Minimum/maximum phase decomposition of signals inspired by the auditory periphery

Abstract

We propose a signal decomposition approach based on our interpretation of the functioning of the auditory periphery. Analogous to previously proposed auditory models, a parallel-bank of M filters forms the front-end of our model. However, each filter output is further decomposed into a minimum-phase (MinP) and a maximum-phase (MaxP) component. These components are analytic signals with special envelope-phase relationships. Once the filter output is decomposed into MinP/MaxP components we compute the instantaneous frequencies of these components. Finally, we sift through the instantaneous frequencies of all the MinP components and retain only those filter outputs that are entirely MaxP. It appears that a handful of instantaneous frequency tracks of MaxP components are sufficient to represent vowel sounds.