Phase Minimization for Glottal Model Estimation

Abstract

In glottal source analysis, the phase minimization criterion has already been proposed to detect excitation instants. As shown in this paper, this criterion can also be used to estimate the shape parameter of a glottal model (ex. Liljencrants-Fant model) and not only its time position. Additionally, we show that the shape parameter can be estimated independently of the glottal model position. The reliability of the proposed methods is evaluated with synthetic signals and compared to that of the IAIF and minimum/maximum-phase decomposition methods. The results of the methods are evaluated according to the influence of the fundamental frequency and noise. The estimation of a glottal model is useful for the separation of the glottal source and the vocal-tract filter and therefore can be applied in voice transformation, synthesis, and also in clinical context or for the study of the voice production.