Loudness adjustment with self-adaptive gain offsets

• US 8,275,135 B2
• Filed: 03/12/2009
• Issued: 09/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Azizi, Seyed-Ali, Hess, Wolfgang, Zeller, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): SANDVIK, BENJAMIN P
• Application Number:
  US12/403,306
• Publication Number:
  US 20090232320A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,293 Days
• Field of Search: 381/57, 381/104, 381/107
• US Class Current: 381/57
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0208 Noise filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/30 using neural networks
• CPC Class Codes: H03G 3/301 the gain being continuously variable
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/13 Acoustic transducers and sound field adaptation in vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 27/00 Public address systems circuits for preventing acoustic reaction H04R3/02; circuits for distributing signals to loudspeakers H04R3/12; monitoring or testing arrangements for public address systems H04R29/007; amplifiers H03F

Abstract

A method for adjusting a loudness of an announcement sound signal relative to a loudness of an entertainment sound signal, the method including the steps of determining the loudness of the entertainment sound signal, and adjusting the loudness of the announcement sound signal relative to the entertainment sound signal by determining a self-adaptive gain offset of the announcement sound signal relative to the entertainment sound signal, the self-adaptive gain offset adapting to the auditory perception of a user to which the entertainment sound signal and the announcement sound signal are output.

Claims

1. A method for adjusting a loudness of an announcement sound signal relative to a loudness of an entertainment sound signal, the method comprising the following steps:

determining the loudness of the entertainment sound signal; and

adjusting the loudness of the announcement sound signal relative to the entertainment sound signal using a self-adaptive gain offset of the announcement sound signal relative to the entertainment sound signal, the self-adaptive gain offset having a value that adapts in time to the auditory perception of a user to which the entertainment sound signal and the announcement sound signal are output.

2. The method of claim 1, where the self-adaptive gain offset contains table values adapting in time as a consequence of a learning process following previously performed user volume adjustments.

3. The method of claim 1, where the self-adaptive gain offset adapts by taking into account a former gain offset value and a correction of the volume made by the user when the announcement and the entertainment sound signal were output to the user using the former gain offset value.

4. The method of claim 2, where the self-adaptive gain offset adapts by weighting several factors, a new gain offset value is calculated based on the weighting, where the factors are selected form at least one of the following factors:

the correction of the volume made by the user, a former gain offset value, a psychoacoustic model of human hearing.

5. The method of claim 1, where at least one gain offset table is provided containing the self-adaptive gain offset values depending on the loudness of the entertainment sound signal and depending on a volume level set by a user.

6. The method of claim 1, where the self-adaptive gain offset is calculated using an artificial neural network.

7. The method of claim 6, where an input variable of the artificial neural network is the correction of the user, whereas the output variable of the artificial neural network is the new self adaptive gain offset value.

8. The method of claim 1, where a self-adaptive announcement gain offset for the announcement sound signal and a self-adaptive entertainment gain offset for the entertainment sound signal are calculated.

9. The method of claim 1, where the content of the entertainment sound signal is recognized, and the self-adaptive gain offset is calculated taking into account the recognized content of the sound signal.

10. The method of claim 9, where the content is recognized by recognizing whether the entertainment sound signal contains speech content or music content, where a self-adaptive speech gain offset is used in connection with the adjustment of the announcement sound signal output in connection with the entertainment sound signal having a speech content, and a self-adaptive music gain offset is used in connection with the adjustment of the announcement sound signal output in connection with the entertainment sound signal having music content.

11. A sound signal adjusting system for adjusting a loudness of an announcement sound signal relative to a loudness of an entertainment sound signal, the system comprising:

an entertainment loudness determination unit configured to determine the loudness of the entertainment sound signal;

a gain offset determination unit configured to determine a self-adaptive gain offset of the announcement sound signal relative to the entertainment sound signal; and

an auditory perception determination unit configured to determine the auditory perception of a user of the adjusting system, where the self-adaptive gain offset determination unit adapts the self-adaptive gain offsets over time in accordance with the determined auditory perception as a learning process following previous user volume adjustments;

12. The sound signal adjusting system of claim 11, where the gain offset determination unit comprises an announcement gain determination unit determining self-adaptive announcement gain offset values, and an entertainment gain determination unit determining self-adaptive entertainment gain offset values.

13. The sound signal adjusting system of claim 11, where the gain offset determination unit comprises gain offset tables containing the self-adaptive gain offset values depending on the loudness of the entertainment sound signal and depending on a volume level set by the user of the sound signal adjusting system.

14. The sound signal adjusting system of claim 13, where an entertainment gain offset table is provided comprising the self-adaptive gain offset values for the entertainment sound signal, and an announcement gain offset table comprising the self-adaptive gain offset values for the announcement sound signal.

15. The sound signal adjusting system of claim 11, where the auditory perception determination unit comprises an artificial neural network determining the self-adaptive gain offset values.

16. The sound signal adjusting system of claim 11, further comprising a content recognition unit recognizing the content of the entertainment sound signal, the gain determination unit determining the gain offsets depending in the recognized content of the entertainment sound signal.

17. The sound signal adjusting system of claim 16, where the content recognition unit recognizes whether the entertainment sound signal contains speech content or music content, where the entertainment gain offset determination unit comprises an entertainment gain offset table for speech content of the entertainment sound signal, and an entertainment gain offset table for music content of the entertainment sound signal.

18. The sound signal adjusting system of claim 16, where the content recognition unit recognizes whether the entertainment sound signal contains a speech content or a music content, where the announcement gain offset determination unit comprises an announcement gain offset table for speech content of the entertainment sound signal, and an announcement gain offset table for music content of the entertainment sound signal.

19. Gain offset determination unit for adjusting a loudness of an announcement sound signal relative to a loudness of an entertainment sound signal comprising gain offset tables containing the self-adaptive gain offset values depending on the loudness of the entertainment sound signal and depending on a volume level set by the user of the gain determination unit the self-adaptive gain offsets adapting in accordance with an auditory perception of an user of the gain determination unit taking into account previous volume user adjustments.

20. The gain offset determination unit of claim 19, further comprising an entertainment gain offset table for speech content of the entertainment sound signal, and an entertainment gain offset table for music content of the entertainment sound signal, both offset tables containing self-adaptive gain offset values.

21. The gain offset table of claim 19, where the gain offset tables include an announcement gain offset table for speech content of the entertainment sound signal, and an announcement gain offset table for music content of the entertainment sound signal, both offset tables containing self-adaptive gain offset values.