Extraction and Portrayal of Pitch of Speech Sounds

An improved method for automatically extracting the pitch information of speech sounds has been devised. It employs a combination of gain control, double detection, voiced sound selection, unvoiced sound exclusion, and a means for counting the fundamental vibrations in the voiced sound intervals. Reliable indications of pitch have been obtained over a range corresponding to frequencies from 100 to 600 cycles for a wide variety of voices. The pitch-indicating signals have been applied, for study purposes, to a number of visual portrayal means for showing pitch changes, and descriptions of several of these systems are included.