Patents Assigned to QNX Software Systems (Wavemakers), Inc.
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Publication number: 20100198603Abstract: A sub-band processing system that reduces computational complexity and memory requirements includes a processor and a local or distributed memory. Logic stored in the memory partitions a frequency spectrum of bins into a smaller number of sub-bands. The logic enables a lossy compression by designating a magnitude and a designated or derived phase of each bin in the frequency spectrum as representative. The logic renders a lossless compression by decompressing the lossy compressed data and providing lost data based on original spectral relationships contained within the frequency spectrum.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 29, 2010Publication date: August 5, 2010Applicant: QNX SOFTWARE SYSTEMS(WAVEMAKERS), Inc.Inventor: Shreyas Paranjpe
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Patent number: 7725315Abstract: A voice enhancement system is provided for improving the perceptual quality of a processed voice signal. The system improves the perceptual quality of a received voice signal by removing unwanted noise from a voice signal recorded by a microphone or from some other source. Specifically, the system removes sounds that occur within the environment of the signal source but which are unrelated to speech. The system is especially well adapted for removing transient road noises from speech signals recorded in moving vehicles. Transient road noises include common temporal and spectral characteristics that can be modeled. A transient road noise detector employs such models to detect the presence of transient road noises in a voice signal. If transient road noises are found to be present, a transient road noise attenuator is provided to remove them from the signal.Type: GrantFiled: October 17, 2005Date of Patent: May 25, 2010Assignee: QNX Software Systems (Wavemakers), Inc.Inventors: Phillip A. Hetherington, Shreyas Paranjpe
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Patent number: 7724693Abstract: A system processes signals exchanged between a near end terminal and a far end terminal over a communication path. The system selects the processing characteristics of a near end terminal based on characteristics of the communication path. The communication path may include the near and the far end terminal and their respective codecs, and the networks. The system may select processing characteristics of the near end terminal based on characteristics of the communication path. Selecting the processing characteristics may include selecting a predetermined operation. The system may adapt a selected operation based on a real time analysis of the communication path.Type: GrantFiled: September 2, 2005Date of Patent: May 25, 2010Assignee: QNX Software Systems (Wavemakers), Inc.Inventors: Sheila Joy McFarland, Phillip A. Hetherington, Alex Escott
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Patent number: 7716046Abstract: An enhancement system improves the perceptual quality of a processed speech. The system includes a delay unit that delays a signal received through a discrete input. A spectral modifier linked to the delay unit is programmed to substantially flatten the spectral character of a background noise. An adaptive filter linked to the spectral modifier adapts filter characteristics to match a response of a non-delayed signal. A programmable filter is linked to the delay unit. The programmable filter has a transfer function functionally related to a transfer function of the adaptive filter.Type: GrantFiled: December 23, 2005Date of Patent: May 11, 2010Assignee: QNX Software Systems (Wavemakers), Inc.Inventors: Rajeev Nongpiur, Phillip A. Heterington
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Publication number: 20100107856Abstract: The system describes a karaoke system that enhances the experience of singing along with music, but without the need to display the lyrics. The system includes a combination of a vocal track reducer and an echo canceller, decision logic for determining when a person is talking or singing (double-talk detector) and a method for “ducking” (i.e., attenuating) the vocal track when the singing is detected. No special CD or DVD with lyric tracks is required, making the system capable of working with CD, mp3, AM, FM, HD radio, satellite radio signals, or any other suitable content source. The result is that any content source may potentially be used as a karaoke soundtrack without any pre-modification.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 3, 2008Publication date: May 6, 2010Applicant: QNX SOFTWARE SYSTEMS (WAVEMAKERS), INC.Inventors: Phil A. Hetherington, Shree Paranjpe
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Patent number: 7680652Abstract: A signal enhancement system improves the understandability of speech or other audio signals. The system reinforces selected parts of the signal, may attenuate selected parts of the signal, and may increase SNR. The system includes delay logic, an adaptive filter, and signal reinforcement logic. The adaptive filter may track one or more fundamental frequencies in the input signal and outputs a filtered signal. The filtered signal may approximately reproduce the input signal approximately delayed by an integer multiple of the signal's fundamental frequencies. The reinforcement logic combines the input signal and the filtered signal output to produce an enhanced signal output.Type: GrantFiled: October 26, 2004Date of Patent: March 16, 2010Assignee: QNX Software Systems (Wavemakers), Inc.Inventors: David Giesbrecht, Phillip Hetherington
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Patent number: 7657668Abstract: A system synchronizes data flow between a first device and a second device. The system includes a data link that connects two or more devices that are capable of sending and receiving data through a bus. A capture device senses and transfer information through the bus. A ring buffer temporarily stores data transmitted through the bus. A read controller copies or reconstructs data in a length that is different from the length of the data received. A monitor detects underflow or overflow conditions into or out of the ring buffer and compensates for clock drift.Type: GrantFiled: August 16, 2006Date of Patent: February 2, 2010Assignee: QNX Software Systems (Wavemakers), Inc.Inventor: Alex Escott
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Patent number: 7620546Abstract: A speech signal isolation system configured to isolate and reconstruct a speech signal transmitted in an environment in which frequency components of the speech signal are masked by background noise. The speech signal isolation system obtains a noisy speech signal from an audio source. The noisy speech signal may then be fed through a neural network that has been trained to isolate and reconstruct a clean speech signal from against background noise. Once the noisy speech signal has been fed through the neural network, the speech signal isolation system generates an estimated speech signal with substantially reduced noise.Type: GrantFiled: March 21, 2005Date of Patent: November 17, 2009Assignee: QNX Software Systems (Wavemakers), Inc.Inventors: Phillip Hetherington, Pierre Zakarauskas, Shahla Parveen
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Patent number: 7610196Abstract: A signal enhancement system improves the understandability of speech or other audio signals. The system reinforces selected parts of the signal, may attenuate selected parts of the signal, and may increase SNR. The system includes delay logic, a partitioned adaptive filter, and signal reinforcement logic. The partitioned adaptive filter may track and enhance the fundamental frequency and harmonics in the input signal. The partitioned filter output signals may approximately reproduce the input signal, delayed by an integer multiple of the period of the fundamental frequency of the input signal. The reinforcement logic combines the input signal and the filtered signals to produce an enhanced output signal.Type: GrantFiled: April 8, 2005Date of Patent: October 27, 2009Assignee: QNX Software Systems (Wavemakers), Inc.Inventors: Rajeev Nongpiur, David Giesbrecht, Phillip Hetherington
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Publication number: 20090222268Abstract: A speech synthesis system synthesizes a speech signal corresponding to an input speech signal based on a spectral envelope of the input speech signal. A glottal pulse generator generates a time series of glottal pulses, that are processed into a glottal pulse magnitude spectrum. A shaping circuit shapes the glottal pulse magnitude spectrum based on the spectral envelope and generates a shaped glottal pulse magnitude spectrum. A harmonic null adjustment circuit reduces harmonic nulls in the shaped glottal pulse magnitude spectrum and generates a null-adjusted synthesized speech spectrum. An inverse transform circuit generates a null-adjusted time-series speech signal. An overlap and add circuit synthesizes the speech signal based on the null-adjusted time-series speech signal.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 3, 2008Publication date: September 3, 2009Applicant: QNX SOFTWARE SYSTEMS (WAVEMAKERS), INC.Inventors: Xueman Li, Phillip A. Hetherington, Shahla Parveen, Tommy TSZ Chun Chiu
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Publication number: 20090216530Abstract: A system improves speech detection or processing by identifying registration signals. The system encodes a limited frequency band by varying the amplitude of a pulse width modulated signal between predefined values. The signal is separated into frequency bins that identify amplitude and phase. The registration signal is measured by comparing a difference in average acoustic power in a plurality of adjacent bins over time.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 21, 2008Publication date: August 27, 2009Applicant: QNX Software Systems (Wavemakers). Inc.Inventors: Mark Fallat, Derek Sahota
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Patent number: 7571104Abstract: A system and method are provided for creating shorter more natural sounding voice messages and prompts from a plurality of pre-recorded sound segments, the prerecorded sound segments are dynamically cross faded in order to produce a more natural blended sound, various cross fade parameters such as the fade length and the shape of the cross fade amplitude envelopes are determined based on characteristics of the various sound segments being combined.Type: GrantFiled: May 26, 2005Date of Patent: August 4, 2009Assignee: QNX Software Systems (Wavemakers), Inc.Inventors: Alex Escott, Norrie K. Taylor
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Publication number: 20090179774Abstract: A monitoring and notification system detects and informs vehicle occupants of sirens. The system may adjust radio, phone, or other device settings in the vehicle in conjunction with the notification. The notification may take an audible or visual form, and the monitoring system may perform its analysis across multiple types of sirens. In addition, the system may adapt its processing based on location to take into account locally expected siren formats.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 15, 2008Publication date: July 16, 2009Applicant: QNX SOFTWARE SYSTEMS (WAVEMAKERS), INC.Inventors: Glenn Andrew Mohan, Phillip Alan Hetherington
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Publication number: 20090150144Abstract: A voice detector improves voice output quality. The voice detector may be incorporated into a cellphone, hands-free car phone, or any other device that provides voice output. The voice detector provides excellent voice output quality even when signal dropouts and other significant signal artifacts are present in the received signal. Not only does the high quality voice output improve the listening experience, it also benefits downstream processing systems that further process the voice signal.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 10, 2007Publication date: June 11, 2009Applicant: QNX SOFTWARE SYSTEMS (WAVEMAKERS), INC.Inventors: Rajeev Nongpiur, Kyle MacDonald
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Patent number: 7546237Abstract: A system extends the bandwidth of a narrowband speech signal into a wideband spectrum. The system includes a high-band generator that generates a high frequency spectrum based on a narrowband spectrum. A background noise generator generates a high frequency background noise spectrum based on a background noise within the narrowband spectrum. A summing circuit linked to the high-band generator and the background noise generator combines the high frequency spectrum and narrowband spectrum and the high frequency background noise spectrum.Type: GrantFiled: December 23, 2005Date of Patent: June 9, 2009Assignee: QNX Software Systems (Wavemakers), Inc.Inventors: Rajeev Nongpiur, Xueman Li, Phillip A. Hetherington
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Publication number: 20090116661Abstract: A noise reduction system includes multiple transducers that generate time domain signals. A transforming device transforms the time domain signals into frequency domain signals. A signal mixing device mixes the frequency domain signals according to a mixing ratio. Frequency domain signals are rotated in phase to generate phase rotated signals. A post-processing device attenuates portions of the output based on coherence levels of the signals.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 4, 2008Publication date: May 7, 2009Applicant: QNX Software Systems (Wavemakers), Inc.Inventor: Phillip A. Hetherington
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Publication number: 20090112579Abstract: A system improves speech intelligibility by reconstructing speech segments. The system includes a low-frequency reconstruction controller programmed to select a predetermined portion of a time domain signal. The low-frequency reconstruction controller substantially blocks signals above and below the selected predetermined portion. A harmonic generator generates low-frequency harmonics in the time domain that lie within a frequency range controlled by a background noise modeler. A gain controller adjusts the low-frequency harmonics to substantially match the signal strength to the time domain original input signal.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 23, 2008Publication date: April 30, 2009Applicant: QNX SOFTWARE SYSTEMS (WAVEMAKERS), INC.Inventors: Xueman Li, Rajeev Nongpiur, Frank Linseisen, Phillip A. Hetherington
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Publication number: 20090076824Abstract: A remote control server protocol system transports data to a client system. The client system communicates with the server application using a platform-independent communications protocol. The client system sends commands and audio data to the server application. The server application may respond by transmitting audio and other messages to the client system. The messages may be transmitted over a single communications channel.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 27, 2008Publication date: March 19, 2009Applicant: QNX SOFTWARE SYSTEMS (WAVEMAKERS), INC.Inventor: Norrie Taylor
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Publication number: 20090040289Abstract: A system allocates channel bandwidth based on the data received from a plurality of remote sources. A de-multiplexer/priority circuit separates two or more different data streams into their components parts. A stream modification driver modifies one or more characteristics of the data received from the de-multiplexer/priority circuit based on a priority assigned to the data by the de-multiplexer/priority circuit. The de-multiplexer/priority circuit determines the data transfer rates for each of the different data streams based on the assigned priority.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 5, 2008Publication date: February 12, 2009Applicant: QNX SOFTWARE SYSTEMS (WAVEMAKERS), INC.Inventors: Phillip A. Hetherington, Mario Vaira, Alex Escott
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Publication number: 20080281584Abstract: A speech enhancement system improves the perceptual quality of an aural signal. A receiver detects and receives an unvoiced signal, a fully voiced signal, or a mixed voice remote signal. A coherence processor identifies the similarities or differences between a local signal and the remote signal. A cancellation processor or controller dampens reflected signals that may be part of the local signal.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 29, 2007Publication date: November 13, 2008Applicant: QNX SOFTWARE SYSTEMS (WAVEMAKERS), INC.Inventors: Phillip A. Hetherington, Shreyas A. Paranjpe