Method and apparatus for compressing and decompressing voice signals, that includes a predetermined set of syllabic sounds capable of representing all possible syllabic sounds

An apparatus for compressing a voice signal, the apparatus comprising:

• (a) a voice recognition template, said voice recognition template for associating a plurality of unique binary code words with a plurality of unique syllabic sounds, said unique syllabic sounds included within a predetermined set of syllabic sounds capable of representing substantially all possible syllabic sounds of all languages, said voice recognition template optimizable to include only those syllabic sounds necessary for a predetermined language;
• (b) a microphone for receiving said voice signal as a series of spoken syllables;
• and
• (c) a voice processor for selecting a selected binary code word from said voice recognition template whose associated syllabic sound is the most similar to said spoken syllable.

A method of compressing a voice signal, the method comprising the steps of:

• (a) generating a voice recognition template, said voice recognition template associating a plurality of unique binary code words with a plurality of unique syllabic sounds, said unique syllabic sounds included within a predetermined set of syllabic sounds representative of the Amharic language, said voice recognition template optimizable to include only those syllabic sounds necessary for a predetermined language;
• (b) receiving said voice signal as a series of spoken syllables;
• (c) selecting a selected binary code word from said voice recognition template whose associated syllabic sound is the most similar to said spoken syllable;
• and
• (d) repeating step (c) for each of said spoken syllables.