Algorithms and devices for pitch determination of speech signals

In this paper the various pitch determination methods and algorithms (PDAs) are grouped into two major classes: time-domain PDAs and short-term analysis PDAs. The short-term analysis PDAs leave the signal domain by a short-term transformation. They supply a sequence of average pitch estimates from consecutive frames. The individual algorithm is characterized by the short-term transform it applies. The time-domain methods, on the other hand, track the signal period by period. Extraction and isolation of the fundamental harmonic, and investigation of the temporal signal structure are the two extremes between which most of these PDAs are found. After the review of these principles the paper finally discusses different application-oriented aspects, i.e., the role of the PDA in phonetics, education, phoniatrics, and speech communication systems.