A comparative analysis of fundamental frequency estimation methods with application to pathological voices

One of the basic parameters characterising voiced phonation is the fundamental frequency, named pitch, which is the rate of vibration of the folds. In pathological voices. pitch variations within an utterance are indicative of the patient status. As such voices are corrupted by 'noise', robust pitch estimation methods are required in order to track its variations. This paper aims to compare some pitch estimation methods, pointing out their main advantages and drawbacks for present application. For each method, modifications are proposed in order to enhance performance. The methods are tested on simulated signals and then applied to real signals, coming both from healthy and pathological voices. The latter we obtained from patients who have undergone surgery for vocal folds via laser or traditional lancer techniques. (C) 2000 IPEM. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.