JPH03211661A - Sentence read-aloud device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the burden of a user by automatically setting a read speed in accordance with the quantity of morae which a read speed information setting part analyzes in a document analysis part. CONSTITUTION:The document analysis part 2 refers to a dictionary held in a dictionary holding part 3 while it analyzes the document held in a document holding part 1 and calculates the quantity of the unit (mora) of a pronunciation included in the document in the middle of a processing. The read speed informa tion setting part 7 refers to time information held in a time information holding part 5 and a sentence analysis result held in a sentence analysis result holding part 4 while it obtains the speed for reading the sentence. A sentence read part 8 reads the sentence based on read speed information held in a read speed information holding part 6. Thus, the read speed is automatically set in such a way the sentence is read in time which the user desires, and the sentence is read in desired time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a text reading device that reads a large amount of text at an appropriate speed.

[Prior Art] When reading a large amount of text in lectures, report meetings, etc., there is often a limit to the amount of time that can be read out, such as "within 30 minutes" or "within 15 minutes."

Therefore, users of conventional text reading devices have set the speed at which the text reading device reads the text in order to have the text read out in an appropriate time.

For example, “A” or “” can be used to set the reading speed.
There was a method of allocating a certain amount of time to units of pronunciation (mora) such as "shu".

[Problem to be solved by the invention] However, for example, the word "read" is read as "yomu" and the word "do" is read as "do", and the amount of font in the sentence and the actual mora are different. There is no one-to-one correspondence with quantity.

Therefore, in the conventional example, the setting of the text reading speed had to depend on the user's experience. For this reason,
Especially when reading a large amount of text, the difference between the amount of mora expected from the text and the actual amount of mora becomes large (the difference between the amount of mora expected from the font of the text and the amount of mora becomes large), and the user has to wait until the correct speed is set.
The user has to repeatedly set the speed, which not only increases the burden on the user (but also significantly reduces work efficiency).

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention has been made for the purpose of solving the above-mentioned problems, and includes the following configuration as one means for solving the above-mentioned problems.

That is, a text storage means for storing sentences, a text analysis means for analyzing the sentences stored in the text storage means, and a time information storage for storing time information regarding the reading time of the sentences stored in the sentence storage means. means, a reading speed calculation means for calculating a reading speed when reading out the sentences stored in the sentence storage means based on the time information and the sentence analysis result by the sentence analysis means, and a reading speed calculated by the reading speed calculation means. and text reading means for reading out the text stored in the text storage means based on the speed information.

[Operation] In the above configuration, the reading speed is automatically set so that the text is read out at the user's desired time, and the text is read out at the user's desired time.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a first embodiment according to the present invention.

In the figure, l is a text holding unit that holds a text to be read out. Reference numeral 2 denotes a text analysis unit that analyzes the text held in the text storage unit 1. Reference numeral 3 denotes a dictionary holding unit that holds a dictionary used in the sentence analysis unit 2, and includes information regarding moras for constituent elements such as words, symbols, and phrases that make up the sentence held in the sentence holding unit 1. . Reference numeral 4 denotes a text analysis result holding unit that holds the results analyzed by the text analysis unit 2. Reference numeral 5 denotes a time information holding unit that is held in the text holding unit 1 and holds information regarding the time when reading out a text. Reference numeral 6 denotes a reading speed information holding unit that holds information regarding the reading speed of the sentences held in the text holding unit 1.

7 determines the reading speed when reading out the text held in the text holding unit 1 by referring to the time information held in the time information holding unit 4 and the text analysis result held in the text analysis result holding unit 4. This is a reading speed information setting unit that calculates the reading speed information and causes the reading speed information holding unit 6 to hold the calculated reading speed information. 8 is based on the reading speed information held in the reading speed information holding unit 6,
This is a text reading unit that reads and outputs the text held in the text holding unit 1 as a corresponding audio signal.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a hardware configuration of this embodiment.

In FIG. 2, 21 is a processing procedure (
22 is a control memory 2 for recording (described later).
This is a central processing unit that manages the entire control of this embodiment, including judgment, calculation, etc., according to the control procedure stored in 1. 2
Reference numeral 3 denotes a randomly accessible memory, which includes a sentence analysis result holding section KB, a reading speed information holding section YB, a time information holding section SB, and a working memory WM corresponding to the sentence holding section 1. Reference numeral 24 denotes a disk device, which includes a dictionary holding section 3. 25 is an input device such as a keyboard, and 26 is an audio output device composed of speakers and the like. Each of the above devices is connected by a pass line.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a sentence held in the text holding section 1 configured as above, and FIG. 4 shows an example of time information held in the time information holding section 5.

The reading operation of this embodiment having the above configuration will be explained below with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, in step S1, it is checked whether the sentence meaning holding section 1 holds a sentence and whether or not the time information holding section 4 holds time information. If both are held, the process moves on to the sentence analysis process in step S2, and if either is not held, step S1 is repeated to wait until both are held.

In step S2, the sentence held in the sentence holding unit 1 is analyzed with reference to the dictionary held in the dictionary holding unit 3, and the units of pronunciation (mora) included in the sentence being processed are
The amount is calculated and stored in the sentence analysis result holding unit 4, and the process moves to step S3, which is a reading speed calculation process.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a dictionary held in the dictionary holding unit 3, and FIG. 7 is a result of performing the process of step S2 on the text shown in FIG. 3 held in the text holding unit l. , is a diagram showing an example of text analysis results held in the text analysis holding unit 4.

In the reading speed calculation process of step $3, the time information held in the time information holding unit 5 and the text analysis result held in the text analysis result holding unit 4 are referred to, and the text is read out in the text holding unit 1. The speed at which the text is read out is determined and stored in the reading speed information holding section 6.

FIG. 8 shows the result of performing the process of step S3 on the text analysis result shown in FIG. 7 held in the text analysis holding unit 4 for the text shown in FIG. 4 held in the text holding unit 1. , is a diagram showing an example of reading speed information held in the reading speed information holding unit 6. FIG.

Finally, in the text reading process of step S4 in FIG. finish.

Note that this reading processing is achieved by converting the document data into a corresponding audio signal by a known circuit that converts the document data into a corresponding audio signal, and converting the document data into a corresponding audio signal and outputting it from the audio output circuit 26. . This conversion circuit is
In FIG. 2, it may be performed by the central processing unit 22, or
It may be provided in the audio output device 26.

[Other Embodiments] In the embodiments described above, in step S3, “1
．． We have explained an example of setting the maximum amount of time it can take to read a sentence, such as "within 2 seconds," but there is also a process of setting the minimum amount of time it should take, such as "15 minutes or more." Alternatively, processing may be performed to set an allowable range such as "20 minutes ± 3 minutes".

Furthermore, in the embodiment, the time information held in the time information holding section 5 and the reading speed information held in the reading speed information holding section 6 are set to "within 1.2 seconds" and "-0.2 seconds per unit." Below, we have explained an example where the unit of time is ``seconds'', but ``
A unit representing time other than "second" may be used as the standard, such as "within 0.02 minutes" or "within 200 milliseconds per unit."

As explained above, according to this embodiment, the reading speed information setting section 7 (central processing unit 22 in FIG. 2) can automatically set the reading speed according to the amount of mora analyzed by the document analysis section 2. This eliminates the need for the user to repeatedly set the speed at which the device reads sentences, reducing the burden on the user and improving work efficiency.

In this way, the reading speed is automatically set so that the text is read out at the user's desired time, and there is little error between the desired and actual reading times, reducing the burden on the user when setting the reading speed. It becomes possible to improve work efficiency.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, the reading speed is automatically set so that the text is read out in the time desired by the user, and there is little error between the desired and actual reading times. It is possible to reduce the burden on the user in setting the reading speed and improve work efficiency.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a text reading device according to an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a hardware configuration of the embodiment shown in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a dictionary stored in the time information storage section in this embodiment. FIG. 5 is a document reading process in this embodiment. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of the dictionary held in the dictionary holding unit in this embodiment. FIG. 7 is the result of document analysis processing on the example sentence shown in FIG. 3 in this embodiment. , a diagram showing an example of the sentence analysis results held in the sentence analysis result holding unit, FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of reading speed information held in an information holding unit. In the figure, 1... text holding section, 2... text analysis section, 3...
...Dictionary holding unit, 4...Sentence analysis result holding unit, 5...
- Time information holding unit, 6... reading speed information holding unit,
7... Reading speed information setting unit, 8... Text reading unit, 21... Control memory, 22... Central processing unit, 23... Memory, 2 47... Disk device, 5... - Input bag holder, 6... Audio output device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A text storage means for storing sentences, a text analysis means for analyzing the texts stored in the text storage means, and a time information storage means for storing time information regarding reading time of the sentences stored in the text storage means. and a reading speed calculation means for calculating a reading speed when reading out the sentences stored in the sentence storage means based on the time information and the sentence analysis result by the sentence analysis means, and a reading speed calculation means calculated by the reading speed calculation means. A text reading device comprising a text reading device that reads out the text stored in the text storage device based on reading speed information.