JPH07160282A - Voice reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reproduce the voice of reading aloud a book for a sufficient time and to make a reading speed variable by storing digital voice data in a storage medium with a form in which a voiceless part is coded and adding this silent time at the time of reproducing. CONSTITUTION:A voiceless part conversion means 6 easily changes a voice data range of a voiceless part by a signal from an input control means 7. The input control means 7 inputs a signal in accordance with the input to an adjusting means 4 by key input operation, knob input operation and the like on an input panel 71, for example, signals based on operations of pause, program searching, repeat and the like are inputted to the adjusting means 4 by key input operation, and a driving circuit 5 is adjusted. Also, the input control means 7 outputs a signal for adding or erasing a signal range indicating a range of a voiceless part in order to adjust a reading speed slower or faster, for the voiceless part conversion means 6. After voice data outputted by the voiceless part conversion means 6 converted to an analog voice by a D/A conversion means 8, amplified by an amplifier circuit 9, and reproduced and outputted by a voice outputting means 10.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a voice reproducing device such as a voice electronic book, a learning / educational device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There is a device for audio reproduction using a digital high capacity storage medium such as a CD-ROM, but the reproduction time is about 70 minutes at most. Although such a reproduction time is sufficient for recording music, it is insufficient for recording all the read voices read aloud books such as paperback books and study books. In particular, when it is necessary to repeat and output a clear voice at a variable speed for a long time such as a learning device for giving an understanding and recognition to a listener, it is possible to use the digital storage medium described above. Has to adjust or omit learning contents, and moreover intentionally adjust reading speed at the time of recording.

[0003]

In view of the above, the present invention has been earnestly studied, and as a result of the earnest research, digital voice data is stored in a storage medium in a manner in which a substantially non-voice part is encoded, and this voiceless time is reproduced at the time of reproduction. By adding, it is possible to store sufficient audio data in the storage medium, and at the time of reproduction, since this code contains the information of the original unvoiced part, the audio output in a state close to natural reading is output. Voice can be added for a long period of time and can be added to any voiceless data with a desired time width, so you can change the reading speed when you want to listen slowly, such as a study book or commentary book, or when you want to listen quickly. Realized a playback device. In the present invention, the non-speech portion indicates a portion of the sound, such as inter-syllables and inter-syllables, which is silent or close to silence. In addition, the actual encoding of the unvoiced part is
For example, all or 1 of the silent section (M) shown in FIG.
3 (32) (MS), the state shown in FIG.
3) Converting the non-voice part (M) shown in FIG. 3 (34) into another code (MF), or as shown in FIG. 3 (35), the voice part (O1, O2, ...). .. On ...), all or part of the non-voice part (M1, M2, ... Mn ...) is shown in FIG.
As shown in 6), it indicates to collect in a specific area.

[0004]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS (1) is a storage medium, which is a magneto-optical medium such as MD and MO, an optical disc such as disc, CD and MD, a magnetic disc, an IC storage medium, and the like, which is particularly small and has a high capacity. . (2) is a drive element, which is an electric motor or the like such as a spindle motor or a sled motor for driving the storage medium and moving the pickup. Also, it may not be present depending on the type of storage medium. (3) is an RF amplifier, for example, for amplifying and shaping the read signal. (4) is an adjusting means, which is constituted by a DSP or the like, and is provided with an error correction processing, a PLL, etc., and further, an EFM demodulating means, etc. when a general-purpose CD reproducing apparatus is used.
(5) is a drive means for controlling the rotation speed, reading, positioning, etc. of the drive element (2). (6)
Is a voiceless conversion means, which is composed of a microcomputer, ASIC and the like, and is means for reproducing the encoded voiceless portion according to the code and external input. (7) is an input control means, which is configured by a microcomputer or the like, and further has an external input (7
A control signal based on the input signal of 1) and the output signal of the voiceless conversion means (6) is adjusted by the control means (4) and the voiceless conversion means.
Output to (6). Reference numeral (8) is a D / A conversion means, which converts a voice digital signal into an analog signal and outputs it. still,
When the data has been subjected to compression processing such as ADPCM and ATC, decompression processing corresponding to the compression processing is further included. (9) is an amplifying means, which amplifies and outputs analog voice. Reference numeral (10) is a voice output means, which is composed of a speaker, an earphone and the like.

Next, the operation will be described. A mixed signal of digital voice and coded non-voice data obtained from the storage medium (1) via the drive element (2) (for example, FIG. 3 (32),
(34)) is amplified and shaped by the RF amplification means (3) and input to the adjustment means (4). The adjusting means (4) performs error correction and EFM demodulation processing on the input data and outputs the data, and further, for the drive circuit (5), adjusts, for example, the rotation speed of the storage medium and the movement of the pickup. It outputs a signal to do the etc. The voiceless conversion means (6) is an adjustment means.
For the output from (4), the encoded unvoiced data is detected,
It is converted to voice data indicating no voice and output. The voiceless conversion means (6) easily changes the voiceless voice data range according to the signal from the human power control means (7). The input control means (7) causes the adjusting means (4) to input a signal corresponding to the input by a key input from the input (71), a knob input, or the like,
For example, the drive circuit (5) is caused by inputting a signal based on an operation such as a key input of pause, head start, or repeat to the adjusting means (4).
To adjust. Further, the input control means (7) outputs a signal for adding or deleting a signal range showing a range of the non-voice part to the voiceless conversion means (6) in order to adjust the utterance speed slower or faster. The voice data output from the non-voice converting means (6) is converted into analog voice by the D / A converting means (8) and then amplified by the amplifier circuit (9) to output the voice output means (1).
It is reproduced and output at 0). Also, reading the storage medium (1)
When the specification is about 44.1 (KHz) resolution 16 bits like a general CD player, the D / A conversion at the time of voiceless restoration processing is, for example, 8 KHz resolution 4 bits,
Alternatively, the processing speed is relatively slow at about 12 bits,
Moreover, if the speech rate is adjusted to be slow, there is no voice conversion means.
(6) is to stop the reading even temporarily and adjust the delay,
In some cases, a control signal may be output to the input control means (7). At this time, the input control means (7) causes the adjusting means (4) to perform operations such as stopping reading, lowering the rotation speed, and stopping while keeping the rotation speed constant.

Next, a more specific operation example of the voiceless conversion means (6) will be described with reference to FIG. First, in (21), a predetermined amount of digital audio data is fetched from the adjusting means (4) and temporarily stored in the memory. It should be noted that this memory is not necessary when successively performing voiceless processing. After capturing a predetermined amount, a signal for stopping or suppressing the reading from the storage medium (1) is output to the input control means (7) depending on the case. The input control means (7) outputs this input signal to the adjusting means (4) and controls the drive of the drive elements (2) and the like.
After capturing a predetermined amount of voice data in (2), parameter input is confirmed from the input control means (2a), and when there is a parameter input, the number of parameters corresponding to the input is set (2b). At (22), it is confirmed whether or not silent output is in progress. Here, the state of the flag indicating that no voice is being output is confirmed. If the flag for silent output is set (yes), the process proceeds to the silent output process (26), and if cleared (no), the process proceeds to the next step (23).
In (23), the voice data is searched for, and if there is a control code in the middle, the parameter is set. Next, it is judged whether or not the processing of the voice data is completed (24), and when it is completed (yes), the operation is shifted to such an operation as to read more data (2EN). When not ending (no), (2
Go to 5) and judge whether or not it is a voiceless control code. If it is not a voiceless control code, it is determined that the data indicates voice, and the process proceeds to (27). If it is a voiceless control code, the process proceeds to a voiceless output process (26). In the unvoiced output process (26), the unvoiced output flag is set and data indicating 0-level voice (for example, 808h) is output. Further, the parameter set in (2b) is added to or subtracted from the parameter indicating the non-voice section, and this value is -1 each time.
(Decrement) When the added or subtracted parameter is decremented by 1 and the value becomes 0, the flag indicating that no voice is being output is cleared and the voiceless output ends. After addition or subtraction of the above two parameters, the input parameter set in step (2b) is cleared. After the end of the voiceless output process (32), the process waits for a time (32) to process the next data. Incidentally, the waiting time in this embodiment is
Since the sampling frequency at the time of decoding is set to 8 (KHz), the waiting time at (32) is about 125 microseconds. If (25) is not a voiceless control code (no), that is, if it is voice data, it is determined in (27) whether the data is an even number. Here, when the data is an even number (yes), a 4-bit bit shift is performed, and an odd number shift is performed so that data processing in byte units can be performed. Next, in (29), the 4-bit voice data is expanded to 12 bits. The decompression algorithm is, for example, as follows. The first data (Y) is calculated at 0 level (808h), and the data obtained by the following calculation is used as the previous data for the second and subsequent times. 4-bit audio data (X) is subtracted from the reference value, and the multiplication rate (m) 12-bit previous data (Y) is added to obtain 12-bit audio data. 12-bit voice data = ((X-reference value) * m) + Y However, after no voice, the previous data is set to 0 level. still,
The reason for expanding to 12 bits is that the digitization of voice is 1.
It is performed with 2 bits and is not particularly limited together with the above algorithm. The multiplication factor (m) is added to the data at the time of recording in order to increase the accuracy at the time of restoration, and is not particularly necessary. Next, in (30), the case where the audio data is an odd number is detected, and it is checked whether or not the audio data ends only when the odd number. For example, the flag corresponding to the entire voice data is decremented by -1, and the operation for ending at (24) becomes 0. The parameters set for controlling the utterance speed and the operations for the parameters are not limited to those described above, but may be performed by other methods such as interruption. Further, in generating a parameter, the value is stored and set in advance so that the parameter is read out when an input is given from the outside, and the utterance speed is set according to the parameter. At the time of input, the external input is read and the utterance speed is controlled based on the input. The configuration and operation thereof are appropriately selected. The processing mode is not limited to software, and may be hardware. The size of the device configured by using the above-described embodiment is preferably such that it is portable, and if it is a learning book, it may have a function of repeating voice output or a bookmark function. Since the size of the device depends on the size of the recording medium, the recording medium is small and has a high capacity, such as a CD-ROM, a mini magneto-optical disk, a 3.5 inch floppy disk. Disks, digital audio tapes, etc. are suitable but not limited. It should be noted that the digital voice does not need to be particularly limited, such as voice obtained by subjecting natural voice to A / D conversion and compression processing, and indicates voice converted by other existing methods.

[0007]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, the reading voice of a book can be reproduced for a sufficient time, the utterance speed can be freely varied during the reproduction, and the same voice as that of normal reading can be output. And so on.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart specifically showing a voiceless processing unit shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a signal example when a voiceless part is substantially deleted.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Storage Medium 2 Driving Element 3 RF Amplifying Means 4 Adjusting Means 5 Driving Means 6 Non-Voice Converting Means 7 Input Control Means 8 D / A Converting Means 9 Amplifying Circuits 10 Audio Output Means

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A storage means for digitally storing a voice signal in a manner in which a substantially non-voice part is encoded, a voice reproducing means for voice-reproducing a digital voice signal at a desired speech rate, and the desired speech rate is adjusted. A sound reproduction device comprising adjustment means for