voice, and the voice is output at a volume corresponding to the changed area. Therefore, it is possible to easily control the volume at the time of reading the text with an interface that is easy to understand.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an audio output device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an image of each data file stored in an image database.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the audio output device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an image displayed by the operation shown in the flowchart of FIG.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an image displayed according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Input Means 2 Display Control Means 3 Display Means 4 Image Database 5 Text Holding Means 6 Voice Synthesizing Means 7 Volume Control Means 8 Speakers 10 Central Control Means

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. An image database storing a plurality of image elements, a means for synthesizing the image elements read from the image database, a means for displaying a synthesized image obtained by synthesizing, and a displayed image. Input means for inputting an instruction to change the area of some of the image elements, changing means for changing the area based on the instruction, and a sound volume corresponding to the area of the some image element. An audio output device comprising: an audio output unit for outputting 2. The image database includes a first form indicating that the volume of the some image elements is zero,
A second form indicating that the volume is maximum, and the changing unit stores the first form, the second form, or the first form based on an instruction input from the input unit. And the intermediate form obtained by interpolating the second form and the second form are displayed. 3. The image database stores a plurality of forms of the partial image element, and the changing unit selects and displays a form different from the form currently displayed from the plurality of forms. The audio output device according to claim 1 or 2. 4. The audio output device according to claim 1, wherein the composite image is a face image, and the part of the image elements is a mouth image. 5. A text holding unit for storing text data, and a conversion unit for converting the text read from the text holding unit into voice, wherein the voice output unit outputs the voice converted by the conversion unit. The audio output device according to claim 1, wherein the audio output device outputs. 6. A synthesizing step of synthesizing the plurality of image elements read from an image database storing a plurality of image elements in advance, a display step of displaying a synthesized image obtained by the synthesizing, and a displaying step of displaying the image. An input step of inputting an instruction to change the area of a part of the image elements, a changing step of changing the area based on the instruction, and a sound volume corresponding to the area of the part of the image element. An audio output method comprising: an output step of outputting. 7. The first form, wherein the image database indicates that the volume of the some image elements is zero,
And a second form indicating that the volume is maximum, the changing step is based on the instruction input in the input step, and the first form, the second form,
7. The voice output method according to claim 6, further comprising displaying one of intermediate forms obtained by interpolating the first and second forms. 8. The image database stores a plurality of forms of the part of the image elements in advance, and the changing step selects a form different from the form currently displayed from the plurality of forms. The audio output method according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that 9. The audio output method according to claim 6, wherein the composite image is a face image, and the part of the image elements is a mouth image. 10. The text data is stored in advance in the text holding means, and the method further comprises a conversion step of converting the text read from the text holding means into voice, and the output step is converted by the conversion step. The voice output method according to claim 6, wherein voice is output.