Application of emotion-based intonation and prosody to speech in text-to-speech systems

1. A text-to-speech system comprising:

at least one processor configured to;

accept text input;

provide synthetic speech output corresponding to the text input;

accept instruction for at least one emotion-based paradigm wherein the instruction adapts the at least one processor to accept at least one emoticon-based command from a user interface that indicates at least one emotion to impart to speech synthesized from at least a portion of the text input; and

apply the at least one emotion-based paradigm comprising:

selecting at least one segment from a data store of audio segments, the selecting of the at least one segment being based at least in part on the at least one emoticon-based command to assist in imparting the at least one emotion to the speech synthesized from at least the portion of the text input; and

altering at least one prosodic pattern to be used in synthetic speech output based at least in part on the at least one emoticon-based command.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the instruction further adapts the at least one processor to accept commands from an emotion-based markup language from the user interface.

3. The system according to claim 1 , wherein applying the at least one emotion-based paradigm alters at least one of: prosody, intonation, and intonation intensity.

4. The system according to claim 1 , wherein applying the at least one emotion-based paradigm alters at least one of speed and amplitude in order to affect at least one of: prosody, intonation, and intonation intensity.

5. The system according to claim 1 , wherein applying the at least one emotion-based paradigm applies a single emotion-based paradigm over a single utterance of synthetic speech output.

6. The system according to claim 1 , wherein applying the at least one emotion-based paradigm applies a variable emotion-based paradigm over individual segments of an utterance of synthetic speech output.

7. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the instruction further adapts the at least one processor to:

inform a segment database of the at least one emoticon-based command; and

inform prosodic prediction of the at least one emoticon-based command.

8. The system according to claim 7 , wherein informing the segment database and informing the prosodic prediction affects both prosodic patterns and non-prosodic elements in generating the synthetic speech output.

9. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for converting text to speech, said method comprising the steps of:

accepting text input;

providing synthetic speech output corresponding to the text input;

accepting instruction for at least one emotion-based paradigm wherein said step of accepting instruction comprises accepting at least one emoticon-based command from a user interface that indicates at least one emotion to impart to speech synthesized from at least a portion of the text input; and

applying the at least one emotion-based paradigm, said step of applying the at least one emotion-based paradigm comprising:

selecting at least one segment from a data store of audio segments, the selecting of the at least one segment being based at least in part on the at least one emoticon-based command to assist in imparting the at least one emotion to the speech synthesized from at least the portion of the text input;

altering at least one prosodic pattern to be used in the synthetic speech output based at least in part on the at least one emoticon-based command.

10. The program storage device of claim 9 , wherein said step of applying at least one emotion-based paradigm to synthetic speech output further comprises:

applying a single emotion-based paradigm over a single utterance of synthetic speech output.

11. The program storage device of claim 9 , wherein said step of applying at least one emotion-based paradigm to synthetic speech output further comprises:

applying a variable emotion-based paradigm over individual segments of an utterance of synthetic speech output.

12. The program storage device of claim 9 , wherein said step of applying at least one emotion-based paradigm comprises altering at least one of: prosody, intonation, and intonation intensity in synthetic speech output.

13. The program storage device of claim 9 , wherein said step of applying at least one emotion-based paradigm comprises altering at least one of speed and amplitude in order to affect at least one of: prosody, intonation and intonation intensity in synthetic speech output.