Paper Archive

A clipping prevention method is proposed for first- and second-order all-pass filters with time-varying coefficients. Unlike conventional anti-clipping or declipping approaches, the method operates directly on the coefficient dynamics and does not rely on assumptions about internal energy evolution, by just asking that the input signal is not already clipping. The core idea is to control the deviation between the output of the time-varying filter and that of an equivalent static all-pass structure with constant coefficients. By adaptively limiting this deviation at runtime, the output is constrained below a prescribed clipping threshold (typically unit magnitude). The method is active only during short transients where clipping would occur, after which the coefficients are released to reach their target values. This preserves the integrity of the input signal and the numerical properties of the all-pass filter. Experimental results confirm the expected behavior even in scenarios where energy-preserving all-pass structures exceed the clipping threshold, suggesting the proposed approach as a practical solution for robust dynamic filter implementations with limited additional computational cost, suitable especially for embedded digital audio processing hardware.

Download

Measuring the auditory lateralization elicited by interaural time difference (ITD) cues involves the estimation of a psychometric function (PF). The shape of this function usually follows from the analysis of the subjective data and models the probability of correctly localizing the angular position of a sound source. The present study describes and evaluates a procedure for progressively fitting a PF, using Gaussian process classification of the subjective responses produced during a binary decision experiment. The process refines adaptively an approximated PF, following Bayesian inference. At each trial, it suggests the most informative auditory stimulus for function refinement according to Bayesian active learning by disagreement (BALD) mutual information. In this paper, the procedure was modified to accommodate two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) experimental methods and then was compared with a standard adaptive “three-down, one-up” staircase procedure. Our process approximates the average threshold ITD 79.4% correct level of lateralization with a mean accuracy increase of 8.9% over the Weibull function fitted on the data of the same test. The final accuracy for the Just Noticeable Difference (JND) in ITD is achieved with only 37.6% of the trials needed by a standard lateralization test.

Download