Abstract: The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for computing Gaussian likelihoods. One embodiment of a method for processing a speech sample includes generating a feature vector for each frame of the speech signal, evaluating the feature vector in accordance with a hierarchical Gaussian shortlist, and producing a hypothesis regarding a content of the speech signal, based on the evaluating.

Abstract: An object comparison method comprises: generating a first ordered vector sequence representation of a first object; generating a second ordered vector sequence representation of a second object; representing the first object by a first ordered sequence of model parameters generated by modeling the first ordered vector sequence representation using a semi-continuous hidden Markov model employing a universal basis; representing the second object by a second ordered sequence of model parameters generated by modeling the second ordered vector sequence representation using a semi-continuous hidden Markov model employing the universal basis; and comparing the first and second ordered sequences of model parameters to generate a quantitative comparison measure.