Transformation Patents (Class 704/203)
  • Patent number: 12149911
    Abstract: The present technology relates to a signal processing apparatus, a signal processing method, and a program that are to enable acquisition of a signal with higher sound quality. A signal processing apparatus includes: a difference-signal generation unit configured to generate, on the basis of an input signal and a prediction coefficient that is acquired by learning with, as training data, a difference signal based on a re-quantized signal for learning acquired by re-quantization of an original sound signal and the original sound signal, the difference signal corresponding to the input signal; and a combining unit configured to combine the difference signal generated and the input signal. The present technology is applicable to a signal processing apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2024
    Assignee: SONY GROUP CORPORATION
    Inventor: Takao Fukui
  • Patent number: 12143975
    Abstract: A method for transmitting data or sensor data by radio between a preferably fixed battery-operated node and base station in a communication system with bidirectional radio transmission, includes providing a base station communication module having a first frequency transmitter, and a node communication module having a first frequency transmitter and second frequency transmitter with lower frequency. The node communication module transmits data in the uplink to the base station communication module by splitting a radio telegram into data packets transmitted successively with temporal spacing. The base station communication module transmits data in the downlink to the node communication module by splitting a radio telegram into data packets transmitted successively with temporal spacing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2024
    Assignee: Diehl Metering Systems GmbH
    Inventors: Raphael Mzyk, Hristo Petkov, Thomas Lautenbacher, Thomas Kauppert
  • Patent number: 12039985
    Abstract: An audio encoder for encoding segments of coefficients, the segments of coefficients representing different time or frequency resolutions of a sampled audio signal, the audio encoder including a processor for deriving a coding context for a currently encoded coefficient of a current segment based on a previously encoded coefficient of a previous segment, the previously encoded coefficient representing a different time or frequency resolution than the currently encoded coefficient. The audio encoder further includes an entropy encoder for entropy encoding the current coefficient based on the coding context to obtain an encoded audio stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2023
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2024
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Markus Multrus, Bernhard Grill, Guillaume Fuchs, Stefan Geyersberger, Nikolaus Rettelbach, Virgilio Bacigalupo
  • Patent number: 11915717
    Abstract: The signal separation device includes: cross product calculation means receiving an input of an observed signal that is a mixture of a plurality of target signals, and calculating a cross product of the observed signal; model calculation means updating a parameter of a model for estimating the cross product with a predetermined algorithm using an inverse matrix of a matrix that represents an estimate of the cross product; inverse matrix calculation means calculating the inverse matrix of a matrix by a SIMD command when the parameter is updated; and separation means calculating the target signals using a matrix representing an estimate of the cross product, the updated parameter, and the observed signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hiroshi Sawada, Rintaro Ikeshita, Nobutaka Ito, Tomohiro Nakatani
  • Patent number: 11889280
    Abstract: An apparatus, comprising: an audio input for receiving an input audio signal; an tuning input for receiving a tuning signal; a filter chain comprising a plurality of filters for filtering the audio signal to produce a filtered input audio signal, the filter chain comprising: a first filter module operating at a first sampling rate; and a second filter module operating at a second sampling rate greater than the first sampling rate, wherein a phase response of the first filter module is dependent on the tuning input and wherein a magnitude response of the first filter module is substantially independent of the tuning input.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2024
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic Inc.
    Inventor: John P. Lesso
  • Patent number: 11875775
    Abstract: The present disclosure proposes a speech conversion scheme for non-parallel corpus training, to get rid of dependence on parallel text and resolve a technical problem that it is difficult to achieve speech conversion under conditions that resources and equipment are limited. A voice conversion system and a training method therefor are included. Compared with the prior art, according to the embodiments of the present disclosure: a trained speaker-independent automatic speech recognition model can be used for any source speaker, that is, the speaker is independent; and bottleneck features of audio are more abstract as compared with phonetic posteriorGram features, can reflect decoupling of spoken content and timbre of the speaker, and meanwhile are not closely bound with a phoneme class, and are not in a clear one-to-one correspondence relationship. In this way, a problem of inaccurate pronunciation caused by a recognition error in ASR is relieved to some extent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 16, 2024
    Assignee: Nanjing Silicon Intelligence Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Huapeng Sima, Zhiqiang Mao, Xuefei Gong
  • Patent number: 11776554
    Abstract: An audio processor for generating a frequency enhanced audio signal from a source audio signal has: an envelope determiner for determining a temporal envelope of at least a portion of the source audio signal; an analyzer for analyzing the temporal envelope to determine temporal values of certain features of the temporal envelope; a signal synthesizer for generating a synthesis signal, the generating having placing pulses in relation to the determined temporal values, wherein the pulses are weighted using weights derived from amplitudes of the temporal envelope related to the temporal values, where the pulses are placed; and a combiner for combining at least a band of the synthesis signal that is not included in the source audio signal and the source audio signal to obtain the frequency enhanced audio signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2023
    Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FĂ–RDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.
    Inventors: Sascha Disch, Michael Sturm
  • Patent number: 11749244
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to extract a pitch-independent timbre attribute from a media signal are disclosed. An example apparatus includes an audio characteristic extractor to determine a logarithmic spectrum of an audio signal; transform the logarithmic spectrum of the audio signal into a frequency domain to generate a transform output; determine a magnitude of the transform output; and determine a timbre attribute of the audio signal based on an inverse transform of the magnitude.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: The Nielson Company (US), LLC
    Inventor: Zafar Rafii
  • Patent number: 11749289
    Abstract: To provide a bandwidth extension method which allows reduction of computation amount in bandwidth extension and suppression of deterioration of quality in the bandwidth to be extended. In the bandwidth extension method: a low frequency bandwidth signal is transformed into a QMF domain to generate a first low frequency QMF spectrum; pitch-shifted signals are generated by applying different shifting factors on the low frequency bandwidth signal; a high frequency QMF spectrum is generated by time-stretching the pitch-shifted signals in the QMF domain; the high frequency QMF spectrum is modified; and the modified high frequency QMF spectrum is combined with the first low frequency QMF spectrum.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CORPORATION OF AMERICA
    Inventors: Tomokazu Ishikawa, Takeshi Norimatsu, Huan Zhou, Kok Seng Chong, Haishan Zhong
  • Patent number: 11741978
    Abstract: An audio encoder for providing an output signal using an input audio signal includes a patch generator, a comparator and an output interface. The patch generator generates at least one bandwidth extension high-frequency signal, wherein a bandwidth extension high-frequency signal includes a high-frequency band. The high-frequency band of the bandwidth extension high-frequency signal is based on a low-frequency band of the input audio signal. A comparator calculates a plurality of comparison parameters. A comparison parameter is calculated based on a comparison of the input audio signal and a generated bandwidth extension high-frequency signal. Each comparison parameter of the plurality of comparison parameters is calculated based on a different offset frequency between the input audio signal and a generated bandwidth extension high-frequency signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.
    Inventors: Frederik Nagel, Sascha Disch, Guillaume Fuchs, Juergen Herre, Christian Griebel
  • Patent number: 11676022
    Abstract: A method for training parameters of a first domain adaptation model. The method includes evaluating a cycle consistency objective using a first task specific model associated with a first domain and a second task specific model associated with a second domain, and evaluating one or more first discriminator models to generate a first discriminator objective using the second task specific model. The one or more first discriminator models include a plurality of discriminators corresponding to a plurality of bands that corresponds domain variable ranges of the first and second domains respectively. The method further includes updating, based on the cycle consistency objective and the first discriminator objective, one or more parameters of the first domain adaptation model for adapting representations from the first domain to the second domain.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2023
    Assignee: salesforce.com, inc.
    Inventors: Ehsan Hosseini-Asl, Caiming Xiong, Yingbo Zhou, Richard Socher
  • Patent number: 11626123
    Abstract: A method for decoding an encoded audio bitstream is disclosed. The method includes receiving the encoded audio bitstream and decoding the audio data to generate a decoded lowband audio signal. The method further includes extracting high frequency reconstruction metadata and filtering the decoded lowband audio signal with an analysis filterbank to generate a filtered lowband audio signal. The method also includes extracting a flag indicating whether either spectral translation or harmonic transposition is to be performed on the audio data and regenerating a highband portion of the audio signal using the filtered lowband audio signal and the high frequency reconstruction metadata in accordance with the flag.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2023
    Assignee: DOLBY INTERNATIONAL AB
    Inventors: Lars Villemoes, Heiko Purnhagen, Per Ekstrand
  • Patent number: 11610596
    Abstract: An adjustment method of sound output is disclosed. The adjustment method includes the following steps of: receiving an audio message having a vowel message; determining whether the audio message is a whispered voice message; if the audio message is a whispered voice message, outputting a normal voice message, wherein the spoken content of the normal voice message is the same as that of the audio message, and the normal voice message has a normal voice vowel message, wherein the sound energy of the low-frequency part of the normal voice vowel message is 1.5-1,000,000 times that of the vowel message.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: AIROHA TECHNOLOGY CORP.
    Inventors: Kuan-Li Chao, Wei-Ren Lan, Hung Lin, Kuo-Ping Yang
  • Patent number: 11555879
    Abstract: A signal processing unit performs, on the basis of a received electric field signal from an antenna by which a beam is scanned within a predetermined azimuthal angle and a signal of an azimuthal angle of the scanned beam, a Fourier transform on a distribution function of the received electric field signal into a frequency domain of the azimuthal angle, divides a signal according to a first spectral function by a signal according to a second spectral function, the first spectral function being obtained by performing the Fourier transform, the second spectral function being obtained by performing a Fourier transform on an antenna pattern of the antenna into a frequency domain of the azimuthal angle, and subjects the divided signal to fitting by using Prony's method with exponential functions including real parts and imaginary parts in arguments.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2023
    Assignee: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
    Inventor: Toshihiro Sezai
  • Patent number: 11488610
    Abstract: An audio decoder for providing at least four bandwidth-extended channel signals on the basis of an encoded representation provides first and second downmix signals on the basis of a jointly encoded representation of the first and second downmix signals using a multi-channel decoding and provides at least first and second audio channel signals on the basis of the first downmix signal using a multi-channel decoding, and provides at least third and fourth audio channel signals on the basis of the second downmix signal using a multi-channel decoding. It performs a multi-channel bandwidth extension on the basis of the first and third audio channel signals, to obtain first and third bandwidth-extended channel signals, and performs a multi-channel bandwidth extension on the basis of the second and fourth audio channel signals, to obtain second and fourth bandwidth extended channel signals. An audio encoder uses a related concept.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2022
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Sascha Dick, Christian Ertel, Christian Helmrich, Johannes Hilpert, Andreas Hoelzer, Achim Kuntz
  • Patent number: 11475901
    Abstract: A method for decoding a digital signal encoded using predictive coding and transform coding, comprising the following steps: predictive decoding of a preceding frame of the digital signal, encoded by a set of predictive coding parameters; detecting the loss of a current frame of the encoded digital signal; generating by prediction, from at least one predictive coding parameter encoding the preceding frame, a frame for replacing the current frame; generating by prediction, from at least one predictive coding parameter encoding the preceding frame, an additional segment of digital signal; temporarily storing said additional segment of digital signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: ORANGE
    Inventors: Julien Faure, Stephane Ragot
  • Patent number: 11437053
    Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to reduce distortion a frequency band component encoded with a small number of bits in a time domain and improve quality. An audio decoding device (10) decodes an encoded audio signal and outputs the audio signal. A decoding unit (10a) decodes an encoded sequence containing an encoded audio signal and obtains a decoded signal. A selective temporal envelope shaping unit (10b) shapes a temporal envelope of a decoded signal in the frequency band on the basis of decoding related information concerning decoding of the encoded sequence.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2022
    Assignee: NTT DOCOMO, INC.
    Inventors: Kei Kikuiri, Atsushi Yamaguchi
  • Patent number: 11410670
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for receiving data transmitted acoustically. The method includes receiving an acoustically transmitted signal encoding data; processing the received signal to minimise environmental interference within the received signal; and decoding the processed signal to extract the data. The data encoded within the signal using a sequence of tones. A method for encoding data for acoustic transmission is also disclosed. This method includes encoding data into an audio signal using a sequence of tones. The audio signal in this method is configured to minimise environmental interference. A system and software are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2022
    Assignee: Sonos Experience Limited
    Inventors: Daniel John Jones, James Andrew Nesfield
  • Patent number: 11308152
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a quantization method of feature vector, search method, apparatus and storage medium, wherein the quantization method comprises: setting quantization codewords; selecting, from the set quantization codewords, at least one quantization codeword of which distance from an original feature vector is smaller than first predetermined distance as a quantization codeword subset; determining quantization feature vectors corresponding to the original feature vector by using at least two quantization codewords, wherein at least one quantization codeword from the at least two quantization codewords are in the quantization codeword subset. The search method is a method of performing a search among quantization feature vectors after a quantization using the quantization method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2022
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yaohai Huang, Cheng Tan, Yuanda Deng
  • Patent number: 11205056
    Abstract: A system and method for masking an identity of a speaker of natural language speech, such as speech clips to be labeled by humans in a system generating voice transcriptions for training an automatic speech recognition model. The natural language speech is morphed prior to being presented to the human for labeling. In one embodiment, morphing comprises pitch shifting the speech randomly either up or down, then frequency shifting the speech, then pitch shifting the speech in a direction opposite the first pitch shift.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2021
    Assignee: SoundHound, Inc.
    Inventor: Dylan H Ross
  • Patent number: 11146897
    Abstract: A method of operating a hearing aid system in order to provide improved performance for a multitude of hearing aid system processing stages and a hearing aid system (400) for carrying out the method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2021
    Assignee: Widex A/S
    Inventors: Thomas Bo Elmedyb, Lars Dalskov Mosgaard, Michael Johannes Pihl, Pejman Mowlaee, David Pelegrin-Garcia
  • Patent number: 11086968
    Abstract: In a system for improving performance of tensor-based computations and for minimizing the associated memory usage, computations associated with different non-zero tensor values are performed while exploiting an overlap between the respective index tuples of those non-zero values. While performing computations associated with a selected mode, when an index corresponding to a particular mode in a current index tuple is the same as the corresponding index from another, previously processed index tuple, the value already stored in a buffer corresponding to that particular mode is reused either wholly or in part, minimizing the processor usage and improving performance. Certain matrix operations may be iterated more than once so as to avoid the need to store a large partial result obtained from those operations. The performance overhead of the repeated operations is not significant, but the reduction in memory usage is.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2021
    Assignee: Reservoir Labs, Inc.
    Inventor: Muthu Manikandan Baskaran
  • Patent number: 11017782
    Abstract: A controller and method of classifying a user into one of a plurality of user classes. One or more voice samples are received from the user, from which a frequency spectrum is generated. One or more values defining respective features of the frequency spectrum are extracted from the frequency spectrum. Each of the respective features are defined by values of frequency, amplitude, and/or position in the spectrum. One or more of the respective features are resonant frequencies in the voice of the user. A user profile of the user is generated and comprises the extracted one or more values. The user profile is supplied to a machine learning algorithm that is trained to classify users as belonging to one of the plurality of user classes based on the one or more values in their respective user profile.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2021
    Assignee: XMOS Ltd.
    Inventors: Kevin Michael Short, Kourosh Zarringhalam
  • Patent number: 11017797
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to reduce noise from harmonic noise sources. An example apparatus includes a contour tracer to determine a first point of comparatively large amplitude of a frequency component in a frequency spectrum of an audio sample, determine a set of points in the frequency spectrum having amplitude values within an amplitude threshold of the first point, frequency values within a frequency threshold of the first point, and phase values within a phase threshold of the first point, increment a counter when a distance between (1) a second point in the set of points and (2) the first point satisfies a distance threshold, and when the counter satisfies a counter threshold, generate the contour trace, the contour trace including the set of points, and a subtractor to remove the contour trace from the audio sample when the amplitude values satisfy an outlier threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2021
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventor: Matthew McCallum
  • Patent number: 10985851
    Abstract: A method for optimising the transmission power of an FM radio broadcasting transmitter includes sampling a signal representative of the audio content to be broadcasted by the FM radio broadcasting transmitter; continuously calculating the constituent parameters of the representative signal from frequency, amplitude, dynamic range, temporal distribution, energy and power; continuously analysing the parameters by comparison with a model of psycho-acoustic data; generating a controlling signal for controlling the power of the transmitter as a function of the results of the analysis and of the calculations allowed by the constituent parameters and the continuous psycho-acoustic data; driving of the RF power of the transmitter by means of the controlling signal. A device for implementing the method in an FM radio broadcasting transmitter is also proposed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2021
    Inventor: Daniel Werbrouck
  • Patent number: 10937437
    Abstract: An audio encoder for providing an output signal using an input audio signal includes a patch generator, a comparator and an output interface. The patch generator generates at least one bandwidth extension high-frequency signal, wherein a bandwidth extension high-frequency signal includes a high-frequency band. The high-frequency band of the bandwidth extension high-frequency signal is based on a low frequency band of the input audio signal. A comparator calculates a plurality of comparison parameters. A comparison parameter is calculated based on a comparison of the input audio signal and a generated bandwidth extension high-frequency signal. Each comparison parameter of the plurality of comparison parameters is calculated based on a different offset frequency between the input audio signal and a generated bandwidth extension high-frequency signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.
    Inventors: Frederik Nagel, Sascha Disch, Guillaume Fuchs, Juergen Herre, Christian Griebel
  • Patent number: 10908874
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method, a device, a system and/or a manufacture of control and security of a voice controlled device. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a signal input for receiving a command signal and a soundwave damper to dampen a sound receiving capability of a voice controlled device. The voice controlled device is capable of initiating a responsive action in response to a voice command. A processor determinations that the command signal is associated with the voice command and in response to the determination generate with a speaker a soundwave carrying the voice command bypassing the soundwave damper such that the soundwave carrying the voice command is communicable to the microphone of the voice controlled device. The apparatus also includes a cap housing the speaker and optionally the soundwave damper. As an example, the soundwave damper may be a barrier, a flexible membrane, or a sound interference generator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2021
    Assignee: The Idealogic Group, Inc.
    Inventor: Dennis Fountaine
  • Patent number: 10896674
    Abstract: A signal processing apparatus that handles an adaptive enhancement of a speech signal, receives a first signal and a second signal from a determined source. At least one of a speech signal or at least one noise signal is present in the first signal or the second signal. The first signal and the received second signal are processed to obtain a processed signal for amplification of a gain associated with the speech signal present in the first signal and the second signal by a determined factor. A signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) associated with the processed signal is greater than or equal to a threshold value. A reference noise signal is obtained from the second signal based on subtraction of an estimated the speech signal present in the received second signal from the processed signal. A processed speech signal is determined based on filtration of the obtained reference noise signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 19, 2021
    Assignee: KAAM LLC
    Inventor: Senthil Kumar Mani
  • Patent number: 10818304
    Abstract: A decoder for decoding an encoded audio signal to obtain a phase-adjusted audio signal is provided. The decoder has a decoding unit and a phase adjustment unit. The decoding unit is adapted to decode the encoded audio signal to obtain a decoded audio signal. The phase adjustment unit is adapted to adjust the decoded audio signal to obtain the phase-adjusted audio signal. The phase adjustment unit is configured to receive control information depending on a vertical phase coherence of the encoded audio signal. Moreover, the phase adjustment unit is adapted to adjust the decoded audio signal based on the control information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2020
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Sascha Disch, Juergen Herre, Bernd Edler, Frederik Nagel
  • Patent number: 10811020
    Abstract: A voice signal decoding device includes a first decoder, a second decoder, a signal switch, and a noise adder. The first decoder decodes first encoded data encoded by a first encoding method. The second decoder decodes second encoded data encoded by a second encoding method. The second encoded data has a narrower band than a band of the first encoded data. The signal switch switches an output signal of the first decoder and an output signal of the second decoder. The noise adder adds a noise signal to a high-frequency band in the output signal of the second decoder when the signal switch switches an output signal from the output signal of the first decoder to the output signal of the second decoder. The high-frequency band is a band where a signal component is lacking as compared with the output signal of the first decoder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2020
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Ehara, Takuya Kawashima
  • Patent number: 10803857
    Abstract: The invention discloses systems and methods for enhancing the sound of vocal utterances of interest in an acoustically cluttered environment. The system generates canceling signals (sound suppression signals) for an ambient audio environment and identifies and characterizes desired vocal signals and hence a vocal stream or multiple streams of interest. Each canceling signal, or collectively, the noise canceling stream, is processed so that signals associated with the desired audio stream or streams are dynamically removed from the canceling stream. This modified noise canceling stream is combined (electronically or acoustically) with the ambient to effectuate a destructive interference of all ambient sound except for the removed audio streams, thus “enhancing” the vocal streams with respect to the unwanted ambient sound. Cepstral analysis may be used to identify a fundamental frequency associated with a voiced human utterance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2020
    Inventor: James Jordan Rosenberg
  • Patent number: 10770051
    Abstract: An apparatus for analysing a magnitude spectrogram of an audio signal is provided. The apparatus includes a frequency change determiner being configured to determine a change of a frequency for each time-frequency bin of a plurality of time-frequency bins of the magnitude spectrogram of the audio signal depending on the magnitude spectrogram of the audio signal. Moreover, the apparatus includes a classifier being configured to assign each time-frequency bin of the plurality of time-frequency bins to a signal component group of two or more signal component groups depending on the change of the frequency determined for the time-frequency bin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2020
    Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FĂ–RDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.
    Inventors: Andreas Niedermeier, Richard FĂĽg, Sascha Disch, Meinard MĂĽller, Jonathan Driedger
  • Patent number: 10770080
    Abstract: An audio decoder for providing at least four bandwidth-extended channel signals on the basis of an encoded representation provides first and second downmix signals on the basis of a jointly encoded representation of the first and second downmix signals using a multi-channel decoding and provides at least first and second audio channel signals on the basis of the first downmix signal using a multi-channel decoding, and provides at least third and fourth audio channel signals on the basis of the second downmix signal using a multi-channel decoding. It performs a multi-channel bandwidth extension on the basis of the first and third audio channel signals, to obtain first and third bandwidth-extended channel signals, and performs a multi-channel bandwidth extension on the basis of the second and fourth audio channel signals, to obtain second and fourth bandwidth extended channel signals. An audio encoder uses a related concept.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2020
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung, e.V.
    Inventors: Sascha Dick, Christian Ertel, Christian Helmrich, Johannes Hilpert, Andreas Hoelzer, Achim Kuntz
  • Patent number: 10726860
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to reduce noise from harmonic noise sources. Example methods disclosed herein include determining a point of comparatively large amplitude for a frequency in an audio sample, generating a contour trace beginning at the point, and calculating a parameter for the contour trace. The example method includes, in response to the contour trace being an outlier based on the parameter, removing the contour trace from the audio sample.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2020
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventor: Matthew McCallum
  • Patent number: 10715912
    Abstract: A wireless communication device includes an equalizer configured to adjust a frequency characteristic of a user audio signal on the basis of a predetermined gain setting and to generate an adjusted signal, or an adjusted audio signal; an encoder configured to encode the adjusted signal with a preset scheme to generate an encoded signal; a decoder configured to decode the encoded signal to generate a decoded signal; a sound quality evaluator configured to carry out a PESQ evaluation of the decoded signal and to generate an evaluation result with the user audio signal serving as a reference signal for evaluation; and a selector configured to change the gain setting and to select a gain setting yielding a high evaluation result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2020
    Assignee: JVCKENWOOD Corporation
    Inventor: Tatsuya Onoda
  • Patent number: 10706865
    Abstract: An apparatus for selecting one of a first encoding algorithm and a second encoding algorithm includes a filter configured to receive the audio signal, to reduce the amplitude of harmonics in the audio signal and to output a filtered version of the audio signal. First and second estimators are provided for estimating first and second quality measures in the form of SNRs of segmented SNRs associated with the first and second encoding algorithms without actually encoding and decoding the portion of the audio signal using the first and second encoding algorithms. A controller is provided for selecting the first encoding algorithm or the second encoding algorithm based on a comparison between the first quality measure and the second quality measure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Emmanuel Ravelli, Markus Multrus, Stefan Doehla, Bernhard Grill, Manuel Jander
  • Patent number: 10706856
    Abstract: A speaker identification/verification system comprises at least one feature extractor for extracting a plurality of audio features from speaker voice data, a plurality of speaker-specific subsystems, and a decision module. Each of the speaker-specific subsystem comprises: a neural network configured to generate an estimate of the plurality of extracted audio features based on the plurality of extracted audio features, and an error module. Each of the plurality of neural networks is associated with one of a plurality of speakers, and the one speaker associated with each of the plurality of neural networks is different for all neural networks. The error module is configured to estimate an error based on the plurality of extracted audio features and the estimate of the plurality of extracted audio features generated by the associated neural network. The neural networks are speaker-specific auto-encoders trained for one user and therefore calibrated on that particular user's speech.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: OBEN, INC.
    Inventor: Mohammad Mehdi Korjani
  • Patent number: 10621996
    Abstract: An audio encoder has a first information sink oriented encoding branch, a second information source or SNR oriented encoding branch, and a switch for switching between the first encoding branch and the second encoding branch, wherein the second encoding branch has a converter into a specific domain different from the spectral domain, and wherein the second encoding branch furthermore has a specific domain coding branch, and a specific spectral domain coding branch, and an additional switch for switching between the specific domain coding branch and the specific spectral domain coding branch. An audio decoder has a first domain decoder, a second domain decoder for decoding a signal, and a third domain decoder and two cascaded switches for switching between the decoders.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2020
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Bernard Grill, Roch Lefebvre, Bruno Bessette, Jimmy Lapierre, Philippe Gournay, Redwan Salami, Stefan Bayer, Guillaume Fuchs, Stefam Geyersberger, Raif Geiger, Johannes Hilpert, Ulrich Kraemer, Jérémie Lecomte, Markus Multrus, Max Neuendorf, Harald Popp, Nikolaus Rettelbach
  • Patent number: 10529349
    Abstract: Systems and methods for an audio signal processing system for transforming an input audio signal. A processor implements steps of a module by inputting an input audio signal into a spectrogram estimator to extract an audio feature sequence, and process the audio feature sequence to output a set of estimated spectrograms. Processing the set of estimated spectrograms and the audio feature sequence using a spectrogram refinement module, to output a set of refined spectrograms. Wherein the processing of the spectrogram refinement module is based on an iterative reconstruction algorithm. Processing the set of refined spectrograms for the one or more target audio signals using a signal refinement module, to obtain the target audio signal estimates. An output interface to output the optimized target audio signal estimates. Wherein the module is optimized by minimizing an error using an optimizer stored in the memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2020
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Jonathan Le Roux, John R Hershey, Zhongqiu Wang, Gordon P Wichern
  • Patent number: 10530417
    Abstract: In a transmit method, a set of data eigenvectors that are based on a Prometheus Orthonormal Set (PONS) code construction and orthogonal to each other are stored, wherein the data eigenvectors are mapped to unique multi-bit words. A pilot sequence representing a pilot eigenvector that is based on the PONS code construction and orthogonal to each of the data eigenvectors is generated. Input data are grouped into multi-bit words and data eigenvectors among the data eigenvectors are selected based on the multi-bit words. A spread data sequence including the selected data eigenvectors and that is synchronized to the pilot sequence is generated. An acoustic signal including the synchronized pilot sequence and the spread data sequence is generated. The acoustic signal is transmitted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2020
    Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael A. Ramalho, Mihailo Zilovic, David A. Benham
  • Patent number: 10524051
    Abstract: A sound source direction estimation device includes: a phase difference calculator which calculates, from an acoustic signal obtained by a microphone array, a first phase difference of a pair of microphone units; a similarity calculator which calculates similarities between the calculated first phase difference and second phase differences precalculated for directions and stored in a phase difference database; a peak searcher which searches for a direction for which a highest similarity is calculated by the similarity calculator, and estimates the direction searched out to be a sound source direction; a feature quantity calculator which uses the calculated similarities, the estimated sound source direction, and an acoustic feature quantity obtained from the obtained acoustic signal, to calculate a feature quantity obtained by correcting the acoustic feature quantity; and a speech/non-speech determiner which determines whether the obtained acoustic signal indicates speech, using the feature quantity calculated
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2019
    Assignee: PANASONIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kohhei Hayashida, Takeo Kanamori
  • Patent number: 10490181
    Abstract: The present invention is provided with: a voice input section that receives a remark (a question) via a voice signal; a reply creation section that creates a voice sequence of a reply (response) to the remark; a pitch analysis section that analyzes the pitch of a first segment (e.g., word ending) of the remark; and a voice generation section (a voice synthesis section, etc.) that generates a reply, in the form of voice, represented by the voice sequence. The voice generation section controls the pitch of the entire reply in such a manner that the pitch of a second segment (e.g., word ending) of the reply assumes a predetermined pitch (e.g., five degrees down) with respect to the pitch of the first segment of the remark. Such arrangements can realize synthesis of replying voice capable of giving a natural feel to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: YAMAHA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hiroaki Matsubara, Junya Ura, Takehiko Kawahara, Yuji Hisaminato, Katsuji Yoshimura
  • Patent number: 10492014
    Abstract: Audio objects that are present in input audio content in one or more frames are determined. Output clusters that are present in output audio content in the one or more frames are also determined. Here, the audio objects in the input audio content are converted to the output clusters in the output audio content. One or more spatial error metrics are computed based at least in part on positional metadata of the audio objects and positional metadata of the output clusters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignees: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation, Dolby International AB
    Inventors: Dirk Jeroen Breebaart, Lianwu Chen, Lie Lu, Antonio Mateos Sole, Nicolas R. Tsingos
  • Patent number: 10438599
    Abstract: A method and device are provided for determining an optimized scale factor to be applied to an excitation signal or a filter during a process for frequency band extension of an audio frequency signal. The band extension process includes decoding or extracting, in a first frequency band, an excitation signal and parameters of the first frequency band including coefficients of a linear prediction filter, generating an excitation signal extending over at least one second frequency band, filtering using a linear prediction filter for the second frequency band. The determination method includes determining an additional linear prediction filter, of a lower order than that of the linear prediction filter of the first frequency band, the coefficients of the additional filter being obtained from the parameters decoded or extracted from the first frequency and calculating the optimized scale factor as a function of at least the coefficients of the additional filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2019
    Assignee: KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.
    Inventors: Magdalena Kaniewska, Stephane Ragot
  • Patent number: 10438600
    Abstract: A method and device are provided for determining an optimized scale factor to be applied to an excitation signal or a filter during a process for frequency band extension of an audio frequency signal. The band extension process includes decoding or extracting, in a first frequency band, an excitation signal and parameters of the first frequency band including coefficients of a linear prediction filter, generating an excitation signal extending over at least one second frequency band, filtering using a linear prediction filter for the second frequency band. The determination method includes determining an additional linear prediction filter, of a lower order than that of the linear prediction filter of the first frequency band, the coefficients of the additional filter being obtained from the parameters decoded or extracted from the first frequency and calculating the optimized scale factor as a function of at least the coefficients of the additional filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2019
    Assignee: KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.
    Inventors: Magdalena Kaniewska, Stephane Ragot
  • Patent number: 10431226
    Abstract: A method for processing a digital audio signal, including a series of samples distributed in consecutive frames, is implemented when decoding the signal in order to replace at least one signal frame lost during decoding. The method includes the following steps: a) searching, in a valid signal segment available when decoding, for at least one period in the signal, determined in accordance with the valid signal; b) analyzing the signal in the period, in order to determine spectral components of the signal in the period; c) synthesizing at least one frame for replacing the lost frame, by construction of a synthesis signal from: an addition of components selected among the predetermined spectral components, and a noise added to the addition of components. In particular, the amount of noise added to the addition of components is weighted in accordance with voice information of the valid signal, obtained when decoding.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2019
    Assignee: ORANGE
    Inventors: Julien Faure, Stephane Ragot
  • Patent number: 10410645
    Abstract: Disclosed are a method and an apparatus for high frequency decoding for bandwidth extension. The method for high frequency decoding for bandwidth extension comprises the steps of: decoding an excitation class; transforming a decoded low frequency spectrum on the basis of the excitation class; and generating a high frequency excitation spectrum on the basis of the transformed low frequency spectrum. The method and apparatus for high frequency decoding for bandwidth extension according to an embodiment can transform a restored low frequency spectrum and generate a high frequency excitation spectrum, thereby improving the restored sound quality without an excessive increase in complexity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2019
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Ki-hyun Choo, Eun-mi Oh, Seon-ho Hwang
  • Patent number: 10354662
    Abstract: An apparatus for generating an encoded signal includes: a window sequence controller for generating a window sequence information for windowing an audio or image signal, the window sequence information indicating a first window for generating a first frame of spectral values, a second window function and at least one third window function for generating a second frame of spectral values, wherein the first window function, the second window function and the one or more third window functions overlap within a multi-overlap region; a preprocessor for windowing a second block of samples corresponding to the second window function and the at least one third window functions using an auxiliary window function to acquire a second block of windowed samples, a spectrum converter for applying an aliasing-introducing transform; and a processor for processing the first frame and the second frame to acquire encoded frames of the audio or image signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2019
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Christian Helmrich, Jeremie Lecomte, Goran Markovic, Markus Schnell, Bernd Edler, Stefan Reuschl
  • Patent number: 10325615
    Abstract: Methods and systems for audio source separation in real-time are described. In an embodiment, the present disclosure describes reading and decoding an audio source into PCM samples, fragmenting Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) samples into fragments, transforming fragments into spectrograms, performing audio source separation using a training database that includes a training dictionary and non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) to generate a set of component signals, and streaming the component signals to a playback engine. In an embodiment, a semantic equalizer graphical user allows for fading of individual component signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2019
    Assignee: Red Pill VR, Inc
    Inventors: Alejandro Koretzky, Karthiek Reddy Bokka, Naveen Sasalu Rajashekharappa
  • Patent number: 10319384
    Abstract: An audio encoder has a first information sink oriented encoding branch, a second information source or SNR oriented encoding branch, and a switch for switching between the first encoding branch and the second encoding branch, wherein the second encoding branch has a converter into a specific domain different from the spectral domain, and wherein the second encoding branch furthermore has a specific domain coding branch, and a specific spectral domain coding branch, and an additional switch for switching between the specific domain coding branch and the specific spectral domain coding branch. An audio decoder has a first domain decoder, a second domain decoder for decoding a signal, and a third domain decoder and two cascaded switches for switching between the decoders.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 11, 2019
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Bernhard Grill, Roch Lefebvre, Bruno Bessette, Jimmy Lapierre, Philippe Gournay, Redwan Salami, Stefan Bayer, Guillaume Fuchs, Stefan Geyersberger, Ralf Geiger, Johannes Hilpert, Ulrich Kraemer, Jeremie Lecomte, Markus Multrus, Max Neuendorf, Harald Popp, Nikolaus Rettelbach