Continuous variable sampling rate, application on speech

In digital transmission, a constant bit rate data stream is usually needed. However, for digital storage and for some applications in telecommunications a variable bit rate output is advantageous. Variable bit rate (VBR) speech coders can improve the efficiency of the coder during the pauses and silence intervals, which occur in conversational speech. Here we describe a new and simple technique for a continuously variable sampling rate that automatically varies according to the amount of information in the speech signal. The performance of this technique is evaluated and compared to that of the constant sampling rate with a sampling rate equal to the resulting average sampling rate