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Zimtohrli: An efficient psychoacoustic audio similarity metric
Jyrki Alakuijala1, Martin Bruse1, Sami Boukortt1
1Google Research, Zurich, Switzerland.
Abstract:
This paper introduces Zimtohrli, an efficient full-reference audio similarity metric. Existing metrics are standardised but require a licensed implementation [Perceptual Objective Listening Quality Assessment (POLQA)], are speech-calibrated [Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality, Virtual Speech Quality Objective Listener (ViSQOL)], or-like the audio-domain Perceptual Evaluation of Audio Quality (PEAQ) standard (ITU-R BS.1387)-are tuned to the near-transparent range of BS.1116 tests, leaving a gap for an open metric spanning speech and full-band audio across a wide quality range. Zimtohrli pairs a 128-channel equivalent rectangular bandwidth-spaced gammatone front-end with a non-linear resonator, comparing perceptually-mapped spectrograms via modified dynamic time warping and a neurogram similarity index, optimized against human ratings. It outperforms ViSQOL and Advanced PEAQ, trails POLQA by ∼7% yet surpasses it on full-band music, running 5× faster.
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