Patents by Inventor Grant A. Davidson

Grant A. Davidson 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).

  • Patent number: 10425763
    Abstract: In some embodiments, virtualization methods for generating a binaural signal in response to channels of a multi-channel audio signal, which apply a binaural room impulse response (BRIR) to each channel including by using at least one feed-back delay network (FDN) to apply a common late reverberation to a downmix of the channels. In some embodiments, input signal channels are processed in a first processing path to apply to each channel a direct response and early reflection portion of a single-channel BRIR for the channel, and the downmix of the channels is processed in a second processing path including at least one FDN which applies the common late reverberation. Typically, the common late reverberation emulates collective macro attributes of late reverberation portions of at least some of the single-channel BRIRs. Other aspects are headphone virtualizers configured to perform any embodiment of the method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2019
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Kuan-Chieh Yen, Dirk Jeroen Breebaart, Grant A. Davidson, Rhonda Wilson, David M. Cooper, Zhiwei Shuang
  • Patent number: 10382875
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to reverberation generation for headphone virtualization. A method of generating one or more components of a binaural room impulse response (BRIR) for headphone virtualization is described. In the method, directionally-controlled reflections are generated, wherein directionally-controlled reflections impart a desired perceptual cue to an audio input signal corresponding to a sound source location. Then at least the generated reflections are combined to obtain the one or more components of the BRIR. Corresponding system and computer program products are described as well.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2019
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Louis D. Fielder, Zhiwei Shuang, Grant A. Davidson, Xiguang Zheng, Mark S. Vinton
  • Patent number: 10382880
    Abstract: Methods and systems for designing binaural room impulse responses (BRIRs) for use in headphone virtualizers, and methods and systems for generating a binaural signal in response to a set of channels of a multi-channel audio signal, including by applying a BRIR to each channel of the set, thereby generating filtered signals, and combining the filtered signals to generate the binaural signal, where each BRIR has been designed in accordance with an embodiment of the design method. Other aspects are audio processing units configured to perform any embodiment of the inventive method. In accordance with some embodiments, BRIR design is formulated as a numerical optimization problem based on a simulation model (which generates candidate BRIRs) and at least one objective function (which evaluates each candidate BRIR), and includes identification of a best one of the candidate BRIRs as indicated by performance metrics determined for the candidate BRIRs by each objective function.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2019
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Grant A. Davidson, Kuan-Chieh Yen, Dirk Jeroen Breebaart
  • Publication number: 20190052989
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to reverberation generation for headphone virtualization. A method of generating one or more components of a binaural room impulse response (BRIR) for headphone virtualization is described. In the method, directionally-controlled reflections are generated, wherein directionally-controlled reflections impart a desired perceptual cue to an audio input signal corresponding to a sound source location. Then at least the generated reflections are combined to obtain the one or more components of the BRIR. Corresponding system and computer program products are described as well.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 18, 2018
    Publication date: February 14, 2019
    Applicant: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Louis D. FIELDER, Zhiwei SHUANG, Grant A. DAVIDSON, Xiguang ZHENG, Mark S. VINTON
  • Patent number: 10149082
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to reverberation generation for headphone virtualization. A method of generating one or more components of a binaural room impulse response (BRIR) for headphone virtualization is described. In the method, directionally-controlled reflections are generated, wherein directionally-controlled reflections impart a desired perceptual cue to an audio input signal corresponding to a sound source location. Then at least the generated reflections are combined to obtain the one or more components of the BRIR. Corresponding system and computer program products are described as well.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2018
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Louis D. Fielder, Zhiwei Shuang, Grant A. Davidson, Xiguang Zheng, Mark S. Vinton
  • Publication number: 20180035233
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to reverberation generation for headphone virtualization. A method of generating one or more components of a binaural room impulse response (BRIR) for headphone virtualization is described. In the method, directionally-controlled reflections are generated, wherein directionally-controlled reflections impart a desired perceptual cue to an audio input signal corresponding to a sound source location. Then at least the generated reflections are combined to obtain the one or more components of the BRIR. Corresponding system and computer program products are described as well.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 11, 2016
    Publication date: February 1, 2018
    Applicant: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Louis D. FIELDER, Zhiwei SHUANG, Grant A. DAVIDSON, Xiguang ZHENG, Mark S. VINTON
  • Patent number: 9830916
    Abstract: Audio processing methods may involve receiving audio data corresponding to a plurality of audio channels. The audio data may include a frequency domain representation corresponding to filterbank coefficients of an audio encoding or processing system. A decorrelation process may be performed with the same filterbank coefficients used by the audio encoding or processing system. The decorrelation process may be performed without converting coefficients of the frequency domain representation to another frequency domain or time domain representation. The decorrelation process may involve selective or signal-adaptive decorrelation of specific channels and/or specific frequency bands. The decorrelation process may involve applying a decorrelation filter to a portion of the received audio data to produce filtered audio data. The decorrelation process may involve using a non-hierarchal mixer to combine a direct portion of the received audio data with the filtered audio data according to spatial parameters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2017
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Vinay Melkote, Kuan-Chieh Yen, Grant A. Davidson, Matthew Fellers, Mark S. Vinton, Vivek Kumar
  • Patent number: 9830917
    Abstract: Some audio processing methods may involve receiving audio data corresponding to a plurality of audio channels and determining audio characteristics of the audio data, which may include transient information. An amount of decorrelation for the audio data may be based, at least in part, on the audio characteristics. If a definite transient event is determined, a decorrelation process may be temporarily halted or slowed. Determining transient information may involve evaluating the likelihood and/or the severity of a transient event. In some implementations, determining transient information may involve evaluating a temporal power variation in the audio data. Explicit transient information may or may not be received with the audio data, depending on the implementation. Explicit transient information may include a transient control value corresponding to a definite transient event, a definite non-transient event or an intermediate transient control value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2017
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Kuan-Chieh Yen, Vinay Melkote, Grant A. Davidson
  • Patent number: 9754596
    Abstract: Audio characteristics of audio data corresponding to a plurality of audio channels may be determined. The audio characteristics may include spatial parameter data. Decorrelation filtering processes for the audio data may be based, at least in part, on the audio characteristics. The decorrelation filtering processes may cause a specific inter-decorrelation signal coherence (“IDC”) between channel-specific decorrelation signals for at least one pair of channels. The channel-specific decorrelation signals may be received and/or determined. Inter-channel coherence (“ICC”) between a plurality of audio channel pairs may be controlled. Controlling ICC may involve at receiving an ICC value and/or determining an ICC value based, at least partially, on the spatial parameter data. A set of IDC values may be based, at least partially, on the set of ICC values. A set of channel-specific decorrelation signals, corresponding with the set of IDC values, may be synthesized by performing operations on the filtered audio data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2017
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Kuan-Chieh Yen, Vinay Melkote, Matthew Fellers, Grant A. Davidson
  • Publication number: 20160345116
    Abstract: In some embodiments, virtualization methods for generating a binaural signal in response to channels of a multi-channel audio signal, which apply a binaural room impulse response (BRIR) to each channel including by using at least one feed-back delay network (FDN) to apply a common late reverberation to a downmix of the channels. In some embodiments, input signal channels are processed in a first processing path to apply to each channel a direct response and early reflection portion of a single-channel BRIR for the channel, and the downmix of the channels is processed in a second processing path including at least one FDN which applies the common late reverberation. Typically, the common late reverberation emulates collective macro attributes of late reverberation portions of at least some of the single-channel BRIRs. Other aspects are headphone virtualizers configured to perform any embodiment of the method.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 18, 2014
    Publication date: November 24, 2016
    Applicant: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Kuan-Chieh YEN, Dirk Jeroen BREEBAART, Grant A. DAVIDSON, Rhonda WILSON, David M. Cooper, Zhiwei SHUANG
  • Publication number: 20160337779
    Abstract: Methods and systems for designing binaural room impulse responses (BRIRs) for use in headphone virtualizers, and methods and systems for generating a binaural signal in response to a set of channels of a multi-channel audio signal, including by applying a BRIR to each channel of the set, thereby generating filtered signals, and combining the filtered signals to generate the binaural signal, where each BRIR has been designed in accordance with an embodiment of the design method. Other aspects are audio processing units configured to perform any embodiment of the inventive method. In accordance with some embodiments, BRIR design is formulated as a numerical optimization problem based on a simulation model (which generates candidate BRIRs) and at least one objective function (which evaluates each candidate BRIR), and includes identification of a best one of the candidate BRIRs as indicated by performance metrics determined for the candidate BRIRs by each objective function.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 23, 2014
    Publication date: November 17, 2016
    Applicant: DOLBY LABORATORIES LICENSING CORPORATION
    Inventors: Grant A. DAVIDSON, Kuan-Chieh YEN, Dirk Jeroen BREEBAART
  • Patent number: 9489956
    Abstract: Received audio data may include a first set of frequency coefficients and a second set of frequency coefficients. Spatial parameters for at least part of the second set of frequency coefficients may be estimated, based at least in part on the first set of frequency coefficients. The estimated spatial parameters may be applied to the second set of frequency coefficients to generate a modified second set of frequency coefficients. The first set of frequency coefficients may correspond to a first frequency range (for example, an individual channel frequency range) and the second set of frequency coefficients may correspond to a second frequency range (for example, a coupled channel frequency range). Combined frequency coefficients of a composite coupling channel may be based on frequency coefficients of two or more channels. Cross-correlation coefficients, between frequency coefficients of a first channel and the combined frequency coefficients, may be computed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2016
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Matthew Fellers, Vinay Melkote, Kuan-Chieh Yen, Grant A. Davidson, Mark F. Davis
  • Publication number: 20160133266
    Abstract: A first vector quantization process may be applied to two or more parameter values along a first dimension of the N-dimensional parameter set to produce a first set of quantized values. Two or more parameter prediction values may be calculated for a second dimension of the N-dimensional parameter set based, at least in part, on one or more values of the first set of quantized values. Prediction residual values may be calculated based, at least in part, on the parameter prediction values. A second vector quantization process may be applied to the prediction residual values to produce a second set of quantized values. These processes may be extended to any number of dimensions. Corresponding inverse vector quantization processes may be performed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 17, 2014
    Publication date: May 12, 2016
    Applicant: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Vinay MELKOTE, Kuan-Chieh YEN, Grant A. DAVIDSON
  • Patent number: 9275649
    Abstract: A method for determining mantissa bit allocation of audio data values of frequency domain audio data to be encoded. The allocation method includes a step of determining masking values for the audio data values, including by performing adaptive low frequency compensation on the audio data of each frequency band of a set of low frequency bands of the audio data. The adaptive low frequency compensation includes steps of: performing tonality detection on the audio data to generate compensation control data indicative of whether each frequency band in the set of low frequency bands has prominent tonal content; and performing low frequency compensation on the audio data in each frequency band in the set of low frequency bands having prominent tonal content as indicated by the compensation control data, but not performing low frequency compensation on the audio data in any other frequency band in the set of low frequency bands.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2016
    Assignees: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation, Dolby International AB
    Inventors: Arijit Biswas, Vinay Melkote, Michael Schug, Grant A. Davidson, Mark S. Vinton
  • Publication number: 20160005413
    Abstract: Received audio data may include a first set of frequency coefficients and a second set of frequency coefficients. Spatial parameters for at least part of the second set of frequency coefficients may be estimated, based at least in part on the first set of frequency coefficients. The estimated spatial parameters may be applied to the second set of frequency coefficients to generate a modified second set of frequency coefficients. The first set of frequency coefficients may correspond to a first frequency range (for example, an individual channel frequency range) and the second set of frequency coefficients may correspond to a second frequency range (for example, a coupled channel frequency range). Combined frequency coefficients of a composite coupling channel may be based on frequency coefficients of two or more channels. Cross-correlation coefficients, between frequency coefficients of a first channel and the combined frequency coefficients, may be computed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 22, 2014
    Publication date: January 7, 2016
    Applicant: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Matthew FELLERS, Vinay MELKOTE, Kuan-Chieh YEN, Grant A. DAVIDSON, Mark F. DAVIS
  • Publication number: 20160005406
    Abstract: Audio characteristics of audio data corresponding to a plurality of audio channels may be determined. The audio characteristics may include spatial parameter data. Decorrelation filtering processes for the audio data may be based, at least in part, on the audio characteristics. The decorrelation filtering processes may cause a specific inter-decorrelation signal coherence (“IDC”) between channel-specific decorrelation signals for at least one pair of channels. The channel-specific decorrelation signals may be received and/or determined. Inter-channel coherence (“ICC”) between a plurality of audio channel pairs may be controlled. Controlling ICC may involve at receiving an ICC value and/or determining an ICC value based, at least partially, on the spatial parameter data. A set of IDC values may be based, at least partially, on the set of ICC values. A set of channel-specific decorrelation signals, corresponding with the set of IDC values, may be synthesized by performing operations on the filtered audio data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 22, 2014
    Publication date: January 7, 2016
    Applicant: DOLBY LABORATORIES LICENSING CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kuan-Chieh YEN, Vinay MELKOTE, Matthew FELLERS, Grant A. DAVIDSON
  • Publication number: 20160005405
    Abstract: Some audio processing methods may involve receiving audio data corresponding to a plurality of audio channels and determining audio characteristics of the audio data, which may include transient information. An amount of decorrelation for the audio data may be based, at least in part, on the audio characteristics. If a definite transient event is determined, a decorrelation process may be temporarily halted or slowed. Determining transient information may involve evaluating the likelihood and/or the severity of a transient event. In some implementations, determining transient information may involve evaluating a temporal power variation in the audio data. Explicit transient information may or may not be received with the audio data, depending on the implementation. Explicit transient information may include a transient control value corresponding to a definite transient event, a definite non-transient event or an intermediate transient control value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 22, 2014
    Publication date: January 7, 2016
    Applicant: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Kuan-Chieh YEN, Vinay MELKOTE, Grant A. DAVIDSON
  • Publication number: 20150380000
    Abstract: Audio processing methods may involve receiving audio data corresponding to a plurality of audio channels. The audio data may include a frequency domain representation corresponding to filterbank coefficients of an audio encoding or processing system. A decorrelation process may be performed with the same filterbank coefficients used by the audio encoding or processing system. The decorrelation process may be performed without converting coefficients of the frequency domain representation to another frequency domain or time domain representation. The decorrelation process may involve selective or signal-adaptive decorrelation of specific channels and/or specific frequency bands. The decorrelation process may involve applying a decorrelation filter to a portion of the received audio data to produce filtered audio data. The decorrelation process may involve using a non-hierarchal mixer to combine a direct portion of the received audio data with the filtered audio data according to spatial parameters.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 22, 2014
    Publication date: December 31, 2015
    Applicant: DOLBY LABORATORIES LICENSING CORPORATION
    Inventors: Vinay MELKOTE, Kuan-Chieh YEN, Grant A. DAVIDSON, Matthew FELLERS, Mark S. VINTON, Vivek KUMAR
  • Publication number: 20150371646
    Abstract: Decorrelation filter parameters for audio data may be based, at least in part, on audio characteristics such as tonality information and/or transient information. Determining the audio characteristics may involve receiving explicit audio characteristics with the audio data and/or determining audio characteristics based on one or more attributes of the audio data. The decorrelation filter parameters may include dithering parameters and/or randomly selected pole locations for at least one pole of an all-pass filter. The dithering parameters and/or pole locations may involve a maximum stride value for pole movement. In some examples, the maximum stride value may be substantially zero for highly tonal signals of the audio data. The dithering parameters and/or pole locations may be bounded by constraint areas within which pole movements are constrained. The constraint areas may or may not be fixed. In some implementations, different channels of the audio data may share the same constraint areas.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 22, 2014
    Publication date: December 24, 2015
    Applicant: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Vinay MELKOTE, Kuan-Chieh YEN, Matthew FELLERS, Grant A. DAVIDSON, Vivek KUMAR
  • Patent number: 9135907
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for enhancing a desired audio signal for delivery through an electroacoustic channel include obtaining a noise estimate attributable to an external disturbance, applying the noise estimate to a dynamic noise compensation (DNC) process to thereby condition the desired audio signal as a function of the spectral characteristics of the noise estimate, applying the noise estimate to an adaptive equalization (AEQ) process to thereby condition the desired audio signal as a function of the electroacoustic response of the electroacoustic channel, and applying the noise estimate to an active noise cancellation (ANC) process configured to generate anti-noise for delivery into the electroacoustic channel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2015
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Matthew C. Fellers, Alan J. Seefeldt, Brett G. Crockett, Grant A. Davidson, Louis D. Fielder