<p>A computationally non-intensive method for classifying real-time speech data is useful for improved animations of avatars. The method includes identifying a voiced speech segment of the speech data (step 410). A high-amplitude spectrum is then determined by performing a spectral analysis on a high-amplitude component of the voiced speech segment (step 415). The high-amplitude spectrum is then classified as a vowel phoneme, where the vowel phoneme is selected from a reduced vowel set (step 440).</p>
