Instantaneous frequency attractors and auditory masking threshold calculus

Based on the widely spread concept of instantaneous frequency (IF), we resumed the IF attractors (IFAs) method used for tonal components extraction from any given signal and we emphasized its essential advantages over traditional approaches by incorporating it into a popular application: the calculus of auditory masking threshold (AMT). Using MPEG1 Layer 1 psychoacoustic model, we propose to replace the classic algorithm for tonal/noise maskers identification with the IFAs method. The new approach proved a superior behavior regarding the accuracy estimation of tonal component confirmed by comparative tests. Also, we report notable AMT magnitude differences, between reference method and new approach.