JPH05313565A - Voice reading machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the voice reading machine for the convenience of reading by constituting the machine so that not only a voice output of a sentence in a book but also a graphic can be displayed, while correlating them to the sentence read aloud by a loudspeaker, etc. CONSTITUTION:A page of a book 6 set to a prescribed position is turned by a page turning mechanism 18, the mentioned contents of the book 6 turned and set to a prescribed page by the page turning mechanism 18 are read by an image sensor 20, and in CPUs 24, 32 and 38, from data based on read by the image sensor 20, whether the contents mentioned in the contents of the page of the book are a sentence or a graphic, is recognized and processed, and from its recognition, contents of the page are processed to separate to the sentence and the graphic, respectively, and also, a correlation of its sentence and the graphic is taken, and by driving a loudspeaker 2 in accordance with its correlated sentence, it is outputted in a voice, and on the other hand, the graphic correlated to its sentence is displayed by a graphic display part 4.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a voice reader capable of outputting the contents of a book by voice.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Such an audio reading machine was developed mainly for a physically handicapped person such as a blind person, and for that reason, a book carried in the inside as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 2-262691. While automatically turning the page, the sentence written on each page is read by an image sensor, and the read sentence is output as voice from a voice unit such as a speaker.

[0003]

In such a voice reading machine, since the output is made only by voice, the figures described on the page are completely ignored.

Here, as for the transmission of the information described in the book, the information will be completed only when the sentence and the figure are integrated into one body. In that respect, it was not enough to convey information about reading.

Therefore, according to the present invention, not only the voice output of the text in the book but also the graphic can be displayed in correlation with the text read out by the speaker or the like, and can be used for the convenience of the reading. The purpose is to

[0006]

In order to achieve such an object, in the present invention, a page turning mechanism for turning pages of a book set at a predetermined position and a predetermined page by this page turning mechanism. An image sensor that reads the contents of the book that is set to be
The voice section for outputting the sentence described in the book by voice, the figure display section for displaying the figure described in the book, and the content based on the reading by the image sensor to the content of the page of the book Recognize whether the content described is a sentence or a figure, and from that recognition separate the content of the page into a sentence and a figure respectively, and take the correlation between the sentence and the figure, The control unit controls the voice unit according to the correlated sentence, and controls the graphic display unit according to the graphic correlated with the sentence.

[0007]

[Operation] The description content of a book in which a predetermined page is turned by the page turning mechanism is read by the image sensor. The control unit recognizes a sentence and a figure from the description of the book read by the image sensor, separates the recognized sentence and the figure, and separates the separated sentence and the figure. While correlating, the voice part is controlled to output the voice for the correlated sentence, while the graphic display part is controlled to display the figure in accordance with the figure correlated to the sentence.

Therefore, not only can the sentence be read by voice, but the contents of the book can be completely grasped from the display of the figure correlated with the sentence.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an external view of a voice reading machine according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a circuit block diagram in the voice reading machine.

Referring to FIG. 1, this audio reader is externally shaped like a CD radio cassette tape recorder, and is equipped with a pair of speakers 2 on both the left and right sides of a front panel. A graphic display unit 4 made of liquid crystal is provided in the upper center between the speakers 2 and a tray 8 for pulling back and forth for inserting a book 6 therein is provided in the lower center. Then, the book 6 is placed on the tray 8 that is pulled out forward, and by pulling the tray 8 inward,
It is set to the reading position of the book inside. Further, the operation panel 10 for operating the voice reading machine is provided on the panel on the upper surface of the voice reading machine.

Referring to FIG. 2, the voice reader is roughly classified in terms of a circuit, and a character recognition unit 12 and a reader control unit 14 are provided.
And a graphic display / voice synthesis processing section 16.
The character recognition unit 12 is described inside the page turning mechanism 18 for turning the pages of the book set at the reading position as described above, and the corresponding page of the book 6 turned by the page turning mechanism 18. The image sensor 20 that reads the contents and the output of this image sensor 20 are A /
A / D converter 22 for D conversion and this A / D converter 22
A CPU 24 that responds to output, a program ROM 26 required for the operation of the CPU 24, and a dictionary ROM 28.
And a work RAM 30.

Then, the character recognition unit 12 recognizes the sentences and figures written in the book as follows.

That is, the page turning mechanism 18 performs page turning, page returning, page skipping, or automatic page turning in response to the operation of the operation unit 10 for the pages of the book 6 on the tray 8, and also the page turning. In the automatic mode, page turning is performed in response to a command from the CPU 24. Such a page turning mechanism 1
Since 8 is well known, its details are omitted. The image sensor 20 pattern-recognizes and reads the content written on the pages of the book 6 on the tray 8. A well-known image sensor for performing such reading may be used. The CPU 24 is the image sensor 20.
The output from is processed by the flow according to the program ROM 26, and the dictionary ROM 28 is referred to in order to recognize what character the pattern given from the output of the image sensor 20 shows. This dictionary ROM28
Stores a standard character pattern corresponding to the character recognized in the pattern by the image sensor 20, and the CPU 2
Reference numeral 4 compares the character pattern read by the image sensor 20 with the pattern stored in the dictionary ROM 28, and recognizes the character having the matched pattern as the read character by the comparison. The CPU 24 stores the recognized characters in the work RAM 30 and recognizes the figure by a known method called the proximity line density method, and recognizes the sentence and the figure on the page of the book. It is designed to separate them. That is, according to the proximity line density method, the CPU 24 picks up one black dot forming a character and a figure from the output of the image sensor 20 one by one, and creates a three-dimensional space including a plain and a mountain in the work RAM 30.
Assuming that, in that space, the character part is recognized as a mountain, and the figure is recognized as a plain, and the position of the sentence and the position of the figure on the page are calculated from the mountain and the plain. After that, the sentence and the figure are separated and the correlation between the sentence and the figure on the page is taken.
Then, the CPU 24 recognizes the characters thus recognized, and a sentence that is a collection of the series of characters (the required processing such as the corresponding line of the sentence on the page is performed).
Each data including the figure separated from this is read by the reading machine control unit 14
It is designed to output to. In this case, as for the character, the CPU 24 refers to the page of FIG. 2A in which data identifiers and text data (data of a set of sentences in the page) such as page 1 and page 2 are described. It is processed and output as a series of data consisting of information and the text data described on the page, and as for the graphic, as in FIG. 2B, the data identifier and the character are the same. The page information, the figure number described on the page, title information, and figure data are processed as a series of data and then output. Here, the figure number is, for example, the number shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2, and the title information is, for example, the name of the figure.

The reader control unit 14 comprises a CPU 32, a program ROM 34, and a work RAM 36. The character recognition unit 12 and the graphic display / voice synthesis processing unit 16 are provided.
And the centralized control of these operations is performed by the central processing unit, and as described above, the CPU of the character recognition unit 12
As shown in (a) and (b) of FIG. 2 from 24, each data of a sentence and a figure which is data-processed and outputted is handled and outputted to the figure display / speech synthesis processing section 16.

The graphic display / speech synthesis processing unit 16 uses the CPU 32 of the reading machine control unit 14 to send the CP of the character recognition unit 12 to the CP.
Each data of a sentence and a figure given from U24 is displayed as a voice from the speaker 2, and a figure is displayed on the figure display unit 4.

That is, the graphic display / voice synthesis processing section 16
Is a CPU 38, a program ROM 40, a voice synthesis dictionary ROM and 42, a work RAM 44, and a liquid crystal drive unit 4.
6, a graphic display unit 4 made of liquid crystal, a digital signal processing unit 48, a D / A converter 50, an amplifier 52, and a speaker 2. Then, the CPU 38 of the graphic display / speech synthesis processing unit 16 uses the program R to output the data output from the character recognition unit 12 via the reader control unit 14.
The text is processed in accordance with the flow of the OM 40, and a sentence is synthesized from the voice synthesis dictionary ROM 42 into a corresponding voice and then output from the speaker 2 via the amplifier 52.
The process is performed in accordance with the flow of 1. and the graphic is displayed on the graphic display unit 4 via the liquid crystal drive unit 46.

In this case, in order to display the graphic corresponding to the text output from the speaker 2 by voice synthesis, while checking the page and the graphic number corresponding to the text, the text and the graphic The graphic is displayed on the graphic display unit 4 while taking a correlation. Although there is a case where there is no figure number, in that case, the figure is displayed on the figure display unit 4 while correlating the page corresponding to the sentence and the page of the figure. When there are a plurality of figures on the same page, the figure is divided based on the amount of text data of the page, and the display time of the divided figures is controlled to correspond to the text to be voice-synthesized as much as possible.

As described above, in the voice reader according to this embodiment, not only can the sentence be read by voice, but the contents of the book can be completely grasped from the display of the figure correlated with the sentence. can do.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, the description content of a book in which a predetermined page is turned by the page turning mechanism is read by the image sensor, and the control section reads the book read by the image sensor. Sentences and figures are recognized from the contents described in, and the recognized sentences and figures are separately processed, and while the correlation between the separated sentences and the figures is taken, the correlated sentences are While controlling the voice section to output the voice, the graphic display section is controlled to display the figure according to the figure that correlates to the sentence, so that not only can the sentence be read by voice. , It is a very convenient reading machine because the contents of the book can be completely grasped from the display of figures correlated with the sentence.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of a voice reading machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an internal block circuit diagram of the voice reader of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a structure of each data in the voice reader.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 speaker 4 graphic display unit 6 book 12 character recognition unit 14 reading machine control unit 16 graphic display / voice synthesis processing unit 18 page turning mechanism 20 image sensor 24 CPU

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A page-turning mechanism for turning pages of a book set at a predetermined position, an image sensor for reading the written contents of a book set at a predetermined page by the page-turning mechanism, Described in the content of the page of the book from the voice part that outputs the sentence written in the book by voice, the figure display part that displays the figure described in the book, and the data based on the reading by the image sensor It recognizes whether the content is a sentence or a figure, and from that recognition separates the content of the page into a sentence and a figure respectively, and takes the correlation between the sentence and the figure, and the correlation A control unit for controlling the voice unit in accordance with the written text and controlling the graphic display unit in accordance with a graphic pattern correlated with the text. Speech reading machine for the.