Patents by Inventor Christian Uhle
Christian Uhle has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Patent number: 9913036Abstract: An apparatus for generating a stereo output signal includes a manipulation information generator being adapted to generate manipulation information depending on a first signal indication value of a first input channel and on a second signal indication value of a second input channel, and a manipulator for manipulating a combination signal based on the manipulation information to obtain a first manipulated signal as a first output channel and a second manipulated signal as a second output channel. The combination signal is a signal derived by combining the first input channel and the second input channel. Furthermore, the manipulator is configured for manipulating the combination signal in a first manner, when the first signal indication value is in a first relation to the second signal indication value, or in a different second manner, when the first signal indication value is in a different second relation to the second signal indication value.Type: GrantFiled: November 12, 2013Date of Patent: March 6, 2018Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.Inventors: Christian Stoecklmeier, Stefan Finauer, Christian Uhle, Peter Prokein, Oliver Hellmuth, Ulrik Heise
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Patent number: 9883307Abstract: An apparatus for generating a stereo side signal having a first side channel and a second side channel from a stereo input signal having a first input channel and a second input channel is provided. The apparatus has a modification information generator for generating modification information based on mid-side information. Furthermore, the apparatus has a signal manipulator being adapted to manipulate the first input channel based on the modification information to obtain the first side channel and being adapted to manipulate the second input channel based on the modification information to obtain the second side channel. The modification information generator has a spectral weights generator for generating the modification information by generating a first spectral weighting factor based on a mono mid signal and on a mono side signal of the stereo input signal.Type: GrantFiled: January 2, 2014Date of Patent: January 30, 2018Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.Inventors: Christian Uhle, Stefan Finauer, Patrick Gampp, Oliver Hellmuth, Peter Prokein, Christian Stoecklmeier
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Patent number: 9743215Abstract: An apparatus for generating a modified audio signal having two or more modified audio channels from an audio input signal comprising two or more audio input channels is provided. The apparatus has an information generator for generating signal-to-downmix information. The information generator is adapted to generate signal information by combining a spectral value of each of the two or more audio input channels in a first way. The information generator is adapted to generate downmix information by combining the spectral value of each of the two or more audio input channels in a second way being different from the first way. Furthermore, the information generator is adapted to combine the signal information and the downmix information to obtain signal-to-downmix information. The apparatus has a signal attenuator for attenuating the two or more audio input channels depending on the signal-to-downmix information to obtain the two or more modified audio channels.Type: GrantFiled: October 9, 2015Date of Patent: August 22, 2017Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.Inventors: Christian Uhle, Peter Prokein, Oliver Hellmuth, Sebastian Scharrer, Emanuel Habets
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Patent number: 9706296Abstract: An apparatus for improving a perceived quality of sound reproduction of an audio output signal is provided. The apparatus has an active noise cancellation unit for generating a noise cancellation signal based on an environmental audio signal, wherein the environmental audio signal has noise signal portions, the noise signal portions resulting from recording environmental noise. Moreover, the apparatus has a residual noise characteristics estimator for determining a residual noise characteristic depending on the environmental noise and the noise cancellation signal. Furthermore, the apparatus has a perceptual noise compensation unit for generating a noise-compensated signal based on an audio target signal and based on the residual noise characteristic. Moreover, the apparatus has a combiner for combining the noise cancellation signal and the noise-compensated signal to obtain the audio output signal.Type: GrantFiled: September 17, 2014Date of Patent: July 11, 2017Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.Inventors: Christian Uhle, Juergen Herre, Andreas Walther, Felix Fleischmann, Patrick Gampp
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Patent number: 9672806Abstract: An apparatus for determining a measure for a perceived level of reverberation in a mix signal consisting of a direct signal component and a reverberation signal component, has a loudness model processor having a perceptual filter stage for filtering the dry signal component the reverberation signal component or the mix signal, wherein the perceptual filter stage is configured for modeling an auditory perception mechanism of an entity to obtain a filtered direct signal, a filtered reverberation signal or a filtered mix signal. The apparatus furthermore has a loudness estimator for estimating a first loudness measure using the filtered direct signal and for estimating a second loudness measure using the filtered reverberation signal or the filtered mix signal, where the filtered mix signal is derived from a superposition of the direct signal component and the reverberation signal component.Type: GrantFiled: August 31, 2013Date of Patent: June 6, 2017Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.Inventors: Christian Uhle, Jouni Paulus, Juergen Herre, Peter Prokein, Oliver Hellmuth
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Publication number: 20170133034Abstract: An apparatus for enhancing an audio signal includes a signal processor for processing the audio signal in order to reduce or eliminate transient and tonal portions of the processed signal and a decorrelator for generating a first decorrelated signal and a second decorrelated signal from the processed signal. The apparatus further includes a combiner for weightedly combining the first and the second decorrelated signal and the audio signal or a signal derived from the audio signal by coherence enhancement using time variant weighting factors and to obtain a two-channel audio signal. The apparatus further includes a controller for controlling the time variant weighting factors by analyzing the audio signal so that different portions of the audio signal are multiplied by different weighting factors and the two-channel audio signal has a time variant degree of decorrelation.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 24, 2017Publication date: May 11, 2017Inventors: Christian UHLE, Patrick GAMPP, Oliver HELLMUTH, Stefan VARGA, Sebastian SCHARRER
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Publication number: 20170011749Abstract: An audio encoder device includes an audio encoder configured for producing an encoded audio bitstream from an audio signal having consecutive audio frames; a dynamic range control encoder configured for producing an encoded dynamic range control bitstream from an dynamic range control sequence corresponding to the audio signal and having consecutive dynamic range control frames, wherein each dynamic range control frame of the dynamic range control frames has one or more nodes, wherein each node of the one or more nodes has gain information for the audio signal and time information indicating to which point in time the gain information corresponds.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 22, 2016Publication date: January 12, 2017Inventors: Fabian KUECH, Christian UHLE, Michael KRATSCHMER, Bernhard NEUGEBAUER, Michael MEIER, Stephan SCHREINER
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Patent number: 9532136Abstract: An audio mixer for mixing a plurality of audio tracks to a mixture signal has a semantic command interpreter for receiving a semantic mixing command and for deriving a plurality of mixing parameters for the plurality of audio tracks from the semantic mixing command; an audio track processor for processing the plurality of audio tracks in accordance with the plurality of mixing parameters; and an audio track combiner for combining the plurality of audio tracks processed by the audio track processor into the mixture signal. A corresponding method has: receiving a semantic mixing command; deriving a plurality of mixing parameters for the plurality of audio tracks from the semantic mixing command; processing the plurality of audio tracks in accordance with the plurality of mixing parameters; and combining the plurality of audio tracks resulting from the processing of the plurality of audio tracks to form the mixture signal.Type: GrantFiled: July 31, 2013Date of Patent: December 27, 2016Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.Inventors: Christian Uhle, Juergen Herre, Harald Popp, Falko Ridderbusch
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Publication number: 20160240204Abstract: The invention provides a concept for combined dynamic range compression and guided clipping prevention for audio devices. An audio decoder for decoding an audio bitstream and a metadata bitstream related to the audio bitstream according to the concept includes an audio processing chain including a plurality of adjustment stages including a dynamic range control stage for adjusting a dynamic range of the audio output signal and a guided clipping prevention stage for preventing clipping of the audio output signal; and a metadata decoder configured to receive the metadata bitstream and to extract dynamic range control gain sequences and guided clipping prevention gain sequences from the metadata bitstream, at least a part of the dynamic range control gain sequences being supplied to the dynamic range control stage, and at least a part of the guided clipping prevention gain sequences being supplied to the guided clipping prevention stage.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 22, 2016Publication date: August 18, 2016Inventors: Fabian KUECH, Christian UHLE, Michael KRATSCHMER, Bernhard NEUGEBAUER, Michael MEIER, Arne BORSUM
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Publication number: 20160037283Abstract: An apparatus for generating a modified audio signal having two or more modified audio channels from an audio input signal comprising two or more audio input channels is provided. The apparatus has an information generator for generating signal-to-downmix information. The information generator is adapted to generate signal information by combining a spectral value of each of the two or more audio input channels in a first way. The information generator is adapted to generate downmix information by combining the spectral value of each of the two or more audio input channels in a second way being different from the first way. Furthermore, the information generator is adapted to combine the signal information and the downmix information to obtain signal-to-downmix information. The apparatus has a signal attenuator for attenuating the two or more audio input channels depending on the signal-to-downmix information to obtain the two or more modified audio channels.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 9, 2015Publication date: February 4, 2016Inventors: Christian Uhle, Peter Prokein, Oliver Hellmuth, Sebastian Scharrer, Emanuel Habets
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Publication number: 20150380002Abstract: An apparatus for generating one or more audio output channel signals depending on two or more audio input channel signals is provided. Each of the two or more audio input channel signals comprises direct signal portions and ambient signal portions. The apparatus comprises a filter determination unit for determining a filter by estimating first power spectral density information and by estimating second power spectral density information. Moreover, the apparatus comprises a signal processor for generating the one or more audio output channel signals by applying the filter on the two or more audio input channel signals. The first power spectral density information indicates power spectral density information on the two or more audio input channel signals, and the second power spectral density information indicates power spectral density information on the ambient signal portions of the two or more audio input channel signals.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 4, 2015Publication date: December 31, 2015Inventors: Christian UHLE, Emanuel HABETS, Patrick GAMPP, Michael KRATZ
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Patent number: 9064498Abstract: An apparatus for processing an audio signal to obtain control information for a speech enhancement filter has a feature extractor for extracting at least one feature per frequency band of a plurality of frequency bands of a short-time spectral representation of a plurality of short-time spectral representations, where the at least one feature represents a spectral shape of the short-time spectral representation in the frequency band. The apparatus additionally has a feature combiner for combining the at least one feature for each frequency band using combination parameters to obtain the control information for the speech enhancement filter for a time portion of the audio signal. The feature combiner can use a neural network regression method, which is based on combination parameters determined in a training phase for the neural network.Type: GrantFiled: February 2, 2011Date of Patent: June 23, 2015Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.Inventors: Christian Uhle, Oliver Hellmuth, Bernhard Grill, Falko Ridderbusch
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Publication number: 20150003625Abstract: An apparatus for improving a perceived quality of sound reproduction of an audio output signal is provided. The apparatus has an active noise cancellation unit for generating a noise cancellation signal based on an environmental audio signal, wherein the environmental audio signal has noise signal portions, the noise signal portions resulting from recording environmental noise. Moreover, the apparatus has a residual noise characteristics estimator for determining a residual noise characteristic depending on the environmental noise and the noise cancellation signal. Furthermore, the apparatus has a perceptual noise compensation unit for generating a noise-compensated signal based on an audio target signal and based on the residual noise characteristic. Moreover, the apparatus has a combiner for combining the noise cancellation signal and the noise-compensated signal to obtain the audio output signal.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 17, 2014Publication date: January 1, 2015Inventors: Christian UHLE, Juergen HERRE, Andreas WALTHER, Felix FLEISCHMANN, Patrick GAMPP
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Patent number: 8812308Abstract: An apparatus for modifying an input audio signal has an excitation determiner, a storage device and a signal modifier. The excitation determiner determines a value of an excitation parameter of a subband of a plurality of subbands of the input audio signal based on an energy content of the subband. Further, the storage device stores a lookup table containing a plurality of spectral weighting factors. A spectral weighting factor of the plurality of spectral weighting factors is associated to a predefined value of the excitation parameter and a subband of the plurality of subbands. The storage device provides a spectral weighting factor corresponding to the determined value of the excitation parameter and corresponding to the subband, the value of the excitation parameter is determined for. Further, the signal modifier modifies a content of the subband of the audio signal, the value of the excitation parameter is determined for, based on the provided spectral weighting factor to provide a modified subband.Type: GrantFiled: October 18, 2012Date of Patent: August 19, 2014Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.Inventors: Christian Uhle, Juergen Herre, Oliver Hellmuth, Stefan Finauer
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Patent number: 8731209Abstract: In order to generate a multi-channel signal having a number of output channels greater than a number of input channels, a mixer is used for upmixing the input signal to form at least a direct channel signal and at least an ambience channel signal. A speech detector is provided for detecting a section of the input signal, the direct channel signal or the ambience channel signal in which speech portions occur. Based on this detection, a signal modifier modifies the input signal or the ambience channel signal in order to attenuate speech portions in the ambience channel signal, whereas such speech portions in the direct channel signal are attenuated to a lesser extent or not at all. A loudspeaker signal outputter then maps the direct channel signals and the ambience channel signals to loudspeaker signals which are associated to a defined reproduction scheme, such as, for example, a 5.1 scheme.Type: GrantFiled: October 1, 2008Date of Patent: May 20, 2014Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.Inventors: Christian Uhle, Oliver Hellmuth, Juergen Herre, Harald Popp, Thorsten Kastner
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Publication number: 20140119545Abstract: An apparatus for generating a stereo side signal having a first side channel and a second side channel from a stereo input signal having a first input channel and a second input channel is provided. The apparatus has a modification information generator for generating modification information based on mid-side information. Furthermore, the apparatus has a signal manipulator being adapted to manipulate the first input channel based on the modification information to obtain the first side channel and being adapted to manipulate the second input channel based on the modification information to obtain the second side channel. The modification information generator has a spectral weights generator for generating the modification information by generating a first spectral weighting factor based on a mono mid signal and on a mono side signal of the stereo input signal.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 2, 2014Publication date: May 1, 2014Inventors: Christian UHLE, Stefan FINAUER, Patrick GAMPP, Oliver HELLMUTH, Peter PROKEIN, Christian STOECKLMEIER
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Publication number: 20140072124Abstract: An apparatus for generating a stereo output signal includes a manipulation information generator being adapted to generate manipulation information depending on a first signal indication value of a first input channel and on a second signal indication value of a second input channel, and a manipulator for manipulating a combination signal based on the manipulation information to obtain a first manipulated signal as a first output channel and a second manipulated signal as a second output channel. The combination signal is a signal derived by combining the first input channel and the second input channel. Furthermore, the manipulator is configured for manipulating the combination signal in a first manner, when the first signal indication value is in a first relation to the second signal indication value, or in a different second manner, when the first signal indication value is in a different second relation to the second signal indication value.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 12, 2013Publication date: March 13, 2014Inventors: Christian STOECKLMEIER, Stefan FINAUER, Christian UHLE, Peter PROKEIN, Oliver HELLMUTH, Ulrik HEISE
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Publication number: 20140072126Abstract: An apparatus for determining a measure for a perceived level of reverberation in a mix signal consisting of a direct signal component and a reverberation signal component, has a loudness model processor having a perceptual filter stage for filtering the dry signal component the reverberation signal component or the mix signal, wherein the perceptual filter stage is configured for modeling an auditory perception mechanism of an entity to obtain a filtered direct signal, a filtered reverberation signal or a filtered mix signal. The apparatus furthermore has a loudness estimator for estimating a first loudness measure using the filtered direct signal and for estimating a second loudness measure using the filtered reverberation signal or the filtered mix signal, where the filtered mix signal is derived from a superposition of the direct signal component and the reverberation signal component.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 31, 2013Publication date: March 13, 2014Inventors: Christian UHLE, Jouni PAULUS, Juergen HERRE, Peter PROKEIN, Oliver HELLMUTH
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Publication number: 20140037111Abstract: An audio mixer for mixing a plurality of audio tracks to a mixture signal has a semantic command interpreter for receiving a semantic mixing command and for deriving a plurality of mixing parameters for the plurality of audio tracks from the semantic mixing command; an audio track processor for processing the plurality of audio tracks in accordance with the plurality of mixing parameters; and an audio track combiner for combining the plurality of audio tracks processed by the audio track processor into the mixture signal. A corresponding method has: receiving a semantic mixing command; deriving a plurality of mixing parameters for the plurality of audio tracks from the semantic mixing command; processing the plurality of audio tracks in accordance with the plurality of mixing parameters; and combining the plurality of audio tracks resulting from the processing of the plurality of audio tracks to form the mixture signal.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 31, 2013Publication date: February 6, 2014Applicant: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.Inventors: Christian UHLE, Juergen HERRE, Harald POPP, Falko RIDDERBUSCH
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Patent number: 8588427Abstract: An apparatus for extracting an ambient signal from an input audio signal comprises a gain-value determinator configured to determine a sequence of time-varying ambient signal gain values for a given frequency band of the time-frequency distribution of the input audio signal in dependence on the input audio signal. The apparatus comprises a weighter configured to weight one of the sub-band signals representing the given frequency band of the time-frequency-domain representation with the time-varying gain values, to obtain a weighted sub-band signal. The gain-value determinator is configured to obtain one or more quantitative feature-values describing one or more features of the input audio signal and to provide the gain-value as a function of the one or more quantitative feature values such that the gain values are quantitatively dependent on the quantitative values.Type: GrantFiled: March 26, 2008Date of Patent: November 19, 2013Assignee: Frauhnhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V.Inventors: Christian Uhle, Juergen Herre, Stefan Geyersberger, Falko Ridderbusch, Andreas Walter, Oliver Moser