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Cepstrum

 

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Cepstrum



 
 
A cepstrum is the result of taking the Fourier transform
Fourier transform

In mathematics, Fourier analysis is a subject area which grew out of the study of Fourier series. The subject began with trying to understand when it was possible to represent general functions by sums of simpler trigonometric functions....
 (FT) of the decibel spectrum as if it were a signal. Its name was derived by reversing the first four letters of "spectrum". There is a complex
Complex number

In mathematics, the complex numbers are an extension of the real numbers obtained by adjoining an imaginary unit, denoted i, which satisfies:...
 cepstrum, a real
Real number

In mathematics, the real numbers may be described informally in several different ways. The real numbers include both rational numbers, such as 42 and −23/129, and irrational numbers, such as pi and the square root of two; or, a real number can be given by an infinite decimal representation, such as 2.4871773339...., where the digits co...
 cepstrum, a power cepstrum, and phase cepstrum.

There are many ways to calculate the cepstrum. Some of them need a phase-wrapping algorithm; others do not.

Operations on cepstra are labelled quefrency analysis, quefrency alanysis, liftering, or cepstral analysis.

Origin and definition
The power cepstrum was defined in a 1963 paper by Bogert et al.






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Encyclopedia


A cepstrum is the result of taking the Fourier transform
Fourier transform

In mathematics, Fourier analysis is a subject area which grew out of the study of Fourier series. The subject began with trying to understand when it was possible to represent general functions by sums of simpler trigonometric functions....
 (FT) of the decibel spectrum as if it were a signal. Its name was derived by reversing the first four letters of "spectrum". There is a complex
Complex number

In mathematics, the complex numbers are an extension of the real numbers obtained by adjoining an imaginary unit, denoted i, which satisfies:...
 cepstrum, a real
Real number

In mathematics, the real numbers may be described informally in several different ways. The real numbers include both rational numbers, such as 42 and −23/129, and irrational numbers, such as pi and the square root of two; or, a real number can be given by an infinite decimal representation, such as 2.4871773339...., where the digits co...
 cepstrum, a power cepstrum, and phase cepstrum.

There are many ways to calculate the cepstrum. Some of them need a phase-wrapping algorithm; others do not.

Operations on cepstra are labelled quefrency analysis, quefrency alanysis, liftering, or cepstral analysis.

Origin and definition


The power cepstrum was defined in a 1963 paper by Bogert et al. It may be defined

  • verbally: the power cepstrum (of a signal) is the square of the Fourier transform of the logarithm of the squared magnitude of the Fourier transform of a signal


  • mathematically: power cepstrum of signal = abs(FT(log(abs(FT(the signal))^2)))^2


  • algorithm
    Algorithm

    In mathematics, computing, linguistics and related subjects, an algorithm is a sequence of finite instructions, often used for calculation and data processing....
    ically: signal ? FT ? abs ? square ? log ? FT ? abs ? square ? power cepstrum


The complex cepstrum was defined by Oppenheim in his development of homomorphic system theory. It may be defined

  • verbally: the complex cepstrum (of a signal) is the Fourier transform of the logarithm (with unwrapped phase) of the Fourier transform (of a signal). Sometimes called the spectrum of a spectrum.


  • mathematically: complex cepstrum of signal = FT(log(|FT(the signal)|)+j2pm) (where m is the integer required to properly unwrap the angle or imaginary part
    Imaginary part

    In mathematics, the imaginary part of a complex number , is the second element of the ordered pair of real numbers representing i.e. if , or equivalently, , then the imaginary part of is ....
     of the complex log function)


  • algorithm
    Algorithm

    In mathematics, computing, linguistics and related subjects, an algorithm is a sequence of finite instructions, often used for calculation and data processing....
    ically: signal ? FT ? abs ? log ? phase unwrapping ? FT ? cepstrum


The real cepstrum uses the logarithm
Logarithm

In mathematics, the logarithm of a number to a given base is the Power or exponent to which the base must be raised in order to produce the number....
 function
Function (mathematics)

The mathematical concept of a function expresses dependence between two quantities, one of which is known and the other which is produced. A function associates a single output to each input element drawn from a fixed Set , such as the real numbers , although different inputs may have the same output....
 defined for real values. The real cepstrum is related to the power via the relationship (4 * real cepstrum)^2 = power cepstrum, and is related to the complex cepstrum as real cepstrum = 0.5*(complex cepstrum + time reversal of complex cepstrum).

The complex cepstrum uses the complex logarithm
Complex logarithm

In complex analysis, a complex logarithm function is an "inverse function" of the complex exponential function, just as the natural logarithm ln x is the inverse of the exponential function ex....
 function
Function (mathematics)

The mathematical concept of a function expresses dependence between two quantities, one of which is known and the other which is produced. A function associates a single output to each input element drawn from a fixed Set , such as the real numbers , although different inputs may have the same output....
 defined for complex values. The phase cepstrum is related to the complex cepstrum as phase spectrum = (complex cepstrum - time reversal of complex cepstrum).^2

The complex cepstrum holds information about magnitude and phase of the initial spectrum, allowing the reconstruction of the signal. The real cepstrum uses only the information of the magnitude of the spectrum.

Many texts state that the process is FT ? log ? IFT, i.e., that the cepstrum is the "inverse Fourier transform of the log of the spectrum". This is not the definition given in the original paper, but it is widespread. Note that the Fourier inversion theorem
Fourier inversion theorem

In mathematics, Fourier inversion recovers a function from its Fourier transform. Several different Fourier inversion theorems exist.Sometimes the following identity is used as the definition of the Fourier transform:...
 inherently relates the two processes.

Applications


The cepstrum can be seen as information about rate of change in the different spectrum bands. It was originally invented for characterizing the seismic echoes
Echo (phenomenon)

In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a Reflection of sound, arriving at the listener some time after the direct sound. Typical examples are the echo produced by the bottom of a well, by a building, or by the walls of an enclosed room....
 resulting from earthquake
Earthquake

An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes are recorded with a seismometer, also known as a seismograph....
s and bomb
Bomb

A bomb is any of a range of explosive devices that typically rely on the exothermic chemical reaction of an explosive material to produce an extremely sudden and violent release of energy....
 explosions. It has also been used to analyze radar
Radar

Radar is a system that uses electromagnetic radiation waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain....
 signal returns.

The autocepstrum is defined as the cepstrum of the autocorrelation. The autocepstrum is more accurate than the cepstrum in the analysis of data with echoes.

The cepstrum is a representation used in homomorphic signal processing
Homomorphic filtering

Homomorphic filtering is a generalized technique for signal and image processing, involving a nonlinear mapping to a different domain in which linear filter techniques are applied, followed by mapping back to the original domain....
, to convert signals (such as a source and filter) combined by convolution
Convolution

In mathematics and, in particular, functional analysis, convolution is a mathematical operator on two function s f and g, producing a third function that is typically viewed as a modified version of one of the original functions....
 into sums of the their cepstra, for linear separation. In particular, the power cepstrum is often used as a feature vector for representing the human voice and musical signals. For these applications, the spectrum is usually first transformed using the mel scale
Mel scale

The mel scale, proposed by Stanley Smith Stevens, John Volkman and Edwin Newman in 1937 is a perceptual Scale of pitch es judged by listeners to be equal in distance from one another....
. The result is called the mel-frequency cepstrum or MFC (its coefficients are called mel-frequency cepstral coefficients, or MFCCs). It is used for voice identification, pitch detection
Pitch detection algorithm

A pitch detection algorithm is an algorithm designed to estimate the pitch or fundamental frequency of a quasiperiodic or virtually periodic function signal, usually a digital recording of speech processing or a musical note or tone....
 and much more. The cepstrum is useful in these applications because the low-frequency periodic excitation from the vocal cords and the formant
Formant

A formant is a peak in the frequency spectrum of a sound caused by Acoustics resonance. In phonetics, the word refers to sounds produced by the vocal tract....
 filtering of the vocal tract
Vocal tract

The vocal tract is the cavity in animals where sound that is produced at the sound source is filtered. In birds it consists of the Vertebrate trachea, the Syrinx , the oral cavity, the upper part of the esophagus, and the beak....
, which convolve in the time domain
Time domain

Time domain is a term used to describe the analysis of mathematical function s, or physical signal s, with respect to time. In the time domain, the signal or function's value is known for all real numbers, for the case of continuous time, or at various separate instants in the case of discrete time....
 and multiply in the frequency domain
Frequency domain

In electronics and control systems engineering, frequency domain is a term used to describe the analysis of mathematical functions or Signal with respect to frequency, rather than time....
, are additive and in different regions in the quefrency domain.

Cepstral concepts


The independent variable of a cepstral graph is called the quefrency. The quefrency is a measure of time, though not in the sense of a signal in the time domain
Time domain

Time domain is a term used to describe the analysis of mathematical function s, or physical signal s, with respect to time. In the time domain, the signal or function's value is known for all real numbers, for the case of continuous time, or at various separate instants in the case of discrete time....
. For example, if the sampling rate of an audio signal is 44100 Hz and there is a large peak in the cepstrum whose quefrency is 100 samples, the peak indicates the presence of a pitch that is 44100/100 = 441 Hz. This peak occurs in the cepstrum because the harmonics in the spectrum are periodic, and the period corresponds to the pitch.

Liftering


Playing further on the anagram theme, a filter that operates on a cepstrum might be called a lifter. A low pass lifter is similar to a low pass filter in the frequency domain
Frequency domain

In electronics and control systems engineering, frequency domain is a term used to describe the analysis of mathematical functions or Signal with respect to frequency, rather than time....
. It can be implemented by multiplying by a window in the cepstral domain and when converted back to the time domain, resulting in a smoother signal.

Convolution


A very important property of the cepstral domain is that the convolution
Convolution

In mathematics and, in particular, functional analysis, convolution is a mathematical operator on two function s f and g, producing a third function that is typically viewed as a modified version of one of the original functions....
 of two signals can be expressed as the addition of their cepstra:

Further reading


  • D. G. Childers, D. P. Skinner, R. C. Kemerait, "," Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 65, No. 10, October 1977, pp. 1428-1443.
  • ""