This paper describes work in progress concerning the adequate modeling of fast speech in unit selection speech synthesis systems, mostly having in mind blind and visually impaired users. Initially, a survey of the main characteristics of fast speech will be given. Subsequently, strategies for fast speech production will be discussed. Certain requirements concerning the ability of a speaker of a fast speech unit selection inventory are drawn. The following section deals with a perception study where a selected speakers ability to speak fast is investigated. To conclude, a preliminary perceptual analysis of the recordings for the speech synthesis corpus is presented.
Cite as: Moers, D., Wagner, P. (2009) Assessing a speaker for fast speech in unit selection speech synthesis. Proc. Interspeech 2009, 2071-2074, doi: 10.21437/Interspeech.2009-594
@inproceedings{moers09_interspeech,
author={Donata Moers and Petra Wagner},
title={{Assessing a speaker for fast speech in unit selection speech synthesis}},
year=2009,
booktitle={Proc. Interspeech 2009},
pages={2071--2074},
doi={10.21437/Interspeech.2009-594}
}