SIGNAL PROCESSING CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PHERIPHERAL AUDITORY SYSTEM

Abstract

Abstract : The fundamental question in speech compression is that of determining the minimum information rate that must be maintained between speaker and listener in order to achieve a specified level of speech fidelity or quality. The problem in answering this question is that a measure of speech quality must first be defined. Any meaningful definition of speech quality clearly must consider the manner in which speech is processed by the listener. If the details of the signal processing in the auditory system were known, speech quality could be defined in terms of the sensitivity of the listener to distortions of signals within the auditory system. A study of the manner in which sounds are processed by the human auditory system was done to provide the basic information to define a measure of speech fideltiy. The mechanical or soundconducting parts of the auditory system are reasonably well understood and can be considered as linear systems in an engineering sense. The neural processing of the peripheral auditory system is only partly understood. Further experimental work is necessary.