Speaker Individualities in Speech Spectral Envelopes and Fundamental Frequency Contours

Abstract

Perceptual cues for speaker individualities embedded in spectral envelopes of vowels and fundamental frequency (F0) contours of words were investigated through psychoacoustic experiments. First, the frequency bands having speaker individualities are estimated using stimuli created by systematically varying the spectral shape in specific frequency bands. The results suggest that speaker individualities of vowel spectral envelopes mainly exist in higher frequency regions including and above the peak around 20–23 ERB rate (1,740–2,489 Hz). Second, three experiments are performed to clarify the relationship physical characteristics of F0 contours extracted using Fujisaki and Hirose’s F0 model and the perception of speaker identity. The results indicate that some specific parameters related to the dynamics of F0 contours have many speaker individuality features. The results also show that although there are speaker individuality features in the time-averaged F0, they help to improve speaker identification less than the dynamics of the F0 contours.