Patent ID: 7478045

Claim:
A method for characterizing an audio signal representing an audio content, comprising: determining a measure for a tonality of the audio signal; and making a statement about the audio content of the audio signal on the basis of the measure for the tonality of the audio signal, wherein the measure for the tonality is derived from a quotient F x;y which is defined as follows: F x ; y = 1 N ⁢ ∑ n = 0 N - 1 ⁢ X ⁡ ( n ) x x 1 N ⁢ ∑ n = 0 N - 1 ⁢ X ⁡ ( n ) y y wherein X(n) is a spectral component of the audio signal for a numeration index n, wherein n equal to 0 represents a lower frequency index, wherein N represents an upper frequency index, wherein x is the first power and y the second power and wherein the first and second powers are different.