A phoneme segmentation method based on the analysis of discrete wavelet transform spectra is described. The localization of phoneme boundaries is particularly useful in speech recognition. It enables one to use more accurate acoustic models since the length of phonemes provide more information for parametrization. Our method relies on the values of power envelopes and their first derivatives for six frequency subbands. Specific scenarios that are typical for phoneme boundaries are searched for. Discrete times with such events are noted and graded using a distribution-like event function, which represent the change of the energy distribution in the frequency domain. The exact definition of this method is described in the paper. The final decision on localization of boundaries is taken by analysis of the event function. Boundaries are, therefore, extracted using information from all subbands. The method was developed on a small set of Polish hand segmented words and tested on another large corpus containing 16 425 utterances. A recall and precision measure specifically designed to measure the quality of speech segmentation was adapted by using fuzzy sets. From this, results with F-score equal to 72.49% were obtained.
EEG signal-based sleep stage classification facilitates an initial diagnosis of sleep disorders. The aim of this study was to compare the efficiency of three methods for feature extraction: power spectral density (PSD), discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and empirical mode decomposition (EMD) in the automatic classification of sleep stages by an artificial neural network (ANN). 13650 30-second EEG epochs from the PhysioNet database, representing five sleep stages (W, N1-N3 and REM), were transformed into feature vectors using the aforementioned methods and principal component analysis (PCA). Three feed-forward ANNs with the same optimal structure (12 input neurons, 23 + 22 neurons in two hidden layers and 5 output neurons) were trained using three sets of features, obtained with one of the compared methods each. Calculating PSD from EEG epochs in frequency sub-bands corresponding to the brain waves (81.1% accuracy for the testing set, comparing with 74.2% for DWT and 57.6% for EMD) appeared to be the most effective feature extraction method in the analysed problem.
This paper presents mechanical fault detection in squirrel cage induction motors (SCIMs) by means of two recent techniques. More precisely, we have analyzed the rolling element bearing (REB) faults in SCIM. Rolling element bearing faults constitute a major problem among different faults which cause catastrophic damage to rotating machinery. Thus early detection of REB faults in SCIMs is of crucial importance. Vibration analysis is among the key concepts for mechanical vibrations of rotating electrical machines. Today, there is massive competition between researchers in the diagnosis field. They all have as their aim to replace the vibration analysis technique. Among them, stator current analysis has become one of the most important subjects in the fault detection field. Motor current signature analysis (MCSA) has become popular for detection and localization of numerous faults. It is generally based on fast Fourier transform (FFT) of the stator current signal. We have detailed the analysis by means of MCSA-FFT, which is based on the stator current spectrum. Another goal in this work is the use of the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) technique in order to detect REB faults. In addition, a new indicator based on the MCSA-DWT technique has been developed in this study. This new indicator has the advantage of expressing itself in the quantity and quality form. The acquisition data are presented and a comparative study is carried out between these recent techniques in order to ensure a final decision. The proposed subject is examined experimentally using a 3 kW squirrel cage induction motor test bed.