Formant detecting device and speech processing apparatus

Claim 2

A formant detecting device comprising: frequency analyzing means for calculating the power spectrum of an input speech signal; contrast enhancing means for enhancing the contrast between a local maximum portion and a local minimum portion in said power spectrum of said input speech signal; and single threshold value judging means for comparing the power in said power spectrum enhanced by said contrast enhancing means with a threshold value in each frequency band and for judging a frequency band corresponding to said power to be a formant if said power in said enhanced power spectrum exceeds said threshold value.

Claim 3

A formant detecting device according to claim 1, wherein said threshold value is predetermined so that a predefined first and a predefined second formant of each of a predetermined number of vocalized vowels are detected by said formant detecting device with probability of 50% or more.

Claim 4

A formant detecting device according to claim 1, further comprising threshold determining means for determining said threshold value in accordance with said power spectrum of said input speech signal.

Claim 5

A formant detecting device according to claim 3, wherein said threshold value determining means determines said threshold value in each frequency band so that said threshold value is equal to a product of a constant and the power at the corresponding frequency band of said power spectrum of said input speech signal.

Claim 6

A formant detecting device according to claim 4, further comprising constant changing means for changing said constant manually.

Claim 7

A formant detecting device according to claim 4, further comprising constant changing means for receiving a background noise level and for changing said constant as a function of said background noise level.

Claim 8

A formant detecting device according to claim 3, wherein said threshold value determining means determines said threshold value so that said threshold value is equal to the average power over all the frequency bands in said power spectrum of said input speech signal.

Claim 9

A formant detecting device comprising: frequency analyzing means for calculating the power spectrum of an input speech signal; contrast enhancing means for enhancing the contrast between a local maximum portion and a local minimum portion in said power spectrum of said input speech signal; dividing means for dividing the power at each frequency band of said power spectrum enhanced by said contrast enhancing means by the power of said input speech signal in the corresponding frequency band; threshold value judging means for comparing a divisional result obtained by said dividing means with a single threshold value in each frequency band and for judging a frequency band corresponding to said divisional result to be a formant if said divisional result exceeds said threshold value.

Claim 10

A formant detecting device comprising: frequency analyzing means for calculating the power spectrum of an input speech signal; contrast enhancing means for enhancing the contrast between a local maximum portion and a local minimum portion in said power spectrum of said input speech signal; dividing means for dividing the power at each frequency band of said power spectrum enhanced by said contrast enhancing means by the power of said input speech signal in the corresponding frequency band; threshold value judging means for comparing a divisional result obtained by said dividing means with a single threshold value in each frequency band and for judging a frequency band corresponding to said divisional result to be a formant if said divisional result exceeds said threshold value.

Claim 11

A speech processing apparatus comprising: frequency analyzing means for calculating the power spectrum of an input speech signal; contrast enhancing means for enhancing the contrast between a local maximum portion and a local minimum portion in said power spectrum of said input speech signal; threshold value judging means for comparing the power in the power spectrum enhanced by the contrast enhancing means with a single threshold value in each frequency band and for judging a frequency band corresponding to said power to be a formant if said power in the enhanced power spectrum exceeds said threshold value; gain value assigning means for assigning a first gain value to said frequency band judged to be a formant by said threshold judging means and for assigning a second gain value to other frequency bands; and speech signal generating means for generating a speech signal having a power spectrum obtained by multiplying the power at each frequency band of said power spectrum of said input speech signal by the gain value assigned to that frequency band by said gain value assigning means.

Claim 12

A speech processing apparatus comprising: frequency analyzing means for calculating the power spectrum of an input speech signal; contrast enhancing means for enhancing the contrast between a local maximum portion and a local minimum portion in said power spectrum of said input speech signal; threshold value judging means for comparing the power in the power spectrum enhanced by the contrast enhancing means with a single threshold value in each frequency band and for judging a frequency band corresponding to said power to be a formant if said power in the enhanced power spectrum exceeds said threshold value; gain value assigning means for assigning a first gain value to said frequency band judged to be a formant by said threshold judging means and for assigning a second gain value to other frequency bands; and speech signal generating means for generating a speech signal having a power spectrum obtained by multiplying the power at each frequency band of said power spectrum of said input speech signal by the gain value assigned to that frequency band by said gain value assigning means.

Claim 13

A speech processing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said frequency analyzing means further calculates the phase of said input speech signal, and said speech signal generating means further comprises: multiplying means for multiplying the power at each frequency band of said power spectrum of said input speech signal by the gain value assigned to that frequency band by said gain value assigning means; and inverse transformation means for transforming inversely a multiplicative result obtained by said multiplying means, and said phase of said input speech signal obtained by the frequency analyzing means into the speech signal.

Claim 14

A speech processing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said speech signal generating means comprises frequency characteristics variable filter means for varying frequency characteristics of said input speech signal in accordance with one of said first gain value and said second gain value assigned by said gain value assigning means.

Claim 15

A speech processing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said gain value assigning means has a plurality of candidate values for at least one of said first and second gain values, and said speech processing apparatus further comprises gain value switching means for switching at least one of said first and second gain values to one of said plurality of candidate values.

Claim 16

A speech processing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said gain value assigning means has a plurality of candidate values for at least one of said first and second gain values, and said speech processing apparatus further comprises: background noise level detecting means for detecting a background noise level from said input speech signal; and gain value switching means for switching at least one of said first and second gain values to one of said plurality of candidate values.

Claim 17

A speech processing apparatus comprising: frequency analyzing means for calculating the power spectrum of an input speech signal; contrast enhancing means for enhancing the contrast between a local maximum portion and a local minimum portion in said power spectrum of said input speech signal; dividing means for dividing the power at each frequency band of said power spectrum enhanced by said contrast enhancing means by the power of said input speech signal in the corresponding frequency band; threshold value judging means for comparing a divisional result obtained by said dividing means with a single threshold value in each frequency band and for judging a frequency band corresponding to said divisional result to be a formant if said divisional result exceeds said threshold value; gain value assigning means for assigning a first gain value to said frequency band judged to be a formant by said threshold judging means and for assigning a second gain value to other frequency bands; and speech signal generating means for generating a speech signal having a power spectrum obtained by multiplying the power at each frequency band of said power spectrum of said input speech signal by the gain value assigned to that frequency band by said gain value assigning means.

Claim 18

A speech processing apparatus comprising: frequency analyzing means for calculating the power spectrum of an input speech signal; contrast enhancing means for enhancing the contrast between a local maximum portion and a local minimum portion in said power spectrum of said input speech signal; dividing means for dividing the power at each frequency band of said power spectrum enhanced by said contrast enhancing means by the power of said input speech signal in the corresponding frequency band; threshold value judging means for comparing a divisional result obtained by said dividing means with a single threshold value in each frequency band and for judging a frequency band corresponding to said divisional result to be a formant if said divisional result exceeds said threshold value; gain value assigning means for assigning a first gain value to said frequency band judged to be a formant by said threshold judging means and for assigning a second gain value to other frequency bands; and speech signal generating means for generating a speech signal having a power spectrum obtained by multiplying the power at each frequency band of said power spectrum of said input speech signal by the gain value assigned to that frequency band by said gain value assigning means.