Patent Document ID: 8078465
Application ID: 12018647

Base Claim:
1. A method comprising: capturing an audio recording from a language environment of a key child, segmenting the audio recording into a plurality of segments; identifying a segment ID for each of the plurality of segments, the segment ID identifying a source for audio in the segment, wherein segmenting the audio recording into the plurality of segments and identifying the segment ID for each of the plurality of segments comprises using a Minimum Duration Gaussian Mixture Model (MD-GMM), and wherein the segments identified using the MD-GMM are at least a minimum duration D, and any segments with a duration longer than 2*D are broken down into several segments with a duration between D and 2*D; estimating key child segment characteristics based in part on at least one of the plurality of key child segments, wherein the key child segment characteristics are estimated independent of content of the plurality of key child segments, wherein the content is the meaning of the plurality of key child segments; determining at least one metric associated with the language environment using the key child segment characteristics; and outputting the at least one metric.

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Claim 8:
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: classifying each of the plurality of key child segments into one of: vocalizations; cries; vegetative sounds; and fixed signal sounds; and wherein the key child segment characteristics are estimated using only key child segments classified into at least one of vocalizations and cries.