Automatic language identification

An interactive voice response (IVR) system for determining a language set comprising:

• circuitry for providing a plurality of samples from a voice signal;
• circuitry for calculating a non-phonetic characteristic from the sample;
• and
• circuitry for selecting a language set based on the non-phonetic characteristic,
• circuitry for calculating a non-phonetic characteristic based on an average first and second format frequency for the plurality of samples, and
• circuitry for calculating a first factor based on the average displacement of each sample from the averaged first and second format frequency and means for calculating a second non-phonetic characteristic factor based on the average displacement of the samples wherein the nearest matching reference is compared against the first and second factors.

A computer program product adaptable for storage on a computer readable means, having a set of program instructions operable for determining a language set for use in an interactive voice response system, comprising the steps of:

• providing a plurality of samples from a voice signal;
• calculating a non-phonetic characteristic of each sample;
• and
• selecting a corresponding language set based on the non-phonetic characteristic,
• wherein the non-phonetic characteristic is based on an average first and second format frequency for each sample, and further comprising a step of calculating a first factor based on the average displacement of each sample from the averaged first and second format frequency and calculating a second factor based on the average displacement of the samples, the nearest matching reference is compared against the first and second factors.