Patent ID: 8155967

Claim:
A method for identifying a primary transformational structure in human speech, the method comprising: a) computing using a processor the values of at least two acoustic features of a digitized utterance at a plurality of equal periodic intervals throughout the digitized utterance, b) computing using a processor transitions between successive computed values of the at least two acoustic features of the digitized utterance at the plurality of equal periodic intervals throughout the digitized utterance, c) selecting using a processor those of the computations of the transitions between the successive computed values that derive from spoken portions of the digitized utterance, and d) rendering using a processor a primary transformational structure by juxtaposing the selected computations of the transitions between the successive computed values of at least two of the at least two acoustic features, wherein the primary transformational structure contains a temporal sequence of data points, each data point of which is defined by at least two values corresponding to the at least two of the at least two acoustic features, describing the simultaneous transitions of the at least two of the at least two acoustic features at the plurality of equal periodic intervals of the spoken portions of the digitized utterance.