21. An apparatus comprising: a distortion computation module configured: to compare a first feature vector in a sequence of feature vectors formed from a digitized incoming signal to be recognized with a first number of templates from a set of templates representing candidate patterns, to select, based on said comparison, a second number of templates from said template set, the second number being smaller than the first number, to compare a second feature vector only with said selected templates so as to recognize a pattern of said digitized incoming signal; and to generate a signal corresponding to a recognized pattern of said digitized incoming signal as a result of said comparing said second feature vector only with said selected templates.
21. An apparatus comprising: a distortion computation module configured: to compare a first feature vector in a sequence of feature vectors formed from a digitized incoming signal to be recognized with a first number of templates from a set of templates representing candidate patterns, to select, based on said comparison, a second number of templates from said template set, the second number being smaller than the first number, to compare a second feature vector only with said selected templates so as to recognize a pattern of said digitized incoming signal; and to generate a signal corresponding to a recognized pattern of said digitized incoming signal as a result of said comparing said second feature vector only with said selected templates. 23. The apparatus according to claim 21 , further wherein the distortion computation module is configured to include distortion measures computed with respect to a different feature vector, in said set of distortion measures.