Period Histogram and Product Spectrum: New Methods for Fundamental-Frequency Measurement

The fundamental frequency of a periodic signal whose fundamental component is not available for measurement can be determined by measuring the frequencies of its higher harmonic components and computing the largest common divider of these frequencies. Similarly, the fundamental period can be determined by measuring the periods of individual harmonics and finding their smallest common multiple. Several methods of fundamental frequency and period measurement, based on these concepts, are described in this paper. The results of computer simulations and analog instrumentations indicate that these new methods. at a considerable reduction in complexity, compare favorably with, and in some cases exceed, the capabilities of cepstrum analysis.