Apparatus for encoding and decoding audio signal and method thereof

• US 8,073,702 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2006
• Issued: 12/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Pang, Hee Suk, Oh, Hyen O, Kim, Dong Soo, Lim, Jae Hyun, Jung, Yang Won, Yoon, Sung Young
• Primary Examiner(s): Azad, Abul
• Application Number:
  US11/994,311
• Publication Number:
  US 20080201152A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,985 Days
• Field of Search: 704500-504, 381/106, 333/14
• US Class Current: 704/500
• 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

Abstract

A method and/or apparatus for encoding and/or decoding an audio signal is disclosed, in which a downmix gain is applied to a downmix signal in an encoding apparatus which, in turn, transmits, to a decoding apparatus, a bitstream containing information as to the applied downmix gain. The decoding apparatus recovers the downmix signal, using the downmix gain information. A method and/or apparatus for encoding and/or decoding an audio signal is also disclosed, in which the encoding apparatus can apply an arbitrary downmix gain (ADG) to the downmix signal, and can transmit a bitstream containing information as to the applied ADG to the decoding apparatus. The decoding apparatus recovers the downmix signal, using the ADG information. A method and/or apparatus for encoding and/or decoding an audio signal is also disclosed, in which the method and/or apparatus can also vary the energy level of a specific channel, and can recover the varied energy level.

Claims

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

receiving a spatial information signal;

receiving a second downmix signal having at least one channel;

extracting spatial information and an arbitrary downmix gain from the spatial information signal,

wherein the spatial information is determined when a first downmix signal is generated, and

wherein the arbitrary downmix gain is used to modify an energy level of the second downmix signal;

compensating the second downmix signal by modifying the energy level of the second downmix signal based on the arbitrary downmix gain to be identical to that of the first downmix signal; and

generating a multi-channel audio signal by applying the spatial information to the compensated second downmix signal,

wherein the arbitrary downmix gain is applied to the second downmix signal by frame.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the arbitrary downmix gain is applied to the second downmix signal per time slot.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the arbitrary downmix gain is independently applied to the second downmix signal per a frequency band grouping based on parameter band stride information.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the arbitrary downmix gain corresponds to a result of a comparison between the first downmix signal and the second downmix signal.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first downmix signal is encoded in an encoder and the second downmix signal is a downmix signal provided by a device other than the encoder.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

extracting a downmix gain from the spatial information signal; and

scaling the energy level of the second downmix signal by applying the downmix gain to all frames of the second downmix signal.

7. A method of encoding an audio signal, the method comprising:

receiving a multi-channel audio signal;

generating a first downmix signal from the multi-channel audio signal;

generating spatial information from the multi-channel audio signal,

wherein the spatial information is used for upmixing first downmix signal;

receiving a second downmix signal; and

generating an arbitrary downmix gain by comparing the first downmix signal and the second downmix signal,

wherein the arbitrary downmix gain is determined by frame.

8. A decoder for decoding an audio signal, comprising:

a demultiplexer configured to separate a spatial information signal and a second downmix signal from a bitstream;

a spatial information signal decoding unit configured to extract spatial information from the spatial information signal,

wherein the spatial information is determined when a first downmix signal is generated;

an arbitrary downmix gain extracting unit configured to extract an arbitrary downmix gain from the spatial information signal,

wherein the arbitrary downmix gain is extracted by frame, and

wherein the arbitrary downmix gain is used to modify an energy level of the second downmix signal;

an arbitrary downmix gain applying unit configured to compensate the second downmix signal by modifying an energy level of the second downmix signal based on the arbitrary downmix information so that the modified energy level of the second downmix signal is identical to that of the first downmix signal; and

a multi-channel generating unit configured to output a multi-channel audio signal based on the compensated second downmix signal and the spatial information,

wherein the arbitrary downmix gain is applied to the second downmix signal by frame.

9. The decoder according to claim 8, wherein the arbitrary downmix gain is independently applied to the second downmix signal per a frequency band grouping based on parameter band stride information.

10. The decoder according to claim 8, wherein the arbitrary downmix gain applying unit is configured to apply the arbitrary downmix gain to the downmix signal per time slot.

11. The decoder according to claim 8, wherein the first downmix signal is encoded in an encoder and the second downmix signal is a downmix signal provided by a device other than the encoder.

12. The decoder according to claim 8, wherein the arbitrary downmix gain represents a result of a comparison between the first downmix signal and the second downmix signal.

13. The decoder according to claim 8, further comprising:

a downmix gain extracting unit configured to extract a downmix gain from the spatial information; and

a downmix gain applying unit configured to scale the energy level of the second downmix signal by applying the downmix gain to all frames of the second downmix signal.

14. An apparatus for encoding an audio signal, comprising:

a downmixing unit configured to generate a first downmix signal from a multi-channel audio signal;

a spatial information generating unit configured to generate spatial information from the multi-channel audio signal,

wherein the spatial information is used for upmixing the first downmix signal;

an input port configured to receive a second downmix signal from an external source;

an arbitrary downmix gain generating unit configured to generate an arbitrary downmix gain by comparing the first downmix signal and the second downmix signal; and

a multiplexer configured to multiplex a bitstream including the second downmix signal and spatial information signal, the spatial information signal including the arbitrary downmix gain,

wherein the arbitrary downmix gain and the spatial information,

wherein the arbitrary downmix gain is determined by frame.