Assessment of Acceptability of Digital Speech Communication Systems

Abstract

Intelligibility tests were conducted for speech presented over eight bandwidth compression systems. At a SNR of +26 dBA there is little difference in intelligibility scores for the Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) and Channel Vocoder, both systems scoring higher than the Continuously Variable Slope Delta Modulation (CVSD) system but lower than the Analog Reference system. The best performance among the digitized compression systems is achieved by the Culler- Harrison and Lincoln Lab LPC systems operating at 3500 bits/second, but the Channel Vocoder operating at 2400 bits/seconds was less adversely affected by noise at the speech input. Except for the CVSD systems, adding more noise significantly degrades performance. The LPC systems are particularly vulnerable, suggesting that these systems have been designed to maximize operation in a noise-free environment. Further research should be oriented toward improving performance in typical noise environments.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1976
Accession Number
ADA109343

Entities

People

  • Richard W. Becker

Organizations

  • SRI International

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Communication Systems
  • Contracts
  • Degradation
  • Digital Communications
  • Discrimination
  • Distortion
  • Frequency
  • Human Factors Engineering
  • Intelligibility
  • Scientists
  • Speech Quality
  • Speech Transmission
  • Standards
  • Tape Recorders
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Test Methods

Readers

  • Acoustics.
  • Neurological Diseases/Conditions/Disorders
  • Radio communications and signal processing.