Method and apparatus for encoding/decoding MPEG-4 BSAC audio bitstream having ancillary information

• US 7,974,840 B2
• Filed: 11/24/2004
• Issued: 07/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Lee, Shihwa, Kim, Dohyung, Kim, Junghoe, Oh, Eunmi, Kim, Sangwook
• Primary Examiner(s): YEN, ERIC L
• Application Number:
  US10/996,062
• Publication Number:
  US 20050129109A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,414 Days
• Field of Search: 704/200.1, 704/200, 704/201, 704/227, 704/229
• US Class Current: 704/229
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/0058 Transmission between separate instruments or between individual components of a musical system G10H1/0083 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/24 Variable rate codecs, e.g. for generating different qualities using a scalable representation such as hierarchical encoding or layered encoding

Abstract

A method of and an apparatus for encoding/decoding an MPEG-4 bit sliced arithmetic coding (BSAC) audio bitstream having ancillary information. A time domain audio signal is converted to a frequency domain audio signal and quantized. A number of data bits is counted and a number of available bits per layer is obtained. The number of available bits per layer is modified considering the size of ancillary information. Actual audio data is encoded in units of layers and ancillary information is embedded in the encoded bitstream. A header is decoded and a layer structure of an audio bitstream is calculated to determine the size of the ancillary information as a difference between a size of data up to a top layer and a size of a frame. The ancillary information is extracted to improve meta data and sound quality of audio contents.

Claims

1. A method of encoding an MPEG-4 BSAC audio bitstream having ancillary information and encoded quantized audio data, the method comprising:

converting a time domain audio signal to a frequency domain audio signal and quantizing the audio signal into quantized audio data using a psychoacoustic model;

counting a number of bits of bitrate controlled audio data;

obtaining a number of available bits per layer of the encoded quantized audio data using a number of the counted bits and a number of layers in the audio bitstream;

modifying the number of available bits of the encoded quantized audio data per layer by obtaining a size of the ancillary information and by reducing the obtained number of available bits per layer as many as the size of the ancillary information;

encoding the quantized audio data in units of layers according to the modified number of available bits from a base layer to a top layer, wherein each layer has a different bit rate and the bit rate increases from base layer to top layer; and

embedding the ancillary information in the audio bitstream,

wherein ancillary information is embedded in the last portion adjacent to an N-th enhancement layer in the MPEG-4 BSAC audio bitstream comprising the base layer and N number of enhancement layers, where N is equal to or greater than 1.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the ancillary information is information related to sound quality improvement.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the ancillary information is information related to music tunes.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the ancillary information is information related to multi-channel data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the embedded ancillary information is at least one of meta data, audio post-processing to improve sound quality, information related to multi-channel data, and information related to music tunes including titles of songs.

6. An apparatus for encoding an MPEG-4 BSAC audio bitstream having ancillary information and encoded quantized audio data, the apparatus comprising:

a quantization processor to convert a time domain audio signal in to a frequency domain audio signal and to quantize the frequency domain audio signal using a psychoacoustic model;

an available bit calculator to obtain a number of available bits for the encoded quantized audio data per layer using a number of bits of the encoded quantized audio data and a number of layers of the encoded quantized audio data;

an available bit modifier to modify the number of available bits of the encoded quantized audio data per layer calculated by the available bit calculator by obtaining a size of the ancillary information and by reducing the obtained number of available bits per layer as many as the size of the ancillary information; and

a bit packing unit to encode the quantized audio data according to the number of available bits per layer modified by the available bit modifier and the embedding ancillary information in the audio bitstream from a base layer to a top layer, wherein each layer has a different bit rate and the bit rate increases from base layer to top layer,

wherein ancillary information is embedded in the last portion adjacent to an N-th enhancement layer in the MPEG-4 BSAC audio bitstream comprising the base layer and N number of enhancement layers, where N is equal to or greater than 1.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the available bit calculator comprises:

a bit counter to count a number of bits of bitrate controlled audio data; and

a by-layer available bit calculator to obtain the number of available bits of the encoded quantized audio data per layer using the number of bits counted by the bit counter and a predetermined number of layers of the bitstream.

8. A method of decoding an MPEG-4 BSAC audio bitstream having ancillary information and encoded quantized audio data, the MPEG-4 BSAC audio bitstream being generated by obtaining a number of available bits per layer, modifying the number of available bits per layer by reducing the obtained number of available bits per layer as many as the size of the ancillary information and encoding audio data in units of layers according to the modified number of available bits, the method comprising:

decoding a header of the audio bitstream;

calculating a layer structure of the audio bitstream by obtaining a size of a frame from the header information;

obtaining a size of the encoded quantized audio data up to a top layer and the size of the frame from the layer structure and determining a difference between the size of the encoded quantized audio data up to the top layer and the size of the frame as a size of the ancillary information;

extracting the ancillary information from the audio bitstream according to the size of the ancillary information; and

decoding the encoded quantized audio data up to the top layer according to the calculated layer structure from a base layer to the top layer, wherein each layer has a different bit rate and the bit rate increases from base layer to top layer,

wherein ancillary information is embedded in the last portion adjacent to an N-th enhancement layer in the MPEG-4 BSAC audio bitstream comprising the base layer and N number of enhancement layers, where N is equal to or greater than 1.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the extracted ancillary information is information related to sound quality improvement.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the extracted ancillary information is meta data of audio for an audio data user.

11. A method of decoding an MPEG-4 BSAC audio bitstream having ancillary information and encoded quantized audio data, the MPEG-4 BSAC audio bitstream being generated by obtaining a number of available bits per layer, modifying the number of available bits per layer by reducing the obtained number of available bits per layer as many as the size of the ancillary information and encoding audio data in units of layers according to the modified number of available bits, the method comprising:

decoding a header of the audio bitstream;

calculating a layer structure of the audio bitstream by obtaining a size of a frame from the header information;

decoding the encoded quantized audio data corresponding to a size of encoded quantized audio data up to a top layer from the layer structure of the bitstream from a base layer to the top layer, wherein each layer has a different bit rate and the bit rate increases from base layer to top layer; and

extracting a remaining bitstream as the ancillary information and decoding the ancillary information,

wherein ancillary information is embedded in the last portion adjacent to an N-th enhancement layer in the MPEG-4 BSAC audio bitstream comprising the base layer and N number of enhancement layers, where N is equal to or greater than 1.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the extracted ancillary information is information related to sound quality improvement.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the extracted ancillary information is meta data of audio for an audio data user.

14. A method of discriminating whether ancillary information is embedded in quantized audio data encoded with MPEG-4 BSAC audio data, the MPEG-4 BSAC audio bitstream being generated by obtaining a number of available bits per layer, modifying the number of available bits per layer by reducing the obtained number of available bits per layer as many as the size of the ancillary information and encoding audio data in units of layers according to the modified number of available bits, the method comprising:

decoding a header of a bitstream, the bitstream including the encoded quantized audio data;

calculating a layer structure of the bitstream by obtaining a size of a frame from the header information from a base layer to a top layer, wherein each layer has a different bit rate and the bit rate increases from base layer to top layer;

obtaining a size of the encoded quantized audio data up to the top layer and the size of the frame from the layer structure and discriminating whether ancillary information exists using a difference between the size of the encoded quantized audio data up to the top layer and the size of the frame; and

outputting an indication of whether ancillary information is embedded in the encoded quantized audio data based on the discriminating,

wherein ancillary information is embedded in the last portion adjacent to an N-th enhancement layer in the MPEG-4 BSAC audio bitstream comprising the base layer and N number of enhancement layers, where N is equal to or greater than 1.

15. An apparatus for decoding an MPEG-4 BSAC audio bitstream having ancillary information and encoded quantized audio data, the MPEG-4 BSAC audio bitstream being generated by obtaining a number of available bits per layer, modifying the number of available bits per layer by reducing the obtained number of available bits per layer as many as the size of the ancillary information and encoding audio data in units of layers according to the modified number of available bits, the apparatus comprising:

a bit unpacking unit to decode a header of the audio bitstream;

a layer structure calculator to calculate a layer structure of the audio bitstream by obtaining a size of a frame from header information from a base layer to a top layer;

an ancillary information calculator to obtain a size of the encoded quantized audio data up to the top layer and the size of the frame from the layer structure and to determine a difference between the size of the encoded quantized data up to the top layer and the size of the frame as a size of the ancillary information;

an ancillary information extractor to extract the ancillary information from the audio bitstream according to the size of the ancillary information; and

an audio decoder to decode the encoded quantized audio data up to the top layer from the base layer according to the calculated layer structure, wherein each layer has a different bit rate and the bit rate increases from base layer to top layer,

wherein ancillary information is embedded in the last portion adjacent to an N-th enhancement layer in the MPEG-4 BSAC audio bitstream comprising the base layer and N number of enhancement layers, where N is equal to or greater than 1.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium having recorded thereon a computer readable program for performing a method of encoding an MPEG-4 BSAC audio bitstream having ancillary information and encoded quantized audio data, the computer readable medium comprising instructions for enabling a computer to:

convert a time domain audio signal to a frequency domain audio signal and quantize the audio signal into quantized audio data using a psychoacoustic model;

count a number of bits of bitrate controlled audio data;

obtain a number of available bits per layer of the encoded quantized audio data using a number of the counted bits and a number of layers in the audio bitstream;

modify the number of available bits of the encoded quantized audio data per layer by obtaining a size of the ancillary information and by reducing the obtained number of available bits per layer as many as the size of the ancillary information;

encode the quantized audio data in units of layers according to the modified number of available bits from a base layer to a top layer, wherein each layer has a different bit rate and the bit rate increases from base layer to top layer; and

embed the ancillary information in the audio bitstream,

wherein ancillary information is embedded in the last portion adjacent to an N-th enhancement layer in the MPEG-4 BSAC audio bitstream comprising the base layer and N number of enhancement layers, where N is equal to or greater than 1.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium having recorded thereon a computer readable program for performing the a method of decoding an MPEG-4 BSAC audio bitstream having ancillary information and encoded quantized audio data, the MPEG-4 BSAC audio bitstream being generated by obtaining a number of available bits per layer, modifying the number of available bits per layer by reducing the obtained number of available bits per layer as many as the size of the ancillary information and encoding audio data in units of layers according to the modified number of available bits, the computer readable medium comprising instructions for enabling a computer to:

decode a header of the audio bitstream;

calculate a layer structure of the audio bitstream by obtaining a size of a frame from the header information;

obtain a size of the encoded quantized audio data up to a top layer from a base layer and the size of the frame from the layer structure and determine a difference between the size of the data up to the top layer and the size of the frame as a size of the ancillary information;

extract the ancillary information from the audio bitstream according to the size of the ancillary information; and

decode the encoded quantized audio data up to the top layer from the base layer according to the calculated layer structure,

wherein each layer has a different bit rate and the bit rate increases from base layer to top layer, and

wherein ancillary information is embedded in the last portion adjacent to an N-th enhancement layer in the MPEG-4 BSAC audio bitstream comprising the base layer and N number of enhancement layers, where N is equal to or greater than 1.