Interactive effects of local smoothing window size and fundamental frequency on shimmer calculation

Slow amplitude modulation of human voice was approximated by a sinusoidal wave. The theoretical effects of smoothing window size, F0, and modulation frequency on window amplitude average as well as calculated shimmer were mathematically derived. Subsequently, the theoretical predictions were tested using idealized and real voice signals from normal speakers. The theoretical and experimental results suggest that shimmer (when calculated using a smoothing window) is a function of window duration and modulation frequency. Window duration when defined as a constant number of pitch periods varies from speaker to speaker depending on their F0. It may not be desirable to use local smoothing windows with a constant number of cycles for shimmer computation, especially if voices with known low-frequency amplitude modulations but notably different fundamental frequencies are compared.