Encoding device and method, decoding device and method, and program

• US 9,177,563 B2
• Filed: 10/05/2011
• Issued: 11/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Yamamoto, Yuki, Chinen, Toru
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin, Vivian
• Assistant Examiner(s): TON, DAVID L
• Application Number:
  US13/877,192
• Publication Number:
  US 20130208902A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,490 Days
• Field of Search: 381 1- 23, 704200-230, 700/94
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/0208 Subband vocoders
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0388 Details of processing therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/18 the extracted parameters being spectral information of each sub-band
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/21 the extracted parameters being power information

Abstract

The present invention relates to an encoding device and method, and a decoding device and method, and a program which enable music signals to be played with higher sound quality by expanding a frequency band.

A band pass filter divides an input signal into multiple subband signals, a feature amount calculating circuit calculates feature amount using at least any one of the divided multiple subband signals and the input signal, a high-frequency subband power estimating circuit calculates an estimated value of high-frequency subband power based on the calculated feature amount, and a high-frequency signal generating circuit generates a high-frequency signal component based on the multiple subband signals divided by the band pass filter and the estimated value of the high-frequency subband power calculated by the high-frequency subband power estimating circuit. A frequency band expanding device expands the frequency band of the input signal using the high-frequency signal component generated by the high-frequency signal generating circuit. The present invention may be applied to a frequency band expanding device, encoding device, decoding device, and so forth, for example.

Claims

1. An encoding device comprising;

subband dividing means configured to divide an input signal into a plurality of subbands, and to generate a low-frequency subband signal including a plurality of subbands on the low-frequency side, and a high-frequency subband signal including a plurality of subbands on the high-frequency side;

feature amount calculating means configured to calculate feature amount that represents features of the input signal based on at least any one of the low-frequency subband signal and the input signal;

smoothing means configured to subject the feature amount to smoothing;

pseudo high-frequency subband power calculating means configured to calculate pseudo high-frequency subband power that is an estimated value of power of the high-frequency subband signal based on the smoothed feature amount and a predetermined coefficient;

selecting means configured to calculate high-frequency subband power of the high-frequency subband signal from the high-frequency subband signal, and to compare the high-frequency subband power and the pseudo high-frequency subband power to select a coefficient from a plurality of coefficients;

high-frequency encoding means configured to encode coefficient information for obtaining the selected coefficient, and smoothing information relating to the smoothing to generate high-frequency encoded data;

low-frequency encoding means configured to encode a low-frequency signal of the input signal to generate low-frequency encoded data; and

multiplexing means configured to multiplex the low-frequency encoded data and the high-frequency encoded data to obtain an output code string for transmitting to a playback device including a decoding device.

2. The encoding device according to claim 1, wherein the smoothing means subjects the feature amount to smoothing by performing weighted averaging for the feature amount of a predetermined number of continuous frames of the input signal.

3. The encoding device according to claim 2, wherein the smoothing information is information that indicates at least one of the number of the frames used for the weighted averaging, or weight used for the weighted averaging.

4. The encoding device according to claim 3, further comprising:

parameter determining means configured to determine at least one of the number of the frames used for the weighted averaging, or weight used for the weighted averaging based on the high-frequency subband signal.

5. The encoding device according to claim 1, wherein the selected coefficient is generated by learning with the feature amount and the high-frequency subband power obtained from a broadband supervisory signal as an explanatory variable and an explained variable.

6. The encoding device according to claim 5, wherein the broadband supervisory signal is a signal obtained by encoding a predetermined signal and decoding the encoded predetermined signal;

and wherein the selected coefficient is generated by the learning using the broadband supervisory signal for each of a plurality of different encoding methods and encoding algorithms.

7. An encoding method comprising the steps of:

dividing an input signal into a plurality of subbands, and generating a low-frequency subband signal including a plurality of subbands on the low-frequency side, and a high-frequency subband signal including a plurality of subbands on the high-frequency side;

calculating feature amount that represents features of the input signal based on at least one of the low-frequency subband signal and the input signal;

subjecting the feature amount to smoothing;

calculating pseudo high-frequency subband power that is an estimated value of power of the high-frequency subband signal based on the smoothed feature amount and a predetermined coefficient;

calculating high-frequency subband power of the high-frequency subband signal from the high-frequency subband signal, and comparing the high-frequency subband power and the pseudo high-frequency subband power to select a coefficient from a plurality of coefficients;

encoding coefficient information for obtaining the selected coefficient, and smoothing information relating to the smoothing to generate high-frequency encoded data;

encoding a low-frequency signal of the input signal to generate low-frequency encoded data; and

multiplexing the low-frequency encoded data and the high-frequency encoded data to obtain an output code string for transmitting to a playback device including a decoding device.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with a program that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to execute processing comprising the steps of:

dividing an input signal into a plurality of subbands, and generating a low-frequency subband signal made up of a plurality of subbands on the low-frequency side, and a high-frequency subband signal made up of a plurality of subbands on the high-frequency side;

calculating feature amount that represents features of the input signal based on at least any one of the low-frequency subband signal and the input signal;

subjecting the feature amount smoothing;

calculating pseudo high-frequency subband power that is an estimated value of power of the high-frequency subband signal based on the smoothed feature amount and a predetermined coefficient;

calculating high-frequency subband power of the high-frequency subband signal from the high-frequency subband signal, and comparing the high-frequency subband power and the pseudo high-frequency subband power to select any of a plurality of the coefficients;

encoding coefficient information for obtaining the selected coefficient, and smoothing information relating to the smoothing to generate high-frequency encoded data;

encoding a low-frequency signal of the input signal to generate low-frequency encoded data; and

multiplexing the low-frequency encoded data and the high-frequency encoded data to obtain an output code string for transmitting to a playback device including a decoding device.

9. A decoding device comprising:

demultiplexing means configured to demultiplex input encoded data into low-frequency encoded data, coefficient information for obtaining a coefficient, and smoothing information relating to smoothing;

low-frequency decoding means configured to decode the low-frequency encoded data to generate a low-frequency signal;

subband dividing means configured to divide the low-frequency signal into a plurality of subbands to generate a low-frequency subband signal for each of the subbands;

feature amount calculating means configured to calculate feature amount based on the low-frequency subband signals;

smoothing means configured to subject the feature amount to smoothing based on the smoothing information; and

generating means configured to generate a high-frequency signal based on the coefficient obtained from the coefficient information, the feature amount subjected to smoothing, and the low-frequency subband signals,

wherein the low-frequency signal and the high frequency signal produce high sound quality when combined and played back.

10. The decoding device according to claim 9, wherein the smoothing means subjects the feature amount to smoothing by performing weighted averaging on the feature amount of a predetermined number of continuous frames of the low-frequency signal.

11. The decoding device according to claim 10, wherein the smoothing information is information indicating at least one of the number of frames used for the weighted averaging, or weight used for the weighted averaging.

12. The decoding device according to claim 9, wherein the generating means includes

decoded high-frequency subband power calculating means configured to calculate decoded high-frequency subband power that is an estimated value of subband power included in the high-frequency signal based on the smoothed feature amount and the coefficient, and

high-frequency signal generating means configured to generate the high-frequency signal based on the decoded high-frequency subband power and the low-frequency subband signal.

13. The decoding device according to claim 9, wherein the coefficient is generated by learning with the feature amount obtained from a broadband supervisory signal, and power of the same subband as a subband included in the high-frequency signal of the broadband supervisory signal, as an explanatory variable and an explained variable.

14. The decoding device according to claim 13, wherein the broadband supervisory signal is a signal obtained by encoding a predetermined signal and decoding the encoded predetermined signal;

and wherein the coefficient is generated by the learning using the broadband supervisory signal for each of a plurality of different encoding methods and encoding algorithms.

15. A decoding method comprising the steps of:

demultiplexing input encoded data into low-frequency encoded data, coefficient information for obtaining a coefficient, and smoothing information relating to smoothing;

decoding the low-frequency encoded data to generate a low-frequency signal;

dividing the low-frequency signal into a plurality of subbands to generate a low-frequency subband signal for each of the subbands;

calculating feature amount based on the low-frequency subband signals;

subjecting the feature amount to smoothing based on the smoothing information; and

generating a high-frequency signal based on the coefficient obtained from the coefficient information, the feature amount subjected to smoothing, and the low-frequency subband signals,

wherein the low-frequency signal and the high-frequency signal produce high sound quality when combined and played back.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with a program that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to execute processing comprising the steps of:

demultiplexing input encoded data into low-frequency encoded data, coefficient information for obtaining a coefficient, and smoothing information relating to smoothing;

decoding the low-frequency encoded data to generate a low-frequency signal;

dividing the low-frequency signal into a plurality of subbands to generate a low-frequency subband signal for each of the subbands;

calculating feature amount based on the low-frequency subband signals;

subjecting the feature amount to smoothing based on the smoothing information; and

generating a high-frequency signal based on the coefficient obtained from the coefficient information, the feature amount subjected to smoothing, and the low-frequency subband signals,

wherein the low-frequency signal and the high-frequency signal produce high sound quality when combined and played back.

17. An encoding device comprising:

a subband dividing circuit configured to divide an input signal into a plurality of subbands, and to generate a low-frequency subband signal including a plurality of subbands on the low-frequency side, and a high-frequency subband signal including, a plurality of subbands on the high-frequency side;

a feature amount calculating circuit configured to calculate feature amount that represents features of the input signal based on at least any one of the low-frequency subband signal and the input signal;

a smoothing circuit configured to subject the feature amount to smoothing;

a pseudo high-frequency subband power calculating circuit configured to calculate pseudo high-frequency subband power that is an estimated value of power of the high-frequency subband signal based on the smoothed feature amount and a predetermined coefficient;

a selecting circuit configured to calculate high-frequency subband power of the high-frequency subband signal from the high-frequency subband signal, and to compare the high-frequency subband power and the pseudo high-frequency subband power to select a coefficient from a plurality of coefficients;

a high-frequency encoding circuit configured to encode coefficient information for obtaining the selected coefficient, and smoothing information relating to the smoothing to generate high-frequency encoded data;

a low-frequency encoding circuit configured to encode a low-frequency signal of the input signal to generate low-frequency encoded data; and

a multiplexing circuit configured to multiplex the low-frequency encoded data and the high-frequency encoded data to obtain an output code string for transmitting to a playback device including a decoding device.

18. The encoding device of claim 17, wherein the smoothing circuit subjects the feature amount to smoothing by performing weighted averaging for the feature amount of a predetermined number of continuous frames of the input signal.

19. A decoding device comprising:

a demultiplexing circuit configured to demultiplex input encoded data into low-frequency encoded data, coefficient information for obtaining a coefficient, and smoothing information relating to smoothing;

a low-frequency decoding circuit configured to decode the low-frequency encoded data to generate a low-frequency signal;

a subband dividing circuit configured to divide the low-frequency signal into a plurality of subbands to generate a low-frequency subband signal for each of the subbands;

a feature amount calculating circuit configured to calculate feature amount based on the low-frequency subband signals;

a smoothing circuit configured to subject the feature amount to smoothing based on the smoothing information; and

a generating circuit configured to generate a high-frequency signal based on the coefficient obtained from the coefficient information, the feature amount subjected to smoothing, and the low-frequency subband signals,

wherein the low-frequency signal and the high-frequency signal produce high sound quality when combined and played back.

20. The decoding device of claim 19, wherein the generating circuit includes

a decoded high-frequency subband power calculating circuit configured to calculate decoded high-frequency subband power that is an estimated value of subband power making up the high-frequency signal based on the smoothed feature amount and the coefficient, and

a high-frequency signal generating circuit configured to generate the high-frequency signal based on the decoded high-frequency subband power and the low-frequency subband signal.