SPEECH ENCODING APPARATUS AND SPEECH ENCODING METHOD

• US 20090265167A1
• Filed: 09/14/2007
• Published: 10/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: III Holdings 12, LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Morii, Toshiyuki, Yoshida, Koji, Ehara, Hiroyuki
• Granted Patent: US 8,239,191 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/219
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/08 Determination or coding of the excitation function; Determination or coding of the long-term prediction parameters
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/265 Pre-filtering, e.g. high frequency emphasis prior to encoding

Abstract

Disclosed is an audio encoding device capable of adjusting a spectrum inclination of a quantized noise without changing the Formant weight. The device includes: an HPF (131) which extracts a high-frequency component of the frequency region from an input audio signal; a high-frequency energy level calculation unit (132) which calculates an energy level of the high-frequency component in a frame unit; an LPF (133) which extracts a low-frequency component of the frequency region from the input audio signal; a low-energy level calculation unit (134) which calculates an energy level of a low-frequency component in a frame unit; an inclination correction coefficient calculation unit (141) multiplies the difference between SNR of the high-frequency component and SNR of the low-frequency component inputted from an adder (140) by a constant and adds a bias component to the product so as to calculate an inclination correction coefficient ?3. The inclination correction coefficient is used for adjusting the spectrum inclination of a quantized noise.

Claims

1. A speech encoding apparatus comprising:

a linear prediction analyzing section that performs a linear prediction analysis with respect to a speech signal to generate a linear prediction coefficient;

a quantizing section that quantizes the linear prediction coefficient;

a perceptual weighting section that performs perceptual weighting filtering with respect to an input speech signal to generate a perceptual weighted speech signal using a transfer function including a tilt compensation coefficient for adjusting a spectral slope of a quantization noise;

a tilt compensation coefficient control section that controls the tilt compensation coefficient using a signal to noise ratio of the speech signal in a first frequency band; and

an excitation search section that performs an excitation search of an adaptive codebook and fixed codebook to generate an excitation signal using the perceptual weighted speech signal.

2. The speech encoding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the tilt compensation coefficient control section controls the tilt compensation coefficient using the signal to noise ratio of a first signal in the first frequency band of the speech signal and a signal to noise ratio of a second signal in a second frequency band higher than the first frequency band of the speech signal.

3. The speech encoding apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the tilt compensation coefficient control section further comprises:

an extracting section that extracts from the speech signal the first signal in the first frequency band and the second signal in the second frequency band higher than the first frequency band;

an energy calculating section that calculates an energy of the first signal and an energy of the second signal;

a noise period energy calculating section that calculates an energy of a noise period in the first signal and an energy of a noise period in the second signal;

a signal to noise ratio calculating section that calculates a signal to noise ratio of the first signal and a signal to noise ratio of the second signal; and

a tilt compensation coefficient calculating section that acquires the tilt compensation coefficient by multiplying a difference between the signal to noise ratio of the first signal and the signal to noise ratio of the second signal and a first constant, and further adding a second constant to a multiplication result.

4. The speech encoding apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the tilt compensation coefficient comprises a tilt compensation coefficient for shaping a low band component of the quantization noise higher when the signal to noise ratio of the second signal becomes higher than the signal to noise ratio of the first signal, and shaping a high band component of the quantization noise higher when the signal to noise ratio of the first signal becomes higher than the signal to noise ratio of the second signal.

5. The speech encoding apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the tilt compensation coefficient control section further comprises:

a lower limit value calculating section that calculates a lower limit value of the tilt compensation coefficient by adding the energy of the noise period in the first signal and the energy of the noise period in the second signal, and further multiplying an addition result by a third constant; and

a limiting section that limits the tilt compensation coefficient to a range between the lower limit value and a predetermined upper limit value.

6. The speech encoding apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the tilt compensation coefficient control section further comprises a noise period detecting section that detects as a noise period one of a period in which an energy calculated using the speech signal is less than a first threshold, and a period in which a parameter equivalent to a reciprocal of a linear prediction gain acquired by the linear prediction analysis with respect to the speech signal is less than a second threshold and in which a pitch prediction gain acquired by pitch analysis with respect to the speech signal is less than a third threshold.

7. The speech encoding apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the noise period detecting section detects the noise period of the speech signal using an energy acquired by adding an energy of the first signal and an energy of the second signal, a parameter relating to the linear prediction gain acquired in a process of the linear prediction analysis in the linear prediction analyzing section, and the pitch prediction gain acquired in a process of the excitation search.

8. The speech encoding apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising:

a first counter that counts the number of frames determined consecutively as the noise period; and

a second counter that counts the number of frames determined consecutively as a speech period,

wherein, in the detected noise period, the noise period detecting section detects a period corresponding to one of a period in which a value on the first counter is less than a fourth threshold, a period in which a value on the second counter is equal to or greater than a fifth counter, and a period in which the signal to noise ratio of the first signal and the signal to noise ratio of the second signal are both less than a sixth threshold.

9. The speech encoding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the tilt compensation coefficient control section further comprises:

an extracting section that extract a first signal in a first frequency band from the speech signal;

an energy calculating section that calculates an energy of the first signal;

a noise period energy calculating section that calculates an energy of a noise period in the first signal; and

a tilt compensation coefficient calculating section that, if a signal to noise ratio of the first signal is equal to or greater than a first threshold, makes a value of the tilt compensation coefficient larger when the signal to noise ratio of the first signal increases, and that, if the signal to noise ratio of the first signal is less than the first threshold, makes the value of the tilt compensation coefficient larger when the signal to noise ratio of the first signal decreases.

10. The speech encoding apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the tilt compensation coefficient calculating section limits the value of the tilt compensation coefficient within a predetermined range, and, when the signal to noise ratio of the first signal is equal to or less than a second threshold or equal to or greater than a third threshold, makes the value of the tilt compensation coefficient a maximum value in the predetermined range.

11. The speech encoding apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a weight coefficient control section, instead of the tilt compensation coefficient control section, that controls a weight coefficient forming a linear prediction inverse filter that performs perceptual weighting filtering with respect to an input speech signal in the perceptual weighting section, using the signal to noise ratio of the speech signal,

wherein the weight coefficient control section comprises:

an energy calculating section that calculates an energy of the speech signal;

a noise period energy calculating section that calculates an energy of a noise period in the speech signal; and

a calculating section that calculates an adjustment coefficient and calculates the weight coefficient by multiplying a linear prediction coefficient of a noise period in the speech signal by an adjustment coefficient, the adjustment coefficient increasing when the signal to noise ratio of the speech signal is equal to or greater than a first threshold and the signal to noise ratio of the speech signal is higher, and decreasing when the signal to noise ratio of the speech signal is less than the first threshold and the signal to noise ratio of the speech signal is lower.

12. The speech encoding apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the calculating section makes the adjustment coefficient zero when the signal to noise ratio of the speech signal is equal to or less than a second threshold or equal to or greater than a third threshold.

13. The speech encoding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the tilt compensation coefficient control section further comprises:

an energy calculating section that calculates an energy of the speech signal in the first frequency band and an energy of the speech signal in a second frequency band higher than the first frequency band;

a noise period energy calculating section that calculates an energy of a noise period in the first frequency band and the second frequency band of the speech signal;

a signal to noise ratio calculating section that calculates a signal to noise ratio in the first frequency band of the speech signal; and

a tilt compensation coefficient calculating section that calculates the tilt compensation coefficient based on the signal to noise ratio in the first frequency band of the speech signal and an energy ratio of the noise period in the first frequency band and the noise period in the second frequency band in the speech signal.

14. A speech encoding method comprising the steps of:

performing a linear prediction analysis with respect to a speech signal to generate a linear prediction coefficient;

quantizing the linear prediction coefficient;

performing perceptual weighting filtering with respect to an input speech signal to generate a perceptual weighted speech signal using a transfer function including a tilt compensation coefficient for adjusting a spectral slope of a quantization noise;

controlling the tilt compensation coefficient using a signal to noise ratio in a first frequency band of the speech signal; and

performing an excitation search of an adaptive codebook and fixed codebook to generate an excitation signal using the perceptual weighted speech signal.

15. The speech encoding method according to claim 14, wherein the steps of controlling the tilt compensation coefficient comprises controlling the tilt compensation coefficient using the signal to noise ratio of a first signal in the first frequency band of the speech signal and a signal to noise ratio of a second signal in a second frequency band higher than the first frequency band of the speech signal.