Collecting a speech database for the development of child-speech synthesizers

Z razvojem tehnologije se raziskovalci preizkušajo z izzivi za sestavo sistemov za tvorjenje umetnega govora. Cilj tvorjenja govora je, da na osnovi vhodne informacije v tekstovni obliki, tvorimo signal, ki je razumljiv človeku, seveda pa tako tvorjen govor stremi k čim bolj naravnemu zvoku. Osnova za kvalitetno tvorjenje umetnega govora je ustrezna in kvalitetno obdelana govorna zbirka. Za slovenski jezik obstaja nekaj govornih zbirk, nobena pa ne vključuje govora otroka. Otroški govor je zaradi svoje višje osnovne frekvence specifičen. Prav tako je bolj težavno pridobivanje kvalitetnih posnetkov za govorno zbirko, zaradi manjših psihofizičnih lastnosti otrok in njihove mladoletnosti. Diplomsko delo v prvem delu opisuje postopke za tvorjenje umetnega govora in posebnosti pri tvorjenju slovenskega jezika. V drugem delu pa podaja metode in opis del uporabljenih pri nastanku govorne zbirke MESSIS, ki je prva govorna zbirka otroškega govora v slovenskem jeziku. Zbirka vsebuje 52 min dolg posnetek 7176 besed, govora enega govorca moškega spola.With the development of technology, the researchers are faced with the challenges of building up systems for generating artificial speech. The aim of speech synthesis is that based on the input information in a form of a text, we generate a signal that is understandable to a man. Of course we strive for artificial speech be as natural as possible. Speech database that is adequate and contains data of good quality is essential for generating a high-quality artificial speech. For the Slovenian language, there are some speech databases, none of which includes voice of a child. Children\u27s speech is specific due to its higher main frequency. It is also more difficult to obtain high-quality voice recordings for the collection due to lower physical and mental characteristics of children and their minority. In the first part of the thesis the procedures for generating artificial speech and peculiarities in the formation of the Slovenian language are described. The second part gives a description of the methods used in the creation of speech database MESSIS, the first speech database of a child speech in the Slovenian language. The collection contains 52-minute long sound recording of 7176 words, of one male speaker