A C/V segmentation algorithm for Mandarin speech signal based on wavelet transforms

Abstract

This paper proposes a new consonant/vowel (C/V) segmentation algorithm for Mandarin speech signal. Since the Mandarin phoneme structure is a combination of a consonant (may be null) followed by a vowel, the C/V segmentation is an important part in the Mandarin speech recognition system. Based on the wavelet transform, the proposed method can directly search for the C/V segmentation point by using a product function and energy profile. The product function is generated from the appropriate wavelet and scaling coefficients of the input speech signal, and it can be applied to indicate the C/V segmentation point. With this product function and the additional verification of the energy profile, the C/V segmentation can be accurately pointed out with a low computation complexity. Experiments are provided that demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed algorithm. An overall accuracy rate of 97.2% is achieved. This algorithm is suitable for Mandarin speech recognition task.