Patents by Inventor Tommy Vaillancourt

Tommy Vaillancourt 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: 9384755
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a device and method for reducing quantization noise in a signal contained in a time-domain excitation decoded by a time-domain decoder. The decoded time-domain excitation is converted into a frequency-domain excitation. A weighting mask is produced for retrieving spectral information lost in the quantization noise. The frequency-domain excitation is modified to increase spectral dynamics by application of the weighting mask. The modified frequency-domain excitation is converted into a modified time-domain excitation. The method and device can be used for improving music content rendering of linear-prediction (LP) based codecs. Optionally, a synthesis of the decoded time-domain excitation may be classified into one of a first set of excitation categories and a second set of excitation categories, the second set including INACTIVE or UNVOICED categories, the first set including an OTHER category.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2016
    Assignee: VOICEAGE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tommy Vaillancourt, Milan Jelinek
  • Patent number: 9252728
    Abstract: A method and device for modifying a synthesis of a time-domain excitation decoded by a time-domain decoder, wherein the synthesis of the decoded time-domain excitation is classified into one of a number of categories. The decoded time-domain excitation is converted into a frequency-domain excitation, and the frequency-domain excitation is modified as a function of the category in which the synthesis of the decoded time-domain excitation is classified. The modified frequency-domain excitation is converted into a modified time-domain excitation, and a synthesis filter is supplied with the modified time-domain excitation to produce a modified synthesis of the decoded time-domain excitation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2016
    Assignee: VoiceAge Corporation
    Inventors: Tommy Vaillancourt, Milan Jelinek
  • Patent number: 9015038
    Abstract: A mixed time-domain/frequency-domain coding device and method for coding an input sound signal, wherein a time-domain excitation contribution is calculated in response to the input sound signal. A cut-off frequency for the time-domain excitation contribution is also calculated in response to the input sound signal, and a frequency extent of the time-domain excitation contribution is adjusted in relation to this cut-off frequency. Following calculation of a frequency-domain excitation contribution in response to the input sound signal, the adjusted time-domain excitation contribution and the frequency-domain excitation contribution are added to form a mixed time-domain/frequency-domain excitation constituting a coded version of the input sound signal. In the calculation of the time-domain excitation contribution, the input sound signal may be processed in successive frames of the input sound signal and a number of sub-frames to be used in a current frame may be calculated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2015
    Assignee: VoiceAge Corporation
    Inventors: Tommy Vaillancourt, Milan Jelinek
  • Patent number: 8990073
    Abstract: A device and method for estimating a tonal stability of a sound signal include: calculating a current residual spectrum of the sound signal; detecting peaks in the current residual spectrum; calculating a correlation map between the current residual spectrum and a previous residual spectrum for each detected peak; and calculating a long-term correlation map based on the calculated correlation map, the long-term correlation map being indicative of a tonal stability in the sound signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2015
    Assignee: Voiceage Corporation
    Inventors: Vladimir Malenovsky, Milan Jelinek, Tommy Vaillancourt, Redwan Salami
  • Publication number: 20140249807
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a device and method for reducing quantization noise in a signal contained in a time-domain excitation decoded by a time-domain decoder. The decoded time-domain excitation is converted into a frequency-domain excitation. A weighting mask is produced for retrieving spectral information lost in the quantization noise. The frequency-domain excitation is modified to increase spectral dynamics by application of the weighting mask. The modified frequency-domain excitation is converted into a modified time-domain excitation. The method and device can be used for improving music content rendering of linear-prediction (LP) based codecs. Optionally, a synthesis of the decoded time-domain excitation may be classified into one of a first set of excitation categories and a second set of excitation categories, the second set including INACTIVE or UNVOICED categories, the first set including an OTHER category.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 4, 2014
    Publication date: September 4, 2014
    Applicant: VOICEAGE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tommy VAILLANCOURT, Milan Jelinek
  • Patent number: 8401845
    Abstract: A system and method for enhancing a tonal sound signal decoded by a decoder of a speech-specific codec in response to a received coded bit stream, in which a spectral analyser is responsive to the decoded tonal sound signal to produce spectral parameters representative of the decoded tonal sound signal. A quantization noise in low-energy spectral regions of the decoded tonal sound signal is reduced in response to the spectral parameters produced by the spectral analyser. The spectral analyser divides a spectrum resulting from spectral analysis into a set of critical frequency bands each comprising a number of frequency bins, and the reducer of quantization noise comprises a noise attenuator that scales the spectrum of the decoded tonal sound signal per critical frequency band, per frequency bin, or per both critical frequency band and frequency bin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: VoiceAge Corporation
    Inventors: Tommy Vaillancourt, Milan Jelinek, Vladimir Malenovsky, Redwan Salami
  • Patent number: 8396707
    Abstract: A method and device for coding an input sound signal in at least one lower layer and at least one upper layer of an embedded codec comprises, in the at least one lower layer, coding the input sound signal to produce coding parameters, wherein coding the input sound signal comprises producing a synthesized sound signal. An error signal is computed as a difference between the input sound signal and the synthesized sound signal and a spectral mask is calculated as a function of a minima of a spectrum related to the input sound signal. In the at least one upper layer, the error signal is coded to produce coding coefficients, the spectral mask is applied to the coding coefficients, and the masked coding coefficients are quantized. Applying the spectral mask to the coding coefficients reduces the quantization noise produced upon quantizing the coding coefficients.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2013
    Assignee: VoiceAge Corporation
    Inventors: Tommy Vaillancourt, Redwan Salami
  • Patent number: 8255207
    Abstract: A method and device for concealing frame erasures caused by frames of an encoded sound signal erased during transmission from an encoder to a decoder and for recovery of the decoder after frame erasures comprise, in the encoder, determining concealment/recovery parameters including at least phase information related to frames of the encoded sound signal. The concealment/recovery parameters determined in the encoder are transmitted to the decoder and, in the decoder, frame erasure concealment is conducted in response to the received concealment/recovery parameters. The frame erasure concealment comprises resynchronizing, in response to the received phase information, the erasure-concealed frames with corresponding frames of the sound signal encoded at the encoder. When no concealment/recovery parameters are transmitted to the decoder, a phase information of each frame of the encoded sound signal that has been erased during transmission from the encoder to the decoder is estimated in the decoder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2012
    Assignee: Voiceage Corporation
    Inventors: Tommy Vaillancourt, Milan Jelinek, Philippe Gournay, Redwan Salami
  • Publication number: 20120101813
    Abstract: A mixed time-domain/frequency-domain coding device and method for coding an input sound signal, wherein a time-domain excitation contribution is calculated in response to the input sound signal. A cut-off frequency for the time-domain excitation contribution is also calculated in response to the input sound signal, and a frequency extent of the time-domain excitation contribution is adjusted in relation to this cut-off frequency. Following calculation of a frequency-domain excitation contribution in response to the input sound signal, the adjusted time-domain excitation contribution and the frequency-domain excitation contribution are added to form a mixed time-domain/frequency-domain excitation constituting a coded version of the input sound signal. In the calculation of the time-domain excitation contribution, the input sound signal may be processed in successive frames of the input sound signal and a number of sub-frames to be used in a current frame may be calculated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 25, 2011
    Publication date: April 26, 2012
    Applicant: VOICEAGE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tommy Vaillancourt, Milan Jelinek
  • Publication number: 20110125505
    Abstract: A method and device for concealing frame erasures caused by frames of an encoded sound signal erased during transmission from an encoder to a decoder and for recovery of the decoder after frame erasures comprise, in the encoder, determining concealment/recovery parameters including at least phase information related to frames of the encoded sound signal. The concealment/recovery parameters determined in the encoder are transmitted to the decoder and, in the decoder, frame erasure concealment is conducted in response to the received concealment/recovery parameters. The frame erasure concealment comprises resynchronizing, in response to the received phase information, the erasure-concealed frames with corresponding frames of the sound signal encoded at the encoder. When no concealment/recovery parameters are transmitted to the decoder, a phase information of each frame of the encoded sound signal that has been erased during transmission from the encoder to the decoder is estimated in the decoder.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2006
    Publication date: May 26, 2011
    Applicant: VOICEAGE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tommy Vaillancourt, Milan Jelinek, Philleppe Gournay, Redwan Salami
  • Publication number: 20110046947
    Abstract: A system and method for enhancing a tonal sound signal decoded by a decoder of a speech-specific codec in response to a received coded bit stream, in which a spectral analyser is responsive to the decoded tonal sound signal to produce spectral parameters representative of the decoded tonal sound signal. A quantization noise in low-energy spectral regions of the decoded tonal sound signal is reduced in response to the spectral parameters produced by the spectral analyser. The spectral analyser divides a spectrum resulting from spectral analysis into a set of critical frequency bands each comprising a number of frequency bins, and the reducer of quantization noise comprises a noise attenuator that scales the spectrum of the decoded tonal sound signal per critical frequency band, per frequency bin, or per both critical frequency band and frequency bin.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 5, 2009
    Publication date: February 24, 2011
    Inventors: Tommy Vaillancourt, Milan Jelinek, Vladimir Malenvosky, Redwan Salami
  • Publication number: 20100292993
    Abstract: A method and device for coding an input sound signal in at least one lower layer and at least one upper layer of an embedded codec while reducing a quantization noise comprises, in the at least one lower layer, coding the input sound signal to produce coding parameters, wherein coding the input sound signal comprises producing a synthesized sound signal. An error signal is computed as a difference between the input sound signal and the synthesized sound signal and a spectral mask is calculated as a function of a spectrum related to the input sound signal. In the at least one upper layer, the error signal is coded to produce coding coefficients, the spectral mask is applied to the coding coefficients, and the masked coding coefficients are quantized. Applying the spectral mask to the coding coefficients reduces the quantization noise produced upon quantizing the coding coefficients.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 25, 2008
    Publication date: November 18, 2010
    Inventors: Tommy Vaillancourt, Redwan Salami