JPH1155055A - Volume control voice synthesizing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically adjust the volume of a synthetic voice, according to the increase or decrease of ambient noise by putting an acoustic input device at a place where a voice is outputted and controlling the volume of a synthetic voice according to the input volume. SOLUTION: This device consists of a conventional voice synthesizer 100 which inputs text, or the like and synthesizes voices, a voice output device 103 such as a speaker that outputs a synthetic voice, an acoustic input device 102 such as a microphone which inputs an environment sound such as noise in its neighborhood and a volume controller 101. The controller 101 controls the volume of voice that is synthesized by the synthesizer 100 according to the volume of sound that is inputted from the device 102. As for the voice synthesized by the synthesizer 100, when environment sound at a place where the voice is outputted is big, the controller 101 increases the volume and when the environment sound is small, it makes the volume small and they respectively outputted from the device 103.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a voice synthesizing apparatus capable of easily hearing output voice regardless of ambient noise.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various speech synthesizers have been devised. For example, "Speech Information Engineering (Koike et al., N
TT Advanced Technology Co., Ltd., 1987) "2
DECTalk described on pages 11 to 213 is a speech synthesizer that outputs a synthesized speech by inputting text.

[0003]

In the conventional apparatus, since the volume of the output voice is fixed or manually controlled, the synthesized voice is difficult to hear if the noise is intense during driving in a vehicle or the like. Also, the driver was unable to raise the volume because he could not release his hands from the steering wheel.
Further, if the volume is set sufficiently high in advance, there is a problem that the synthesized voice output when the noise is low is noisy.

[0004] An object of the present invention is to provide a voice synthesizing apparatus which automatically raises the output volume of a synthesized voice when the noise is intense and automatically lowers the volume when the noise is low, in order to solve the above problem. To provide.

[0005]

The above object is attained by a voice synthesizing apparatus characterized in that an audio input device is placed at a place where a voice is output, and the output volume of a synthesized voice is controlled by the input volume. .

In the voice synthesizer according to the present invention, an audio input device is placed at a place where a voice is output, and the output volume of the synthesized voice is controlled by the input volume, so that the voice can be easily heard regardless of the surrounding noise. Output synthesized speech that can be made.

[0007]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a speech synthesizer according to the present invention.

[0008] First, the overall system configuration and its operation,
This will be described with reference to FIG. The above system includes a conventional speech synthesizer 100 that synthesizes speech using text or the like as input.
Output device 10 such as a speaker for outputting a synthesized voice
3, an input device 102 such as a microphone for inputting environmental sound such as noise near the output device 103, and a voice synthesized by the voice synthesis device 100 based on the magnitude of the sound input from the input device 102. It comprises a volume control device 101 for controlling the volume.

The voice synthesized by the voice synthesizer 100 is increased in volume by the volume controller 101 when the environmental sound at the place where it is output is large, and similarly when the environmental sound is low. , And output the audio from the audio output device 103. Here, the speech synthesizer 100 in the present embodiment is described in “Speech Information Engineering (Koike et al., Co-authored, NTT Advanced Technology Corporation,
1987) ”DECT on pages 211-213
alk or the like can be used.

Next, an example of the volume control device 101 shown in FIG. 1 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. The device includes an electronic volume 200 and a low-pass filter 201. The electronic volume 200 is an amplifier whose amplification factor can be changed by a control input voltage. In the present embodiment, the effector is self-made and operated (Ritsutosha, 1982).
An electronic volume capable of voltage control described on page 29 is used. The input environmental sound is a low-pass filter 201
Extracts only low frequency components. Since the above component represents the intensity of the environmental sound, by inputting the output of the filter as a control signal of the electronic volume 200, the amplification factor can be increased when the environmental sound is large and decreased when the environmental sound is small. it can.

Further, a loudspeaker capable of automatically changing the volume according to the level of the surrounding noise by using a human voice input from a microphone as the input of the volume control device 101 is provided. Can be. Also, by using the alarm as the input, it is possible to configure an alarm that can generate an alarm sound having a magnitude corresponding to noise.

Further, by using the present apparatus for an in-vehicle navigation system having a voice guide, it is possible to configure a navigation system capable of hearing a guide voice at an easily audible volume regardless of ambient noise.

Next, an embodiment of a voice synthesizing apparatus which changes a tone according to an environmental sound at a place where a voice is output will be described in detail with reference to FIG. The system of the present embodiment is a conventional speech synthesizer 3 that synthesizes speech using text or the like as input.
00, an output device 305 such as a speaker for outputting a synthesized voice, an input device 304 such as a microphone for inputting environmental sounds such as noise near the output device, and a voice synthesized by the voice synthesizer 300. HPS (high-pass filter) 302 that extracts only high-frequency components, volume control device 303 that controls the volume of high-frequency components of the audio signal extracted by filter 302, and low-frequency components of audio synthesized by audio synthesizer 300 It is composed of an LPS (low-pass filter) 301 for extracting only the data.

The voice synthesized by the voice synthesizer 100 is divided into a high-frequency component and a low-frequency component by two filters 301 and 302. The high-frequency component is generated when the environmental sound at the place where it is output is large. The volume is increased by the volume controller 303, and the volume is similarly reduced when the environmental sound is low. Finally, the volume is synthesized with the low-frequency component extracted by the low-pass filter 301, and Output from the output device 305. Thus, when the environmental sound is loud, a sharp tone voice having a relatively large high frequency component is obtained, and when the environmental sound is low, a soft tone voice having a relatively low high frequency component is obtained.

[0015]

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a voice synthesizing apparatus which can be easily heard regardless of the surrounding noise.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a sound volume control speech synthesizer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a sound volume control device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an embodiment for changing a tone of an output synthesized voice according to a volume of an environmental sound.

[Explanation of symbols]

100: conventional voice synthesizer, 101: volume control device, 1
02: sound input device, 103: sound output device.

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A voice synthesizing apparatus comprising: means for changing the volume of a synthesized voice and the volume of a place where the synthesized voice is output. 2. The sound output device according to claim 1, further comprising means for changing an output sound volume of the device in accordance with a sound volume of a place where sound is output. 3. A loudspeaker according to claim 1, further comprising means for changing a voice amplification factor according to a volume around a place where said loudspeaker is used. 4. An alarm device according to claim 1, further comprising means for changing a volume of the alarm sound in accordance with a volume around a place where the alarm device is used. 5. A voice synthesizing means, comprising means for outputting at a louder volume when the noise at the place where the voice is output is loud, and at a lower volume when the loud noise is low. apparatus. 6. A volume control device comprising means for changing the volume according to the volume of an input sound. 7. A voice synthesizing apparatus mounted on a vehicle, comprising means for increasing the volume of the synthesized voice when the noise inside the vehicle is high and decreasing the volume when the noise is low. 8. An on-vehicle navigation system, comprising:
The volume of the synthesized voice output for navigation is
A voice synthesizing device comprising means for raising when the noise in the vehicle is loud and lowering when the noise is low. 9. A voice synthesizing apparatus, comprising: means for increasing the volume of a treble portion of a synthesized voice when the noise at a place where the synthesized voice is output is loud.