Audio mixing

• US 8,331,585 B2
• Filed: 05/10/2007
• Issued: 12/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Hagen, Roar, Enbom, Niklas
• Primary Examiner(s): Pan, Yuwen
• Assistant Examiner(s): MONIKANG, GEORGE C
• Application Number:
  US11/798,140
• Publication Number:
  US 20070274540A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,042 Days
• Field of Search: 381/119, 381 17- 19, 381/77, 381 22- 23, 379/202.01, 369/4
• US Class Current: 381/119
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/18 Comparators
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/563 User guidance or feature selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/569 using the instant speaker's algorithm speech detection per se G10L25/78
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for mixing audio signals. The invention is based on the idea to base selection of what audio channels to mix on the dynamic behavior of the audio channels in terms of whether they are active or not, rather than basing the selection on quantative measures of the audio channels. According to the invention, a set of audio channels are arranged in a mixing stack and a mixed audio signal is produced from the topmost channels above a predetermined threshold level in the stack. Whenever a channel becomes active, it is placed at the top of the stack.

Claims

1. A method of mixing at least two audio signals included in a set of audio signals provided by a set of respective audio channels, the method including:

arranging the set of audio channels in a mixing stack using their respective channel identifiers, wherein one channel identifier, corresponding to one of the audio channels, is stored at each level of the stack;

regularly updating the mixing stack such that a channel identifier corresponding to an audio channel which previously was active but now has become inactive is relocated below the channel identifiers corresponding to active audio channels; and

producing a mixed audio output signal by mixing audio signals provided by the audio channels corresponding to a predetermined number of topmost channel identifiers stored in the mixing stack,

wherein if the relocated channel identifier is one of the predetermined number of topmost channel identifiers stored in the mixing stack, the audio signal provided by the corresponding inactive audio channel is part of the mixed audio output signal.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of regularly updating the mixing stack includes updating the mixing stack such that a channel identifier corresponding to an audio channel which previously was inactive but now has become active is relocated to the top of the mixing stack.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a channel is determined to be active or inactive based on monitoring of activity on that channel.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of regularly updating the mixing stack is performed with a time interval corresponding to the time length of one or more signal segments of the mixed audio output signal.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the predetermined number of topmost channel identifiers stored in the mixing stack is two.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the predetermined number of topmost channel identifiers stored in the mixing stack is three.

7. The method as claim in claim 1, wherein the audio channels are speech channels to be mixed during a speech conference.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one audio channel to be mixed corresponds to a mixed audio signal received from a conference bridge of an audio conferencing system.

19. The method as claimed in claim 2 wherein a channel is determined to be active or inactive based on monitoring of activity on that channel.

20. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the step of regularly updating the mixing stack is performed with a time interval corresponding to the time length of one or more signal segments of the mixed audio output signal.

9. An audio mixing apparatus for mixing at least two audio signals included in a set of audio signals provided by a set of respective audio channels, the apparatus including:

a mixing stack in which the set of audio channels are arranged using their respective channel identifiers, wherein one channel identifier, corresponding to one of the audio channels, is stored at each level of the stack;

a mixer control unit for regularly updating the mixing stack such that a channel identifier corresponding to an audio channel which previously was active but now has become inactive is relocated below the channel identifiers corresponding to active audio channels; and

a mixer unit for producing a mixed audio output signal by mixing audio signals provided by the audio channels corresponding to a predetermined number of topmost channel identifiers stored in the mixing stack,

wherein if the relocated channel identifier is one of the predetermined number of topmost channel identifiers stored in the mixing stack, the audio signal provided by the corresponding inactive audio channel is part of the mixed audio output signal produced by the mixer unit.

10. The audio mixing apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein the mixer control unit further is adapted for regularly updating the mixing stack such that a channel identifier corresponding to an audio channel which previously was inactive but now has become active is relocated to the top of the mixing stack.

11. The audio mixing apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein the mixer control unit includes an activity monitor which, for each channel, is adapted to monitor activity information for the channel and determine if the channel is active or inactive.

12. The audio mixing apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein the mixer control unit is adapted to regularly update the mixing stack with a time interval corresponding to the time length of one or more signal segments of the mixed audio output signal.

13. The audio mixing apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein the predetermined number of topmost channel identifiers stored in the mixing stack is two.

14. The audio mixing apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein the predetermined number of topmost channel identifiers stored in the mixing stack is three.

15. The audio mixing apparatus as claimed in claim 9, adapted to mix audio channels in the form of speech channels.

16. The audio mixing apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein at least one audio channel to be mixed corresponds to a mixed audio signal received from another audio mixing apparatus.

17. A conference bridge in an audio conferencing system, the conference bridge including an audio mixing apparatus as claimed in claim 9.

18. The conference bridge as claimed in claim 17, wherein at least one audio channel to be mixed corresponds to a mixed audio signal received from another conference bridge.

21. A method of mixing audio signals provided by a set of audio channels, the method including:

storing channel identifiers for the set of audio channels in a mixing stack such that one channel identifier, corresponding to one of the audio channels, is stored at each level of the mixing stack;

receiving, for each of the audio channels, audio activity information indicating whether the audio channel is active or inactive;

updating the mixing stack for selection of audio channels to mix based on the audio activity information received for the audio channels; and

producing a mixed audio output signal by mixing audio signals provided by the audio channels corresponding to the channel identifiers stored above a predetermined threshold level in the updated mixing stack,

wherein the updating is performed such that a channel identifier corresponding to an audio channel that previously was active but, based on the audio activity information received for the audio channel, now has become inactive, is relocated below the channel identifiers corresponding to the active audio channels, and

wherein if the relocated channel identifier is above the predetermined threshold level, the audio signal provided by the corresponding inactive audio channel is part of the mixed audio output signal.

22. The method as claimed in claim 21, wherein the step of updating the mixing stack includes updating the mixing stack such that a channel identifier corresponding to an audio channel which previously was inactive but, based on the audio activity information received for the audio channel, now has become active is relocated to the top of the mixing stack.

23. The method as claimed in claim 21, wherein a channel is determined to be active or inactive based on monitoring of activity on that channel.

24. The method as claimed in claim 21, wherein the step of updating the mixing stack is performed with a time interval corresponding to the time length of one or more signal segments of the mixed audio output signal.

25. The method as claimed in claim 21, wherein the number of channel identifiers stored above the predetermined threshold level is two or three.

26. The method as claimed in claim 21, wherein the audio channels are speech channels to be mixed during a speech conference.

27. The method as claimed in claim 21, wherein at least one audio channel to be mixed corresponds to a mixed audio signal received from a conference bridge of an audio conferencing system.

28. An audio mixing apparatus for mixing audio signals provided by a set of audio channels, the apparatus including:

a mixing stack in which channel identifiers for the audio channels are stored such that one channel identifier, corresponding to one of the audio channels is stored at each level of the mixing stack;

a mixer control unit configured to receive, for each of the audio channels, audio activity information indicating whether the audio channel is active or inactive, and update the mixing stack based on the audio activity information received for the audio channels; and

a mixer unit for producing a mixed audio output signal by mixing the audio signals provided by the audio channels corresponding to the channel identifiers stored above a predetermined threshold level in the updated mixing stack,

wherein the mixer control unit is configured to update the mixing stack such that a channel identifier corresponding to an audio channel that previously was active but, based on the audio activity information received for the audio channel, now has become inactive is relocated below the channel identifiers corresponding to the active audio channels, and

wherein if the relocated channel identifier is above the predetermined threshold level, the audio signal provided by the corresponding inactive audio channel is part of the mixed audio output signal.

29. The audio mixing apparatus as claimed in claim 28, wherein the mixer control unit is further configured to update the mixing stack such that a channel identifier corresponding to an audio channel which previously was inactive but, based on the audio activity information received for the audio channel, now has become active is relocated to the top of the mixing stack.

30. The audio mixing apparatus as claimed in claim 28, wherein the mixer control unit includes an activity monitor which, for each channel, is adapted to monitor activity information for the channel and determine if the channel is active or inactive.

31. The audio mixing apparatus as claimed in claim 28, wherein the mixer control unit is adapted to regularly update the mixing stack with a time interval corresponding to the time length of one or more signal segments of the mixed audio output signal.

32. The audio mixing apparatus as claimed in claim 28, wherein the number of channel identifiers stored above the predetermined threshold level is two or three.

33. The audio mixing apparatus as claimed in claim 28, wherein at least one audio channel to be mixed corresponds to a mixed audio signal received from another audio mixing apparatus or a conference bridge.

34. A conference bridge in an audio conferencing system, the conference bridge including an audio mixing apparatus as claimed in claim 28.