Auditory nerve representation criteria for speech analysis/Synthesis

Traditional speech analysis/synthesis techniques are designed to produce synthesized speech with a spectrum (or waveform) that is as close as possible to the original. It is suggested, instead, that representations of the synthetic and the original speech be matched at the auditory nerve level. This concept has been used in conjunction with the sinusoidal representation of speech analysis/synthesis suggested by McAulay and Quatieri [6]. Based on informal listening, the synthesized speech is natural, including some tonal artifact, and highly intelligible for various kinds of speech material, in both quiet and noisy environments. The inherent dominance property of the auditory nerve representation reduces the number of sinusoidal components needed for synthesis by approximately 70 percent, offering a potential for reduced data rate.