CVC operates by mimicking the way the human ear process sound:

The human ear

1. Sound waves cause the ear drum to vibrate in the middle ear
2. Vibration is translated into fluid motion in the cochlea
3. The hair cells in the inner ear vibrate in a unique pattern corresponding to the frequency spectrum characteristic of the incoming sound
4. The motion of each hair is converted to electrical pulses which are transmitted to the brain
5. The brain separates speech from other sound components for analysis

The CVC process

• The microphone converts sound pressure to an electrical signal
• The analogue signal is converted to the digital domain by an ADC
• Data is processed into frequency components which are analogous to the output of the cochlea
• The independent frequency components are subjected to temporal analysis and correlated to distinguish speech from noise