Coarticulation method for audio-visual text-to-speech synthesis
View Patent ↗A method for generating animated sequences of talking heads in text-to-speech applications wherein a processor samples a plurality of frames comprising image samples. The processor reads first data comprising one or more parameters associated with noise-producing orifice images of sequences of at least three concatenated phonemes which correspond to an input stimulus. The processor reads, based on the first data, second data comprising images of a noise-producing entity. The processor generates an animated sequence of the noise-producing entity.
1. A method of synchronizing synthesized speech and animation, the method comprising:
associating, by a computing device, a received stimulus with a phoneme having corresponding mouth parameters in a coarticulation library;
selecting, by the computing device, a parameter set corresponding to the mouth parameters from an animation library, the parameter set representing frame segments; and
generating, via a noise producing entity, speech associated with the stimulus that is synchronized with the frame segments and overlaying the frame segments on a larger entity to synthesize a whole animated image.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the stimulus is text.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the stimulus is derived from speech recognition.
4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the stimulus is derived from speech recognition.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the speech is output using a phoneme transcript stored in the coarticulation library.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising iteratively applying the method to phoneme sequences in the stimulus to form a complete animation.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the parameter set is associated with images of at least three concatenated phonemes with correspond to the stimulus.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the stimulus is text.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the speech is output using a phoneme transcript stored in the coarticulation library.
10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising iteratively applying the method to phoneme sequences in the stimulus to form a complete animation.
11. A system for synchronizing synthesized speech and animation, the system comprising:
a processor;
a first module controlling the processor to associate a received stimulus with a phoneme having corresponding mouth parameters in a coarticulation library;
a second module controlling the processor to select a parameter set corresponding to the mouth parameters from an animation library, the parameter set representing frame segments; and
a third module controlling the processor to generate, via a noise producing entity, speech associated with the stimulus that is synchronized with the frame segments and to overlay the frame segments on a larger entity to synthesize a whole animated image.
12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the stimulus is text.
13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the stimulus is derived from speech recognition.
14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the speech is output using a phoneme transcript stored in the coarticulation library.
15. The system of claim 11 , further comprising a fourth module controlling the processor to iteratively apply the method to phoneme sequences in the stimulus to form a complete animation.
16. The system of claim 11 , wherein the parameter set is associated with images of at least three concatenated phonemes with correspond to the stimulus.
17. A method of synchronizing synthesized speech and animation, the method comprising:
associating, by a computing device, a received stimulus with a phoneme having corresponding mouth parameters in a coarticulation library;
selecting, by the computing device, a parameter set corresponding to the mouth parameters from an animation library, the parameter set representing frame segments; and
generating, via a noise producing entity, speech associated with the stimulus that is synchronized with the frame segments and overlaying the frame segments on a larger entity to synthesize a whole animated image.