EMERGENCY WARNING SOUND DETECTOR

THE WARNING SOUNDS UTILIZED BY FIRE TRUCKS, AMBULANCES, AND POLICE VEHICLES ARE EASILY CHARACTERIZED BY: HIGH VOLUME; NARROW BAND, SHORT-TERM SPECTRA; FREQUENCIES IN THE MOST SENSITIVE RANGE OF HUMAN HEARING; AND RAPID VARIATIONS IN FREQUENCY. AUTOMATIC DETECTION OF SUCH SOUNDS FROM A SEQUENCE OF FREQUENCY SPECTRA IS RELATIVELY STRAIGHTFORWARD. HOWEVER, ACCURATE SPECTRAL ANALYSIS IS EXPENSIVE. FORTUNATELY, GREAT ACCURACY IS NOT REQUIRED FOR THIS APPLICATION. EFFICIENT COMPUTATION OF APPROPRIATE SPECTRAL FEATURES IS DESCRIBED. THE TASKS OF A PHASE I EFFORT WOULD BE TO OPTIMIZE THE PARAMETERS OF THIS COMPUTATION AND TO SPECIFY A HARDWARE DESIGN WHICH COULD BE PRODUCED FOR MINIMUM COST.