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Visualization of Babble–Speech Interactions Using Andrews Curves

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Abstract

Visualizing multidimensional data such as the mel frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) proves difficult, especially when the number of dimensions is greater than 3. As a result, it becomes extremely difficult to spot trends in high-dimensional signal interactions. Andrews curves seam to aid in the process of performing graphical analysis of high-dimensional data. This study examines the properties of the babble in the feature domain as well as the effect of the babble noise on the MFCCs of clean speech. Experiments have been conducted using two babble models: the overlapping conversation model and the overlapping speaker model. The purpose of this paper was to provide an insight into the effect of the babble noise on the first thirteen MFCCs of clean speech through the use of Andrews curves. The investigations of this paper give a visual comparison of the signals to expose trends, which the conventional visualization methods do not. The use of Andrews curves not only allows the signal to be observed, but also allows for a statistical comparisons between signals. With a better understanding of the difference between the models, it would be possible to develop systems, which are more robust in babble-corrupted environment.

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Acknowledgments

Authors are thankful to The University of the West Indies for providing necessary funding through Grant No. CRP.4.MAR11.4 to carry out research on the project “Development of Algorithms and Systems for Robust speech Recognition in the Noisy Environments.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago

    Jamin Atkins & Davinder Pal Sharma

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  1. Jamin Atkins
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  2. Davinder Pal Sharma
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Correspondence to Davinder Pal Sharma.

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Atkins, J., Sharma, D.P. Visualization of Babble–Speech Interactions Using Andrews Curves. Circuits Syst Signal Process 35, 1313–1331 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00034-015-0123-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00034-015-0123-4

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