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Automatic speech recognition using cepstral and itakura-saito distances for

vocal command

Conference Paper · January 2005

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 Third International Conference on Systems, Signals & Devices Volume III
March 21-24, 2005 – Sousse, Tunisia Communication and Signal Processing

Automatic speech recognition using cepstral and itakura-saito

distances for vocal command

Zied SAKKA, Abdennaceur KACHOURI, Ahmed BEN AISSA and Mounir SAMET.

LETI, Electronic and Information Technology Laboratory

National Engineering School of Sfax, BP W , 3038 Sfax- Tunisia.
Phone: (+216) 4 274 088 Fax: (+216) 4 275 595.
E_mail: sakka_zied@yahoo.fr, Abdennaceur.Kachouri@enis.rnu.tn, mounir.samet@yahoo.fr

Abstract

The speech recognition system is not stopping to
evolve and to present significant performances.
Nevertheless, the extent of the calculations is very
important and complex in particular in the
classification phase. We are interested in this paper
to the sturdiness of the techniques of
parameterization LPCC, MFCC, PLPCC and to the
classification by simple measure of distance or
distortion indeed the cepstral distance and Itakura-
Saito distance.
Keys words: Speech recognition, cepstral distance,
Itakura-Saito distance.
1.Introduction
The vocal command is the order which obeys to
sound with thin the meaning of the voice.
The performance of automatic word recognition
system is dedicated to the effectiveness of the adopted
parameterisation technique and to the sturdiness of
the classification technique used. Seen the
complexity of the word signal, his redundancy and
variability inter and intra speakers; the automatic
word recognition remains a difficult problem to
resolve. To succeed the vocal order, it is necessary to
take carefully all the steps of the word recognition
system, in particular the techniques of
parameterisation. In fact, more the parameters are
sturdier more differentiating and more pertinent, more
the performance of our system is better, that’s why
our study is focused on the parameterisation
techniques in order to improve the quality of acoustic
modelling, for that we present different cepstral
parameterisation techniques to know: LPCC (Linear
Predictive Cepstral Coefficients), MFCC (Mel
Frequency Cepstral Coefficients) and PLPCC
(Perceptual Linear Predictive Cepstral Coefficients).
We adopted like a method of classification the
measure of distortion by calculating a distance to
know the cepstral distance and the Itakura-Saito
distance [1][3][7].
The acoustic and phonetic basis used is the TI46
2. Speaker recognition system
The basic elements of a speaker recognition system
are shown in Fig.1. An input utterance from an
unknown speaker is analyzed to extract speaker
characteristic features. The measured features are
compared with prototype features obtained from
known speaker models.
In the identification mode, a speech sample from an
unknown speaker is analyzed and compared with
models of known speakers. The unknown speaker is
identified as the speaker whose model best matches
the input speech sample. In the “closed set”
identification mode, the number of decision
alternatives is equal to the size of the population. In
the “open set” identification mode, a reference model
for the unknown speaker may not exist. In this case,
an additional alternative, “the unknown does not
match any of the models”, is required.
The unknown speaker’s speech sample is compared
with the model for the speaker whose identity is
claimed. If the match is good enough, as indicated by
passing a threshold test, the identity claim is verified.
Crucial to the operation of a speaker recognition
system is the establishment and maintenance of
speaker models. One or more enrolments sessions are
required in which training utterances are obtained
from known speakers. Features are extracted from the
training utterances and compiled into models. Many
speaker recognition systems include an updating

9973-959-01-9/ © 2005 / 9885 IEEE

facility in which test utterances are used to adapt regressive model all center due to Durbin and cepstral
speaker models and decision thresholds[2][6]. recursion which allows us to obtain the cepstral
coefficients [4][5].

Speech wav - Pre accentuation

- window of Hamming FFT │ │2 IFFT

Feature extraction

Similarity Durbin récursion

Cepstral Recursion

Reference
Reference
template N
template 1
Fig.2: Algorithm of the LPCC technique.

Similarity 3.2. Parameterization by the MFCC coefficients

Reference It consists in an analyze by a filter-bank divided up

template 2 on a Mel-scale. After pre accentuation, the log
energy of the signal balanced by a Hamming window
is determined by fast Fourier transformation.
…

Filtering is carried out in the spectral domain while

multiplying the obtained log energy by Hamming
Similarity
filters. The inverse Fourier transformation of the
logarithm of spectral density allows us to obtain our
Reference
template N cepstral coefficients called MFCC.

- Pre accentuation
- window of Hamming FFT │ │2 Log(.)
Maximum selection

Identification result
Fig.1: Structure of speaker recognition system. Cepstral Recursion Durbin récursion IFFT

3. Techniques of parameterization

In this party we describe the three principal
techniques of parameterisation that showed a
considerable interest in the automatic word
recognition systems. These techniques are LPCC
(Linear Predictive Cepstral Coefficients), MFCC
(Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients) and PLPCC
(Perceptual Linear Predictive cepstral
Coefficients)[4][5][7].
3.1. Parameterization by the LPCC coefficients
The calculation of the coefficients LPCC obeys to the
algorithm of the Fig.2. At first the signal is
preaccentuated by a high pass filter then a Hamming
window is applied on it. Next we determine the
autocorrelation coefficients with the help of the
Fourier inverse transformation of the log of energy.
At last, once the coefficients autocorrelation are
obtained, we calculate the coefficients of the auto
Fig3: Algorithm of the MFCC technique.
3.3. Parameterization by the PLPCC coefficients
The PLP analyze is an improvement of the LPC
analyze. It takes account of the three following
aspects:
- Integration of critical bands: spectral density is
putted back on the Mel-scale then convoluted with a
function representing a filter with a critical band.
- Preaccentuation by a bank of isotonicity:
perceived intensity, when we listen a pure sound with
constant acoustic intensity, varies with the frequency
of this pure sound. To simulate this phenomenon in
the framework of PLP analyze, we multiplies
resultant spectral density of the preceding step by a
function of balance.
 1  f   f  
Π
- Law of Stevens: the two precedent treatments are
insufficient to establish the correspondence between
d IS ( f , f ' ) = ∫   − In  − 1 dθ (3)
2.Π −Π f '   f ' 
measured intensity and perceived intensity (the The Fig.6 below illustrates the function of Itakura-
sonie). The law of Stevens gives a relation between Saito.
the sonie and intensity :
fonction distance cepstrale
100
0.33
Sonie = (intensity) (1)
90

- Pre accentuation 80
- window of Hamming FFT │ │2 Mel-scale
70

60

d is t a n c e
Cepstral Durbin 50
( ) 0.33 IFFT
Recursion récursion 40

30
Fig.4: Algorithm of the PLPC technique.
20

10
4. Classification and decision
0
-10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10
Once the parameters of the word are obtained, they
coeficients
must be compared to those memorized in the
reference dictionary. This comparison occurs while
measuring their distortions to the help of simple Fig.5: The function of distance cepstrale
distance calculation. We chose two types of distances
to know the cepstral distance and the Itakura-Saito fonction ItakuraSaito
distance; and according to the value of this distance, 4
superior or inferior to a threshhold that is empirically
estimated, the word will be judged if it is the voucher 3.5
or no. The quoted threshhold varies with the
technique of parameterisation and the types of chosen 3
distances.
2.5
4.1. Cepstral distance
d is t a n c e

2
Cepstral distance is formulated and given by the
following equation where c and c’ are cepstral 1.5
coefficients:
1

∞ 2
2
d cep = ∑ [c ( l ) − c ' ( l ) ]
l =1
(2)
0.5

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
coefficients

The Fig.5 shows the function of cepstral distance. Fig.6: The function of Itakura-Saito.

4.2. Itakura-Saito Distance

5. Evaluation
This distance is described by following mathematical
equation where f and f’ are two spectral densities. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the different
methods of parameterisation of the speech signal
regarding to construct a sturdy words system
 recognition that goes to the better with our The results, indeed the rates of recognitions and of
application, and to realize a simple method of confusions, are satisfactory; the MFCC and LPCC
classification. We used as bases of work the TI46. technique, using the classification by the cepstral
The database consists of 15 repetitions of every 46 distance, are more sturdier than the PLPCC and the
word produced by different speakers. Depending on rates of recognitions are more stable. As for the
this, the database consists of 690 tokens. Our system PLPC technique, she goes better with the Itakura-
is brought to recognize three words: « erase », « Saito distance than the cepstral distance. We, finally,
repeat » and « stop ». Previously we have tested the can classify these techniques under this order of
three techniques of parameterisation LPCC, MFCC, reserve:
PLPCC with a classification by the cepstral distance. - PLPC with the classification by the Itakura-Saito
We will give the confusion matrices relating to each distance.
of the quoted techniques. - MFCC and LPCC with the classification by the
cepstral distance.
Table1 : Confusion matrix relative for LPCC - PLPC with the classification by the cepstral
paramétrization technique with cepstral distance. distance.
Stop Repeat Erase
Stop 86.66% 0% 13.33% REFERENCES
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