New stationary techniques for the analysis and display of speech transients

A nonstationary analysis technique is applied to speech, with encouraging results. This technique makes use of a generalized time-frequency representation (GTFR) which uses a kernel that allows finite-time support while suppressing interference terms. This kernel has a cone shape in the (t,τ) plane, where t is time of a signal and τ is an autocorrelationlike lag. The processing thus allows time and frequency resolution equivalent to the Wigner distribution but does not have significant interference terms. It is shown that the effect of this distribution on the long-term (1.5-s) display of speech is a visible enhancement of formant tracks. Potentially more important shorter-term (30-ms or less) advantages are illustrated and quantified as more accurate locations of bursts in the time-frequency distribution. It is shown that the GTFR technique offers a representation which is less sensitive to threshold settings and is thus more robust