Generating Tailored, Comparative Descriptions with Contextually Appropriate Intonation

A dialogue system with contextually appropriate spoken output intonation

We demonstrate the production of spoken output with contextually appropriate intonation in the information-state based dialogue system GoDiS. We exploit the context representation in the information state to determine the information structure of system utterances, which we use to control the intonation of synthesized spoken output.

Synthesising contextually appropriate intonation in limited domains

We describe a method of synthesising contextually appropriate intonation with limited domain unit selection voices. The method enables the natural language generation component of a dialogue system to specify its intonation choices via APML, an XML-based markup language. In a pilot study, we built an APML-aware limited domain voice for use in flight information dialogues, and carried out a perc...

Generating Contextually Appropriate Intonation

One source of unnaturalness in the output of text-to-speech systems stems from the involvement of algorithmically generated default intonation contours, applied under minimal control from syntax and semantics. It is a tribute both to the resilience of human language understanding and to the ingenuity of the inventors of these algorithms that the results are as intelligible as they are. However,...

Producing Contextually Appropriate Intonation In An Information-State Based Dialogue System

Producing Contextually Appropriate Intonation is an Information-State Based Dialogue System

Our goal is to improve the contextual appropriateness of spoken output in a dialogue system. We explore the use of the information state to determine the information structure of system utterances. We concentrate on the realization of information structure by intonation. We present the results of evaluating the contextual appropriateness of varied system output produced with a text-to-speech sy...