JP2007310766A - Voice file generation support program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To support generation of a voice file easily accessible to desired information. <P>SOLUTION: This invention provides a program having a step of generating a plurality of additional item title information, by adding identification text information different with every item title information to the respective forefront parts of a plurality of item title information, a step of generating a plurality of additional text contents information, by respectively adding the same identification text information as the identification text information added to the respectively corresponding item title information to the respective forefront parts of a plurality of text contents information, a step of generating site title voice information, a plurality of additional item title voice information and a plurality of additional contents voice information, by synthesizing site title information, a plurality of additional item title information and a plurality of additional text contents information as voice, and a step of generating a plurality of respective additional contents voice information as an individual voice file. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a program for supporting creation of an audio file including audio information on a client computer having a function of converting character information included in a Web page into audio information.

  One of the usage forms of the Internet in recent years is downloading audio contents using a client computer. In many cases, the downloaded audio content is further downloaded to a portable audio player or the like. As such audio content, for example, content such as news, which is regularly updated, is increasing. The user downloads from the Internet by checking the update of the audio content or using an automatic distribution service, and further downloads it to the audio reproduction player and carries it for listening. Such a listening form can be acquired by simply listening to the information to be obtained anytime and anywhere, so it matches the life of busy modern people and tends to increase. However, the number of such audio contents is still smaller than that of text contents provided by a conventional web page or the like.

  On the other hand, a technique for converting the text content of a Web page into speech has been developed. This uses speech synthesis technology and converts text information included in a news site into a speech file on a client computer. If the audio file is downloaded to the audio reproduction player, the text content of the Web page can be used as the audio content.

  However, it took time and effort to collect the audio content using the above-described speech synthesis technology. In other words, the Web page is a page configured for display on the screen by a browser or the like, so even if the content and order of the text information displayed on the screen is converted into a voice file as it is, it is not always necessary. It was not always possible to create audio content that is easy to obtain information. In particular, when playing audio content with a portable audio player, the operation method is limited. For example, long audio information is included in one audio file and information is scattered. Audio content becomes inconvenient audio content in which it is difficult to obtain necessary information immediately. Therefore, when creating speech content using speech synthesis technology, the user has to sort out the selected information in an appropriate order after selecting the text information. . However, if such an operation is performed every time, the merit of converting the Web page into an audio file is lost.

  By the way, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for improving a conventional method for reading text on a Web page, in which text displayed on a screen is simply read in order (speech synthesized). Specifically, using a predetermined tag that is not displayed on the screen by a Web browser, a Web page is added with a description that specifies text to be read on the Web page and a description that specifies the reading order of the target text. It is to provide a page. As a result, the text to be read out and the reading order can be automatically designated on the client computer.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-10992

  However, a Web page such as that described in Patent Document 1 must be tagged by the creator of the Web page with the intention and the order of text to be synthesized. As a Web page provider, it is very laborious to add such a tag to a Web page where it is not known whether speech synthesis is performed.

  Further, even if the speech synthesis target text and the reading order are specified by applying the technology of Patent Document 1, if a very long audio file is created, it is still a portable audio player. The inconvenience when listening to is not resolved. Further, even if speech synthesis is performed by the method described above, a portable speech player cannot answer a request for immediately accessing desired information.

  In view of the above circumstances, an object of the present invention is to provide a program for supporting creation of an audio file that can easily access desired information when text information of a Web page is synthesized by speech.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, the present invention provides a control unit that acquires an RSS file, and a plurality of URLs corresponding to each of site title information, a plurality of item title information, and a plurality of item title information from the RSS file. A step of extracting information, a step of obtaining a plurality of text content information corresponding to each of a plurality of item title information with reference to a plurality of URL information, and an item title at each head portion of the plurality of item title information The step of generating a plurality of additional item title information by adding different identification text information for each information and the same as the identification text information added to the corresponding item title information at the beginning of each of the plurality of text content information Identification text information A step of generating a plurality of additional text content information by adding each of them, and voice synthesis of the site title information, the plurality of additional item title information, and the plurality of additional text content information, An audio file creation support program for causing a client computer to execute the step of generating item title audio information and a plurality of additional content audio information and the step of generating each of the plurality of additional content audio information as individual audio files. I will provide a.

  According to this configuration, the client computer acquires an RSS file from a website that supports RSS (such a website is widely spread), and from the information included in the RSS file, By extracting a title of a site, a title of an item (for example, a Web page), and synthesizing the voice, an audio file corresponding to the index of the Web page can be created. Also, in the index audio file, a different text for each title can be added to the head of the item title. In addition, the text of the content corresponding to each item is also converted into an audio file. The text of each content is prefixed with the same text as the text added to the title of the item, and the text of the content is converted into an audio file for each content. Therefore, even a portable audio player can instantly access each content by random access. In addition, the user can easily find the content information by listening to the voice of the text added to the title of the item and listening to the beginning of each content audio file if there is an interesting title. Therefore, the program according to the present invention can support creation of an audio file that allows easy access to desired information when text information of a Web page is synthesized by speech.

  The audio file creation support program of the present invention further includes a step of creating an audio file so that a plurality of additional item title audio information is included in one audio file. Alternatively, the method further includes the step of creating an audio file so that the site title audio information and the plurality of additional item title audio information are included in one audio file. With such a configuration, the user can listen to the titles of the items in a continuous manner, so that the title of interest can be found immediately. Therefore, it becomes easy to access desired information.

  In the present invention, the identification text information is text information indicating a priority order, and each of the plurality of additional item title sound information is arranged to be reproduced based on the priority order in the created sound file. Each audio file including a plurality of additional content audio information is provided with a file name so that the reproduction order is designated based on the priority. With such a configuration, since the playback order of the item titles and the playback order of the content audio files are the same, the user can more easily access desired information.

  Further, the audio file creation support program of the present invention extracts the update date / time text information indicating the update date / time of the site title information or item title information from the RSS file, and synthesizes the update date / time text information by voice synthesis to update the update date / time. A step of generating audio information, and a step of creating an audio file so that the update date and time audio information is included in the audio file together with site title audio information or additional item title information, or additional content audio information corresponding to the additional item title information. And further comprising.

  In the present invention, the control means acquires an RSS file, and extracts a plurality of URL information corresponding to each of site title information, a plurality of item title information, and a plurality of item title information from the RSS file, , Referring to the plurality of URL information, obtaining a plurality of text content information corresponding to each of the plurality of item title information, and assigning the priority of each item title information to each head portion of the plurality of item title information A step of generating a plurality of additional item title information by adding the ranking text information shown, and synthesizing the site title information, the plurality of additional item title information, and the plurality of text content information, Additional item title audio information A step of generating a plurality of content audio information, and a step of creating an audio file so that the plurality of additional item title audio information are arranged in one audio file based on the respective priorities added. Each of the plurality of content audio information is reproduced in the order in which each of the plurality of content audio information is created as an individual file and the plurality of additional item title audio information are arranged in the audio file. An audio file creation support program for causing a client computer to perform the step of specifying a file name as described above is provided.

  In the present invention, the control means obtains the RSS file, extracts the site title information, at least one item title information, and URL information corresponding to the item title information from the RSS file, and refers to the URL information. A step of acquiring text content information corresponding to the item title information, a step of generating additional item title information by adding identification text information unique to the item title information to a head portion of the item title information, and a text A step of generating additional text content information by adding the same identification text information as the identification text information added to the corresponding item title information to each head portion of the content information, site title information, additional item The step of synthesizing title information and additional text content information to generate site title audio information, additional item title audio information, and additional content audio information; and additional content audio information, site title information and additional item title information An audio file creation support program for causing a client computer to realize the step of creating a separate audio file.

  Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a program for creating an audio file that allows easy access to desired information when text information of a Web page is synthesized.

  Hereinafter, an audio file creation support program according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a client PC 100 that executes an audio file creation support program according to the present invention and its connection environment. The client PC 100 is a general PC in which various program processes are executed by a control unit including a CPU, a memory, and the like. The client PC 100 can exchange data with the Web server 200 via the Internet 1. Further, the client PC 100 includes an interface for communication with an external device, and data can be transmitted to and received from the portable player 300 via the interface by wired connection or wireless connection. For example, the client PC 100 includes a USB terminal and can send and receive data to and from the portable player 300 using a USB cable. The client PC 100 can download an audio file from the Internet 1 and download the audio file to the portable player 300.

  The portable player 300 is a portable audio player that includes a nonvolatile memory, a small hard disk, and the like. The portable player 300 can hold the downloaded audio file in a memory or a hard disk. The portable player 300 can call and reproduce an audio file stored in a memory or a hard disk by random access or sequential access. Since portable player 300 places importance on portability, it is generally characterized in that its body size is small, the liquid crystal screen is small, the number of operation buttons is small, and it is limited. In many cases, the operation buttons and the like are devised so that the user can operate without directly looking at the portable player 300. Although the portable player 300 has been described as a type incorporating a non-volatile memory or a small hard disk, the portable player 300 is not limited to such a type. May be. In that case, after the client PC 100 stores the audio file in the memory card, the portable player 300 can reproduce it by reading out the audio file in the memory card.

  The Web server 200 is a server having at least a function of storing information such as Web pages and transmitting information such as Web pages via the Internet 1 in response to a request from the client PC 100 or the like. Many Web pages have created RSS as a format for publishing update information of the Web page. RSS is an XML-based format in which metadata such as web page headings and summaries is structured and described. The RSS can describe the title, URL, headline, summary, update time, etc. of each page on the website. By using RSS, update information of a large number of Web pages can be efficiently grasped by a unified method, and thus has been widely spread mainly in news sites in recent years.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the contents of the RSS file. Hereinafter, a part of RSS tags will be described.
<channel>
In the part enclosed by the tag, metadata about the Web site is described.
<title>
In the channel tag, the part enclosed by this tag describes the title of the Web site.
<link>
In the channel tag, the part enclosed by this tag is the HTML URL of the Web site. Usually, the home page or news page of the website is designated.
<item>
Points to individual items in the channel tag.
<title>
The part of the item tag enclosed by this tag describes the title of the item.
<link>
The part enclosed by this tag in the item tag is the HTML URL of the item.
<dc: subject><dc:date>
description tag. The part enclosed by this tag in the item tag describes various information such as a summary of the item, an outline description, and other update date and time.

  That is, the description in the channel tag indicates information related to the website, and the description in the item tag indicates information related to each item (for example, a web page) in the website. The description in the title tag of the channel tag describes text information (site information) of the website name. The description in the title tag of the item tag indicates text information (item information) of each item name on the Web site. Further, the URL (URL information) of each item on the Web site is described in the link tag of the item tag.

  The client PC 100 has functions such as a Web browser 110, an RSS reader 120, an index adding unit 130, and a TTS 140. Each function is executed as a program (or software) in the client PC 100.

  The web browser 110 is application software for browsing web pages. It is possible to download HTML files, image files, audio files, etc. from the Internet 1, analyze the layout, and display / reproduce them. In addition, the Web browser 110 can show the URL of the RSS file related to the Web site to the Web site viewer. Further, the RSS file corresponding to the Web site is displayed as text on the Web browser 110 when the viewer selects an anchor or the like indicating the URL. In this case, the RSS reader 120 functions to acquire the RSS file.

  The RSS reader 120 has a function of acquiring an RSS file from the Internet 1 and a function of extracting site information, item information, and URL information from the RSS file. In the embodiment of the present invention, the Web browser 110 automatically acquires the text content (content information) of the linked Web page indicated by the URL based on the URL information extracted by the RSS reader 120. Have Taking the RSS file shown in FIG. 2 as an example, the site information extracted by the RSS reader 120 is “Penta Com”, and the item information is “Today's baseball result breaking news”, “Today's stock price information”, “ Ueno Zoo's Red Panda "URL information is" http://www.penta.com/0002.html?ref=rss "," http://www.pentax.com/0004.html?ref=rss " , “Http://www.pentax.com/0006.html?ref=rss”. The content information acquired by the Web browser 110 based on the URL information is, for example, “I will inform you of today's baseball game results ...”, “I will inform you of stock price information. “Main brands ...”, “Lender-chan of Red Panda at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo ...”.

  The index adding unit 130 has a function of adding index information to item information extracted by the RSS reader 120 and content information acquired by the Web browser 110. The index adding means 130 generates the index information by the number of item information. That is, the index information is sequential text information such as numbers “1”, “2”, and “3”. The index adding means 130 has a function of adding such index information to the head of item information and content information. Taking the above example as a specific example, the item information is “1” + “Preliminary results of today's baseball”, “2” + “Today's stock price information”, “3” + “Red panda at Ueno Zoo” Content information is “1” + “I will inform you of the results of today's baseball game ...”, “2” + “I will inform you of stock price information. Major issues in the Tokyo stock market ...”, “3” + “Render-chan, Red Panda at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo ...”. The same index information as the corresponding item information is added to the content information. Hereinafter, item information and content information to which index information is added will be referred to as indexed item information and indexed content information, respectively.

  The TTS 140 is a speech synthesis method generally called TTS (Text-To-Speech), and is a technology for reading out text information on the client PC 100 (or on the server) by speech. This TTS is attracting attention as an information interface in which vision and hearing are linked because various character information can be converted and provided by voice. In recent years, not only flat reading of text, but also software that has evolved TTS that can speak while interpreting sentences has been developed. Further, the TTS 140 can output the synthesized voice as a voice file.

  The TTS 140 receives site information, indexed item information, and indexed content information that are text information. For example, the TTS 140 collectively outputs the site information and indexed item information as a single audio file (this audio file is referred to as an “index audio file”). Also, the TTS 140 divides the indexed content information for each content information, and outputs each as separate files (each audio file is referred to as a “content audio file”). With such a configuration, the indexed item information is continuously reproduced in the index audio file. Also, each indexed content information is reproduced independently. In the client PC 100, index audio files and content audio files are output from the TTS 140, and when these audio files are stored on the client PC 100, file names are automatically assigned (details will be described later).

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining processing performed in the client PC 100. This process is a process executed when a user of the client PC 100 makes an RSS file acquisition request to a Web site corresponding to RSS by a predetermined operation. In addition, the following description which concerns on FIG. 3 shall be performed using the RSS file illustrated in FIG. 2 as an RSS file.

  In step S101, an RSS file is acquired.

  In step S103, site information, title information, and URL information are extracted from the RSS acquired in step S101 by the function of the RSS reader 120, respectively.

  In step S105, the content information is acquired from the link destination with reference to the URL information extracted in step S103. Here, on the client PC 100, site information, item information, and content information are prepared as text information. As shown in the above examples, the site information is “Penta Com News”, the item information is “Today's Baseball Results Bulletin”, “Today's Stock Price Information”, “Ueno Zoo Red Panda”, and the content information is "I will inform you of the results of today's baseball game ...", "I will inform you of stock price information. The main stocks of the Tokyo Stock Market ..." Is.

  In step S107, the function of the index adding means 130 performs processing for adding index information to the head of each item information and content information. As described above, the index information of the numbers “1”, “2”, and “3” is added. That is, the indexed item information is text information such as “1, today's baseball result bulletin”, “2, today's stock price information”, “3, Ueno Zoo's Red Panda”. In addition, indexed content information is “1, I will inform you of the results of today's baseball game.”, “2, I will inform you of stock price information. Major issues in the Tokyo stock market…”, “3. The text information is "Lender-chan of Red Panda at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo ...".

  In step S109, speech synthesis is performed by the TTS 140 on the site information extracted in step S103 and the indexed item information and content information generated in step S107. In the embodiment of the present invention, the site information and indexed item information are output as one audio file. In other words, an index audio file including the contents of “Penta Com News. 1. Today's Baseball Results Bulletin. 2. Today's Stock Price Information. 3. Ueno Zoo's Lesser Panda.” Is created. In the embodiment of the present invention, the indexed content information is output as a separate audio file, so that “1, we will inform you of today's baseball game results ...”, “2, we will inform you of stock price information. Three content audio files are created: “Main stocks of the Tokyo stock market ...” and “3, Render-chan of Red Panda at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo…”.

  In step S111, for example, “20050620_001.mp3” is assigned to the index audio file, and “20050620_002.mp3” is added to the content audio file based on the index information “1”, “2”, and “3” added to the content audio file. Name the files “20050620_003.mp3”, “20050620_004.mp3”. With such a file name, the general audio reproduction software and the general portable player 300 first reproduce the index audio file and then the content audio file. In addition, the content audio files are reproduced in the order indicated by the index information. Therefore, when listening to the portable player 300, the user can first listen to the index audio file. Therefore, the user can grasp what item information is present and what content information is of interest. Can know. Then, the user searches for a content audio file of content information of interest. In this case, for example, if the user is interested in the third content information, since the third file from the index audio file is the corresponding file, the user can simply access. Further, when each content audio file is accessed, the index information is first reproduced, so that the user can immediately identify what number of content information the content audio file is. Therefore, when the text information of the Web page is synthesized by speech, a speech file that can easily access desired information can be created.

  The audio file creation support program according to the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist thereof.

  For example, in the above-described embodiment, the index information is a number, but is not necessarily a number. For example, text information that can be identified sequentially, such as alphabet or hiragana, may be used. Furthermore, the index information may be information that does not overlap among the item information even if it is not sequential. This is because as long as the same information is added to the item information and the content information, the reproduction order of the item information and the reproduction order of the content audio file can be made the same, thereby making it easy to access the content information. .

  In step S107, the index information is added to the content information to generate the indexed content information. However, the index information may not be added to the content information. In that case, in step S111, file names are assigned so that the playback order of item information and the playback order of content audio files are always the same. In this way, the user can immediately access the desired content information by being aware of what content audio file is to be reproduced.

  Further, the site information and the indexed item information may be separate audio files. In this case, it is preferable to give a file name so that an audio file including indexed item information is played after an audio file including site information.

  Further, update date / time information may be added to at least one of the site information and the item information. The update date / time information can be extracted using the RSS reader 120 in step S103.

  Further, the process of assigning a file name performed in step S111 is not essential. In this case, for example, the index audio file and the content audio file are put in one folder on the portable player 300 to perform file management. Then, if the user only listens to the index audio file, the user can grasp the number of the file simply by listening to the beginning of each content audio file. The desired content information can be accessed. This is effective only when the number of content information is small.

  Therefore, according to the present invention, the client PC 100 acquires an RSS file from a Web page that supports RSS (such a Web page has become widespread in recent years), and is included in the RSS file. By extracting site information, item information, etc. from the information and synthesizing it, an audio file corresponding to the index of the Web page can be created. Also, in the index audio file, index information that is different for each item information can be added to the head of the item information. In addition, content information corresponding to each item information is also converted into an audio file. The same index information as the index information added to the item information is also added to the head of each content information. The content information is individually converted into audio files. Therefore, even the portable player 300 can instantaneously access each content audio file by random access. Also, the user can easily find the content information by listening to the index information at the beginning of the item information and listening to the beginning of each content audio file if there is any item information of interest. Furthermore, if the index information is sequential information, the user can further desire by assigning a file name to each audio file so that the reproduction order of the item information and the reproduction order of the content audio file are the same. You can easily access the information. Therefore, the program according to the present invention can support creation of an audio file that allows easy access to desired information when text information of a Web page is synthesized by speech.

  Even if the content is frequently updated such as news and web blogs, the audio file creation support program according to the present invention uses RSS. For example, content audio files can be arranged in order of update date and time. The audio content can be easily managed.

It is a figure which shows client PC which executes the program which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the content of an RSS file. It is a flowchart which shows the process performed in client PC.

Explanation of symbols

1 Internet 100 Client PC
110 Web browser 120 RSS reader 130 Index adding means 140 TTS
200 Web server 300 Portable player

Claims (7)

The control means
Obtaining an RSS file;
Extracting site title information, a plurality of item title information, and a plurality of URL information corresponding to each of the plurality of item title information from the RSS file;
Obtaining a plurality of text content information corresponding to each of the plurality of item title information with reference to the plurality of URL information;
Generating a plurality of additional item title information by adding different identification text information for each item title information at the beginning of each of the plurality of item title information;
Generating a plurality of additional text content information by adding the same identification text information as the identification text information added to the corresponding item title information to the respective head portions of the plurality of text content information,
Voice synthesizing the site title information, the plurality of additional item title information, and the plurality of additional text content information to generate site title audio information, a plurality of additional item title audio information, and a plurality of additional content audio information; ,
Creating each of the plurality of additional content audio information as individual audio files;
Is a voice file creation support program that enables a client computer to implement the program.   2. The audio file creation support program according to claim 1, further comprising a step of creating an audio file so that the plurality of additional item title audio information is included in one audio file.   The audio file creation support according to claim 1, further comprising the step of creating an audio file so that the site title audio information and the plurality of additional item title audio information are included in one audio file. program. The identification text information is text information indicating a priority order,
Each of the plurality of additional item title audio information is arranged to be reproduced based on the priority order in the created audio file,
Each audio file including the plurality of additional content audio information is given a file name so that the playback order is designated based on the priority order.
The audio file creation support program according to claim 2 or 3, Extracting update date / time text information indicating the update date / time of the site title information or the item title information from the RSS file;
Synthesizing the update date and time text information to generate update date and time voice information;
Creating an audio file so that the updated date and time audio information is included in the audio file together with the site title audio information or the additional item title information, or the additional content audio information corresponding to the additional item title information;
5. The audio file creation support program according to claim 2, further comprising: The control means
Obtaining an RSS file;
Extracting site title information, a plurality of item title information, and a plurality of URL information corresponding to each of the plurality of item title information from the RSS file;
Obtaining a plurality of text content information corresponding to each of the plurality of item title information with reference to the plurality of URL information;
Generating a plurality of additional item title information by adding rank text information indicating a priority order of each item title information to each head portion of the plurality of item title information;
Voice synthesizing the site title information, the plurality of additional item title information, and the plurality of text content information to generate site title audio information, a plurality of additional item title audio information, and a plurality of content audio information;
Creating an audio file such that the plurality of additional item title audio information are arranged in one audio file based on the priority order added;
Creating each of the plurality of content audio information as individual files;
Designating a file name so that each file of the plurality of content audio information is reproduced in an order in which the plurality of additional item title audio information are arranged in an audio file;
Is a voice file creation support program that enables a client computer to implement the program. The control means
Obtaining an RSS file;
Extracting site title information, at least one item title information, URL information corresponding to the item title information from the RSS file;
Obtaining text content information corresponding to the item title information with reference to the URL information;
Generating additional item title information by adding identification text information unique to the item title information to the head portion of the item title information;
Generating additional text content information by adding the same identification text information as the identification text information added to the corresponding item title information to each head portion of the text content information;
Voice synthesizing the site title information, the additional item title information, and the additional text content information to generate site title audio information, additional item title audio information, and additional content audio information;
Creating the additional content audio information as an audio file separate from the site title information and the additional item title information;
Is a voice file creation support program that enables a client computer to implement the program.

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