Patent ID: 8280726

Claim:
An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising: a processing system configured to: receive an input sound stream of a user; split the input sound stream into a plurality of frames; classify each of the frames as one selected from the group consisting of a non-speech frame and a speech frame; determine a pitch of each of the frames in a subset of the speech frames; maintain a table comprising a male score for each pitch and a female score for each pitch; the male scores being determined by computing a pitch of each of a number of male frames, counting a number of the frames with each particular pitch, and setting the male score for each pitch to a function of the number of the frames with the pitch divided by the number of male frames; the female scores being determined by computing a pitch of each of a number of female frames, counting a number of the frames with each particular pitch, and setting the female score for each pitch to a function of the number of the frames with the pitch divided by the number of female frames; maintain a first sum including the male score for each determined pitch of each of the frames; maintain a second sum including the female score for each determined pitch of each of the frames; and identify a gender of the user as male when the first sum is greater than the second sum and identify the gender as female when the second sum is greater than the first sum, wherein to determine the pitch, the processing system is configured to: filter the speech frames to compute an error signal; compute an autocorrelation of the error signal; find a maximum autocorrelation value; and set the pitch to an index of the maximum autocorrelation value.