JP6441177B2 - PAUSE LENGTH DETERMINING DEVICE, PAUSE LENGTH DETERMINING METHOD, AND PROGRAM - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a speech synthesis technique, and more particularly to a technique for controlling the length of a pause inserted between sentences of synthesized speech.

  For example, a caregiver is instructed to speak slowly when talking to an elderly person (see, for example, Non-Patent Document 1). As a result, the conversation in a form that is easy for the elderly to understand is realized. Similarly, it may be desirable to read out the synthesized speech generated by a computer or the like at a slower rate for each sentence. However, a specific method for controlling the length of silent intervals (so-called pauses) between sentences is not clear.

  As a technique for controlling the length of pauses between sentences, there is a speech speed conversion technique that slowly reproduces the part of a word in a sentence while shortening the pause between words (for example, Non-patent document 2).

Supervised by Kenji Kameguchi, “Elderly Communicator Course Text”, first edition, Nichii Gakukan Co., Ltd., November 2013 Japan Broadcasting Corporation, “One-point basic knowledge”, “Speaking speed conversion”, [online], [Search on July 20, 2015], Internet <URL: http://www.nhk.or.jp/strl/ onepoint / wasoku.html>

  However, since the speech speed conversion technique described in Non-Patent Document 2 is a technique for keeping the voice within the limit of the broadcast time, it controls the length of the sentence pause in the voice spoken for the elderly. It is not appropriate if you want to. In addition, it is conceivable that the length of the pause between sentences is expanded or contracted at the same ratio as that of the speech section, but it is not always appropriate because the speech is not easily understood by the elderly.

  In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to provide a pause length control technique capable of appropriately controlling the length of a pause between sentences based on a document structure.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, the pause length control device of the present invention provides a sentence pause length expansion / contraction model that outputs control information for expanding / contracting the length of sentence pause according to the input sentence classification. A model storage unit for storing, a document structure analysis unit for determining an inter-sentence type determined based on the document structure for each sentence of each sentence included in the input document, and a synthesized speech is generated based on the input document. A speech synthesizer that obtains the length of the corresponding pose as the reference pose length, and the reference pose length is expanded and contracted based on the control information output by the sentence pose length expansion / contraction model with the sentence type of the input document as input. An inter-sentence pause length determining unit that determines the length of a pause corresponding to each sentence of the synthesized speech.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to appropriately control the length of the pause between sentences based on the document structure. As a result, the structure of the document can be communicated to the listener by the presence and length of the pose, and a higher understanding can be given.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the pause length control apparatus. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a processing flow of the pause length control method. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of the inter-sentence type output by the document structure analysis unit.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail. In addition, the same number is attached | subjected to the component which has the same function in drawing, and duplication description is abbreviate | omitted.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the pause length control apparatus according to the embodiment is an apparatus that receives a text to be synthesized as an input and outputs the pause length between sentences in synthesized speech generated from the input document. The pause length control device 1 includes a model storage unit 10, a document structure analysis unit 11, a speech synthesis unit 12, and an inter-sentence pause length determination unit 13. The pause length control method 1 of the embodiment is realized by the pause length control device 1 performing processing of each step described later.

  The pause length control device 1 is configured, for example, by loading a special program into a known or dedicated computer having a central processing unit (CPU), a main storage (RAM), and the like. It is a special device. For example, the pause length control device 1 executes each process under the control of the central processing unit. The data input to the pause length control device 1 and the data obtained in each process are stored in, for example, the main storage device, and the data stored in the main storage device is read out as needed for other processing. Used. Further, at least a part of each processing unit of the pause length control apparatus 1 may be configured by hardware such as an integrated circuit. Each storage unit of the pause length control device 1 is, for example, a main storage device such as a RAM (Random Access Memory), an auxiliary storage device configured by a semiconductor memory element such as a hard disk, an optical disk, or a flash memory, or It can be configured with middleware such as a relational database or key-value store.

  A processing procedure of the pause length control method of the embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  The model storage unit 10 stores a sentence pause length expansion / contraction model that outputs control information for expanding / contracting the length of the sentence pause according to the input sentence classification. The inter-sentence type is information representing the document structure that is determined by the type of preceding and succeeding sentences and the presence or absence of line breaks between the sentences for every two consecutive sentences. The inter-text pose length expansion / contraction model of the embodiment is, for example, a model having an expansion / contraction magnification and a bias term for expanding / contracting the inter-text pose length so that the elderly can easily hear. For example, the pose length before expansion / contraction can be expressed in a line format of y = a1 × x + b1, where x is the pose length after expansion / contraction and y. Here, a1 is the expansion / contraction magnification and b1 is the bias term. Alternatively, a model may be used in which the expansion / contraction magnification of the inter-sentence pose length is switched using the inter-sentence type as a variable, or a fixed value is given as the inter-sentence pose length.

  The document input to the pause length control device is, for example, a text document including a plurality of sentences and their layouts without including a figure. The input document includes a plurality of sentences, and there are punctuation marks in the sentence and at the end of the sentence. The input document may include bullets, and each item is described using a bullet (for example, “•” or the like) that is generally used. Here, it is assumed that a series of sentences are described continuously without line breaks.

  In step S <b> 1, the document structure analysis unit 11 determines an inter-sentence type determined based on the document structure for each sentence between sentences included in the input document. Specifically, first, a sentence part included in the input document is determined, and it is determined that an inter-sentence part exists between successive sentences. For example, the range starting with a character other than a bullet symbol and ending with a punctuation is determined as “normal sentence 1”. If there is no line feed after “normal sentence 1”, characters other than bullet symbols follow, and the character range continues until the next punctuation mark, it is determined as “normal sentence 2”. Then, the portion between “normal sentence 1” and “normal sentence 2” is determined as the inter-sentence part. If there is a sentence between such a normal sentence and a normal sentence, an inter-sentence type “ordinary sentence” is assigned. On the other hand, the range from the beginning of the bullet to the beginning of the bullet and the line break is determined as “bullet 1”. If the character string starting with a bullet symbol at the beginning of the line continues and the character range continues until a line feed is entered, it is determined as “Bullet sentence 2”. Then, the section between “bullet sentence 1” and “bullet sentence 2” is determined as the inter-sentence part. If there is a sentence between such a bulleted sentence and a bulleted sentence, an inter-sentence type “between bulleted sentences” is assigned. Another sentence-to-sentence type such as “between a normal sentence and a bulleted sentence” is assigned between the normal sentence and the bulleted sentence. If there is a line break between normal sentences, an inter-sentence type of “between paragraphs” is assigned. If the bulleted sentence or the normal sentence is at the end of the document, an inter-sentence type “end of document” is added to the end. In addition, “between the title and normal text” between the title at the beginning of the document and the normal text, “between the normal text and the bulleted title” between the normal text and the bulleted title, the bulleted title and the bulleted item, “Between the bulleted title and the bulleted sentence” in between, “Between the bulleted sentence and the regular sentence” followed by the normal sentence after the bulleted sentence, etc., can also be used as the sentence type indicating the boundary of the document structure .

など）が続き、その後、単語列が続く場合、または、文字があらかじめ定めておいた上限の数以下続き、閉じる括弧記号（例えば、

など）が続き、その後、単語列が続く場合の、単語列の先頭の単語よりも文頭側の文字列を検出することで判定できる。 The determination as to whether or not the item is a bullet symbol is, for example, zero or more blank characters from the beginning of the line, and a symbol (for example,

Etc., followed by a word string, or a character that is less than or equal to a predetermined upper limit and a closing parenthesis symbol (e.g.,

Etc.), and then the word string continues, it can be determined by detecting the character string on the sentence head side with respect to the first word of the word string.

  By repeating the above process for the entire input document, the document structure is analyzed. The sentence type obtained in this way is sent to the sentence pause length determination unit 13.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of the final analysis result. In the example of FIG. 3, the input document is composed of five sentences (sentences 1 to 5), the sentences 1 to 3 are normal sentences, and the sentences 4 to 5 are bulleted sentences. A line break is inserted between sentence 2 and sentence 3. At this time, the inter-sentence type between sentences 1 and 2 (sentence 1) is “ordinary sentence”, and the inter-sentence type between sentences 2 and 3 (sentence 2) is “sentence type”. The paragraph type between sentences 3 and 4 (between sentences 3) is “between normal sentence and itemized list”, and the sentence between sentences 4 and 5 (between sentences 4). ) Is “between itemized items”, and the back of sentence 5 (sentence 5) is “end of document”.

  In step S2, the speech synthesizer 12 generates synthesized speech based on the input document, and obtains a pose length corresponding to each sentence as a reference pose length. As a speech synthesis method, any speech synthesis technique can be used. Examples of the existing speech synthesis technology include the speech synthesis technology described in Reference Document 1 below. The generated synthesized speech and the reference pose length are sent to the inter-text pose length determination unit 13.

[Reference 1] Keiichi Tokuda, “HMM-based Speech Synthesis System (HTS)”, [online], [searched July 20, 2015], Internet <URL: http://hts.sp.nitech.ac .jp />

  Instead of using the speech and pose generated by the speech synthesizer, record the speech that the human being read out the document to be synthesized, measure the pause time length between each sentence, and use this as the reference pause length, The sentence and the pause between each sentence are associated with each other, and the sentence pause length is determined by alternately arranging the voice of each sentence and the pause length between sentences corresponding to the sentence-to-sentence type in the order from the beginning to the end of the document. It is also possible to send it to the section 13.

  In step S <b> 3, the sentence pause length determination unit 13 inputs the sentence gap type of the input document received from the document structure analysis unit 11 to the sentence pause length expansion / contraction model stored in the model storage unit 10, and the sentence pause. Control information for expanding / contracting the length of is obtained. Based on the control information, the reference pose length received from the speech synthesizer 12 is expanded or contracted to determine the length of the pose corresponding to each sentence of the synthesized speech.

  For example, between sentences whose inter-sentence type is “between bullets”, it is expanded or contracted to a constant value regardless of the reference pause length of the synthesized speech. In the “normal sentence interval”, the length is increased by multiplying the reference pose length in the synthesized voice or the recorded voice by a fixed magnification. At the same time, it is also possible to extend the length of the voice part other than the sentence pose by using a constant magnification given to “between normal sentences” or a constant magnification different from this.

  With this configuration, the pause length control device of the present invention can appropriately control the length of the pause between sentences based on the document structure. As a result, the structure of the document can be communicated to the listener by the presence and length of the pose, and a higher understanding can be given.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and it goes without saying that modifications can be made as appropriate without departing from the spirit of the present invention. The various processes described in the above embodiment may be executed not only in time series according to the order of description, but also in parallel or individually as required by the processing capability of the apparatus that executes the processes or as necessary.

[Program, recording medium]
When various processing functions in each device described in the above embodiment are realized by a computer, the processing contents of the functions that each device should have are described by a program. Then, by executing this program on a computer, various processing functions in each of the above devices are realized on the computer.

  The program describing the processing contents can be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium. As the computer-readable recording medium, for example, any recording medium such as a magnetic recording device, an optical disk, a magneto-optical recording medium, and a semiconductor memory may be used.

  This program is distributed by selling, transferring, or lending a portable recording medium such as a DVD or CD-ROM in which the program is recorded. Furthermore, the program may be distributed by storing the program in a storage device of the server computer and transferring the program from the server computer to another computer via a network.

  A computer that executes such a program first stores, for example, a program recorded on a portable recording medium or a program transferred from a server computer in its own storage device. When executing the process, the computer reads a program stored in its own recording medium and executes a process according to the read program. As another execution form of the program, the computer may directly read the program from a portable recording medium and execute processing according to the program, and the program is transferred from the server computer to the computer. Each time, the processing according to the received program may be executed sequentially. A configuration in which the above-described processing is executed by a so-called ASP (Application Service Provider) type service that realizes a processing function only by an execution instruction and result acquisition without transferring a program from the server computer to the computer. It is good. Note that the program in this embodiment includes information that is used for processing by an electronic computer and that conforms to the program (data that is not a direct command to the computer but has a property that defines the processing of the computer).

  In this embodiment, the present apparatus is configured by executing a predetermined program on a computer. However, at least a part of these processing contents may be realized by hardware.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Pause length control apparatus 10 Model memory | storage part 11 Document structure analysis part 12 Speech synthesis part 13 Sentence pause length determination part

Claims (3)

A model storage unit for storing an inter-sentence pose length expansion / contraction model that outputs control information for expanding / contracting the length of the inter-sentence pose according to the input inter-sentence type;
A document structure analysis unit that determines an inter-sentence type determined based on the document structure for each sentence included in the input document;
A speech synthesizer that generates synthesized speech based on the input document and obtains a pose length corresponding to each sentence as a reference pose length;
The length of the pose corresponding to each sentence of the synthesized speech is obtained by expanding / contracting the reference pose length based on the control information output by the inter-text pose length expansion / contraction model using the inter-text type of the input document as an input. A sentence-to-sentence pose length determining unit;
Only including,
The document structure analysis unit classifies each sentence included in the input document as a normal sentence or a bulleted sentence, and determines a sentence type according to classification of sentences before and after the sentence and whether or not there is a line break between the sentences. Is,
Pause length determination device. The model storage unit stores a sentence pause length expansion / contraction model that outputs control information for expanding / contracting the length of the sentence pause according to the input sentence classification,
A document structure analysis step in which a document structure analysis unit determines an inter-sentence type determined based on the document structure for each sentence included in the input document;
A speech synthesis step in which a speech synthesis unit generates synthesized speech based on the input document and obtains a pose length corresponding to each sentence as a reference pose length;
The sentence pause length determination unit takes the sentence type of the input document as input and expands / contracts the reference pose length based on the control information output by the sentence pause length expansion / contraction model so that each sentence of the synthesized speech is A sentence pose length determination step for determining the length of the pose corresponding to
Only including,
In the document structure analysis step, each sentence included in the input document is classified into a normal sentence or a bulleted sentence, and a sentence classification is determined based on classification of sentences before and after the sentence and presence / absence of line breaks between the sentences. ,
How to determine the pose length. A program for causing a computer to function as the pause length determination device according to claim 1 .

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