Enhancing perceptual performance of SBR and related HFR coding methods by adaptive noise-floor addition and noise substitution limiting

• US 8,543,385 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2012
• Issued: 09/24/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Dolby International AB (Dolby Laboratories Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Dolby International AB (Dolby Laboratories Incorporated)
• Inventors: Liljeryd, Lars G., Ekstrand, Per, Henn, Frederik, Kjoerlink, Kristofer
• Primary Examiner(s): Armstrong, Angela A
• Application Number:
  US13/460,789
• Publication Number:
  US 20120213385A1
• Time in Patent Office: 512 Days
• Field of Search: 704/200.1, 704/201, 704/500, 704/219, 704225-226, 704/230, 704/501
• US Class Current: 704/200.1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/028 Noise substitution, i.e. substituting non-tonal spectral components by noisy source comfort noise for discontinuous speech transmission G10L19/012
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/035 Scalar quantisation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/06 Determination or coding of the spectral characteristics, e.g. of the short-term prediction coefficients
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/26 Pre-filtering or post-filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/265 Pre-filtering, e.g. high frequency emphasis prior to encoding
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/038 using band spreading techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/18 the extracted parameters being spectral information of each sub-band

Abstract

The present proposes new methods and an apparatus for enhancement of source coding systems utilizing high frequency reconstruction (HFR). It addresses the problem of insufficient noise contents in a reconstructed highband, by Adaptive Noise-floor Addition. It also introduces new methods for enhanced performance by means of limiting unwanted noise, interpolation and smoothing of envelope adjustment amplification factors. The present invention is applicable to both speech coding and natural audio coding systems.

Claims

1. A method for decoding an encoded signal to obtain an output audio signal that represents an original audio signal, wherein the method comprises:

receiving the encoded signal and obtaining therefrom a noise level parameter and spectral envelope parameters for high-frequency bands of the original audio signal and encoded audio data;

decoding the encoded audio data to obtain a decoded audio signal that represents low-frequency bands of the original audio signal;

generating a reconstructed signal by replicating harmonics in the low-frequency bands of the decoded audio signal into the high-frequency bands and adding noise to replicated harmonics in the high-frequency bands, wherein the noise is adapted according to the noise level parameter and the reconstructed signal has levels adapted according to the spectral envelope parameters; and

synthesizing the output audio signal from a combination of the decoded audio signal and the reconstructed signal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the noise level parameter is responsive to bandwidth of the original audio signal.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the reconstructed signal levels are adapted by scale factors representing ratios of energy between frequency bands of the original audio signal and frequency bands of the replicated harmonics.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein reconstructed signal levels are adapted by gain factors that are smoothed in time.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein reconstructed signal levels are adapted by gain factors that are smoothed in frequency.

6. An apparatus for decoding an encoded signal to obtain an output audio signal that represents an original audio signal, wherein the apparatus comprises:

a demultiplexor for receiving the encoded signal and obtaining therefrom a noise level parameter and spectral envelope parameters for high-frequency bands of the original audio signal and encoded audio data;

an audio decoder for decoding the encoded audio data to obtain a decoded audio signal that represents low-frequency bands of the original audio signal, and for generating a reconstructed signal by replicating harmonics in the low-frequency bands of the decoded audio signal into the high-frequency bands and adding noise to replicated harmonics in the high-frequency bands, wherein the noise is adapted according to the noise level parameter and the reconstructed signal has levels adapted according to the spectral envelope parameters; and

a synthesis filter bank for synthesizing the output audio signal from a combination of the decoded audio signal and the reconstructed signal.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the noise level parameter is responsive to bandwidth of the original audio signal.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the reconstructed signal levels are adapted by scale factors representing ratios of energy between frequency bands of the original audio signal and frequency bands of the replicated harmonics.

9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein reconstructed signal levels are adapted by gain factors that are smoothed in time.

10. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein reconstructed signal levels are adapted by gain factors that are smoothed in frequency.