Correcting low-frequency phase distortion in electroglottograph waveforms

Dynamic high-pass filtering with a -3 dB frequency that is a factor of ten or more below the voice fundamental frequency has a negligible effect on the amplitudes of the Fourier components of an EGG waveform. However, such a filter can significantly distort the waveform due to distortion in the phase or time alignment of these Fourier components. Such high-pass filtering can be introduced purposefully to stabilize the waveform by attenuating low-frequency noise, or may be an undesired effect of using an amplification or data acquisition system designed for acoustic signals. For a given voice fundamental frequency, the amount of distortion depends greatly on the order or attenuation characteristics of the filter and on the type of EGG waveform. Both a high-order filter and a breathy voice tend to increase the amount of distortion. If the characteristics of the high-pass filter are known, there are a number of digital filter techniques that can be used to reduce the phase distortion. However, it is shown that a relatively simple analogue network can also be used to obtain a correction that suffices for most applications. If the precise characteristics of the filter are not known, the response to a square wave can be used to adjust the compensator parameters for an optimal correction.