Method and apparatus for determining multiband voicing levels using frequency shifting method in vocoder

• US 6,233,551 B1
• Filed: 04/22/1999
• Issued: 05/15/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Cho, Yong-duk, Kim, Moo-young
• Primary Examiner(s): Korzuch, William R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lerner, Martin
• Application Number:
  US09/296,242
• Time in Patent Office: 754 Days
• Field of Search: 704/203, 704/205, 704/207, 704/208, 704/214, 704/216, 704/217
• US Class Current: 704/208
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2025/937 Signal energy in various frequency bands
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/93 Discriminating between voiced and unvoiced parts of speech signals G10L25/90 takes precedence

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for determining multiband voicing levels using a frequency moving method in a vocoder are provided. The method for determining the multiband voicing levels using the frequency moving method according to the present invention in the vocoder includes the steps of (a) applying a window to an input voice signal and obtaining a power spectrum from a voice spectrum obtained by Fourier converting a windowed signal, (b) moving the frequency of each subband to an origin after dividing the power spectrum into a predetermined number of subbands, (c) obtaining autocorrelation values of the respective subbands by inverse Fourier converting the power spectrum the frequency of which is moved to the origin, and (d) normalizing the respective autocorrelation values and determining the voicing levels of the subbands from the normalized autocorrelation values.

Claims

1. A method for determining voicing levels using a frequency moving method in a vocoder, comprising the steps of:

(a) applying a window to an input voice signal and obtaining a power spectrum from a voice spectrum obtained by Fourier converting a windowed signal;

(b) moving the frequency of each subband to an origin after dividing the power spectrum into a predetermined number of subbands;

(c) obtaining autocorrelation values of the respective subbands by inverse Fourier converting the power spectrum the frequency of which is moved to the origin; and

(d) normalizing the respective autocorrelation values and determining the voicing levels of the subbands from the normalized autocorrelation values.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, in the step (b), after dividing the power spectrum P(ω

) into (B is a natural number) subbands, a bth (b=0 through B−

1) power spectrum P_b(ω

) the frequency of which is moved to an origin is calculated using Equation 1,

wherein T and M respectively represent a pitch and an M-point when a Fourier conversion is performed by an M-point fast Fourier converting method in the step (a);

$\begin{array}{cc}{P}_b<br><br>\left(\mathrm{\omega <br><br>}\right)=\{\begin{array}{cc}P<br><br>\left(\mathrm{\omega <br><br>}+\lfloor <br><br>\lfloor <br><br>\frac{\mathrm{Tb}}{2<br><br>B}+0.5\rfloor <br><br><br><br>\frac{M}{T}+0.5\rfloor <br><br>\right),& \mathrm{if}<br><br>\text{\hspace{1em}<br><br>}<br><br>0\le <br><br>\mathrm{\omega <br><br>}\le <br><br>\lfloor <br><br>\lfloor <br><br>\frac{T}{2<br><br>B}+0.5\rfloor <br><br><br><br>\frac{M}{T}+0.5\rfloor <br><br>\\ 0,& \mathrm{if}<br><br>\text{\hspace{1em}<br><br>}<br><br>\lfloor <br><br>\lfloor <br><br>\frac{T}{2<br><br>B}+0.5\rfloor <br><br><br><br>\frac{M}{T}+0.5\rfloor <br><br><<br><br>\mathrm{\omega <br><br>}\le <br><br>M/2.\end{array}& \left(1\right)\end{array}$

3. The method of claim 1, wherein, in the step (c), with respect to B divided subbands, the autocorrelation value R_b(T) of a bth power spectrum P_b(ω

) the frequency of which is moved to an origin is calculated using an inverse Fourier converting method of Goertzel transformed as shown in Equation 2,

wherein T and M respectively represent a pitch and an M-point when a Fourier conversion is performed by an M-point fast Fourier converting method in the step (a);

4. The method of claim 3, wherein, in the step (c), an autocorrelation value R_b(T) when a lag is a pit T and an autocorrelation value R_b(0) when a lag is 0 are calculated,

and wherein, in the step (d), an autocorrelation value R_b′

(T) normalized from the autocorrelation values R_b(T) and R_b(0) is determined to be voiced when the it is larger than a previously determined upper threshold value, to be unvoiced when it is smaller than a lower threshold value, and to be the mixture of voiced and unvoiced components in other cases, thus the voicing levels are determined in the respective subbands.

5. An apparatus for determining voicing levels using a frequency moving method in a vocoder, comprising:

a band dividing portion for dividing a power spectrum obtained from a voice spectrum with respect to an input voice signal into a predetermined number of subbands;

a frequency moving portion for moving the frequencies of the respective divided subbands to an origin;

an inverse Fourier converting portion for obtaining autocorrelation values of the respective subbands by converting the power spectrum the frequency of which is moved to the origin by an improved inverse Fourier method of Goertzel; and

a voicing level determining portion for normalizing the respective autocorrelation values and determining the voicing levels of the respective subbands from the normalized autocorrelation values.