Linear prediction incorporating simultaneous masking

Whilst linear prediction is the cornerstone of most modern speech coders, few of these coders incorporate the perceptual characteristics of hearing into the calculation of the linear predictor coefficients (LPCs). This paper proposes a method of incorporating simultaneous masking into the calculation of the LPCs. This modification requires only a modest increase in computational complexity and results in the linear predictor removing more perceptually important information from the input speech signal. This results in a filter that better models the formants of the input speech spectrum. The net effect is that an improvement in quality is achieved for a given bit rate or alternately a bit rate reduction can be achieved while maintaining perceived quality. These results have been confirmed through subjective listening tests.