Epoch extraction based on integrated linear prediction residual using plosion index

Epoch is defined as the instant of significant excitation within a pitch period of voiced speech. Epoch extraction continues to attract the interest of researchers because of its significance in speech analysis. Existing high performance epoch extraction algorithms require either dynamic programming techniques or a priori information of the average pitch period. An algorithm without such requirements is proposed based on integrated linear prediction residual (ILPR) which resembles the voice source signal. Half wave rectified and negated ILPR (or Hilbert transform of ILPR) is used as the pre-processed signal. A new non-linear temporal measure named the plosion index (PI) has been proposed for detecting `transients' in speech signal. An extension of PI, called the dynamic plosion index (DPI) is applied on pre-processed signal to estimate the epochs. The proposed DPI algorithm is validated using six large databases which provide simultaneous EGG recordings. Creaky and singing voice samples are also analyzed. The algorithm has been tested for its robustness in the presence of additive white and babble noise and on simulated telephone quality speech. The performance of the DPI algorithm is found to be comparable or better than five state-of-the-art techniques for the experiments considered.