OneBitPitch (OBP): Ultra-High-Speed Pitch Detection Algorithm Based on One-Bit Quantization and Modified Autocorrelation

This paper presents a novel, high-speed, and low-complexity algorithm for pitch (F0) detection, along with a new dataset for testing and a comparison of some of the most effective existing techniques. The algorithm, called OneBitPitch (OBP), is based on a modified autocorrelation function applied to a single-bit signal for fast computation. The focus is explicitly on speed for real-time pitch detection applications in pitch detection. A testing procedure is proposed using a proprietary synthetic dataset (SYNTHPITCH) against three of the most widely used algorithms: YIN, SWIPE (Sawtooth Inspired Pitch Estimator) and NLS (Nonlinear-Least Squares-based). The results show how OBP is 9 times faster than the fastest of its alternatives, and 50 times faster than a gold standard like SWIPE, with a mean elapsed time of 4.6 ms, or 0.046 × realtime. OBP is slightly less accurate for high-precision landmarks and noisy signals, but its performance in terms of acceptable error (