With Encoder Patents (Class 381/23)
  • Patent number: 11900952
    Abstract: An audio encoding and decoding method and a related apparatus are provided. The audio encoding method includes: determining a channel combination scheme for a current frame; when the channel combination scheme for the current frame is different from a channel combination scheme for a previous frame, performing segmented time-domain downmix processing on left and right channel signals in the current frame based on the channel combination scheme for the current frame and the channel combination scheme for the previous frame, to obtain a primary channel signal and a secondary channel signal in the current frame; and encoding the obtained primary channel signal and secondary channel signal in the current frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Bin Wang, Haiting Li, Lei Miao
  • Patent number: 11887610
    Abstract: An audio decoding method includes obtaining an encoded bitstream; performing bitstream demultiplexing on the encoded bitstream, to obtain a high frequency band parameter of a current frame of an audio signal, wherein the high frequency band parameter indicates a location, a quantity, and an amplitude or energy of a tone component comprised in a high frequency band signal of the current frame; obtaining a reconstructed high frequency band signal of the current frame based on the high frequency band parameter; and obtaining an audio output signal of the current frame based on the reconstructed high frequency band signal of the current frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2024
    Assignee: HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Bingyin Xia, Jiawei Li, Zhe Wang
  • Patent number: 11869523
    Abstract: Higher Order Ambisonics represents three-dimensional sound independent of a specific loudspeaker set-up. However, transmission of an HOA representation results in a very high bit rate. Therefore compression with a fixed number of channels is used, in which directional and ambient signal components are processed differently. For coding, portions of the original HOA representation are predicted from the directional signal components. This prediction provides side information which is required for a corresponding decoding. By using some additional specific purpose bits, a known side information coding processing is improved in that the required number of bits for coding that side information is reduced on average.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2024
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Sven Kordon, Alexander Krueger, Oliver Wuebbolt
  • Patent number: 11869517
    Abstract: This application discloses a downmixed signal calculation method and apparatus. The method includes: when a current frame or a previous frame of the current frame of a stereo signal is not a switching frame and a residual signal in the current frame or the previous frame does not need to be encoded, obtaining a second downmixed signal in the current frame and a downmix compensation factor of the current frame, correcting the second downmixed signal in the current frame based on the downmix compensation factor of the current frame, to obtain the first downmixed signal in the current frame and determining the first downmixed signal in the current frame as a downmixed signal in the current frame in a preset frequency band.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2024
    Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Haiting Li, Zexin Liu, Bin Wang
  • Patent number: 11856389
    Abstract: An apparatus for generating a sound field description from an input signal having at least two channels has: an input signal analyzer for obtaining direction data and diffuseness data from the input signal; an estimator for estimating a first energy- or amplitude-related measure for an omnidirectional component derived from the input signal and for estimating a second energy- or amplitude-related measure for a directional component derived from the input signal, and a sound component generator for generating sound field components of the sound field, wherein the sound component generator is configured to perform an energy compensation of the directional component using the first energy- or amplitude-related measure, the second energy- or amplitude-related measure, the direction data and the diffuseness data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FÖRDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.
    Inventors: Guillaume Fuchs, Oliver Thiergart, Srikanth Korse, Stefan Döhla, Markus Multrus, Fabian Küch, Alexandre Bouthéon, Andrea Eichenseer, Stefan Bayer
  • Patent number: 11838738
    Abstract: A method for performing DRC on a HOA signal comprises transforming the HOA signal to the spatial domain, analyzing the transformed HOA signal, and obtaining, from results of said analyzing, gain factors that are usable for dynamic compression. The gain factors can be transmitted together with the HOA signal. When applying the DRC, the HOA signal is transformed to the spatial domain, the gain factors are extracted and multiplied with the transformed HOA signal in the spatial domain, wherein a gain compensated transformed HOA signal is obtained. The gain compensated transformed HOA signal is transformed back into the HOA domain, wherein a gain compensated HOA signal is obtained. The DRC may be applied in the QMF-filter bank domain.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Johannes Boehm, Florian Keiler
  • Patent number: 11802894
    Abstract: In one embodiment, an apparatus includes: a sensor to sense real world information; a digitizer coupled to the sensor to digitize the real world information into digitized information; a signal processor coupled to the digitizer to process the digitized information into a spectrogram; a neural engine coupled to the signal processor, the neural engine comprising an autoencoder to compress the spectrogram into a compressed spectrogram; and a wireless circuit coupled to the neural engine to send the compressed spectrogram to a remote destination, to enable the remote destination to process the compressed spectrogram.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2023
    Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventors: Antonio Torrini, Javier Elenes
  • Patent number: 11741973
    Abstract: A schematic block diagram of an audio encoder for encoding a multichannel audio signal is shown. The audio encoder includes a linear prediction domain encoder, a frequency domain encoder, and a controller for switching between the linear prediction domain encoder and the frequency domain encoder. The controller is configured such that a portion of the multichannel signal is represented either by an encoded frame of the linear prediction domain encoder or by an encoded frame of the frequency domain encoder. The linear prediction domain encoder includes a downmixer for downmixing the multichannel signal to obtain a downmixed signal. The linear prediction domain encoder further includes a linear prediction domain core encoder for encoding the downmix signal and furthermore, the linear prediction domain encoder includes a first joint multichannel encoder for generating first multichannel information from the multichannel signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Sascha Disch, Guillaume Fuchs, Emmanuel Ravelli, Christian Neukam, Konstantin Schmidt, Conrad Benndorf, Andreas Niedermeier, Benjamin Schubert, Ralf Geiger
  • Patent number: 11736890
    Abstract: Diffuse or spatially large audio objects may be identified for special processing. A decorrelation process may be performed on audio signals corresponding to the large audio objects to produce decorrelated large audio object audio signals. These decorrelated large audio object audio signals may be associated with object locations, which may be stationary or time-varying locations. For example, the decorrelated large audio object audio signals may be rendered to virtual or actual speaker locations. The output of such a rendering process may be input to a scene simplification process. The decorrelation, associating and/or scene simplification processes may be performed prior to a process of encoding the audio data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2023
    Assignees: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation, DOLBY INTERNATIONAL AB
    Inventors: Dirk Jeroen Breebaart, Lie Lu, Nicolas R. Tsingos, Antonio Mateos Sole
  • Patent number: 11727944
    Abstract: An apparatus for decoding an encoded multichannel signal of a current frame to obtain three or more current audio output channels is provided. A multichannel processor is adapted to select two decoded channels from three or more decoded channels depending on first multichannel parameters. Moreover, the multichannel processor is adapted to generate a first group of two or more processed channels based on the selected channels. A noise filling module is adapted to identify for at least one of the selected channels, one or more frequency bands, within which all spectral lines are quantized to zero, and to generate a mixing channel using, depending on side information, a proper subset of three or more previous audio output channels that have been decoded, and to fill the spectral lines of frequency bands, within which all spectral lines are quantized to zero, with noise generated using spectral lines of the mixing channel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2023
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Sascha Dick, Christian Helmrich, Nikolaus Rettelbach, Florian Schuh, Richard Fueg, Frederik Nagel
  • Patent number: 11721355
    Abstract: A first device obtains, from the array, several audio signals and processes the audio signals to produce a speech signal and one or more ambient signals. The first device processes the ambient signals to produce a sound-object sonic descriptor that has metadata describing a sound object within an acoustic environment. The first device transmits, over a communication data link, the speech signal and the descriptor to a second electronic device that is configured to spatially reproduce the sound object using the descriptor mixed with the speech signal, to produce several mixed signals to drive several speakers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher T. Eubank, Lance Jabr, Matthew S. Connolly, Robert D. Silfvast, Sean A. Ramprashad, Carlos Avendano, Miquel Espi Marques
  • Patent number: 11722830
    Abstract: A method for compressing a HOA signal being an input HOA representation with input time frames (C(k)) of HOA coefficient sequences comprises spatial HOA encoding of the input time frames and subsequent perceptual encoding and source encoding. Each input time frame is decomposed (802) into a frame of predominant sound signals (XPS(k?1)) and a frame of an ambient HOA component ({tilde over (C)}AMB(k?1)). The ambient HOA component ({tilde over (C)}AMB(k?1)) comprises, in a layered mode, first HOA coefficient sequences of the input HOA representation (cn(k?1)) in lower positions and second HOA coefficient sequences (cAMB,n(k?1)) in remaining higher positions. The second HOA coefficient sequences are part of an HOA representation of a residual between the input HOA representation and the HOA representation of the predominant sound signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2023
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Sven Kordon, Alexander Krueger, Oliver Wuebbolt
  • Patent number: 11705142
    Abstract: A spectrum encoding method includes selecting an important spectral component in band units for a normalized spectrum and encoding information of the selected important spectral component for a band, based on a number, a position, a magnitude and a sign thereof. A spectrum decoding method includes obtaining from a bitstream, information about an important spectral component for a band of an encoded spectrum and decoding the obtained information of the important spectral component, based on a number, a position, a magnitude and a sign of the important spectral component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2023
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONIC CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Ho-sang Sung
  • Patent number: 11682407
    Abstract: The following coding scenario is addressed: A number of audio source signals need to be transmitted or stored for the purpose of mixing wave field synthesis, multi-channel surround, or stereo signals after decoding the source signals. The proposed technique offers significant coding gain when jointly coding the source signals, compared to separately coding them, even when no redundancy is present between the source signals. This is possible by considering statistical properties of the source signals, the properties of mixing techniques, and spatial hearing. The sum of the source signals is transmitted plus the statistical properties of the source signals, which mostly determine the perceptually important spatial cues of the final mixed audio channels. Source signals are recovered at the receiver such that their statistical properties approximate the corresponding properties of the original source signals. Subjective evaluations indicate that high audio quality is achieved by the proposed scheme.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2023
    Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.
    Inventor: Christof Faller
  • Patent number: 11636866
    Abstract: A device includes a memory configured to store untransformed ambisonic coefficients at different time segments. The device also includes one or more processors configured to obtain the untransformed ambisonic coefficients at the different time segments, where the untransformed ambisonic coefficients at the different time segments represent a soundfield at the different time segments. The one or more processors are also configured to apply one adaptive network, based on a constraint, to the untransformed ambisonic coefficients at the different time segments to generate transformed ambisonic coefficients at the different time segments, wherein the transformed ambisonic coefficients at the different time segments represent a modified soundfield at the different time segments, that was modified based on the constraint.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2023
    Assignee: Qualcomm Incorporated
    Inventors: Lae-Hoon Kim, Shankar Thagadur Shivappa, S M Akramus Salehin, Shuhua Zhang, Erik Visser
  • Patent number: 11621007
    Abstract: The following coding scenario is addressed: A number of audio source signals need to be transmitted or stored for the purpose of mixing wave field synthesis, multi-channel surround, or stereo signals after decoding the source signals. The proposed technique offers significant coding gain when jointly coding the source signals, compared to separately coding them, even when no redundancy is present between the source signals. This is possible by considering statistical properties of the source signals, the properties of mixing techniques, and spatial hearing. The sum of the source signals is transmitted plus the statistical properties of the source signals, which mostly determine the perceptually important spatial cues of the final mixed audio channels. Source signals are recovered at the receiver such that their statistical properties approximate the corresponding properties of the original source signals. Subjective evaluations indicate that high audio quality is achieved by the proposed scheme.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2023
    Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.
    Inventor: Christof Faller
  • Patent number: 11621006
    Abstract: The following coding scenario is addressed: A number of audio source signals need to be transmitted or stored for the purpose of mixing wave field synthesis, multi-channel surround, or stereo signals after decoding the source signals. The proposed technique offers significant coding gain when jointly coding the source signals, compared to separately coding them, even when no redundancy is present between the source signals. This is possible by considering statistical properties of the source signals, the properties of mixing techniques, and spatial hearing. The sum of the source signals is transmitted plus the statistical properties of the source signals, which mostly determine the perceptually important spatial cues of the final mixed audio channels. Source signals are recovered at the receiver such that their statistical properties approximate the corresponding properties of the original source signals. Subjective evaluations indicate that high audio quality is achieved by the proposed scheme.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2023
    Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.
    Inventor: Christof Faller
  • Patent number: 11621005
    Abstract: The following coding scenario is addressed: A number of audio source signals need to be transmitted or stored for the purpose of mixing wave field synthesis, multi-channel surround, or stereo signals after decoding the source signals. The proposed technique offers significant coding gain when jointly coding the source signals, compared to separately coding them, even when no redundancy is present between the source signals. This is possible by considering statistical properties of the source signals, the properties of mixing techniques, and spatial hearing. The sum of the source signals is transmitted plus the statistical properties of the source signals, which mostly determine the perceptually important spatial cues of the final mixed audio channels. Source signals are recovered at the receiver such that their statistical properties approximate the corresponding properties of the original source signals. Subjective evaluations indicate that high audio quality is achieved by the proposed scheme.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2023
    Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.
    Inventor: Christof Faller
  • Patent number: 11595056
    Abstract: The present technology relates to an encoding device and method, a decoding device and method, and a program, which are adapted to be capable of improving convenience. The decoding device is provided with: a decoding unit that decodes audio data including an object audio, the audio data being included in an encoded bit stream, and reads metadata of the object audio from an area in which arbitrary data of the encoded bit stream can be stored; and an output unit that outputs the decoded audio data on the basis of the metadata. The present technology can be applied to the decoding device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2023
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Mitsuyuki Hatanaka, Toru Chinen
  • Patent number: 11564038
    Abstract: An audio system includes an equatorial acoustic sensor array (EASA) that may be coupled to an object. The audio system is configured to detect, via the EASA, signals corresponding to a portion of a sound field in a local area. The detected signals are converted into a plurality of corresponding abstract representations that describe the portion of the sound field. Effects of scattering of the object are removed from the abstract representations to create adjusted abstract representations. A set of spherical harmonic (SH) coefficients is determined using the adjusted abstract representations. The set of SH coefficients describe an entirety of the sound field. And the set of SH coefficients and head related transfer functions of a user are used for binaural rendering of the reconstructed sound field to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2023
    Assignee: Meta Platforms Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Jens Ahrens, Hannes Helmholz, David Lou Alon, Sebastià Vicenç Amengual Garí
  • Patent number: 11564050
    Abstract: An audio output apparatus is disclosed. The audio output apparatus that outputs a multi-channel audio signal through a plurality of speakers disposed at different locations, the audio output apparatus includes an input interface, and a processor configured to, based on the multi-channel audio signal input through the inputter being received, obtain scene information on a type of audio included in the multi-channel audio signal and sound image angle information about an angle formed by sound image of the type of audio included in the multi-channel audio signal based on a virtual user, and generate an output signal to be output through the plurality of speakers from the multi-channel audio signal based on the obtained scene information and sound image angle information, wherein the type of audio includes at least one of sound effect, shouting sound, music, and voice, and a number of the plurality of speakers is equal to or greater than a number of channels of the multi-channel audio signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2023
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Inwoo Hwang, Sunmin Kim, Kibeom Kim
  • Patent number: 11533575
    Abstract: Audio content coded for a reference speaker configuration is downmixed to downmix audio content coded for a specific speaker configuration. One or more gain adjustments are performed on individual portions of the downmix audio content coded for the specific speaker configuration. Loudness measurements are then performed on the individual portions of the downmix audio content. An audio signal that comprises the audio content coded for the reference speaker configuration and downmix loudness metadata is generated. The downmix loudness metadata is created based at least in part on the loudness measurements on the individual portions of the downmix audio content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2022
    Assignees: DOLBY LABORATORIES LICENSING CORPORATION, DOLBY INTERNATIONAL AB
    Inventors: Michael C Ward, Jeffrey Riedmiller, Scott Gregory Norcross, Alexander Stahlmann
  • Patent number: 11527252
    Abstract: The invention refers to audio encoders, audio decoders, and audio encoding methods and audio decoding methods. In some examples, the invention refers to improved stereo coding. An encoder provides an encoded representation of an audio signal. The encoder applies a spectral whitening to a separate-channel representation of the input audio signal, to obtain a whitened separate-channel representation of the signal. The audio encoder applies a spectral whitening to a mid-side representation of the signal, to obtain a whitened mid-side representation of the signal. The audio encoder decides whether to encode the whitened separate-channel representation of the signal, to obtain the encoded representation of the signal, or to encode the whitened mid-side representation of the signal, to obtain the encoded representation of the signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2022
    Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FÖRDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.
    Inventors: Goran Markovic, Sascha Dick, Eleni Fotopoulou, Stefan Bayer
  • Patent number: 11527253
    Abstract: In a stereo encoding method, a channel combination encoding solution of a current frame is first obtained, and then a quantized channel combination ratio factor of the current frame and an encoding index of the quantized channel combination ratio factor are obtained based on the obtained channel combination encoding solution, so that an obtained primary channel signal and secondary channel signal of the current frame meet a characteristic of the current frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2022
    Assignee: HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Bin Wang, Haiting Li, Lei Miao
  • Patent number: 11523239
    Abstract: A display apparatus and a method for processing audio are provided, the display apparatus includes a circuit board provided with a hybrid circuit, a filter circuit and a speaker; the hybrid circuit is configured to receive an original audio signal and superpose a first sub-signal of the original audio signal on a second sub-signal of the original audio signal to obtain a hybrid audio signal; the first sub-signal includes at least one channel of audio signal, the second sub-signal includes at least two channels of audio signal; the filter circuit is configured to filter the hybrid audio signal according to a frequency characteristic of the first sub-signal and the second sub-signal to obtain a restored original audio signal; and the speaker, connected with the filter circuit, is configured to output the restored original audio signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2022
    Assignee: HISENSE VISUAL TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Weicai Huang, Jianxin Yang, Chan Zhang
  • Patent number: 11501789
    Abstract: A system for producing an encoded digital audio recording has an audio encoder that encodes a digital audio recording having a number of audio channels or audio objects. An equalization (EQ) value generator produces a sequence of EQ values which define EQ filtering that is to be applied when decoding the encoded digital audio recording, wherein the EQ filtering is to be applied to a group of one or more of the audio channels or audio objects of the recording independent of any downmix. A bitstream multiplexer combines the encoded digital audio recording with the sequence of EQ values, the latter as metadata associated with the encoded digital audio recording. Other embodiments are also described including a system for decoding the encoded audio recording.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventor: Frank Baumgarte
  • Patent number: 11495239
    Abstract: The following coding scenario is addressed: A number of audio source signals need to be transmitted or stored for the purpose of mixing wave field synthesis, multi-channel surround, or stereo signals after decoding the source signals. The proposed technique offers significant coding gain when jointly coding the source signals, compared to separately coding them, even when no redundancy is present between the source signals. This is possible by considering statistical properties of the source signals, the properties of mixing techniques, and spatial hearing. The sum of the source signals is transmitted plus the statistical properties of the source signals, which mostly determine the perceptually important spatial cues of the final mixed audio channels. Source signals are recovered at the receiver such that their statistical properties approximate the corresponding properties of the original source signals. Subjective evaluations indicate that high audio quality is achieved by the proposed scheme.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.
    Inventor: Christof Faller
  • Patent number: 11488614
    Abstract: Higher Order Ambisonics represents three-dimensional sound independent of a specific loudspeaker set-up. However, transmission of an HOA representation results in a very high bit rate. Therefore compression with a fixed number of channels is used, in which directional and ambient signal components are processed differently. For coding, portions of the original HOA representation are predicted from the directional signal components. This prediction provides side information which is required for a corresponding decoding. By using some additional specific purpose bits, a known side information coding processing is improved in that the required number of bits for coding that side information is reduced on average.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2022
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Sven Kordon, Alexander Krueger, Oliver Wuebbolt
  • Patent number: 11470438
    Abstract: An audio signal processor for providing ambient signal channels on the basis of an input audio signal, is configured to extract an ambient signal on the basis of the input audio signal. The signal processor is configured to distribute the ambient signal to a plurality of ambient signal channels in dependence on positions or directions of sound sources within the input audio signal, wherein a number of ambient signal channels is larger than a number of channels of the input audio signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2022
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Christian Uhle, Oliver Hellmuth, Julia Havenstein, Timothy Leonard, Matthias Lang, Marc Hoepfel, Peter Prokein
  • Patent number: 11432092
    Abstract: A method for processing a sound signal including synchronously acquiring an input sound signal Sinput by means of at least two omnidirectional microphones, encoding the input sound signal Sentréeinput in a sound data D format of the ambisonics type of order R, R being a natural number greater than or equal to one, the encoding step including a directivity optimisation sub-step carried out by means of filters of the Finite Impulse Response filter type. Each of the signals acquired by the microphones is filtered during the directivity optimisation sub-step by a FIR filter, then subtracted from an unfiltered version of each of the other signals in order to obtain N enhanced signals. The present invention also relates to a system for processing the sound signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2022
    Inventor: Frédéric Amadu
  • Patent number: 11381925
    Abstract: A multi-channel decorrelator for providing a plurality of decorrelated signals on the basis of a plurality of decorrelator input signals is configured to premix a first set of N decorrelator input signals into a second set of K decorrelator input signals, wherein K<N. The multi-channel decorrelator is configured to provide a first set of K? decorrelator output signals on the basis of the second set of K decorrelator input signals. The multi-channel decorrelator is further configured to upmix the first set of K? decorrelator output signals into a second set of N? decorrelator output signals, wherein N?>K?. The multi-channel decorrelator can be used in a multi-channel audio decoder. A multi-channel audio encoder provides complexity control information for the multi-channel decorrelator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2022
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderang der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Sascha Disch, Harald Fuchs, Oliver Hellmuth, Juergen Herre, Adrian Murtaza, Jouni Paulus, Falko Ridderbusch, Leon Terentiv
  • Patent number: 11211078
    Abstract: Higher Order Ambisonics represents three-dimensional sound independent of a specific loudspeaker set-up. However, transmission of an HOA representation results in a very high bit rate. Therefore compression with a fixed number of channels is used, in which directional and ambient signal components are processed differently. For coding, portions of the original HOA representation are predicted from the directional signal components. This prediction provides side information which is required for a corresponding decoding. By using some additional specific purpose bits, a known side information coding processing is improved in that the required number of bits for coding that side information is reduced on average.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 28, 2021
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Sven Kordon, Alexander Krueger, Oliver Wuebbolt
  • Patent number: 11127406
    Abstract: A device for processing audio signals includes an interchannel phase difference (IPD) mode selector and an IPD estimator. The IPD mode selector is configured to select an IPD mode from among at least a first IPD mode and a second IPD mode based on at least an interchannel temporal mismatch value indicative of a temporal misalignment between a first audio signal and a second audio signal. The IPD estimator is configured to determine IPD values based on the first audio signal and the second audio signal, the IPD values represented using a first number of bits responsive to selection of the first IPD mode or represented using a second number of bits responsive to selection of the second IPD mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2021
    Assignee: Qualcomm Incorproated
    Inventors: Venkata Subrahmanyam Chandra Sekhar Chebiyyam, Venkatraman Atti
  • Patent number: 11120819
    Abstract: A voice extraction device according to the present invention includes a formation unit, an acquisition unit, an emphasis unit, a generation unit, and a selection unit. The formation unit forms directivity through beam-forming processing for each microphone in a microphone array including a plurality of microphones that form a plurality of channels. The acquisition unit acquires an observation signal that is a signal of voice received by each of the channels. The emphasis unit generates an emphasized signal by emphasizing the observation signal in accordance with the directivity formed by the formation unit. The generation unit generates, for each channel, frequency distribution of amplitude of the emphasized signal generated by the emphasis unit. The selection unit selects a channel corresponding to a voice signal used for voice recognition from among the channels based on the frequency distribution corresponding to the respective channels generated by the generation unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2021
    Assignee: YAHOO JAPAN CORPORATION
    Inventor: Motoi Omachi
  • Patent number: 11114107
    Abstract: A method for decoding an encoded audio bitstream in an audio processing system is disclosed. The method includes extracting from the encoded audio bitstream a first waveform-coded signal comprising spectral coefficients corresponding to frequencies up to a first cross-over frequency for a time frame and performing parametric decoding at a second cross-over frequency for the time frame to generate a reconstructed signal. The second cross-over frequency is above the first cross-over frequency and the parametric decoding uses reconstruction parameters derived from the encoded audio bitstream to generate the reconstructed signal. The method also includes extracting from the encoded audio bitstream a second waveform-coded signal comprising spectral coefficients corresponding to a subset of frequencies above the first cross-over frequency for the time frame and interleaving the second waveform-coded signal with the reconstructed signal to produce an interleaved signal for the time frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2021
    Assignee: Dolby International AB
    Inventors: Kristofer Kjoerling, Heiko Purnhagen, Harald Mundt, Karl Jonas Roeden, Leif Sehlstrom
  • Patent number: 11102600
    Abstract: An apparatus includes a receiver and an up-mixer. The receiver is configured to receive a bitstream that includes an encoded mid signal and encoded stereo parameter information. The encoded stereo parameter information represents a first value of a stereo parameter and a second value of the stereo parameter. The first value is associated with a first frequency range. The second value is associated with a second frequency range that is distinct from the first frequency range. The up-mixer is configured to perform an up-mix operation on a frequency-domain decoded mid signal generated from the encoded mid signal. A particular value based on the first value and the second value is applied to the frequency-domain decoded mid signal during the up-mix operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2021
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Venkata Subrahmanyam Chandra Sekhar Chebiyyam, Venkatraman Atti
  • Patent number: 11064310
    Abstract: Diffuse or spatially large audio objects may be identified for special processing. A decorrelation process may be performed on audio signals corresponding to the large audio objects to produce decorrelated large audio object audio signals. These decorrelated large audio object audio signals may be associated with object locations, which may be stationary or time-varying locations. For example, the decorrelated large audio object audio signals may be rendered to virtual or actual speaker locations. The output of such a rendering process may be input to a scene simplification process. The decorrelation, associating and/or scene simplification processes may be performed prior to a process of encoding the audio data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2021
    Assignees: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation, Dolby International AB
    Inventors: Dirk Jeroen Breebaart, Lie Lu, Nicolas R. Tsingos, Antonio Mateos Sole
  • Patent number: 11062716
    Abstract: An apparatus for spatial audio signal encoding, the apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including a computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to: determine, for two or more audio signals, at least one spatial audio parameter for providing spatial audio reproduction, the at least one spatial audio parameter comprising a direction parameter with an elevation and an azimuth component; define a spherical grid generated by covering a sphere with smaller spheres, the smaller spheres arranged in circles of spheres wherein a first circle of spheres comprises one of the smaller spheres located with a centre at an elevation of 90 degrees relative to a reference direction of the sphere; and convert the elevation and azimuth component of the direction parameter to an index value based on the defined spherical grid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2021
    Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy
    Inventors: Lasse Juhani Laaksonen, Anssi Sakari Rämö, Adriana Vasilache, Mikko Tammi, Miikka Vilermo
  • Patent number: 11056122
    Abstract: An encoder and an encoding method for a multi-channel signal, and a decoder and a decoding method for a multi-channel signal are disclosed. A multi-channel signal may be efficiently processed by consecutive downmixing or upmixing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2021
    Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
    Inventors: Seung Kwon Beack, Tae Jin Lee, Jong Mo Sung, Jeong Il Seo, Kyeong Ok Kang, Dae Young Jang, Jin Woong Kim
  • Patent number: 11037578
    Abstract: An encoder and an encoding method for a multi-channel signal, and a decoder and a decoding method for a multi-channel signal are disclosed. A multi-channel signal may be efficiently processed by consecutive downmixing or upmixing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2021
    Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
    Inventors: Seung Kwon Beack, Tae Jin Lee, Jong Mo Sung, Jeong Il Seo, Kyeong Ok Kang, Dae Young Jang, Jin Woong Kim
  • Patent number: 11017785
    Abstract: The application relates to audio encoder and decoder systems. An embodiment of the encoder system comprises a downmix stage for generating a downmix signal and a residual signal based on a stereo signal. In addition, the encoder system comprises a parameter determining stage for determining parametric stereo parameters such as an inter-channel intensity difference and an inter-channel cross-correlation. Preferably, the parametric stereo parameters are time- and frequency-variant. Moreover, the encoder system comprises a transform stage. The transform stage generates a pseudo left/right stereo signal by performing a transform based on the downmix signal and the residual signal. The pseudo stereo signal is processed by a perceptual stereo encoder. For stereo encoding, left/right encoding or mid/side encoding is selectable. Preferably, the selection between left/right stereo encoding and mid/side stereo encoding is time- and frequency-variant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2021
    Assignee: Dolby International AB
    Inventors: Heiko Purnhagen, Pontus Carlsson, Kristofer Kjoerling
  • Patent number: 10993062
    Abstract: Audio content coded for a reference speaker configuration is downmixed to downmix audio content coded for a specific speaker configuration. One or more gain adjustments are performed on individual portions of the downmix audio content coded for the specific speaker configuration. Loudness measurements are then performed on the individual portions of the downmix audio content. An audio signal that comprises the audio content coded for the reference speaker configuration and downmix loudness metadata is generated. The downmix loudness metadata is created based at least in part on the loudness measurements on the individual portions of the downmix audio content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2021
    Assignees: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation, Dolby International AB
    Inventors: Michael Ward, Jeffrey Riedmiller, Scott Gregory Norcross, Alexander Stahlmann
  • Patent number: 10992727
    Abstract: It is possible to perform favorable content reproduction on a reception side. An encoded stream including a plurality of pieces of encoded data having degree-of-priority information is acquired. Among the plurality of pieces of encoded data, decoding processing is performed with respect to a piece of encoded data having a predetermined or more degree of priority, and a decoded stream including decoded data is generated. Further, among the plurality of pieces of encoded data, an encoded stream including a piece of encoded data having less than the predetermined degree of priority is generated. The decoded stream and the encoded stream are simultaneously transmitted as a partially decoded stream to the reception side via a digital interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2021
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kazuaki Toba, Gen Ichimura, Satoshi Miyazaki
  • Patent number: 10986456
    Abstract: In general, techniques are described by which to perform spatial relation coding using virtual higher order ambisonic coefficients. A device comprising a memory and a processor may perform the techniques. The memory may be configured to store audio data, the audio data representative of zero-ordered higher order ambisonic (HOA) coefficient, and one or more greater-than-zero-ordered HOA coefficients. The processor may be configured to obtain, based on the one or more greater-than-zero-ordered HOA coefficients, a virtual zero-ordered HOA coefficient. The processor may also be configured to obtain, based on the virtual HOA coefficient, one or more parameters from which to synthesize the one or more greater-than-zero-ordered HOA coefficients. The processor may further be configured to generate a bitstream that includes a first indication representative of the zero-ordered HOA coefficients, and a second indication representative of the one or more parameters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2021
    Assignee: Qualcomm Incorporated
    Inventors: Jeongook Song, Dipanjan Sen
  • Patent number: 10972851
    Abstract: In general, techniques are described by which to perform spatial relation coding of higher order ambisonic coefficients using expanded parameters. A device comprising a memory and a processor may perform the techniques. The memory may be configured to store at least a portion of a bitstream, the bitstream including a first indication representative of an HOA coefficient associated with the spherical basis function having an order of zero, and a second indication representative of one or more parameters. The processor may be configured to perform parameter expansion with respect to the one or more parameters to obtain one or more expanded parameters, and synthesize, based on the one or more expanded parameters and the HOA coefficient associated with the spherical basis function having the order of zero, one or more HOA coefficients associated with one or more spherical basis functions having an order greater than zero.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2021
    Assignee: Qualcomm Incorporated
    Inventors: Jeongook Song, Dipanjan Sen
  • Patent number: 10904592
    Abstract: This is provided to achieve capability of avoiding hindrance of accurate reflection of intention at the time of production due to execution of frame interpolation on the reception side. A predetermined container including a video stream obtained by performing encoding operation on moving image data of a predetermined frame rate is transmitted. Information for restricting frame interpolation is inserted into one or both of a layer of the container and a layer of the video stream. For example, the information for restricting frame interpolation includes information for prohibiting frame interpolation. Moreover, for example, the information for restricting frame interpolation includes information indicating the number of times of frame repeats.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2021
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventor: Ikuo Tsukagoshi
  • Patent number: 10862941
    Abstract: To enable, on a receiving side, processing obtaining predetermined information to be performed easily and appropriately in a case the predetermined information is divided into a predetermined number of audio frames and transmitted. The predetermined information is inserted into an audio compressed data stream. The audio compressed data stream into which the predetermined information is inserted is transmitted. It is possible to insert each of the pieces of divided information obtained by dividing the predetermined information into the predetermined number of audio frames of the audio compressed data stream. Information indicating the overall size of the predetermined information is added to a first piece of divided information. It is possible to ensure space for storing the predetermined information in a storage medium on the basis of the information indicating the overall size of the predetermined information at a time point where the first piece of divided information is obtained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2020
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ikuo Tsukagoshi, Toru Chinen
  • Patent number: 10841721
    Abstract: There are two representations for Higher Order Ambisonics denoted HOA: spatial domain and coefficient domain. The invention generates from a coefficient domain representation a mixed spatial/coefficient domain representation, wherein the number of said HOA signals can be variable. An aspect of the invention further relates to methods and apparatus decoding multiplexed and perceptually encoded HOA signals, including transforming a vector of PCM encoded spatial domain signals of the HOA representation to a corresponding vector of coefficient domain signals by multiplying the vector of PCM encoded spatial domain signals with a transform matrix and de-normalizing the vector of PCM encoded and normalized coefficient domain signals, wherein said de-normalizing comprises.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2020
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Sven Kordon, Alexander Krueger
  • Patent number: 10783893
    Abstract: An encoder and an encoding method for a multi-channel signal, and a decoder and a decoding method for a multi-channel signal are disclosed. A multi-channel signal may be efficiently processed by consecutive downmixing or upmixing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2020
    Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
    Inventors: Seung Kwon Beack, Tae Jin Lee, Jong Mo Sung, Jeong Il Seo, Kyeong Ok Kang, Dae Young Jang, Jin Woong Kim
  • Patent number: 10764702
    Abstract: An audio content playback method for a portable terminal. The audio content playback method includes checking a channel that is supportable by audio content that is currently engaged in group's simultaneous playback, in group's simultaneous playback of the audio content. The method includes allocating a channel to each of devices included in a group based on position information of each device included in the group or based on an input state in a user interface environment that is preset for channel allocation for each device included in the group, and transmitting the allocated channel information to each device included in the group to allow the device to select its allocated channel and play the audio content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2020
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Jung-Mi Lee, Kyu-Ok Choi, Ji-Hyun Um