Controller and User Interface for Dialogue Enhancement Techniques

• US 20080165286A1
• Filed: 09/14/2007
• Published: 07/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Oh, Hyen-O, Jung, Yang-Won
• Granted Patent: US 8,184,834 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/569
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/008 Multichannel audio signal coding or decoding using interchannel correlation to reduce redundancy, e.g. joint-stereo, intensity-coding or matrixing
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0232 Processing in the frequency domain
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 2400/05 Generation or adaptation of centre channel in multi-channel audio systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 2420/03 Application of parametric coding in stereophonic audio systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 2420/07 Synergistic effects of band splitting and sub-band processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 3/008 in which the audio signals are in digital form, i.e. employing more than two discrete digital channels data reduction aspects thereof based on psychoacoustics G10L19/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 5/00 Pseudo-stereo systems, e.g. in which additional channel signals are derived from monophonic signals by means of phase shifting, time delay or reverberation

Abstract

A plural-channel audio signal (e.g., a stereo audio) is processed to modify a gain (e.g., a volume level or loudness) of an estimated dialogue signal (e.g., dialogue spoken by actors in a movie) relative to other signals (e.g., reflected or reverberated sound). In some aspects, a controller is used to control master volume and dialogue volume. In some aspects, one or more graphical objects and/or user interface elements are used to indicate volume levels and other information.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a dialogue volume control;

a master volume control; and

a circuit operatively coupled to the dialogue volume control and the master volume control and configurable for generating a dialogue volume control signal and a master volume control signal for use in separately adjusting the dialogue volume and the master volume of an audio signal, respectively.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the dialogue volume control signal is used for adjusting dialogue volume level of an audio signal relative to the master volume level or the volume level of one or more other audio signals.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the dialogue volume control signal is used for boosting or attenuating dialogue volume.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, where the dialogue volume of the audio signal increases or decreases incrementally by a predetermined amount in response to user interaction with the dialogue volume control.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, where the visual appearance of the dialogue volume control or the master volume control is modified to indicate its function or activation.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, where the dialogue volume control signal is used to generate one or more graphical objects on a display device for providing visual feedback indicating dialogue volume level.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, where a first graphical object indicates master volume level and a second graphical object indicates dialogue volume level relative to master volume level or relative to a volume level of another audio signal.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, where the dialogue volume control signal is used to generate an indicator that dialogue volume control is active.

9. An apparatus comprising:

a volume control;

a dialogue volume control select; and

a circuit operatively coupled to the volume control and configurable for generating a dialogue volume control signal if the dialogue volume control select is activated, and for generating a master volume control signal to the device if the dialogue volume control select is not activated.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, where the dialogue volume of an audio signal increases or decreases incrementally by a predetermined amount in response to user interaction with the dialogue volume control.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, where the visual appearance of the volume control or the dialogue volume control select is modified to indicate its function.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, where the dialogue volume control signal is used to generate an indicator that dialogue volume control is active for display by the apparatus or another device.

13. A method comprising:

receiving a first volume control signal;

receiving a second volume control signal;

responsive to the first volume control signal, displaying a first graphical object for indicating a first volume level; and

responsive to the second volume control signal, displaying a second graphical object within or proximate to the first graphical object for indicating a second volume level relative to the first volume level.

14. The method of claim 13, where the first graphical object is a bar and the second graphical object is a line extending within the bar to visually indicate the second volume level relative to the first volume.

15. The method of claim 13, where the first volume level is a master volume level of a plural-channel audio signal and the second volume level is a dialogue volume level relative to the master volume level.

16. A method comprising:

obtaining a plural-channel audio signal;

estimating a center channel signal and at least left and right channel signals using the audio signal;

modifying a first gain of the center channel signal using a gain factor generated by a dialogue volume control;

generating a combined channel signal including the left and right channel signals and the modified center channel signal; and

modifying a second gain of the combined channel signal using a master volume control.

17. A system comprising:

a controller configurable for generating a dialogue volume control signal; and

a receiver configurable for receiving the dialogue volume control signal, and for using the dialogue volume control signal to modify a dialogue volume level of a plural-channel audio signal being processed by the television receiver without modifying the volume level of at least a portion of the plural-channel audio signal.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

a display operatively coupled to the receiver and configurable for displaying one of more graphical objects indicating a first volume level and a second volume level relative to the first volume level.

19. The system of claim 18, where a first graphical object is a bar for indicating the first volume level and a second graphical object is a line extending within the bar to visually indicate the second volume level relative to the first volume level.

20. The system of claim 18, where the first volume level is a master volume level of the plural-channel audio signal and the second volume level is a dialogue volume level relative to the master volume level.

21. The system of claim 17, where the controller further comprises:

a dialogue volume control; and

a circuit operatively coupled to the volume control and configurable for generating the dialogue volume control signal in response to user interaction with the dialogue volume control.