1. A system for signal classification comprising: means for receiving a series of input signals; means for transforming said input signals so that characteristics of said signals are represented in the form of wavelet transform coefficients; means for classifying said signals into at least one distinct category and generating a classification output signal indicative of presence of a distinct category of said at least one category; means for allowing an operator to specify a basis kernel function for said wavelet transformation; and means for allowing said operator to specify a selected portion of the coefficients to be processed by the means for classifying and generating an output signal, starting with the largest magnitude of coefficient and proceeding with other coefficients in monotonically descending order of magnitude.