University of Southern Queensland

Faculty of Health, Engineering & Sciences

School of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering

Course Number: ELE4607

Internal
Assessment No: 2
External

Examiner:

Dr John Leis

Course Name: Advanced Digital Communications

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This Assessment carries 200 of the 1000
marks total for this Course.

Moderator:

Dr Andrew Maxwell

Assignment: Speech Compression

Date Given:

Week 1

Date Due:

Friday Week 14

Penalty for Late Submission: Loss of

5% of total marks for this assignment per
day late.

Assignments are to be typed, not handwritten and scanned.

Assignments are to be submitted electronically, using the link on your Study Desk.
Marked assignments are also returned to you electronically.
You do not need a coversheet for this assignment, since it is submitted electronically.
Please use PDF format to submit your assignment. Please use the naming convention
LastName-StudentNumber.pdf, where StudentNumber is your 10-digit student
number, and LastName is your last (family) name.
By submitting this assignment, you agree to the following Student Declaration:
I hereby certify that no part of this assignment has been copied from any other students
work or from any other source except where due acknowledgement is made in the
assignment. No part of this assignment has been written for me by any other person
except where such collaboration has been authorised by the Examiner.
Any non USQ copyright material used herein is reproduced under the provision of Section 200(1)(b) of the copyright Amendment Act 1980.

Advanced Digital Communications

Speech Compression

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Objectives
The aims of this assignment are:
1. To understand and implement predictive coders (course objective 7).
2. To implement speech coding algorithms and gain an understanding of their computational complexity (course objective 9).
Students are expected to communicate their findings and ideas in a clear and logical manner.
Submission

Assignments must:
Be typed, not handwritten.
Be submitted electronically via the Study Desk.
Be submitted in PDF format, and less than 4M in size.
Use the file naming format LastName-StudentNumber.pdf.
For each question, submit a written report, detailing your approach and discussing
your findings. Your report should include diagrams, figures, source code, waveforms
and/or images as appropriate for this assignment.
Late assignments are not normally accepted. If you wish to apply for consideration
for late submission, it must be done at least one week prior to the due date in writing or
via email. Include documentary evidence of illness (a medical certificate) or additional
work commitments (a written confirmation of changed work circumstances from your
supervisor). For extension applications for other reasons, please contact the examiner
at least 2 weeks in advance of the due date.
Students are reminded of the penalties applying to plagiarism. Copying all or part
of an assessment from another student, or from the web, is unacceptable. Plagiarism
may result in loss of marks, or other penalties as determined by the Academic Misconduct Policy. Further helpful hints on how to correctly reference (and how to avoid
plagiarism) may be found under the link Academic Honesty on the course Study Desk.

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Speech Compression

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Marking
Marks are awarded as per the marking guidelines at the end of each question. The breakdown
of marks will be noted on the PDF file returned to you via the Study Desk. Where an
explanation or description is specifically requested, your response will be assessed according
to the following:

85-100:

75-85:

65-75:

50-65:

0-50:

High Distinction
Excellent grasp of the problem.
Explicitly addresses the question, uses knowledge from course and outside.
Well-argued choice of method or approach as appropriate to the question.
Correct grammar and spelling.
Referenced if appropriate.
Distinction
Very good grasp of the problem.
Addresses the question using knowledge from course.
Well-argued choice of method or approach as appropriate to the question.
Correct grammar and spelling, perhaps with very minor errors.
Referenced if appropriate.
Credit
Understands the problem.
Addresses the question using knowledge from course.
Lacks clarity of expression or uses an imprecise argument.
Moderate spelling or grammatical errors.
Referenced if appropriate.
Pass
Has some understanding of the problem.
Addresses the question but not clearly.
Some misconceptions about the question.
Moderate spelling or grammatical errors.
Fail
Has little or no understanding of the problem.
Does not really address the question.
Significant misconceptions or total lack of understanding of the question.
Poor spelling and/or obvious grammatical errors.

Software
You may use MATLAB to complete questions where you are required to plot waveforms or
calculate results. You may use any MATLAB notes or tutorials provided in this course as
a starting point. You must not use any MATLAB toolbox functions that is, any which
are not shown as built-in in response to the which command. Where MATLAB coding
is required, show all your code for each question as part of your report.

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Speech Compression

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Question 1 80 Marks
Write a speech encoder using the LPC algorithm. You must implement your own LPC
code. You must not use any MATLAB toolboxes use the which command in MATLAB
to check if a function is built-in or contained in a toolbox. Use the following parameters:
1. A frame size of 200 samples;
2. 10th order prediction;
3. Single-pulse excitation at the start of the frame;
4. RMS energy normalization.
Include a listing of the code and an explanation (in your own words) of each stage of the
encoding. Comment on the audio quality of the reconstructed speech in terms of intelligibility and naturalness using a male speaker and a female speaker. Then encode the music
data using the coder and comment on the result.
Algorithm & Code 40
Discussion
40
Total
80

Question 2 20 Marks
Vary the frame size over what you consider to be a reasonable range and comment on the
audio quality of the reconstructed speech using male and female speakers.
For each frame size and speaker, tabulate the bit rate in bits per second (bps) required
using 8-bit scalar quantization for the RMS energy parameter and each of the ten LPC
coefficients.
Results
10
Discussion 10
Total
20

Question 3 20 Marks
For the optimal frame size found above, vary the number of LPC parameters. Is 10 a
reasonable choice?
Results
10
Discussion 10
Total
20

Question 4 80 Marks
Enhance the coder using pitch information, as follows. For each frame, calculate the pitch
using autocorrelation. Then generate the excitation using impulses spaced at the pitch
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Speech Compression

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interval. Test using male and female speakers, and comment on any improvements you
notice over single-pulse excitation. Note that you may need to buffer one or more previous
frames in order to calculate the correlation, and that the placement of the pitch impulses
in the current frame depends on the location of the last pitch pulse in the previous frame.
Include a listing of the code and an explanation (in your own words) of each stage of the
encoding.
Comment on the perceived quality of the LPC coder with pitch excitation as compared to
single-pulse excitation.
Algorithm & Code 40
Discussion
40
Total
80

End of Assignment