Patent ID: 8548800

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving user input; selecting two strings to compare based on the user input; obtaining a first phonetic word for a first of the two strings by classifying each of consonants of the first string as a consonant impression that belongs to a bucket; obtaining a second phonetic word for a second of the two strings by classifying each of consonants of the second string as a consonant impression that belongs to a bucket; determining a phonetic distance between the first and second phonetic words by: outputting a distance indicating a difference between a consonant impression of the first phonetic word and a consonant impression of the second phonetic word when the consonant impressions of the first and second phonetic words do not belong to a same bucket, outputting a distance indicating a minor difference between the consonant impressions of the first and second phonetic words when the consonant impression of the first phonetic word and the corresponding consonant impression of the second phonetic word belong to the same bucket, wherein the consonant impressions of the first and second phonetic words are not the same, and outputting a distance indicating sameness of the consonant impressions when the consonant impressions of the first and second phonetic words are the same; and sending a result associated with determining the phonetic distance to another device, storing the result in a storage device, or displaying the result.