Broadcast information classification system and method

A method of classifying broadcast information, comprising the steps of:

• receiving broadcast information;
• comparing said information with a library of first stage reference patterns;
• queueing the first stage reference patterns in an order of their similarity to said information;
• correlating the broadcast information with a library of second stage reference patterns, which correspond to said first stage reference patterns, in the queueing order established in the queueing step;
• and
• classifying said broadcast information as similar to one of said second stage reference patterns based on said correlating step.

A method of classifying broadcast information, comprising the steps of:

• comparing a portion of received broadcast information with a library of first stage reference patterns;
• queueing said first stage reference patterns in an order of their similarity to said broadcast information portion;
• correlating said portion with a library of second stage reference patterns in the queueing order established in said queueing step, said second stage reference patterns corresponding to said first stage reference patterns;
• and
• classifying said broadcast information as similar to one of said second stage reference patterns based on said correlating step.

Apparatus for classifying broadcast information, comprising:

• means for receiving broadcast information;
• means for performing a spectral analysis of said information and providing a plurality of analyzed waveforms corresponding thereto;
• processing means for (a) generating a spectragram from said waveforms;
• (b) comparing the generated spectragram with a plurality of predetermined first stage reference spectragrams;
• (c) queueing the first stage reference spectragrams in order of their similarity to said generated spectragram;
• (d) correlating at least one of a plurality of predetermined second stage reference patterns which correspond to said first stage reference spectragrams with one of said analyzed waveforms in the queueing order established to provide a correlation value for each of the correlated second stage reference patterns;
• (e) monitoring the correlation to determine when one of said correlation values exceeds a threshold correlation value;
• (f) identifying the second stage reference pattern which corresponds to the correlation value which exceeds said threshold value;
• and (g) classifying the broadcast information as similar to the identified second stage reference pattern.

Apparatus for classifying broadcast information, comprising:

• means for receiving broadcast information;
• processing means for (a) comparing said information with a library of first stage reference patterns;
• (b) queueing the first stage reference patterns in an order of their similarity to said information;
• (c) correlating the broadcast information with a library of second stage reference patterns, which correspond to said first stage reference patterns, in the queueing order established;
• and (d) classifying said broadcast information as similar to one of said second stage reference patterns based on said correlation.

Apparatus for classifying broadcast information, comprising:

• means for receiving said broadcast information;
• and
• processing means for (a) comparing a portion of the received broadcast information with a library of first stage reference patterns;
• (b) queueing said first stage reference patterns in an order of their similarity to said broadcast information portion;
• (c) correlating said portion with a library of second stage reference patterns in the queueing order established in said queueing step, said second stage reference patterns corresponding to said first stage reference patterns;
• and (d) classifying said broadcast information as similar to one of said second stage reference patterns based on said correlating step.