(19)
(11) EP 1 164 577 A3

(12) EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION

(88) Date of publication A3:
09.01.2002 Bulletin 2002/02

(43) Date of publication A2:
19.12.2001 Bulletin 2001/51

(21) Application number: 01121724.7

(22) Date of filing: 25.10.1996
(51) International Patent Classification (IPC)7: G10L 19/02, G10L 21/04
(84) Designated Contracting States:
DE FR GB NL

(30) Priority: 26.10.1995 JP 27941095
27.10.1995 JP 28067295

(62) Application number of the earlier application in accordance with Art. 76 EPC:
96307741.7 / 0770987

(71) Applicant: Sony Corporation
Tokyo 141-0001 (JP)

(72) Inventors:
  • Nishiguchi, Masayuki
    Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0001 (JP)
  • Iijima, Kazuyuki
    Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0001 (JP)
  • Matsumoto, Jun
    Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0001 (JP)
  • Omori, Shiro
    Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0001 (JP)

(74) Representative: Nicholls, Michael John 
J.A. KEMP & CO. 14, South Square Gray's Inn
London WC1R 5JJ
London WC1R 5JJ (GB)

   


(54) Method and apparatus for reproducing speech signals


(57) A method for reproducing speech signals at a controlled speed whereby rate conversion of the time axis may be facilitated, and can be realized by a simplified structure based on the encoded speech data without changing the phoneme. With the speech reproducing method, an encoding unit 2 discriminates whether an input speech signal is voiced or unvoiced. Based on the results of discrimination, the encoding unit 2 performs sinusoidal synthesis and encoding for a signal portion found to be voiced, while performing vector quantization by closed-loop search for an optimum vector for a portion found to be unvoiced using an analysis-by-synthesis method, in order to find encoded parameters. The decoding unit 4 compands the time axis of the encoded parameters obtained every pre-set frames at a period modification unit 3 for modifying the output period of the parameters for creating modified encoded parameters associated with different time points corresponding to the pre-set frames. A speech synthesis unit 6 synthesizes the voiced speech portion and the unvoiced speech portion based on the modified encoded parameters.






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