Automatic detection and prediction of topic changes through automatic detection of register variations and pause duration

In this article a clustering algorithm, allowing the automatic detection of speakers’ register changes, is presented. Together with automatic detection of pause duration, it has shown to be efficient for the automatic detection and prediction of topic changes. The need to take into account other parameters such as tempo and intensity, in the framework of Linear Discriminant Analysis, is proposed in order to improve the identification of the topic structure of discourse.