Speech and Audio Signal Processing: Processing and Perception of Speech and Music, Second Edition

CHAPTER 16

MODELS OF PITCH PERCEPTION

16.1 INTRODUCTION

Human pitch perception is performed by the complete auditory system. Aside from the periphery, our knowledge of this system is still so fragmentary that the task of modeling human pitch perception depends primarily on the interpretation of many psychoacoustics experiments, abetted somewhat by continuing physiological explorations. In this chapter, we first review some proposals (and the accompanying controversies) about the nature of this remarkable facility of ours. We then elaborate on some of these ideas by comparing performances of models with experimental results. The reader should be aware that there is a long and rich history associated with this problem. For greater detail than we can provide here, consult the excellent review by de Boer [2].

As with Chapter 15, the understanding of some of these concepts can be improved by listening to the relevant demonstrations from [10].

16.2 HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PITCH-PERCEPTION MODELS

As noted in Chapter 14, von Helmholtz [8] conceived of the auditory system as a bank of many overlapping bandpass filters. The relationship between this model and the known physiology of the periphery can be seen from Figs. 16.1 and 16.2.

As noted in Chapter 14, the basilar membrane and associated hair cells respond more to high frequencies at the entrance to the cochlea. As the vibrations penetrate ...