Improvements relating to methods and apparatus for reducing random variations in periodicity in a pulse signal

摘要

1,093,102. Vocoder excitation function generator; pulse modulation systems. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION. March 29, 1965 [April 6, 1964], No. 13166/65. Headings H4L and H4R. In a vocoder the excitation function, which is a series of pulses corresponding to unidirectional zero crossings of the fundamental frequency of the speech, is treated to reduce the effect of noise on the speech by deriving from the pulse train the mean value of the pulse spacing over a predetermined time interval and transmitting a pulse at this pulse spacing. The process is repeated for successive time intervals, each time interval commencing at a time after the commencement of the preceding time interval which is equal to the pulse spacing derived during the preceding time interval. The mean pulse spacing may be obtained by weighting each pulse spacing in the incoming signal in accordance with the time of occurrence of the pulse after the commencement of the interval, adding the weighted pulse spacings, and dividing the sum by a suitable factor. The Figure shows an excitation function generator for a vocoder in which the incoming speech is applied via a non-linear circuit NLG and a filter BP to a zero crossing detector ND and a pulse shaper IF to produce a pulse at every zero crossing in one direction of the fundamental frequency of the speech. The speech is also applied to a voiced-unvoiced detector D the output of which operates gates T1 and T2 so that during unvoiced sounds, when the excitation pulses are randomly spaced, the excitation pulses are fed direct to the output ANK1 while during voiced sounds the pulses are fed to the units 1 to IV in order to derive the mean pulse spacings in accordance with the invention. The unit I comprises a device which measures the spacing between each pair of excitation pulses and stores these measured pulse spacings. The unit II then sums these pulse spacings over a measured interval, weighted in accordance with the time of occurrence after the start of the time interval if required, and divides them by the number of pulses, or some function thereof, to obtain the mean pulse spacing which is used in unit IV to generate the output excitation function pulse train. It is stated that the arrangement introduces some degradation into speech signals but may be advantageous under noisy conditions.