System and electronic equipment for voice guidance with speed change thereof based on trend

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9368125-B2
Application number	US-201313972959-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 22, 2013
Priority date	Sep 10, 2012
Publication date	Jun 14, 2016
Grant date	Jun 14, 2016

Abstract

A voice guidance system is provided in which the voice guidance is enabled to easily follow a trend of change intervals, a rapid change of change intervals, etc. in a menu operation. The voice guidance system is configured with an input analyzing unit which inputs and analyzes an operation instruction signal of a menu item, a voice guidance control unit which controls voice guidance of the menu item according to the analysis result by the input analyzing unit, and a textual guidance control unit which performs display control of the menu item according to the analysis result by the input analyzing unit. The voice guidance control unit determines reproduction speed of the voice guidance according to the analysis result, on the basis of a speed trend obtained from a speed history as a set of plural pieces of reproduction speed information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A voice guidance system comprising:
an input analyzing unit operable to an input and to analyze an operation instruction signal of a menu item;
a voice guidance control unit operable to control voice guidance of the menu item according to an analysis result by the input analyzing unit; and
a display guidance controller operable to perform display control of the menu item according to the analysis result by the input analyzing unit,
wherein the voice guidance control unit determines reproduction speed of the voice guidance according to the analysis result, based on a speed trend obtained from a speed history as a set of plural pieces of reproduction speed information, and
wherein the voice guidance control unit determines the reproduction speed of voice guidance by a weighted average, which allots larger weight to new reproduction speed information rather than old reproduction speed information, in adding to the speed history.

2. The voice guidance system according to claim 1 ,
wherein, when a new operation instruction of the menu item is issued in a middle of reproduction of the voice guidance, the voice guidance control unit increases the reproduction speed in the middle of reproduction within a highest speed.

3. The voice guidance system according to claim 2 ,
wherein, when a new operation instruction of the menu item is issued in a middle of reproduction of the voice guidance, the voice guidance control unit enables addition of increased reproduction speed information to the speed history.

4. The voice guidance system according to claim 3 ,
wherein, when a period during which the voice guidance of the menu item is stopped exceeds a prescribed period, the voice guidance control unit enables addition of decreased reproduction speed information to the speed history.

5. The voice guidance system according to claim 1 ,
wherein, when a new operation instruction of the menu item is issued in a middle of reproduction of the voice guidance at the determined reproduction speed, the voice guidance control unit invalidates a request corresponding to the new operation instruction.

6. The voice guidance system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the voice guidance control unit:
analyzes the voice data at a reference speed that is employed for the voice guidance of the menu item according to the analysis result by the input analyzing unit,
determines a repeated waveform portion of the voice data, and
generates new voice data to be employed for the voice guidance by omitting the repeated waveform portion by an amount to achieve the determined reproduction speed.

7. The voice guidance system according to claim 6 ,
wherein, when a new operation instruction of the menu item is issued in a middle of reproduction of the voice guidance, the voice guidance control unit increases the reproduction speed from a middle of the menu item under reproduction, by changing a portion of the subsequent reproduction to voice data in which the repeated waveform portion has been omitted.

8. The voice guidance system according to claim 7 ,
wherein the voice guidance control unit stores the voice data at the reference speed in a storage device for the voice guidance, and acquires the voice data at the reference speed employed for the analysis thereof from the storage device.

9. The voice guidance system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the display guidance controller switches the display to the corresponding menu item in synchronization with completion of the voice guidance.

10. A voice guidance system comprising:
an input analyzing unit operable to analyze an operation instruction signal of a menu item;
a voice guidance control unit operable to control voice guidance of the menu item according to an analysis result by the input analyzing unit; and
a display guidance controller operable to perform display control of the menu item according to the analysis result by the input analyzing unit,
wherein the voice guidance control unit determines reproduction speed of the voice guidance according to the analysis result, based on a speed trend obtained from a speed history as a set of plural pieces of reproduction speed information,
wherein, when a new operation instruction of the menu item is issued in a middle of reproduction of the voice guidance, the voice guidance control unit increases the reproduction speed in the middle of reproduction within a highest speed,
wherein, when a new operation instruction of the menu item is issued in the middle of reproduction of the voice guidance at a presently determined reproduction speed, the voice guidance control unit updates speech speed mode data, which determines the reproduction speed, in the middle of reproduction to a value which increases the reproduction speed in the middle of reproduction by one step, and at a same time, when a mean value of the request interval, which is obtained from a request interval history as a set of interval times at which the voice guidance of the menu item has been requested by an operation instruction signal of the menu item, is shorter than a remaining time of the voice guidance in the middle of reproduction, the voice guidance control unit increases the reproduction speed in the middle of reproduction within the highest speed by processing to update the speech speed mode data to a value that increases the reproduction speed by one additional step.

11. The voice guidance system according to claim 10 ,
wherein the reproduction speed information to be stored in the speed history is the speech speed mode data.

12. The voice guidance system according to claim 10 ,
wherein, when a period during which the voice guidance of the menu item is stopped exceeds a prescribed period, the voice guidance control unit adds, to the speed history, reproduction speed information that indicates a reproduction speed less than that of an immediately preceding reproduction speed and greater than a reference speed, on condition that the immediately preceding reproduction speed is greater than the reference speed.

13. The voice guidance system according to claim 12 ,
wherein the reproduction speed information to be stored in the speed history is the speech speed mode data which determines the reproduction speed.

14. Electronic equipment comprising:
a control device operable to an input of an operation instruction from an operating device and to respond to the operation instruction;
a display device operable to an input of a picture signal outputted from the control device; and
a speaker device operable to an input of an audio signal outputted from the control device,
wherein the control device comprises:
an input analyzing unit operable to input and to analyze an operation instruction signal of a menu item from the operating device;
a voice guidance control unit operable to perform voice guidance of the menu item in accordance with the operation instruction using the speaker device, based on the analysis result by the input analyzing unit;
a display guidance controller operable to display the menu item in accordance with the operation instruction using the display device, based on the analysis result by the input analyzing unit; and
an execution control unit operable to perform processing of the menu item instructed by the operation instruction, based on the analysis result by the input analyzing unit, and
wherein the voice guidance control unit determines reproduction speed of the voice guidance according to the analysis result, based on a speed trend obtained from a speed history as a set of plural pieces of reproduction speed information,
wherein, when a n

Assignees

• Renesas Electronics Corp

Inventors

• Ohno Kazuyuki

Classifications

• H04N21/482

  End-user interface for programme selection · CPC title

• G10L21/047

  characterised by the type of waveform to be thinned out or inserted · CPC title

• G10L13/033

  Voice editing, e.g. manipulating the voice of the synthesiser · CPC title

• G06F3/167

  Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback · CPC title

• G10L13/04 Primary

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