JP2001337690A - Information playback equipment, information playback method, and memory medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide information playback equipment with which listening comprehension of synthetic voice is made possible to those who are in vehicles by controlling the parameter about a synthetic voice according to the situation of vehicles or the circumstance. SOLUTION: The text data which should be uttered is first chosen and is taken in from the utterance contents storing memory 101 by the utterance contents selection part 102 (S201). Based on the taken-in text, a default rhythm parameter is created by the rhythm parameter generation part 103 (S202). The present own vehicle speed (speed per hour) S is acquired from the own vehicle speed measurement part 109 (S203). Based on the value S, the default rhythm parameter is updated (S204-S209). By sticking the phoneme data gained according to the text sentence which the utterance contents selection part 102 chooses from the phoneme piece dictionary 106 on the updated rhythm parameter, a synthetic sound is generated (S210). A synthetic sound is outputted from the voice output unit 108 (S211).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information reproducing apparatus, an information reproducing method, and a storage medium mounted on a vehicle and performing voice synthesis based on text.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional car navigation system displays a position of a vehicle on a map displayed on a display in the vehicle. In addition, by setting a destination before or during traveling, a route to the destination can be searched, and a route to the destination can be guided to the driver by displaying a route on a display or voice guidance.

[0003] The voice guidance of the car navigation system is based on a method of reproducing an actual guidance voice of a person,
Some use rules speech synthesis technology. Further, as the vehicle approaches an intersection to be turned, the timing of route guidance is changed in consideration of the speed of the vehicle and the congestion of the road to improve the reliability of route guidance to the driver.

[0004]

The use of rule-based speech synthesis for voice guidance has the advantage of requiring less storage space than recording voice, but at present it is less audible than human voice. Inferior, when the vehicle speed increases and the surrounding noise increases, it becomes even more difficult to hear. However, the conventional synthesized voice generation unit did not create a synthesized waveform in consideration of the surrounding conditions of the own vehicle, and thus could not generate a synthesized voice suitable for the surrounding conditions.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and controls a parameter relating to a synthesized voice according to a vehicle or a surrounding situation, so that a person occupying the vehicle can hear a voice synthesis result. The purpose is to make it possible.

[0006]

In order to achieve the object of the present invention, for example, an information reproducing apparatus of the present invention has the following arrangement. That is, an information reproducing apparatus mounted on a vehicle and performing speech synthesis based on a text, comprising: an acquisition unit configured to acquire a situation of the vehicle; and a synthesized speech parameter used when uttering the text is adapted to the situation of the vehicle. And control means for performing control in accordance therewith.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail according to preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following embodiment, a case where a car navigation device is used as an information reproducing device will be described.

[First Embodiment] FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of a car navigation device according to the present embodiment.

Reference numeral 101 denotes an utterance content storage memory for storing utterance content texts, which are text sentences of contents uttered by the car navigation device. When the car navigation device makes an announcement, the utterance content selection unit 102 refers to the utterance content storage memory 101 and selects an utterance content text corresponding to the content to be uttered. In some cases, the content of the utterance may be an e-mail to the driver downloaded from an information transmission server connected to the car navigation device via a wireless or mobile phone, news, or the like.

The utterance content text selected by the utterance content selection unit 102 is sent to a prosody parameter generation unit 103 in the car navigation device.

A prosody parameter generation unit 103 converts prosody parameters (synthetic speech) such as sound power (loudness of voice), pitch frequency (voice pitch), and phoneme duration (voice speed) from the text in which the utterance content is written. Parameter). Originally, these parameters can be generated from the utterance content text to which the position and strength of the accent are added, but in the present embodiment, the running state information acquisition unit 10
5 also reflects the below-mentioned information obtained through. The traveling state information acquisition unit 105 includes a vehicle speed measurement unit 109, a vehicle position measurement unit 110, and a congestion state acquisition unit 1 outside the voice synthesizer 107.
11 is connected.

The prosody parameters created by the prosody parameter generation unit 103 are sent to the phoneme segment connection unit 104,
The phoneme unit connection unit 104 obtains phoneme data as a source of the ruled synthesized sound from the phoneme unit dictionary 106 storing the phoneme data according to the prosodic parameters, and connects the obtained phoneme data. Generate synthesized speech.

The running state information acquisition unit 105 also controls the phoneme segment connection unit 104, and may change phoneme data to be used. When the phoneme data changes, the speaker of the synthesized sound changes.

When the synthesized speech is generated by the speech synthesis device 107, the data is transmitted to a speech output device 108 such as a speaker.
To be output as voice.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart when the above-described processing is performed by the car navigation device in the present embodiment. Note that the program code according to the flowchart shown in the figure is stored in a memory such as a ROM or a RAM (not shown) in the car navigation device in the present embodiment, and is read and executed by the CPU. As a result, the car navigation device according to the present embodiment can perform each process described below.

Here, as an example, the prosody parameter is changed according to the own vehicle speed, and as the own vehicle speed increases,
The process of creating a loud, clear, and slowly uttered synthesized sound will be described. Further, it is assumed that the content to be uttered by the car navigation device has been determined before the processing according to this flowchart is executed.

First, text data corresponding to the content to be uttered is selected and taken in from the utterance content storage memory 101 by the utterance content selection unit 102 (step S201). Prosody parameter generation unit 10 based on the fetched text
3, a default prosody parameter is created (step S202). The processing here is the same as the general rule speech synthesis processing.

Next, the current vehicle speed (speed) S is obtained from the vehicle speed measurement unit 109 (step S203). Based on the value of S, the default prosody parameter determined earlier is updated (steps S204 to S2).
09). In the example shown in the drawing, as the vehicle speed S increases,
The process is to output a large, slow synthesized sound. In this example, the own vehicle speed S is 80 km, 50 km.
Although stepwise control is performed at km and 20 km, the control may be performed using a function using the own vehicle speed S as a variable, such as prosody parameter = α × S + β (α and β are constants).

Next, the phoneme unit connection unit 104 operates in accordance with the text sentence selected by the utterance content selection unit 102.
6 is obtained, and the obtained phoneme data is pasted on the above-described prosody parameter updated based on the own vehicle speed S to generate a synthesized voice (step S21).
0). The generated synthesized voice is output to the voice output device 108.
Is output from the audio output device 108 (step S211).

As described above, the car navigation device according to the present embodiment can control the prosody parameter as the synthesized speech parameter based on the own vehicle speed. As a result, even if the announcement is hard to hear due to an increase in the volume of the engine sound due to an increase in the vehicle speed, the content of the announcement can be more easily heard by increasing the volume of the synthesized voice, for example.

[Second Embodiment] In the first embodiment, the own vehicle speed is used as a parameter for controlling the synthesized voice parameter. In the present embodiment, the situation around the own vehicle (road congestion situation). Is used as a parameter for controlling the prosodic parameter. Note that the configuration of the car navigation device used in the present embodiment is the same as that used in the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a process performed by the car navigation device according to the present embodiment. In addition,
The program code according to the flowchart shown in the figure is stored in a memory such as a ROM or a RAM (not shown) in the car navigation device in the present embodiment,
U reads and executes. As a result, the car navigation device according to the present embodiment can perform each process described below.

Here, as an example, there is shown an example in which the synthetic voice of the male voice is a synthetic voice calm due to the traffic congestion state (the synthetic voice of the female voice) by default. Also, the first
As in the first embodiment, it is assumed that the content to be uttered by the car navigation device has been determined before the processing according to this flowchart is executed.

First, text data corresponding to the content to be uttered is selected from the utterance content storage memory 101 by the utterance content selection unit 102 (step S301). The default phoneme segment dictionary is set to that of a male (step S302), and the prosody parameter generation unit 103 creates default prosody parameters using the text captured by the utterance content selection unit 102 (step S3).
03).

Next, the traveling state information acquisition section 105 acquires the current congestion state of the road where the own vehicle is measured by the congestion state acquisition section 111 (step S304). Here, when it is determined that the road is congested (step S30)
5) Prosody parameter generation unit 1 so that the default speaker is a female voice in order to unravel the driver's feelings
03 updates the above-mentioned default prosody parameters (step S307). Specifically, by raising the pitch frequency, the voice becomes more feminine.

Generally, the pitch frequency band of a male voice is approximately 80 to 160 Hz, and the pitch frequency band of a female voice is approximately 120 to 250 Hz. The pitch frequency is higher than that of men. Therefore, since the default is the voice data of a male speaker, the default pitch frequency is set to, for example, 1
When the frequency is set to 20 Hz, a process of increasing the pitch frequency to 200 Hz is performed in step S307 to make the voice of a woman.

If it is determined that the road is congested even if it is not congested (step S306), the default prosody parameters are operated (step S30).
8) Update. In the example of this flowchart, a low voice is produced by lowering the pitch frequency, a slow announcement is made by increasing the phoneme time length, and the volume is lowered by lowering the sound power. As a result, the sound is updated to a calm sound.

Next, the phoneme unit connection unit 104 operates the phoneme unit dictionary 10 according to the text sentence selected by the utterance content selection unit 102.
6, the necessary phoneme data is obtained, and the obtained phoneme data is pasted on the updated prosody parameters as described above,
A synthesized speech is generated (step S309). The generated synthesized voice is output to the voice output device 108, and the synthesized voice is output from the voice output device 108 (step S3).
10).

As described above, the car navigation device according to the present embodiment can change the prosody parameters according to the situation around the own vehicle. As a result, when the own vehicle is driving on a congested road, it is possible to hear a calm voice and a female voice on a congested road.

[Third Embodiment] In the present embodiment, taking into account the arrival time at the point where the next route guidance is required, the reading of the text is completed within that time.
A case where the prosody parameter is updated will be described. Note that the car navigation device used in this embodiment is the same as that used in the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 shows a situation in which the car navigation system of the present embodiment operates. Reference numeral 501 denotes the own vehicle, which is running at the speed v at the time shown in FIG. Reference numeral 502 denotes a point at which the next route guidance described above must be provided.
01 needs to finish reading a text sentence to be described later before reaching the point 502. It is assumed that there is a distance L from the position of the vehicle 501 to the point 502 at the time shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a process performed by the car navigation device according to the present embodiment. In addition,
The program code according to the flowchart shown in the figure is stored in a memory such as a ROM or a RAM (not shown) in the car navigation device in the present embodiment,
U reads and executes. As a result, the car navigation device according to the present embodiment can perform each process described below.

The process according to this flowchart is called when a certain route guidance sentence is uttered (for example, "turn right at the intersection").
First, the own vehicle speed and the own vehicle position are measured by the own vehicle speed measuring unit 109 and the own vehicle position measuring unit 110, respectively, and the own vehicle speed and the own vehicle position are acquired by the traveling state information acquiring unit 105 (step S401). . As a result, the traveling state information acquisition unit 105 estimates the time T until the vehicle arrives at the point where the next route guidance is to be performed (for example, the point 502 in FIG. 5) (step S402). The time T can be estimated by the following equation.

T = distance to the next route guidance point / vehicle speed Further reliability is higher by using the average value of the vehicle speed for several minutes up to the present time instead of the current vehicle speed. This is an estimated value of the time T.

Here, if the value of the time T is not sufficiently large (if the time T is 10 minutes or less in the example), the present process is terminated (step S403). On the other hand, if the value of the time T is 10 minutes or more, the utterance content selection unit 102 selects an unread driver's mail or news (a text sentence) that can be read out within the time T (step S404). That is,
Voice storage memory 10 for car navigation system
The text sentence of the above-mentioned mail or news stored in the information transmission server connected to 1) through the wireless network may be referred to and selected, or the content of the utterance in the car navigation device may be accessed by already accessing this information transmission server. The text sentence of the above-mentioned mail or news downloaded to the storage memory 101 may be referred to and selected. Also, the time T
To determine whether or not a text can be read aloud, we obtain the number of syllables that make up the text sentence and the time required to utter each syllable,
The time to read out the text sentence is calculated as (the number of syllables x the time required to produce each syllable), and the result is calculated as time T
It is necessary to determine whether it is within.

Regarding the number of syllables in the entire text, the number of syllables constituting the text sentence of the mail or news stored in the above-mentioned information transmission server is measured in advance,
The measured number of syllables is attached to this text, and the number of syllables is obtained when the text is referred to or downloaded by the car navigation device. Alternatively, the utterance content selection unit 102 may determine how to read a text sentence using morphological analysis or the like, and count the number of syllables from this reading. The time required to produce each syllable is constant.

FIG. 6 shows a method of calculating the time required for uttering the content to be uttered.

Reference numeral 601 denotes the content to be uttered, and here, for example, the word "Akasaka" is used. 601a-60
1d is each syllable constituting the content 701 to be uttered.
The time required to produce each syllable is t1, t2, t, respectively.
3, t4, and respective times (t1, t2, t3, t4) are
It may be an exact value measured in advance, or the same average value. As a result, the (estimated) time required to utter the content 601 to be uttered is (t1
+ T2 + t3 + t4).

Further, in order to determine whether or not the above-mentioned mail or news referred to is unread, it can be determined by attaching an unread flag to each mail or news. FIG. 7 shows a configuration of a table in which the unread flag is attached to each mail, using a mail as an example. Reference numeral 701 denotes an unread flag item attached to each mail, and indicates that a mail whose unread flag is 0 is a mail that has already been read, and a mail whose unread flag is 1 is unread. Reference numeral 702 denotes an item in which the contents of each mail are described. This table is stored in the above-mentioned information transmission server, and this table is referred to when the car navigation device refers to the mail in the information transmission server. The unread flag is set to 1 when the mail arrives at the information transmission server, and is added to this table together with the contents of the mail.

Although the above table has been described using mail as an example, the structure of the table is the same even for news, and the news is described by setting the item 702 as an item in which the content of the news is described. Can be set as a table. In step S404, the unread flag corresponding to the selected text (contents of mail or content of news) is set to 0.

Next, it is determined whether or not there is still a text sentence (sentence) to be read out (step S405).
If there are no more text sentences to be read, the processing according to this flowchart ends. On the other hand, when there is a text sentence to be read, the prosody parameter generation unit 103 takes in one sentence from the text sentence selected by the utterance content selection unit 101 as described above (step S406), and returns to the own vehicle speed measurement unit 109 and the own vehicle again. The own vehicle speed and the own vehicle position are measured by the position measuring unit 110, respectively, and acquired by the traveling state information acquiring unit 105 (step S407), and the traveling state information acquiring unit 105 re-estimates the time T until the next route guidance ( Step S408). Also in this case, the accuracy of T is improved by using the average value of the vehicle speed for several minutes until now instead of the vehicle speed. Further, by repeating this re-estimation every time one sentence is read out, it is possible to cope with a case where the vehicle speed suddenly changes after the start of reading out the sentence.

The prosody parameter generation unit 103 sets default prosody parameters in the fetched text of one sentence (step S 409), and
Update is performed according to the value of T (steps S410 to S413). In the example shown in the figure, the phoneme duration is manipulated, which corresponds to the quickest possible speech when the time until the next route guidance is short.

The phoneme segment connection unit 104 uses the prosody parameters obtained in the prosody parameter generation unit 103 to calculate
Synthesized speech is generated in the same manner as in the first and second embodiments, and this synthesized speech is output from the speech output device 108 (step S414).

As described above, the car navigation device according to the present embodiment takes into account the arrival time at the point where the next route guidance must be provided, and sets the synthesized speech parameters so that the text is read out within that time. Update prosodic parameters. As a result, the speed of reading out the text can be changed according to the above-mentioned arrival time, and the text can be read out within the above-mentioned arrival time.

[Other Embodiments] Even if the present invention is applied to a system including a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), an apparatus (one device) For example, the present invention may be applied to a copying machine, a facsimile machine, and the like.

Further, an object of the present invention is to provide a storage medium (or a recording medium) in which a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is recorded to a system or an apparatus, and a computer (a computer) of the system or apparatus. Or a CPU or MPU) reads out and executes the program code stored in the storage medium,
Needless to say, this is achieved. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium implements the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.
In addition, by the computer executing the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also based on the instructions of the program code,
The operating system (OS) running on the computer performs part or all of the actual processing,
It goes without saying that a case where the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by the processing is also included.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion card inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the program code is read based on the instruction of the program code. , The CPU provided in the function expansion card or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing,
It goes without saying that a case where the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by the processing is also included.

When the present invention is applied to the storage medium, the storage medium stores program codes corresponding to the above-described flowcharts (shown in FIG. 2, 3 or 4).

[0049]

By controlling the parameters relating to the synthesized speech in accordance with the vehicle and surrounding conditions, the result of the speech synthesis can be heard by a person riding the vehicle.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a car navigation device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a process performed by the car navigation device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a process performed by a car navigation device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a process performed by a car navigation device according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a situation in which a car navigation device according to a third embodiment of the present invention operates.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a method of calculating a time required to utter the content to be uttered.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a table in which an unread flag is attached to each mail, using a mail as an example.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) G10L 13/00 G10L 3 / 00H // G01C 21/00 Q

Claims (15)

[Claims] 1. An information reproducing apparatus mounted on a vehicle and performing speech synthesis based on a text, comprising: an acquiring unit for acquiring a situation of the vehicle; and a synthetic speech parameter used for uttering the text. An information reproducing apparatus, comprising: a control unit that performs control according to the situation of (1). 2. The condition of the vehicle includes a speed of the vehicle,
The information reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information reproducing apparatus includes at least one of a position and a congestion state around the vehicle. 3. The information reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls a prosodic parameter as the synthesized speech parameter. 4. The information reproducing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the prosody parameter includes at least one of a sound power, a pitch frequency, and a phoneme time length. 5. An estimating means for estimating an arrival time to a next route guidance start point in accordance with a situation of the vehicle by the obtaining means, and in accordance with the arrival time estimated by the estimating means,
2. The information reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: selecting means for selecting a text to be read out from a plurality of texts stored in a predetermined storage means. 6. The information reproducing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the selection unit selects a text that can be read aloud within the arrival time. 7. The information reproducing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said control means controls said synthesized voice parameter according to said arrival time. 8. The information reproducing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein a flag indicating whether or not the plurality of texts is unread is attached to each of the plurality of texts in the predetermined storage unit. 9. The information reproducing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the estimating unit performs the estimation every predetermined period. 10. The information reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a conversion unit configured to convert the synthesized voice parameter into a synthesized voice based on the synthesized voice parameter controlled by the control unit. 11. The information reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information reproducing apparatus is connected to an information transmitting server that transmits information via a wireless network, and the text is obtained from the information transmitting server. 12. An information reproducing method mounted on a vehicle and performing speech synthesis based on a text, comprising: an acquiring step of acquiring a situation of the vehicle; and a synthetic speech parameter used when uttering the text. And a control step of performing control according to the situation described above. 13. An estimating step of estimating an arrival time to a next route guidance start point in accordance with a condition of the vehicle in the obtaining step, and a predetermined time in accordance with the arrival time estimated in the estimating step. 13. The information reproducing method according to claim 12, further comprising a selecting step of selecting a text to be read out from a plurality of texts stored in the storage means. 14. A storage medium for storing a program code mounted on a vehicle and functioning as an information reproducing apparatus for performing speech synthesis based on text, wherein a program code for an acquisition step for acquiring a situation of the vehicle is provided. A storage medium comprising: program code means for a control step of controlling a synthesized speech parameter used when uttering a text according to a situation of the vehicle. 15. A program code for an estimating step of estimating an arrival time to a next route guidance start point according to the situation of the vehicle in the obtaining step, and the arrival time estimated in the estimating step. 15. The storage medium according to claim 14, further comprising: a program code for a selection step of selecting a text to be read out from a plurality of texts stored in a predetermined storage unit.