Patent Document ID: 7996212
Application ID: 11172605
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A hardware device ( 700 ) for analyzing an audio signal to obtain an analysis representation ( 760 ) of the audio signal, comprising: a calculator ( 720 ) for calculating a neural activity pattern over time resulting at nerve fibers of an ear model based on the audio signal ( 710 ); and a processor ( 730 ) for processing the neural activity pattern in order to obtain a sequence of time information (t 1 , t 2 ) as an analysis representation ( 760 ) describing a temporal position of consecutive trajectories ( 740 , 750 ), wherein a trajectory ( 740 , 750 ) includes activity impulses on different nerve fibers (NF 1 , NF 2 , NF 3 , NF 4 , NF 5 ) based on a same event in the audio signal ( 710 ); wherein the processor ( 730 ) for processing the neural activity pattern is configured to gradually distort a two-dimensional representation of the neural activity pattern over time in order to obtain a distorted two-dimensional representation of the neural activity pattern over time, and to recognize when an approximately straight line is contained in the distorted two-dimensional representation of the neural activity pattern over time in order to recognize the approximately straight line as a trajectory in order to determine the temporal position of the trajectory and to provide the time information belonging to the trajectory as an analysis representation of the audio signal; wherein the processor ( 730 ) for processing the neural activity pattern is configured to gradually distort the two-dimensional representation of the neural activity pattern over time so that a curved trajectory in the neural activity pattern is gradually straightened by the gradual distortion.