SYSTEM OF ANALYZING HUMAN SPEECH

A system of analysing human speech for the determination of the pitch of speech segments while using more than one pitch detection algorithm. In a first elementary pitch meter the amplitude spectrum (12) of a speech segment is determined and significant peak positions are determined therein (13). In a second elementary pitch meter the auto-correlation function (15) of the speech segment is determined and significant peak positions are determined therein (16). The significant peak positions of the amplitude spectrum and the significant peak positions of the auto-correlation function constitute the respective input data of the set of operations (14 and 17, respectively) comprising inter alia the following steps: - the selection of a value for the pitch or period, respectively, and the deternination of a sequence of consecutive integral multiples of this value and the determination of intervals around this value and the multiples thereof, these intervals defining apertures of a mask; - the computation of a quality figure indicating the degree to which the significant peak positions and the openings of the mask match; - the repetition of the preceding steps for consecutive higher values of the pitch or period, respectively, up to a predetermined highest value; - the selection of a predetermined number of values of the pitch and period, respectively, having the highest quality figures; - the conversion of the values for the period into values for the pitch; - combining the values thus found for the pitch with the associated quality figures to form an estimate of the most likely pitch.