Speech and method for identifying perceptual features

A system for phone detection, the system comprising:

• a plurality of onset enhancement devices configured to receive a plurality of channel speech signals generated from a speech signal in an acoustic domain, process the plurality of channel speech signals, and generate a plurality of onset enhanced signals, each of the plurality of onset enhancement devices being configured to receive one of the plurality of channel speech signals, enhance one or more onsets of one or more signal pulses for the received one of the plurality of channel speech signals, and generate one of the plurality of onset enhanced signals;
• a cascade of across-frequency coincidence detectors including a first stage of across-frequency coincidence detectors and a second stage of across-frequency coincidence detectors, the cascade being configured to receive the plurality of onset enhanced signals and generate a plurality of coincidence signals, each of the plurality of coincidence signals capable of indicating a plurality of channels at which a plurality of pulse onsets occur within a predetermined period of time, the plurality of pulse onsets corresponding to the plurality of channels respectively;
• an event detector configured to receive the plurality of coincidence signals, and determine whether one or more events have occurred based on at least information associated with the plurality of coincidence signals, the event detector being further configured to generate an event signal, the event signal being capable of indicating which one or more events have been determined to have occurred;
• a phone detector configured to receive the event signal and determine, based on at least information associated with the event signal, which phone has been included in the speech signal in the acoustic domain.

A method for phone detection, the method comprising:

• receiving a speech signal in an acoustic domain;
• converting the speech signal from the acoustic domain to an electrical domain;
• processing information associated with the converted speech signal;
• generating a plurality of channel speech signals corresponding to a plurality of channels respectively based on at least information associated with the converted speech signal;
• processing information associated with the plurality of channel speech signals;
• enhancing one or more onsets of one or more signal pulses for the plurality of channel speech signals to generate a plurality of onset enhanced signals;
• processing information associated with the plurality of onset enhanced signals;
• generating a plurality of coincidence signals based on at least information associated with the plurality of onset enhanced signals, each of the plurality of coincidence signals capable of indicating a plurality of channels at which a plurality of pulse onsets occur within a predetermined period of time, the plurality of pulse onsets corresponding to the plurality of channels respectively;
• processing information associated with the plurality of coincidence signals;
• determining whether one or more events have occurred based on at least information associated with the plurality of coincidence signals;
• generating an event signal, the event signal being capable of indicating which one or more events have been determined to have occurred;
• processing information associated with the event signal;
• determining which phone has been included in the speech signal in the acoustic domain.