A newly published BlackBerry patent application describes technology that would let text messages be audibly read back to a recipient based on what the app calls "predefined voice characteristic information to represent the sender's voice."
The patent app is 20060210028, "System and method for personalized text-to-voice synthesis."
Here's what the Abstract says:
"A communication device and method are provided for audibly outputting a received text message to a user, the text message being received from a sender," the Abstract explains. A text message to present audibly is received. An output voice to present the text message is retrieved, wherein the output voice is synthesized using predefined voice characteristic information to represent the sender's voice. The output voice is used to audibly present the text message to the user."
But that's not all. Here's the fascinating part.
The application doesn't only call for "male" and "female" voices, but for refinements in the tone of the message that the sender could associate with his or her mood at the moment.
In one fascinating example, the voice that the sender selects can be modfied by "voice deltas" that would adjust the tone of the message to conform to the mood expressed in emoticons within the message. In other words, a smiley in the message would be interpreted as an instruction for the voice representation to adjust itself to a "happy tone."
Paragraph 41 of the application provides details for what I have just described.
"When presenting the message, the user's device may also utilize known text symbols to alter the voice characteristics during playback," this section explains. "For example, emoticons are a well-known form of representing emotions using icons. For example, a 'smiley" is often represent as ":)". When a smiley is present in the text of the message, the tone of the voice can be altered to indicate they sender's emotion.
"As will be appreciated by a person skilled in the art, there are many possible emoticons that can used to represent a variety of emotions," the paragraph concludes.
And yes, there are a variety of emotions, concludes yours truly.
