Abstract: A method and apparatus to determine an encoding mode of an audio signal, and a method and apparatus to encode an audio signal according to the encoding mode. In the encoding mode determination method, a mode determination threshold for the current frame that is subject to encoding mode determination is adaptively adjusted according to a long-term feature of the audio signal for a frame (the current frame) that is subject to encoding mode determination, thereby improving the hit rate of encoding mode determination and signal classification, suppressing frequent oscillation of an encoding mode in frame units, improving noise tolerance, and improving smoothness of a reconstructed audio signal.

Abstract: Provided are a frame error concealment method and apparatus and an error concealment scheme construction method and apparatus. The frame error concealment method includes generating a new signal by synthesizing a plurality of previous signals that are similar to a signal of an error frame and reconstructing the signal of the error frame using the generated signal.

Abstract: A method and apparatus to extract an important frequency component of an audio signal and a method and apparatus to encode and/or decode an audio signal by using the same. The method of extracting an important frequency component of an audio signal includes converting an audio signal of a time domain into an audio signal of a frequency domain, selecting a frequency band having a harmonic feature from the converted audio signal of the frequency domain, and extracting an important frequency component from the selected frequency band having the harmonic feature.

Abstract: An error concealment method and apparatus for an audio signal and a decoding method and apparatus for an audio signal using the error concealment method and apparatus. The error concealment method includes selecting one of an error concealment in a frequency domain and an error concealment in a time domain as an error concealment scheme for a current frame based on a predetermined criteria when an error occurs in the current frame, selecting one of a repetition scheme and an interpolation scheme in the frequency domain as the error concealment scheme for the current frame based on a predetermined criteria when the error concealment in the frequency domain is selected, and concealing the error of the current frame using the selected scheme.

Abstract: A frame error concealment method and apparatus and a decoding method and apparatus using the same. The frame error concealment method includes setting a concealment method to conceal an error based on one or more signal characteristics of an error frame having the error and concealing the error using the set concealment method.

Abstract: A method, medium, and system scalably encoding/decoding audio/speech. The method includes splitting an input signal into a low frequency band signal that is lower than a predetermined frequency and a high frequency band signal that is higher than the predetermined frequency, scalably encoding the split low frequency band signal into a core layer and one or more extension layers and then decoding the encoded core layer and the encoded extension layers, generating an error signal by using the split low frequency band signal and a decoded signal of the encoded core layer and the encoded extension layers, and encoding the error signal and the high frequency band signal into a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) enhancement layer and a bandwidth extension layer.

Abstract: Encoding and/or decoding a wideband signal produces high frequency band spectra from low frequency band spectral information. Linear prediction filter coefficients are determined for the entire wideband spectrum of an input signal. An energy value in each of a plurality of sub-bands in the high frequency band is determined and encoded. The short-term correlation removed input signal is then down-sampled to form a low frequency band signal. At a decoder, the high frequency band signal is generated using the encoded low frequency band signal. The energy in each sub-band of the high frequency band is adjusted using the encoded energy value. Thus, the spectral envelope for the entire wideband signal is synthesized and decoded using linear predictive synthesis.

Abstract: A method of multi-path trellis coded quantization (TCQ) usable in a speech coding system, and a quantizer using the method. Specifically the method includes calculating accumulated distortions corresponding to 2N survivor paths, wherein N indicates an integer greater than two, each of the 2N survivor paths is going towards one of nodes at an i th stage of a trellis, and i indicates an integer greater than zero, comparing the accumulated distortions respectively corresponding to the 2N survivor paths to select N paths among the 2N survivor paths, wherein the accumulated distortions corresponding to selected N paths are smaller than the accumulated distortions corresponding to unselected N paths establishing the selected N paths as survivor paths going toward an i+1 th stage, and selecting an optimal path among the 2N survivor paths corresponding to each node of a last stage.

Abstract: A coding apparatus including a base layer, a speech quality enhancement layer, and a multiplexer. The base layer filters an input speech signal using linear prediction coding and generates an excitation signal corresponding to the filtered speech signal through a fixed codebook search and an adaptive codebook search. The speech quality enhancement layer searches a fixed codebook using parameters obtained through the fixed codebook search in the base layer, or searches the fixed codebook using a target signal, which is obtained by removing a contribution of a fixed codebook of the base layer and a signal which is obtained by synthesizing and filtering a previous fixed codebook of the speech quality enhancement layer from a target signal for the fixed codebook search of the base layer. The multiplexer multiplexes signals generated by the base layer and the at least one speech quality enhancement layer.

Abstract: A line spectral frequency (LSF) coefficient vector quantizer greatly affects wideband speech coding efficiency and performance. An LSF coefficient quantizer of an existing speech codec can be modified into a new structure in which a non-structural vector quantizer and a lattice quantizer are connected in series. Thus, memory capacity and search time required for the LSF coefficient quantizer can be reduced. In addition, a prediction structure and a non-prediction structure can be connected in parallel to stably perform quantization and reduce a quantization transfer error. As a result, an efficient LSF quantizer capable of reducing allocated bits and improving SD can be provided. Moreover, non-structural vector quantization can be performed prior to pyramid vector quantization to convert an input value into a Laplacian model suitable for a pyramid vector quantizer.