Voice Prompt Generation Combining Native and Remotely-Generated Speech Data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016005393-A1
Application number	US-201414322561-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 2, 2014
Priority date	Jul 2, 2014
Publication date	Jan 7, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

An electronic device includes a processor and a memory coupled to the processor. The memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations including determining whether a text prompt received from a wireless device corresponds to first synthesized speech data stored at the memory. The operations include, in response to a determination that the text prompt does not correspond to the first synthesized speech data, determining whether a network is accessible. The operations include, in response to a determination that the network is accessible, sending a text-to-speech (TTS) conversion request to a server via the network. The operation further include, in response to receiving second synthesized speech data from the server, storing the second synthesized speech data at the memory.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An electronic device comprising:
a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
determining whether a text prompt received from a wireless device corresponds to first synthesized speech data stored at the memory;
in response to a determination that the text prompt does not correspond to the first synthesized speech data, determining whether a network is accessible;
in response to a determination that the network is accessible, sending a text-to-speech (TTS) conversion request to a server via the network; and
in response to receiving second synthesized speech data from the server, storing the second synthesized speech data at the memory.

2 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise determining whether the second synthesized speech data is received prior to expiration of a threshold time period.

3 . The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the operations further comprise, in response to a determination that the second synthesized speech data is received prior to expiration of the threshold time period, providing the second synthesized speech data to the wireless device.

4 . The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the threshold time period does not exceed 150 milliseconds.

5 . The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the operations further comprise, in response to a determination that the second synthesized speech data is not received prior to expiration of the threshold time period, providing third synthesized speech data stored at the memory to the wireless device.

6 . The electronic device of claim 5 , wherein the third synthesized speech data includes pre-recorded speech data, and wherein the second synthesized speech data includes more information than the third synthesized speech data.

7 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise, in response to a determination that the text prompt corresponds to the first synthesized speech data, providing the first synthesized speech data to the wireless device.

8 . The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein the first synthesized speech data is associated with a previous TTS conversion request sent to the server.

9 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise, in response to a determination that the network is not accessible, providing third synthesized speech data stored at the memory to the wireless device.

10 . The electronic device of claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprise selecting the third synthesized speech data from a plurality of synthesized speech data stored at the memory based on the text prompt, and wherein the third synthesized speech data includes pre-recorded speech data.

11 . A method comprising:
determining whether a text prompt received at an electronic device from a wireless device corresponds to first synthesized speech data stored at a memory of the electronic device; in response to a determination that the text prompt does not correspond to the first synthesized speech data, determining whether a network is accessible to the electronic device; in response to a determination that the network is accessible, sending a text-to-speech (TTS) conversion request from the electronic device to a server via the network; and in response to receiving second synthesized speech data from the server, storing the second synthesized speech data at the memory.

12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising, in response to a determination that the second synthesized speech data is received prior to expiration of a threshold time period, providing the second synthesized speech data to the wireless device.

13 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising, in response to a determination that the network is not accessible or a determination that the second synthesized speech data is not received prior to expiration of a threshold time period, determining whether third synthesized speech data stored at the memory corresponds to the text prompt, wherein the third synthesized speech data includes pre-recorded speech data.

14 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising, in response to a determination that the third synthesized speech data corresponds to the text prompt, providing the third synthesized speech data to the wireless device.

15 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising, in response to a determination that the third synthesized speech data does not correspond to the text prompt, displaying the text prompt at a display of the electronic device.

16 . A system comprising:
a wireless device; and an electronic device configured to communicate with the wireless device, wherein the electronic device is further configured to:
receive a text prompt based on a triggering event from the wireless device;
send a text-to-speech (TTS) conversion request to a server via a network in response to a determination that the text prompt does not correspond to previously-stored synthesized speech data at a memory of the electronic device and a determination that the network is accessible to the electronic device; and
receive synthesized speech data from the server and store the synthesized speech data at the memory.

17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the wireless device includes a wireless speaker or a wireless headset.

18 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the electronic device is further configured to, provide the synthesized speech data to the wireless device when the synthesized speech data is received prior to expiration of a threshold time period, and wherein the wireless device is configured to output of a voice prompt based on the synthesized speech data, the voice prompt identifying the triggering event.

19 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the electronic device is further configured to, provide pre-recorded speech data to the wireless device when the synthesized speech data is not received prior to expiration of a threshold time period or when the network is not accessible, and wherein the wireless device is configured to output of a voice prompt based on the pre-recorded speech data, the voice prompt identifying a general event corresponding to the triggering event.

20 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the wireless device is configured to output one or more audio sounds corresponding to the triggering event in response to a determination that voice prompts are disabled at the wireless device.

Assignees

• Bose Corp

Inventors

• Patil Naganagouda
• Chaudhry Sanjay

Classifications

• G10L13/04 Primary

  Details of speech synthesis systems, e.g. synthesiser structure or memory management · CPC title

• G10L13/027

  Concept to speech synthesisers; Generation of natural phrases from machine-based concepts (generation of parameters for speech synthesis out of text G10L13/08) · CPC title

• G10L13/08

  Text analysis or generation of parameters for speech synthesis out of text, e.g. grapheme to phoneme translation, prosody generation or stress or intonation determination · CPC title

• G10L13/043 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G10L13/00 Primary

  Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems · CPC title