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Paper Abstract and Keywords
Presentation 2008-03-20 15:15
[Poster Presentation] Prosody Reconstruction by Rescaling Fundamental Frequency Contours in Order to Synthesize Communicative Speech
Jinfu Ni, Shinsuke Sakai, Satoshi Nakamura (NICT/ATR) SP2007-193
Abstract (in Japanese) (See Japanese page) 
(in English) This paper presents a method of prosody reconstruction that can be used to synthesize conversational speech. In our method, we use a conventional text-to-speech engine to initially generate reading-style prosody for input text. We then use a frequency modulation technique to rescale the fundamental frequency (F0) contours to add the communicative functions of intonation to the synthesized speech. The frequency modulation technique is based on a functional F0 model, and the transformation scales are modeled by combining simple piecewise-linear patterns according to input tags. We conducted two experiments to evaluate our method: modulating the F0 range of reading-style prosody when synthesizing Japanese speech to convey "good news" and "bad news" (Experiment 1), and making a narrow focus when synthesizing Chinese dialog to convey emphasis (Experiment 2). The results of Experiment 1 showed that the listeners judged 94% of samples modulated with "bad news" F0 ranges as "bad news" and 78% of samples with "good news" F0 ranges as "good news." They are comparable with those obtained by style-specified corpora in our previous work. In Experiment 2, 90% of the samples with narrow focuses were identified. The results showed that proposed method could use paralinguistic information to achieve specific communicative purposes.
Keyword (in Japanese) (See Japanese page) 
(in English) Conversational speech synthesis / prosody reconstruction / intonation synthesis / fundamental frequency control / text-to-speech synthesis / / /  
Reference Info. IEICE Tech. Rep., vol. 107, no. 551, SP2007-193, pp. 39-44, March 2008.
Paper # SP2007-193 
Date of Issue 2008-03-13 (SP) 
ISSN Print edition: ISSN 0913-5685    Online edition: ISSN 2432-6380
Copyright
and
reproduction		 All rights are reserved and no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Notwithstanding, instructors are permitted to photocopy isolated articles for noncommercial classroom use without fee. (License No.: 10GA0019/12GB0052/13GB0056/17GB0034/18GB0034)
Download PDF SP2007-193

Conference Information
Committee SP  
Conference Date 2008-03-20 - 2008-03-21 
Place (in Japanese) (See Japanese page) 
Place (in English) Univ. Tokyo 
Topics (in Japanese) (See Japanese page) 
Topics (in English) International Workshop (Mar 20), Speech Production, Speech Perception, Hearing and Speech, etc. (Mar 21) 
Paper Information
Registration To SP 
Conference Code 2008-03-SP 
Language English 
Title (in Japanese) (See Japanese page) 
Sub Title (in Japanese) (See Japanese page) 
Title (in English) Prosody Reconstruction by Rescaling Fundamental Frequency Contours in Order to Synthesize Communicative Speech 
Sub Title (in English)  
Keyword(1) Conversational speech synthesis  
Keyword(2) prosody reconstruction  
Keyword(3) intonation synthesis  
Keyword(4) fundamental frequency control  
Keyword(5) text-to-speech synthesis  
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1st Author's Name Jinfu Ni  
1st Author's Affiliation NICT/ATR (NICT/ATR)
2nd Author's Name Shinsuke Sakai  
2nd Author's Affiliation NICT/ATR (NICT/ATR)
3rd Author's Name Satoshi Nakamura  
3rd Author's Affiliation NICT/ATR (NICT/ATR)
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Speaker Author-1 
Date Time 2008-03-20 15:15:00 
Presentation Time 90 minutes 
Registration for SP 
Paper # SP2007-193 
Volume (vol) vol.107 
Number (no) no.551 
Page pp.39-44 
#Pages 6 
Date of Issue 2008-03-13 (SP) 

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