Appeal No. 1998-2939
Application 08/129,077
§ 103 in view of the teachings of Papamichalis and Parsons.
Parsons is a speech processing textbook which
indicates that there are two alternative techniques used
generally to obtain formant frequencies of speech. One
technique is to compute the roots of a speech signal by a root
finding process. The other technique is to find local maxima
in the spectra envelope derived from predictors of a linear
prediction process [Parsons, page 212]. The examiner has
essentially found that it would have been obvious to replace
the root finding technique used in Papamichalis with an
equivalent peak detecting technique as disclosed by Parsons.
The problem with this position is that the claimed invention
does not recite peak finding as a substitute for root finding.
The low frequency energy peak in the claimed invention is used
to determine the starting time frame for analysis and not for
determining formant frequencies.
The claimed invention uses a root finding technique
for analyzing speech in a plurality of time frames. The roots
of the starting time frame are then used as seeds for
producing plural root tracks. The plural root tracks are
extended by linking corresponding roots of preceding and
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