1. An electronic system configured to perform speech processing comprising: a memory having stored therein a database of keyword models, wherein the database of keyword models includes an ensemble of filters describing an evolution of phonetic events associated with each keyword in the database; a processor configured to: i) receive a signal including speech; ii) decompose the signal including speech into a sparse set of phonetic impulses; iii) access the database of keyword models; iv) identify keywords within the signal including speech using the sparse set of phonetic impulses and the database of keywords; and v) generate an output indicating the keywords identified in iv).