Phoneme discrimination method
First Claim
1. A phoneme discrimination method comprising the steps of:
- analyzing the frequency of an inputted voice signal to compute, for predetermined time frame intervals, voice spectrum parameters and voice powers indicative of the intensity of the inputted voice;
combining the voice powers of adjacent frames to provide a power-change pattern (PCP) indicative of the time variance of the voice powers;
combining the spectrum parameters of neighboring frames to provide a time spectrum pattern (TSP) indicative of the time variance of the spectrum parameters;
vector-quantizing the PCP to determine power-change pattern codes (PCP codes);
vector-quantizing the TSP using a TSP codebook corresponding to the PCP-VQ codes in the respective frames to obtain TSP codes; and
determining the probable phoneme symbol of each time frame interval via a correlation of phoneme symbols to PCP code and TSP code.
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Abstract
To improve the accuracy of phoneme discrimination, a first phoneme discrimination method composes analyzing, not only static information on a voice but also dynamic information on the voice, power variations of the voice as a power-change pattern (PCP) and spectrum parameter variations of the voice as a time spectrum parameter pattern (TSP). After rough clustering based on the PCP, detailed classification is conducted using the TSP so that the voice is hierarchically discriminated to obtain phoneme symbols. This invention also provides a second phoneme discrimination method. To improve the accuracy of phoneme discrimination by a recognition system for unspecified, independent speakers, plural spectrum parameter codebooks classified in advance depending on voice qualities are provided. After rough clustering based on the PCP, the inputted voice is subjected to detailed discrimination with reference to plural codebooks corresponding to the PCP and also to voice quality determination, thereby obtaining phoneme symbols.
18 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A phoneme discrimination method comprising the steps of:
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analyzing the frequency of an inputted voice signal to compute, for predetermined time frame intervals, voice spectrum parameters and voice powers indicative of the intensity of the inputted voice; combining the voice powers of adjacent frames to provide a power-change pattern (PCP) indicative of the time variance of the voice powers; combining the spectrum parameters of neighboring frames to provide a time spectrum pattern (TSP) indicative of the time variance of the spectrum parameters; vector-quantizing the PCP to determine power-change pattern codes (PCP codes); vector-quantizing the TSP using a TSP codebook corresponding to the PCP-VQ codes in the respective frames to obtain TSP codes; and determining the probable phoneme symbol of each time frame interval via a correlation of phoneme symbols to PCP code and TSP code. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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2. A phoneme discrimination method comprising the steps of:
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analyzing the frequency of an inputted voice signal to obtain, for predetermined time frame intervals voice spectrum parameters and voice powers indicative of the intensity of the inputted voice; combining the voice powers of adjacent frames to provide a power-change pattern (PCP) indicative of the time variance of the voice powers; vector-quantizing the PCP to obtain power-change pattern VQ codes (PCP-VQ codes); vector-quantizing the spectrum parameters using plural spectrum parameter codebooks to obtain plural spectrum parameter VQ codes and plural quantization errors (VQ errors); selecting the spectrum parameter codebook to minimize the sum of the plural VQ errors, and selecting optimal spectrum parameter codes on the basis of the spectrum parameter codebook so selected; and determining the probable phoneme symbol of each frame via a correlation of phoneme symbols to a selected codebook, an optimal spectrum parameter code and a PCP code. - View Dependent Claims (11)
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12. A phoneme discrimination unit comprising:
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an acoustic analyzer configured to provide voice spectrum parameters and voice powers indicative of the intensity of inputted voice signals; a power-change patter (PCP) generator coupled to receive said voice powers from the acoustic analyzer; a PCP vector quantizing unit coupled to the PCP generator; a time spectrum parameter (TSP) pattern generator coupled to receive said voice spectrum parameters from the acoustic analyzer; a TSP vector quantizing unit coupled to receive inputs from said TSP pattern generator and said PCP vector quantizing unit; a phoneme determining unit coupled to receive inputs from said TSP vector quantizing unit; and an output from said phoneme determining unit. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of discriminating phonemes from an inputted voice signal comprising the steps of:
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extracting voice powers and spectrum parameters from said inputted voice signal by an acoustic analysis process; obtaining a power change pattern (PCP) code from said voice powers; processing the spectrum parameters to produce a time spectrum pattern (TSP); vector-quantizing the TSP to obtain a TSP code after selecting from among a plurality of TSP codebooks one TSP codebook corresponding to the PCP code; and
thereafterselecting a phoneme as a function of the PCP code and the TSP code. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification