Chirp Complex Cepstrum-based Decomposition for Asynchronous Glottal Analysis
This work addresses a domain-specific problem for speech processing researchers and practitioners by enabling more flexible and asynchronous analysis, though it appears incremental as an extension of existing complex cepstrum methods.
The paper tackles the problem of glottal flow estimation in speech processing by extending complex cepstrum-based decomposition with chirp analysis, resulting in a method that reliably estimates glottal flow without requiring window synchronization on Glottal Closure Instants, making it suitable for asynchronous systems.
It was recently shown that complex cepstrum can be effectively used for glottal flow estimation by separating the causal and anticausal components of speech. In order to guarantee a correct estimation, some constraints on the window have been derived. Among these, the window has to be synchronized on a Glottal Closure Instant. This paper proposes an extension of the complex cepstrum-based decomposition by incorporating a chirp analysis. The resulting method is shown to give a reliable estimation of the glottal flow wherever the window is located. This technique is then suited for its integration in usual speech processing systems, which generally operate in an asynchronous way. Besides its potential for automatic voice quality analysis is highlighted.