METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR RENDERING SOUND SIGNAL, AND COMPUTER-READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM

• US 20170034639A1
• Filed: 04/13/2015
• Published: 02/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: CHON, Sang-bae
• Granted Patent: US 10,674,299 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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: H04S 2400/03 Aspects of down-mixing multi-channel audio to configurations with lower numbers of playback channels, e.g. 7.1 -> 5.1 H04S2400/01 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 2420/01 Enhancing the perception of the sound image or of the spatial distribution using head related transfer functions [HRTF's] or equivalents thereof, e.g. interaural time difference [ITD] or interaural level difference [ILD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 2420/03 Application of parametric coding in stereophonic audio systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 3/002 Non-adaptive circuits, e.g. manually adjustable or static, for enhancing the sound image or the spatial distribution control circuits for electronic adaptation of the sound field H04S7/30
• 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

Abstract

A method of reproducing a multi-channel audio signal including an elevation sound signal in a horizontal layout environment is provided, thereby obtaining a rendering parameter according to a rendering type and configuring a down-mix matrix, and thus effective rendering performance may be obtained with respect to an audio signal that is not suitable for applying virtual rendering. A method of rendering an audio signal includes receiving a multi-channel signal includes a plurality of input channels to be converted into a plurality of output channels; determining a rendering type for elevation rendering based on a parameter determined from a characteristic of the multi-channel signal; and rendering at least one height input channel according to the determined rendering type, wherein the parameter is included in a bitstream of the multi-channel signal.

Claims

1. A method of rendering an audio signal, the method comprising:

receiving a bitstream including at least one height input channel signals;

identifying a rendering type for elevation rendering based on a parameter from the bitstream; and

rendering the at least one height input channel signals according to the identified rendering type,

wherein the rendering of the height input channel comprises;

obtaining at least one of a first down-mix matrix and a second down-mix matrix according to the identified rendering type.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first down-mix matrix is a matrix for 3D rendering over a output channel configurations, and

wherein the second down-mix matrix is a matrix for 2D rendering over the output channel configurations.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether to perform virtual rendering on an output signal,

wherein, if the output signal is not virtually rendered, the determining of the rendering type comprises;

determining the rendering type not to perform elevation rendering.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the rendering comprises:

performing spatial tone color filtering on the at least one height input channel,

if the determined rendering type is a three-dimensional (3D) rendering type, performing spatial location panning on the at least one height input channel; and

if the determined rendering type is a two-dimensional (2D) rendering type, performing general panning on the at least one height input channel.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the performing of the spatial tone color filtering comprises:

correcting a tone color of sound based on a head related transfer function (HRTF).

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the performing of the spatial location panning comprises:

generating an overhead sound image by panning the multi-channel signal.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the performing of the general panning comprises:

generating a sound image on a horizontal plane by panning the multi-channel signal based on an azimuth angle.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the parameter is created at an encoder.

25. A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for executing the method in claim 1.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the parameter is determined based on characteristics of an audio scene.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the characteristics of the audio scene comprises at least one of correlation between channels of an input audio signal and a bandwidth of the input audio signal.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein the bitstream is decoded by a core decoder.

29. The method of claim 1, wherein the parameter is obtained periodically at a predetermined time interval.

2-3. -3. (canceled)

10-11. -11. (canceled)

13. An apparatus for rendering an audio signal, the apparatus comprising:

a receiving unit for receiving a bitstream including at least one height input channel signals;

a determining unit for identifying a rendering type for elevation rendering based on a parameter from the bitstream; and

a rendering unit for rendering the at least one height input channel signals according to the identified rendering type,

wherein the rendering of the height input channel comprises;

obtaining at least one of a first down-mix matrix and a second down-mix matrix according to the identified rendering type.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first down-mix matrix is a matrix for 3D rendering over a output channel configurations, and

wherein the second down-mix matrix is a matrix for 2D rendering over the output channel configurations.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising:

a determining unit for determining whether to perform virtual rendering on an output signal,

wherein, if the output signal is not virtually rendered, the determining unit determines the rendering type not to perform elevation rendering.

24. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the parameter is created at an encoder.

30. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the parameter is determined based on characteristics of an audio scene.

31. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the characteristics of the audio scene comprises at least one of correlation between channels of an input audio signal and a bandwidth of the input audio signal.

32. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the bitstream is decoded by a core decoder.

14-15. -15. (canceled)

18-23. -23. (canceled)