Abstract
An audio signal representative of an acoustic signal is provided to an auditory model. The auditory model produces a high-dimensional feature set based on physiological responses, as simulated by the auditory model, to the acoustic signal. A multidimensional analyzer orthogonalizes and truncates the feature set based on contributions by components of the orthogonal set to a cortical representation of the acoustic signal. The truncated feature set is then provided to classifier, where a predetermined sound is discriminated from the acoustic signal.