Concatenative Text-to-Speech Synthesis System for Communication Recognition

Text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis is one of the rapidly emerging areas of computer-to-human interaction technology. Human-like speech is replicated by the computer with the introduction of input text which is usually very natural. Real-life applications of TTS synthesis technique make users task hassle-free. For example, reading book for the visually impaired people, paying electricity bill through automated call-centre, announcing train information at the railway station, etc. Traditionally, rule-based speech synthesis methods are deployed which find difficulties in obtaining optimal rules, resulting in lack of naturalness in the generated synthesized speech. Alternatively, to meet the desired quality of experience (QoE) of users while using these applications, this paper designs and develops a simple and robust TTS synthesis system for English language using the concatenative speech synthesis method and its variants and finds its suitability in intelligible and/or natural speech production. Various steps involved in processing text for speech production through TTS system are described. Results demonstrate that the speech generated by the concatenative speech synthesis method, in particular, unit-selection technique is smoother and natural, sounding like human voice. This is supported by informal listening test of the generated synthesized speech.