A segment vocoder algorithm for real-time implementation

In previous papers, we have described the segment vocoder, which transmits intelligible speech at 300 b/s in speaker-independent mode, i.e., new users need not train the system. As expected for vector quantizers, the storage and computational requirements of the segment vocoder are significantly larger than those of the standard LPC-10 vocoder. In this paper, we describe methods for reducing computational and storage requirements of the segment vocoder and present an algorithm that is implementable in real-time on hardware containing several Digital Signal Processing chips. The DRT score of the simplified algorithm is 78%.