Final answer:
A speech recognition system breaks sound into digital representations of phonemes. It uses technologies that process auditory signals captured by a microphone and convert them into a form that can be analyzed and interpreted by computers.
Step-by-step explanation:
A speech recognition system breaks sound into digital representations of phonemes. The auditory system's ability to convert pressure waves into meaningful sounds forms the basis for this technology. In a speech recognition system, sounds are captured by a microphone and then processed by a speech processor that classifies the sounds into phonemes, the smallest units of sound that can differentiate one word from another in any given language. These digital representations are then used to recognize and understand spoken words and sentences.
Apart from just speech recognition, the auditory system includes various parts such as the cochlea, which is a fluid-filled, snail-shaped structure that contains sensory receptor cells. When the cochlea receives sound, it transduces these vibrations into neural impulses that are then transmitted to the brain through the auditory nerve, where the information is processed. This process allows us to detect sounds, understand speech, and determine where sounds are coming from.