The rapid development of source coding techniques and their realization with the help of integrated circuits leads to the conclusion that in the near future many new services will be created which are based on picture coding techniques. Applications will be found not only in the field of broadcasting but also in the area of interactive audiovisual communications. With the techniques available t...

The relationship between local speaking rate and spectral reduction of voiceless fricatives is examined based on a corpus of spontaneous speech. The spectral balance of about 18k items is statistically analyzed with regard to consonant duration and local speaking rate. Both measures show comparable effects: For most of the treated allophones, significant within-speaker reduction occurs with hig...