System and method for automated speech recognition

A system for recognizing speech, comprising:

• an acquisition module to obtain an auditory signal;
• and
• a controller in operative communication with the acquisition module, the controller being configured to
• obtain an auditory signal from the acquisition module,
• process the auditory signal into a plurality of frequency components,
• process the plurality of frequency components using a plurality of feature detectors, each feature detector producing a feature detector response,
• generate a spike for each instance in which a feature detector response identifies a characteristic auditory feature to produce a test spike pattern for the auditory signal, and
• compare the test spike pattern to a plurality of predetermined spike patterns corresponding to a plurality of speech elements to determine whether the auditory signal includes one of the plurality of speech elements.

A method of recognizing speech, comprising the steps of:

• obtaining an auditory signal comprising a plurality of syllables of speech;
• identifying a syllable within the auditory signal, the syllable comprising a portion of the auditory signal;
• processing the syllable into a plurality of frequency components;
• processing the plurality of frequency components using a plurality of feature detectors, each feature detector producing a feature detector response;
• generating a spike for each instance in which a feature detector response identifies a characteristic auditory feature to produce a test spike pattern for the auditory signal;
• and
• comparing the test spike pattern to a plurality of predetermined spike patterns corresponding to a plurality of speech elements to determine whether the syllable corresponds to one of the plurality of speech elements.