Patents by Inventor Christof Faller
Christof Faller 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: 10178491Abstract: The disclosure relates to an apparatus for manipulating an input audio signal associated to a spatial audio source within a spatial audio scenario, wherein the spatial audio source has a certain distance to a listener within the spatial audio scenario. The apparatus comprises an exciter adapted to manipulate the input audio signal to obtain an output audio signal, and a controller adapted to control parameters of the exciter for manipulating the input audio signal based on the certain distance.Type: GrantFiled: January 20, 2017Date of Patent: January 8, 2019Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.Inventors: Christof Faller, Alexis Favrot, Liyun Pang, Peter Grosche, Yue Lang
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Patent number: 10154345Abstract: A microphone arrangement and a method using the microphone arrangement for recording surround sound in a mobile device, where the microphone arrangement comprises a first and a second microphone and arranged at a first distance to each other and configured to obtain a stereo signal, and comprises a third microphone configured to obtain a steering signal together with at least one of the first and second microphone or with a fourth microphone. The microphone arrangement also comprises a processor configured to separate the stereo signal into a front stereo signal and a back stereo signal based on the steering signal.Type: GrantFiled: June 19, 2017Date of Patent: December 11, 2018Assignee: HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.Inventors: Christof Faller, Alexis Favrot, Peter Grosche, Yue Lang
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Publication number: 20180324541Abstract: An audio signal processing apparatus, comprising a memory configured to store a set of pairs of predefined left ear and right ear transfer functions, which are predefined for a plurality of reference positions relative to the listener, a processor configured to determine a pair of left ear and right ear transfer functions on the basis of the set of predefined pairs of predefined left ear and right ear transfer functions for the azimuth angle and the elevation angle of the virtual target position and an adjustment filter configured to filter the input audio signal on the basis of the determined pair of left ear and right ear transfer functions and an adjustment function configured to adjust a delay between the left ear transfer function and the right ear transfer function to obtain a left ear output audio signal and a right ear output audio signal.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 6, 2018Publication date: November 8, 2018Inventors: Liyun Pang, Peter Grosche, Christof Faller, Alexis Favrot
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Patent number: 9961474Abstract: The disclosure is based on the finding that acoustic near-field transfer functions indicating acoustic near-field propagation channels between loudspeakers and ears of a listener can be employed to pre-process audio signals. Therefore, acoustic near-field distortions of the audio signals can be mitigated. The pre-processed audio signals can be presented to the listener using a wearable frame, wherein the wearable frame comprises the loudspeakers for audio presentation. The disclosure can allow for a high quality rendering of audio signals as well as a high listening comfort for the listener. The disclosure can provide the following advantages. By means of a loudspeaker selection as a function of a spatial audio source direction, cues related to the listener's ears can be generated, making the approach more robust with regard to front/back confusion. The approach can further be extended to an arbitrary number of loudspeaker pairs.Type: GrantFiled: November 28, 2016Date of Patent: May 1, 2018Assignee: HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.Inventors: Christof Faller, Alexis Favrot, Yue Lang, Peter Grosche
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Publication number: 20180103316Abstract: A calculation unit for a sound system includes an input terminal, a processor and an output terminal. The input terminal has the purpose to receive an audio stream to be reproduced using the sound system. The output terminal has the purpose to control the sound system based on a first and a second plurality of individual audio signals. The processor is configured to calculate the first plurality of audio signals such that beamforming is performed by the array and to calculate the second plurality of individual audio signals to perform, using the sound system, direct sound suppression such that sound is canceled towards a listening direction. Furthermore, the processor filters at least the second plurality using a second passband characteristic including a second portion of the entire frequency range.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 27, 2017Publication date: April 12, 2018Inventors: Christof FALLER, Markus SCHMIDT, Andreas WALTHER, Christian BORSS, Ville SAARI, Philipp GOETZ
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Publication number: 20180040335Abstract: The invention relates to an audio signal processing apparatus (100) for processing an input earpiece audio signal (x) upon the basis of a microphone audio signal (y), the audio signal processing apparatus (100) comprising a voice activity detector (101) being configured to determine a voice activity indicator signal (xvad) upon the basis of the input earpiece audio signal (x), a noise magnitude determiner (103) being configured to determine a microphone noise magnitude indicator signal (wy) upon the basis of the microphone audio signal (y), a gain factor determiner (105) being configured to determine a gain factor signal (?G) upon the basis of the voice activity indicator signal (xvad) and the microphone noise magnitude indicator signal (wy), and a weighter (107) being configured to weight the input earpiece audio signal (x) by the gain factor signal (?G) to obtain an output earpiece audio signal.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 20, 2017Publication date: February 8, 2018Applicant: HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.Inventors: Christof FALLER, Alexis Favrot, Peter Grosche, Yue Lang
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Publication number: 20180035202Abstract: A calculation unit for a sound reproduction system includes an input unit, a processor and at least three outputs for controlling at least three transducers of an array. The input unit has the purpose to receive an audio stream to be reproduced using the array, wherein the audio stream has a frequency range. The processor is configured to calculate three individual audio signals to be output using the at least three outputs, such that a first acoustic differential having a second or higher order is generated using the array.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 9, 2017Publication date: February 1, 2018Inventors: Christian BORSS, Ville SAARI, Markus SCHMIDT, Christof FALLER, Andreas WALTHER
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Publication number: 20170289686Abstract: A microphone arrangement and a method using the microphone arrangement for recording surround sound in a mobile device, where the microphone arrangement comprises a first and a second microphone and arranged at a first distance to each other and configured to obtain a stereo signal, and comprises a third microphone configured to obtain a steering signal together with at least one of the first and second microphone or with a fourth microphone. The microphone arrangement also comprises a processor configured to separate the stereo signal into a front stereo signal and a back stereo signal based on the steering signal.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 19, 2017Publication date: October 5, 2017Inventors: Christof Faller, Alexis Favrot, Peter Grosche, Yue Lang
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Patent number: 9699552Abstract: An apparatus for computing filter coefficients for an adaptive filter is disclosed. The adaptive filter is used for filtering a microphone signal so as to suppress an echo due to a loudspeaker signal. The apparatus has: an echo decay modeling means for modeling a decay behavior of an acoustic environment and for providing a corresponding echo decay parameter; and computing means for computing the filter coefficients of the adaptive filter on the basis of the echo decay parameter. A corresponding method has: providing echo decay parameters determined by means of an echo decay modeling means; and computing the filter coefficients of the adaptive filter on the basis of the echo decay parameters.Type: GrantFiled: April 22, 2013Date of Patent: July 4, 2017Assignee: Faunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandtenInventors: Fabian Kuech, Markus Schmidt, Alexis Favrot, Christof Faller
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Patent number: 9699563Abstract: The invention relates to a method for rendering a stereo audio signal over a first loudspeaker and a second loudspeaker with respect to a desired direction, the stereo audio signal comprising a first audio signal component (L) and a second audio signal component (R), the method comprising: providing a first rendering signal based on a combination of L and a first difference signal obtained based on a difference between L and R to the first loudspeaker, and providing a second rendering signal based on a combination of R and a second difference signal obtained based on the difference between L and R to the second loudspeaker, such that both difference signals are different with respect to sign and one difference signal is delayed by a delay compared to the other difference signal to define a dipole signal, wherein the delay is adapted according to the desired direction.Type: GrantFiled: August 6, 2015Date of Patent: July 4, 2017Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.Inventors: Christof Faller, David Virette, Yue Lang
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Patent number: 9668078Abstract: 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: GrantFiled: August 22, 2012Date of Patent: May 30, 2017Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.Inventor: Christof Faller
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Publication number: 20170134877Abstract: The disclosure relates to an apparatus for manipulating an input audio signal associated to a spatial audio source within a spatial audio scenario, wherein the spatial audio source has a certain distance to a listener within the spatial audio scenario. The apparatus comprises an exciter adapted to manipulate the input audio signal to obtain an output audio signal, and a controller adapted to control parameters of the exciter for manipulating the input audio signal based on the certain distance.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 20, 2017Publication date: May 11, 2017Inventors: Christof FALLER, Alexis FAVROT, Liyun PANG, Peter GROSCHE, Yue LANG
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Publication number: 20170103763Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: August 22, 2012Publication date: April 13, 2017Applicant: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.Inventor: Christof FALLER
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Publication number: 20170078821Abstract: The disclosure is based on the finding that acoustic near-field transfer functions indicating acoustic near-field propagation channels between loudspeakers and ears of a listener can be employed to pre-process audio signals. Therefore, acoustic near-field distortions of the audio signals can be mitigated. The pre-processed audio signals can be presented to the listener using a wearable frame, wherein the wearable frame comprises the loudspeakers for audio presentation. The disclosure can allow for a high quality rendering of audio signals as well as a high listening comfort for the listener. The disclosure can provide the following advantages. By means of a loudspeaker selection as a function of a spatial audio source direction, cues related to the listener's ears can be generated, making the approach more robust with regard to front/back confusion. The approach can further be extended to an arbitrary number of loudspeaker pairs.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 28, 2016Publication date: March 16, 2017Inventors: Christof Faller, Alexis Favrot, Yue Lang, Peter Grosche
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Publication number: 20170055095Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: November 8, 2016Publication date: February 23, 2017Inventor: Christof FALLER
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Patent number: 9521502Abstract: A method for determining an output stereo signal comprising determining a first differential signal and determining a second differential signal; determining a first power spectrum based on the first differential signal and determining a second power spectrum based on the second differential signal; determining a first weighting function and a second weighting function as a function of the first power spectrum and the second power spectrum; and filtering a first signal, which represents a first combination of the first input audio channel signal and the second input audio channel signal, and filtering a second signal, which represents a second combination of the first input audio channel signal and the second input audio channel signal.Type: GrantFiled: January 4, 2013Date of Patent: December 13, 2016Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.Inventors: Christof Faller, David Virette, Yue Lang
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Publication number: 20160234621Abstract: A method for determining an output stereo signal comprising determining a first differential signal and determining a second differential signal; determining a first power spectrum based on the first differential signal and determining a second power spectrum based on the second differential signal; determining a first weighting function and a second weighting function as a function of the first power spectrum and the second power spectrum; and filtering a first signal, which represents a first combination of the first input audio channel signal and the second input audio channel signal, and filtering a second signal, which represents a second combination of the first input audio channel signal and the second input audio channel signal.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 4, 2013Publication date: August 11, 2016Inventors: Christof Faller, David Virette, Yue Lang
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Patent number: 9357305Abstract: An apparatus for generating an enhanced downmix signal on the basis of a multi-channel microphone signal has a spatial analyzer configured to compute a set of spatial cue parameters having a direction information describing a direction-of-arrival of a direct sound, a direct sound power information and a diffuse sound power information on the basis of the multi-channel microphone signal. The apparatus also has a filter calculator for calculating enhancement filter parameters in dependence on the direction information describing the direction-of-arrival of the direct sound, in dependence on the direct sound power information and in dependence on the diffuse sound power information. The apparatus also has a filter for filtering the microphone signal, or a signal derived therefrom, using the enhancement filter parameters, to obtain the enhanced downmix signal.Type: GrantFiled: August 23, 2012Date of Patent: May 31, 2016Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.Inventors: Fabian Kuech, Juergen Herre, Christof Faller, Christophe Tournery
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Publication number: 20160037260Abstract: The invention relates to a method for rendering a stereo audio signal over a first loudspeaker and a second loudspeaker with respect to a desired direction, the stereo audio signal comprising a first audio signal component (L) and a second audio signal component (R), the method comprising: providing a first rendering signal based on a combination of Land a first difference signal obtained based on a difference between L and R to the first loudspeaker, and providing a second rendering signal based on a combination of R and a second difference signal obtained based on the difference between L and R to the second loudspeaker, such that both difference signals are different with respect to sign and one difference signal is delayed by a delay compared to the other difference signal to define a dipole signal, wherein the delay is adapted according to the desired direction.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 6, 2015Publication date: February 4, 2016Inventors: Christof Faller, David Virette, Yue Lang
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Publication number: 20150361651Abstract: A console for joining a façade to a building wall (100), including a metal wall part (1) for mounting on the building wall, a metal façade part (2) for joining to the façade, and a bridge part (3) that joins the façade part (2) to the wall part (1), whereby the bridge part (3) includes a plastic material and it forms a heat barrier between the wall part (1) and the façade part (2) is provided. The bridge part is an injection-molded part made of fiber-reinforced plastic, and in that the bridge part (3) is injection-molded around the wall part (1) and the façade part (2) so as to encapsulate them in certain areas.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 7, 2014Publication date: December 17, 2015Inventors: Christof FALLER, David VIRETTE, Yue LANG