A novel method for pitch extraction from speech and a hardware model applicable to vocoder systems

In this paper we describe a new and reliable concept for pitch extraction from speech which has been implemented in hardware and applied in a channel vocoder. Rather than looking at pitch extraction as a purely technical problem, the considered new technique is based on a recently developed model of pitch perception. The main functional ingredients of the concept are spectral analysis,the extraction of component frequencies from the spectrum and subsequent harmonic pattern recognition. In terms of hardware the frequency analysis is performed by a DFT processor, while the component extraction and harmonic pattern recognition are carried out by a microprocessor configuration.