A weighting device utilizes soft reliability values and class weighting
factors to detect errors in digitized information. The soft reliability
values can be provided by a decoder that processes the information
according to a predetermined coding scheme. Bits representing the encoded
information are classified accorded to classes defined by a bit
sensitivity analysis. The bit sensitivity analysis can be based on
subjective and/or objective criteria. As incoming bits are received by the
weighting device, they are classified and class reliability values are
computed for each class based on the soft reliability values. The class
reliability values are then weighted to produce weighted class reliability
values. Error concealment algorithms, coding rate determination, and
coding rate requests can be activated based on the weighted class
reliability values.
