Speech is modeled as a cognitively-driven sensory-motor activity where the form of speech is the result of categorization processes that any given subject recreates by focusing on creating sound patterns that are represented by syllables. These syllables are then combined in characteristic patterns to form words, which are in turn, combined in characteristic patterns to form utterances. A speech recognition process first identifies syllables in an electronic waveform representing ongoing speech. The pattern of syllables is then deconstructed into a standard form that is used to identify words. The words are then concatenated to identify an utterance. Similarly, a speech synthesis process converts written words into patterns of syllables. The pattern of syllables is then processed to produce the characteristic rhythmic sound of naturally spoken words. The words are then assembled into an utterance which is also processed to produce a natural sounding speech.

Speech is modeled as a cognitively-driven sensory-motor activity where the form of speech is the result of categorization processes that any given subject recreates by focusing on creating sound patterns that are represented by syllables. These syllables are then combined in characteristic patterns to form words, which are in turn, combined in characteristic patterns to form utterances. A speech recognition process first identifies syllables in an electronic waveform representing ongoing speech. The pattern of syllables is then deconstructed into a standard form that is used to identify words. The words are then concatenated to identify an utterance. Similarly, a speech synthesis process converts written words into patterns of syllables. The pattern of syllables is then processed to produce the characteristic rhythmic sound of naturally spoken words. The words are then assembled into an utterance which is also processed to produce a natural sounding speech.

A method, computer program, and computer system is provided for converting a singing first singing voice associated with a first speaker to a second singing voice associated with a second speaker. A context associated with one or more phonemes corresponding to the first singing voice is encoded, and the one or more phonemes are aligned to one or more target acoustic frames based on the encoded context. One or more mel-spectrogram features are recursively generated from the aligned phonemes and target acoustic frames, and a sample corresponding to the first singing voice is converted to a sample corresponding to the second singing voice using the generated mel-spectrogram features.

A method, computer program, and computer system is provided for converting a singing first singing voice associated with a first speaker to a second singing voice associated with a second speaker. A context associated with one or more phonemes corresponding to the first singing voice is encoded, and the one or more phonemes are aligned to one or more target acoustic frames based on the encoded context. One or more mel-spectrogram features are recursively generated from the aligned phonemes and target acoustic frames, and a sample corresponding to the first singing voice is converted to a sample corresponding to the second singing voice using the generated mel-spectrogram features.

A method and system for distributed text-to-speech synthesis and intelligibility, and more particularly to distributed text-to-speech synthesis on handheld portable computing devices that can be used for example to generate intelligible audio prompts that help a user interact with a user interface of the handheld portable computing device. The text-to-speech distributed system 70 receives a text string from the guest devices and comprises a text analyzer 72, a prosody analyzer 74, a database 14 that the text analyzer and prosody analyzer refer to, and a speech synthesizer 80. Elements of the speech synthesizer 80 are resident on the host device and the guest device and an audio index representation of the audio file associated with the text string is produced at the host device and transmitted to the guest device for producing the audio file at the guest device.

A method and system for distributed text-to-speech synthesis and intelligibility, and more particularly to distributed text-to-speech synthesis on handheld portable computing devices that can be used for example to generate intelligible audio prompts that help a user interact with a user interface of the handheld portable computing device. The text-to-speech distributed system 70 receives a text string from the guest devices and comprises a text analyzer 72, a prosody analyzer 74, a database 14 that the text analyzer and prosody analyzer refer to, and a speech synthesizer 80. Elements of the speech synthesizer 80 are resident on the host device and the guest device and an audio index representation of the audio file associated with the text string is produced at the host device and transmitted to the guest device for producing the audio file at the guest device.

Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for intelligent caching of concatenative speech units for use in speech synthesis. A system configured to practice the method can identify, in a local cache of text-to-speech units for a text-to-speech voice an absent text-to-speech unit which is not in the local cache. The system can request from a server the absent text-to-speech unit. The system can then synthesize speech using the text-to-speech units and a received text-to-speech unit from the server.

Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for intelligent caching of concatenative speech units for use in speech synthesis. A system configured to practice the method can identify, in a local cache of text-to-speech units for a text-to-speech voice an absent text-to-speech unit which is not in the local cache. The system can request from a server the absent text-to-speech unit. The system can then synthesize speech using the text-to-speech units and a received text-to-speech unit from the server.

In accordance with some embodiments of the disclosed subject matter, mechanisms for seamless audio melding between audio items in a playlist are provided. In some embodiments, a method for transitioning between audio items in playlists is provided, comprising: identifying a sequence of audio items in a playlist of audio items, wherein the sequence of audio items includes a first audio item and a second audio item that is to be played subsequent to the first audio item; and modifying an end portion of the first audio item and a beginning portion of the second audio item, where the end portion of the first audio item and the beginning portion of the second audio item are to be played concurrently to transition between the first audio item and the second audio item, wherein the end portion of the first audio item and the beginning portion of the second audio item have an overlap duration, and wherein modifying the end portion of the first audio item and the beginning portion of the second audio item comprises: generating a first spectrogram corresponding to the end portion of the first audio item and a second spectrogram corresponding to the beginning portion of the second audio item; identifying, for each frequency band in a series of frequency bands, a window over which the first spectrogram within the end portion of the first audio item and the second spectrogram within the beginning portion of the second audio item have a particular cross-correlation; modifying, for each frequency band in the series of frequency bands, the end portion of the first spectrogram and the beginning portion of the second spectrogram such that amplitudes of frequencies within the frequency band decrease within the first spectrogram over the end portion of the first spectrogram and that amplitudes of frequencies within the frequency band increase within the second spectrogram over the beginning portion of the second spectrogram; and generating a modified version of the first audio item the includes the modified end portion of the first audio item based on the modified end portion of the first spectrogram and generating a modified version of the second audio item that includes the modified beginning portion of the second audio item based on the modified beginning portion of the second spectrogram.

A computer system is provided that includes a processor configured to store a set of audio training data that includes a plurality of audio segments and metadata indicating a word or phrase associated with each audio segment. For a target training statement of a set of structured text data, the processor is configured to generate a concatenated audio signal that matches a word content of a target training statement by comparing the words or phrases of a plurality of text segments of the target training statement to respective words or phrases of audio segments of the stored set of audio training data, selecting a plurality of audio segments from the set of audio training data based on a match in the words or phrases between the plurality of text segments of the target training statement and the selected plurality of audio segments, and concatenating the selected plurality of audio segments.