To enable BGM options suitable for a text to be read out, on the basis of a combinatorial conditions.

A voice synthesizer extracts (S16) and detects (S14) environmental information affixed to an object text, and extracts category information (S22), sub-category information (S26), form information (S28), reading information (S32), ON/OFF information (S36), and partial information (S40) to be stored to a storing region of RAM. It generates a reading voice of the object text by voice synthesis processing (S42), and selects an appropriate BGM, on the basis of various conditions stored to RAM (S46) after calculating a time during reading (S44). When the texts is in series, common processing for selecting the same BGM is performed (S52), if a series of texts of the same category exists after repeating the above processing up to a final text. The generated reading voice is synchronized with the selected BGM and is output (S54).

COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI