MARIA C SMITH
Nursing at Eaton St, Hollywood, FL

7280967, Oct 9, 2007

Jul 30, 2003

10/630113

Philip Gleason - Boca Raton FL, US
Maria E. Smith - Davie FL, US
Jie Z. Zeng - Miami FL, US

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

G10L 13/08, G10L 15/00

704260, 704231, 704258, 704255, 704249

A method of filtering phonetic units to be used within a concatenative text-to-speech (CTTS) voice. Initially, a normality threshold can be established. At least one phonetic unit that has been automatically extracted from a speech corpus in order to construct the CTTS voice can be received. An abnormality index can be calculated for the phonetic unit. Then, the abnormality index can be compared to the established normality threshold. If the abnormality index exceeds the normality threshold, the phonetic unit can be marked as a suspect phonetic unit. If the abnormality index does not exceed the normality threshold, the phonetic unit can be marked as a verified phonetic unit. The concatenative text-to-speech voice can be built using the verified phonetic units.

8538743, Sep 17, 2013

Mar 21, 2007

11/689271

Oswaldo Gago - Margate FL, US
Steven M. Hancock - Delray Beach FL, US
Maria E. Smith - Davie FL, US

Nuance Communications, Inc. - Burlington MA

G06F 17/27

704 9, 704 1, 704 10, 704258, 704260, 715261

A software language including language constructs for disambiguating text that is to be converted to speech using configurable lexeme based rules. The language can include at least one conditional statement and a significance indicator. The conditional statement can define a sense of usage for a lexeme. The significance indicator can define a criteria for selecting an associated sense of usage. The language can also include an action expression that is associated with a conditional statement that defines a set of programmatic actions to be executed upon a selection of the associated usage sense. The conditional statement can include a context range specification that defines a scope of an input string for examination when evaluating the conditional statement. Further, the conditional statement can include a directive that represents a defined condition of the lexeme or the text surrounding the lexeme.

8265936, Sep 11, 2012

Jun 3, 2008

12/132412

Ciprian Agapi - Lake Worth FL, US
Oswaldo Gago - Margate FL, US
Maria Elena Smith - Davie FL, US
Roberto Vila - Hollywood FL, US

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

G10L 21/00

7042701, 704246, 704251, 704252, 704270

A method for creating and editing an XML-based speech synthesis document for input to a text-to-speech engine is provided. The method includes recording voice utterances of a user reading a pre-selected text and parsing the recorded voice utterances into individual words and periods of silence. The method also includes recording a synthesized speech output generated by a text-to-speech engine, the synthesized speech output being an audible rendering of the pre-selected text, and parsing the synthesized speech output into individual words and periods of silence. The method further includes annotating the XML-based speech synthesis document based upon a comparison of the recorded voice utterances and the recorded synthesized speech output.

7716052, May 11, 2010

Apr 7, 2005

11/101223

Andrew S. Aaron - Ardsley NY, US
Ellen M. Eide - Tarrytown NY, US
Wael M. Hamza - Yorktown Heights NY, US
Michael A. Picheny - White Plains NY, US
Charles T. Rutherfoord - Delray Beach FL, US
Zhi Wei Shuang - Beijing, CN
Maria E. Smith - Davie FL, US

Nuance Communications, Inc. - Burlington MA

G10L 13/00, G10L 13/08, G10L 13/06

704258, 704267, 704268, 704269

A method, apparatus and a computer program product to generate an audible speech word that corresponds to text. The method includes providing a text word and, in response to the text word, processing pre-recorded speech segments that are derived from a plurality of speakers to selectively concatenate together speech segments based on at least one cost function to form audio data for generating an audible speech word that corresponds to the text word. A data structure is also provided for use in a concatenative text-to-speech system that includes a plurality of speech segments derived from a plurality of speakers, where each speech segment includes an associated attribute vector each of which is comprised of at least one attribute vector element that identifies the speaker from which the speech segment was derived.

7475016, Jan 6, 2009

Dec 15, 2004

11/012622

Maria E. Smith - Davie FL, US
Jie Z. Zeng - Miami FL, US

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

G10L 13/00

704258, 704260, 704255, 704249, 704 10

A system, method, and apparatus for identifying problematic speech segments is provided. The system includes a clustering module for generating a first cluster of one or more consecutive speech segments if the consecutive speech segments satisfy a predetermined filtering test, and for generating a second cluster comprising at least one different consecutive speech segment selected from the ordered sequence if the at least one different consecutive speech segment satisfies the predetermined filtering test. The system also includes a combining module for combining the first and second clusters as well as the at least one intervening consecutive speech segment to form an aggregated cluster if the aggregated cluster satisfies a predetermined combining criterion. The system can further include a ranking module for ranking aggregated clusters, the ranking reflecting a relative severity of misalignments among problematic speech segments. Once identified, more severely misaligned speech segments can be analyzed more effectively and efficiently.

8438032, May 7, 2013

Jan 9, 2007

11/621347

Raimo Bakis - Briarcliff Manor NY, US
Ellen M. Eide - Tarrytown NY, US
Roberto Pieraccini - Peekskill NY, US
Maria E. Smith - Davie FL, US
Jie Zeng - Palmetto Bay FL, US

Nuance Communications, Inc. - Burlington MA

G10L 13/08

704266

An embodiment of the invention is a software tool used to convert text, speech synthesis markup language (SSML), and or extended SSML to synthesized audio. Provisions are provided to create, view, play, and edit the synthesized speech including editing pitch and duration targets, speaking type, paralinguistic events, and prosody. Prosody can be provided by way of a sample recording. Users can interact with the software tool by way of a graphical user interface (GUI). The software tool can produce synthesized audio file output in many file formats.

7853452, Dec 14, 2010

Dec 3, 2008

12/327579

Philip Gleason - Boca Raton FL, US
Maria E. Smith - Davie FL, US
Mahesh Viswanathan - Yorktown Heights NY, US
Jie Zeng - Miami FL, US

Nuance Communications, Inc. - Burlington MA

G10L 13/06

704260, 704258, 7042701

A method, a system, and an apparatus for identifying and correcting sources of problems in synthesized speech which is generated using a concatenative text-to-speech (CTTS) technique. The method can include the step of displaying a waveform corresponding to synthesized speech generated from concatenated phonetic units. The synthesized speech can be generated from text input received from a user. The method further can include the step of displaying parameters corresponding to at least one of the phonetic units. The method can include the step of displaying the original recordings containing selected phonetic units. An editing input can be received from the user and the parameters can be adjusted in accordance with the editing input.

2014005, Feb 27, 2014

Apr 3, 2013

13/855813

Ellen Marie Eide - New York NY, US
Roberto Pieraccini - Peekskill NY, US
Maria E. Smith - Davie FL, US
Jie Z. Zeng - Palmetto Bay FL, US

G10L 13/08

704260

An embodiment of the invention is a software tool used to convert text, speech synthesis markup language (SSML), and/or extended SSML to synthesized audio. Provisions are provided to create, view, play, and edit the synthesized speech, including editing pitch and duration targets, speaking type, paralinguistic events, and prosody. Prosody can be provided by way of a sample recording. Users can interact with the software tool by way of a graphical user interface (GUI). The software tool can produce synthesized audio file output in many file formats.

7487092, Feb 3, 2009

Oct 17, 2003

10/688041

Philip Gleason - Boca Raton FL, US
Maria E. Smith - Davie FL, US
Mahesh Viswanathan - Yorktown Heights NY, US
Jie Z. Zeng - Miami FL, US

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

G10L 13/08

704260, 704258, 7042701

A method, a system, and an apparatus for identifying and correcting sources of problems in synthesized speech which is generated using a concatenative text-to-speech (CTTS) technique. The method can include the step of displaying a waveform corresponding to synthesized speech generated from concatenated phonetic units. The synthesized speech can be generated from text input received from a user. The method further can include the step of displaying parameters corresponding to at least one of the phonetic units. The method can include the step of displaying the original recordings containing selected phonetic units. An editing input can be received from the user and the parameters can be adjusted in accordance with the editing input.

2006014, Jun 29, 2006

Dec 27, 2004

11/023318

Maria Smith - Davie FL, US
Jie Zeng - Palmetto Bay FL, US

Internation Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

G06F 15/16

709204000

A method, system and apparatus for grouped radio controls. A grouped radio control can include a listing of elements, each element having a specified grouping. The grouped radio control also can include grouping logic programmed to insert elements into, delete elements from, and select elements within the listing. Finally, a grouped radio control can include a grouped radio control interface configured to accept interface events for processing in the grouping logic.