An emotional speech synthesis markup language processor for multi-speaker and emotional text-to-speech applications

In this paper, we designed and developed an Emotional Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) processor. Multi-speaker emotional speech synthesis technology that can express multiple voice colors and emotional expressions have been developed, and we designed Emotional SSML by extending SSML for multiple voice colors and emotional expressions. The Emotional SSML processor has a graphic user interface and consists of following four components. First, a multi-speaker emotional text editor that can easily mark specific voice colors and emotions on desired positions. Second, an Emotional SSML document generator that creates an Emotional SSML document automatically from the result of the multi-speaker emotional text editor. Third, an Emotional SSML parser that parses the Emotional SSML document. Last, a sequencer to control a multi-speaker and emotional Text-to-Speech (TTS) engine based on the result of the Emotional SSML parser. Based on SSML which is a programming language and platform independent open standard, the Emotional SSML processor can easily integrate with various speech synthesis engines and facilitates the development of multi-speaker emotional text-to-speech applications.