Subject: Re: granular synthesis and auditory segmentation From: "Alain de Cheveigne'" <alain(at)LINGUIST.JUSSIEU.FR> Date: Sat, 24 Oct 1998 14:47:17 +0900Peter Cariani writes: >In the correlational view, having all of those >tuned filters makes the system much more robust >in the face of background noise [...] The tuning of the >filters confers upon the system the ability to detect and >isolate faint auditory objects in the face of competing sounds >by ensuring that no one sound completely dominates the time >structure of the auditory nerve array output. I'll be defending a very similar point of view at the ATR Workshop on Events and Auditory Temporal Structure. The paper can be downloaded from: http://llf.linguist.jussieu.fr/~alain/ps/ATReats98.ps The abstract is below. Alain --- The auditory system as a separation machine This paper is written from the hypothetical standpoint that the auditory system is designed to {\em separate}\ sounds rather than just detect, discriminate, or recognize them. Auditory structures and processing mechanisms are judged on their ability to produce a "separable representation" in which correlates of different sources can be selected or ignored. The cochlear filter is assumed to split acoustic information into band-limited channels, rather than just produce a spectral representation (Fourier transformation). Tonotopy, prevalent throughout the auditory system, is assumed to reflect the need to keep the channels apart, rather than the mere repetition of a spectral representation. Between-channel segregation is supplemented by within-channel segregation based on time-domain processing, both binaural (cross-correlation and equalization-cancellation), and monaural (autocorrelation and harmonic cancellation). Binaural processing accounts for binaural unmasking and certain binaural pitch effects. Monaural processing accounts for F0-driven segregation, and pitch and timbre perception. An essential ingredient in this hypothesis is "missing-feature theory", that deals with the incomplete patterns produced by the segregation mechanisms. Parts of a pattern are weighted according to their reliability, and missing or unreliable evidence is ignored. --- ------------------------------------------------------------------ Alain de Cheveigne' Laboratoire de Linguistique Formelle, CNRS / Universite' Paris 7, case 7003, 2 place Jussieu, 75251 Paris CEDEX 05, FRANCE. phone: +33 1 44273633, fax: +33 1 44277919 e-mail: alain(at)linguist.jussieu.fr http://www.linguist.jussieu.fr/~alain/ ------------------------------------------------------------------ Email to AUDITORY should now be sent to AUDITORY(at)lists.mcgill.ca LISTSERV commands should be sent to listserv(at)lists.mcgill.ca Information is available on the WEB at http://www.mcgill.ca/cc/listserv