High efficiency encoding method

• US 5,765,127 A
• Filed: 12/06/1993
• Issued: 06/09/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Matsumoto, Jun, Ono, Shinobu, Nishiguchi, Masayuki
• Primary Examiner(s): MacDonald, Allen R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chawan, Vijay B.
• Application Number:
  US08/150,082
• Time in Patent Office: 1,646 Days
• Field of Search: 395/2.31, 395/2.39, 395/24.1, 395/2.17, 395/2.23
• US Class Current: 704/208
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/0212 using orthogonal transformation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/038 Vector quantisation, e.g. TwinVQ audio
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/04 using predictive techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/10 the excitation function being a multipulse excitation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/12 the excitation function being a code excitation, e.g. in code excited linear prediction [CELP] vocoders
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/18 Vocoders using multiple modes
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2019/0005 Multi-stage vector quantisation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2025/937 Signal energy in various frequency bands
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/27 characterised by the analysis technique
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/90 Pitch determination of speech signals
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/93 Discriminating between voiced and unvoiced parts of speech signals G10L25/90 takes precedence

Abstract

A high efficiency encoding method for encoding data on frequency axis obtained by dividing an input audio signal on block-by-block basis and converting the signal onto the frequency axis, wherein V bands are searched for a band B_VH with the highest center frequency if it is decided that there are one or more shift points of voiced (V)/unvoiced (UV) decision data of all bands on the frequency axis, and wherein the number of V bands N_V up to the band B_VH is found, so as to decide whether proportion of the V bands is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold N_th, thereby deciding one V/UV boundary point. Thus, it is possible to replace the V/UV decision data for each band by information on one demarcation in all bands, thereby to reduce data volume and to reduce bit rate. Also, by using two-stage hierarchical vector quantization in quantizing the data on the frequency axis, operation volume for codebook search and memory capacity of the codebook are reduced.

Claims

1. A high efficiency encoding method, comprising the steps of:

determining an M-dimensional vector by dividing an input audio signal on a block-by-block basis and performing time domain to frequency domain conversion on at least one block of the signal;

determining an S-dimensional vector from the M-dimensional vector, where S<

M, by dividing the components of the M-dimensional vector into plural groups and finding a representative value for each of said groups;

processing the S-dimensional vector in accordance with a first vector quantization;

finding a corresponding S-dimensional code vector by inversely quantizing output data of the first vector quantization;

generating an expanded M-dimensional vector by expanding the S-dimensional code vector;

determining data expressing a relation between the expanded M-dimensional vector and the original M-dimensional vector, and performing a second vector quantization on said data.

2. The high efficiency encoding method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the M-dimensional vector is indicative of data generated by dividing the input audio signal on a block-by-block basis, performing time domain to frequency domain conversion on at least one block of the signal to generate frequency domain data, and non-linearly compressing the frequency domain data.

3. The high efficiency encoding method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the M-dimensional vector is indicative of data generated by dividing the input audio signal on a block-by-block basis, performing time domain to frequency domain conversion on a block of the signal to generate frequency domain data, and performing an inter-block difference operation on the frequency domain data.

4. The high efficiency encoding method as claimed in claim 1, having a step of pitch extraction for taking out a waveform of the input audio signal on the block-by-block basis and for extracting a pitch on the basis of a center-clipped output signal,

said pitch extraction comprising the steps of:

dividing the block into plural sub-blocks and finding a level for clipping for each of the sub-blocks; and

changing a clipping level in the block on the basis of the level for clipping found for each subblock in center-clipping the input signal.

5. The high efficiency encoding method having the step of pitch extraction as claimed in claim 4, wherein the clipping level in center-clipping is changed in the block when a change of a peak level between adjacent sub-blocks among the plural sub-blocks in the block is large.

6. The high efficiency encoding method as claimed in claim 1, having a step of pitch extraction comprising:

taking out the input audio signal on frame-by-frame basis with a block proceeding in a direction of time axis as a unit;

detecting plural peaks from auto-correlation data of a current frame;

finding a peak in a pitch range satisfying a predetermined relation with a pitch found in a frame other than the current frame, among the detected plural peaks of the current frame; and

deciding a pitch of the current frame on the basis of a position of the found peak.

7. The high efficiency encoding method as claimed in claim 6, wherein all peaks are detected from the auto-correlation data of the current frame, in peak detection.

8. The high efficiency encoding method as claimed in claim 1, having a step of pitch extraction comprising:

taking out an input audio signal on frame-by-frame basis with a block proceeding in a direction of the time axis as a unit;

detecting plural peaks from auto-correlation data of a current frame; and

deciding a pitch of the current frame by a position of a maximum peak among the detected plural peaks of the current frame when the maximum peak is equal to or larger than a predetermined threshold, and deciding the pitch of the current frame by a position of a peak in a pitch range satisfying a predetermined relation with a pitch found in a frame other than the current frame when the maximum peak is smaller than the predetermined threshold.

9. The high efficiency encoding method as claimed in claim 1, for finding a spectral envelope of the input audio signal, dividing the spectral envelope into plural bands and performing quantization in accordance with power for each band,

wherein a pitch of the input audio signal is detected, for dividing the spectral envelope with a bandwidth according to a detected pitch when the pitch is securely detected, and for dividing the spectral envelope with a predetermined narrower bandwidth when the pitch is not detected securely.

10. The high efficiency encoding method as claimed in claim 9, wherein all bands of the spectral envelope are unvoiced when no pitch is detected in detecting the pitch of the input signal audio signal.

11. The high efficiency encoding method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of determining the M-dimensional vector comprises the steps of:

non-linearly compressing data of said at least one block to generate non-linearly compressed data comprising a variable number of parameter data; and

converting the non-linearly compressed data into a fixed number of data determining said M-dimensional vector.

12. The high efficiency encoding method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the step of determining the M-dimensional vector includes the steps of:

providing dummy data with the non-linearly compressed data, and performing band limiting type oversampling on the non-linearly compressed data and the dummy data.

13. The high efficiency encoding method as claimed in claim 1, having a step of quantization by using a second vector quantizer having plural codebooks according to a state of the audio signal for performing second vector quantization, and by changing over the plural codebooks in accordance with a parameter indicating characteristics for each block of the input audio signal.

14. The high efficiency encoding method as claimed in claim 1, wherein in searching a codebook consisting of plural code vectors using, as vectors, data obtained by converting the input signal onto frequency axis and in vector quantization for outputting an index of a searched code vector,

a distance between code vectors in the codebook and a hamming distance at the time of expressing the index in a binary manner are coincident with each other in size.

15. The high efficiency encoding method as claimed in claim 14, wherein a distance, found by weighing using a weighted matrix for defining a distortion measure is used as the distance between the code vectors.

16. The high efficiency encoding method as claimed in claim 1, wherein in searching a codebook consisting of plural code vectors using, as vectors, data obtained by converting the input signal onto frequency axis and in vector quantization for outputting an index of a searched code vector,

part of bits of binary data indicating the index are protected with a error correction code, while a hamming distance of remaining bits and a distance between code vectors in the codebook are coincident with each other in size.

17. A high efficiency encoding method comprising the steps of:

determining an M-dimensional vector on the basis of data obtained by dividing an input audio signal on a block-by-block basis thus generating blocks each comprising a variable number of parameter data, performing time domain to frequency domain conversion on one of the blocks of the signal to generate frequency domain data, and generating from the frequency domain data a fixed number of data determining the M-dimensional vector; and

processing the M-dimensional vector in accordance with vector quantization.

18. The high efficiency encoding method as claimed in claim 17, wherein the step of determining the M-dimensional vector includes the step of performing band limiting type oversampling on the frequency domain data.

19. The high efficiency encoding method as claimed in claim 18, wherein the step of determining the M-dimensional vector includes the step of processing dummy data with the frequency domain data in accordance with said band limiting type oversampling.

20. The high efficiency encoding method as claimed in claim 19, wherein the dummy data is combined with the frequency domain data.

21. The high efficiency encoding method as claimed in claim 20, wherein the dummy data has values so as to make smooth waveform thereby at the end of each block.

22. A high efficiency encoding method comprising the steps of:

determining an M-dimensional vector for each block of an input audio signal by dividing the input audio signal on a block-by-block basis, performing time domain to frequency domain conversion on each block of the signal to generate frequency domain data, and performing an inter-block difference operation on the frequency domain data; and

processing each said M-dimensional vector in accordance with vector quantization.

23. The high efficiency encoding method as claimed in claim 22, wherein each block has a variable number of parameter data, and the step of determining each said M-dimensional vector comprises the step of:

generating from each block a fixed number of data.

24. The high efficiency encoding method as claimed in claim 23, wherein the step of determining each said M-dimensional vector includes the step of:

performing band limiting type oversampling on the variable number of parameter data.

25. The high efficiency encoding method as claimed in claim 24, wherein the step of determining each said M-dimensional vector includes the step of:

providing dummy data with the variable number of parameter data and performing the band limiting type oversampling on the variable number of parameter data and the dummy data.

26. The high efficiency encoding method as claimed in claim 25, wherein the dummy data has values so as to make smooth a waveform determined by at least a portion of each said M-dimensional vector.

27. A high efficiency encoding method comprising the steps of:

determining an M-dimensional vector by dividing an input voice signal on block-by-block basis, performing time domain to frequency domain conversion on at least one block of the signal thus generating frequency domain data, and performing non-linear compression on the frequency domain data;

determining an S-dimensional vector from the M-dimensional vector, where S<

M, by dividing the data of the M-dimensional vector into plural groups and finding an average value for each of the groups;

processing the S-dimensional vector in accordance with a first vector quantization;

finding a corresponding S-dimensional code vector by inversely quantizing output data of the first vector quantization;

expanding the S-dimensional code vector to an expanded M-dimensional vector; and

processing, in accordance with second vector quantization, data indicative of a difference between the expanded M-dimensional vector and the M-dimensional vector.

28. A high efficiency encoding method comprising the steps of:

determining M-dimensional vectors by dividing an input audio signal on a block-by-block basis and performing time domain to frequency domain conversion on each block of the audio signal to generate frequency domain data for said each block, wherein the audio signal is a voice signal; and

performing quantization, by using a vector quantizer having plural codebooks according to a state of the input audio signal to process each said M-dimensional vector in accordance with vector quantization, and by changing over the plural codebooks in accordance with a parameter indicating characteristics of said each block of the voice signal, wherein a first one of the codebooks is employed to process at least one of the M-dimensional vectors for which the parameter indicates that a corresponding portion of the voice signal is voiced, and a second one of the codebooks is employed to process at least one of the M-dimensional vectors for which the parameter indicates that a corresponding portion of the voice signal is unvoiced.