Analysis of the multifractal nature of speech signals

Abstract

Frame duration is an essential parameter to ensure correct application of multifractal signal processing. This paper aims to identify the multifractal nature of speech signals through theoretical study and experimental verification. One important part of this pursuit is to select adequate ranges of frame duration that effectively display evidence of multifractal nature. An overview of multifractal theory is given, including definitions and methods for analyzing and estimating multifractal characteristics and behavior. Based on these methods, we evaluate the utterances from two different Portuguese speech databases by studying their singularity curves (τ(q) and f(α)).We conclude that the frame duration between 50 and 100 ms is more suitable and useful for multifractal speech signal processing in terms of speaker recognition performance [11]. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.