PROCESSING AUDIO DATA

• US 20080281599A1
• Filed: 04/15/2008
• Published: 11/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Ultra Electronics AudioSoft (Ultra Electronics Holdings PLC)
• Original Assignee: Ultra Electronics AudioSoft (Ultra Electronics Holdings PLC)
• Inventors: Rocca, Paul
• Application Number:
  US12/103,231
• Publication Number:
  US 20080281599A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/270
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/68 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/683 using metadata automatically derived from the content

Abstract

A method of processing audio data including obtaining (202) audio data; analysing (206) the audio data to determine at least one characteristic of the audio data; generating (206) data describing the at least one characteristic of the analysed audio data, and/or modifying (412) an audio recording process based on the at least one characteristic of the analysed audio data.

Claims

1. A method of processing audio data including:

obtaining audio data;

analysing the audio data to determine at least one characteristic of the audio data;

generating data describing the at least one characteristic of the analysed audio data, and/or

modifying an audio recording process based on the at least one characteristic of the analysed audio data.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the data describing the at least one characteristic of the analysed audio data is saved as meta-data associated with the analysed audio data.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of analysing the audio data includes generating an estimate of a signal to noise ratio of the audio data.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of analysing the audio data includes generating an estimate of a length of speech content in the audio data.

5. A method according to claim 4, when dependent upon claim 3, further including transferring at least part of the analysed audio data to an automated transcription process (or saving meta-data indicating that the analysed audio data is suitable for such processing) if the estimated signal to noise ration falls within a predefined range and the estimated speech content length falls within a predefined range.

6. A method according to claim 4, further including transferring at least part of the analysed audio data to a language detection process or a keyword spotting process (or saving meta-data indicating that the analysed audio data is suitable for such processing) if the estimated speech content length falls within a predefined range.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of analysing the audio data includes detecting a region of clipping in the audio data.

8. A method according to claim 7, further including adjusting a recording process or device to modify its gain (or saving meta-data indicating that the analysed audio data is suitable for such processing).

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of analysing the audio data includes detecting a region of silence in the audio data.

10. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of analysing the audio data includes detecting a region of low amplitude in the audio data.

11. A method according to claim 10, further including transferring at least part of the analysed audio data to a process for increasing its amplitude.

12. A method according to claim 1, wherein the audio data is obtained from an audio recording device in real time.

13. A method according to claim 12, wherein the audio data is obtained from at least one channel of a multi-channel audio recording device.

14. A method according to claim 13, wherein the audio data is obtained from a plurality of the channels and the analysing step is performed on the plurality of obtained audio data in a parallel or serial manner.

15. A method according to claim 13, including detecting a said inactive channel and ceasing obtaining the audio data from the inactive channel, or switching to obtain audio data from another one of the channels that is active.

16. A method according to claim 1, wherein the obtained audio data is a portion of a larger file/set of audio data.

17. An audio data processing system including:

a device configured to obtain audio data;

a device configured to analyse the audio data to determine at least one characteristic of the audio data;

a device configured to generate data describing the at least one characteristic of the analysed audio data, and/or

a device configured to generate modify an audio recording process based on the at least one characteristic of the analysed audio data.

18. An audio recording device including an audio data processing system according to claim 17.

19. A computer program product comprising computer readable medium, having thereon computer program code means, when the program code is loaded, to make the computer execute a method including steps of:

obtaining audio data;

analysing the audio data to determine at least one characteristic of the audio data;

generating data describing the at least one characteristic of the analysed audio data, and/or

modifying an audio recording process based on the at least one characteristic of the analysed audio data.