Patent Document ID: 8938390
Application ID: 12395567

Base Claim:
1. A method for detecting autism in a natural language environment using a microphone, sound recorder, and a computer programmed with software for the specialized purpose of processing recordings captured by the microphone and sound recorder combination, the computer programmed to execute a method comprising: (a) segmenting an audio signal captured by the microphone and sound recorder combination using the computer programmed for the specialized purpose into a plurality of recording segments; (b) determining which of the plurality of recording segments correspond to a key child; (c) determining which of the plurality of recording segments that correspond to the key child are classified as key child recordings; (d) extracting phone-based features of the key child recordings; (e) comparing the phone-based features of the key child recordings to known phone-based features for children, the phone-based features corresponding to predetermined clusters of child speech resembling phones wherein the predetermined clusters of child speech resembling phones are clustered according to an unsupervised clustering method; (f) determining a likelihood of autism based on the comparing of (e); (g) extracting acoustic parameters of the key child recordings; and (h) comparing the acoustic parameters of the key child recordings to known acoustic parameters for children, wherein the determining of (f) also is based on the comparing of (h).

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Claim 2:
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the acoustic parameters include canonical syllables, and the acoustic parameters are divided into four categories, including a rhythm/ syllabicity category, a low spectral tilt and high pitch control category, a wide formant bandwidth and low pitch control category, and a duration of islands within utterances category.