Methods and apparatus for mixing compressed digital bit streams

• US 9,191,581 B2
• Filed: 03/13/2013
• Issued: 11/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Srinivasan, Venugopal, Peiffer, John C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Flanders, Andrew C
• Application Number:
  US13/800,249
• Publication Number:
  US 20130194507A1
• Time in Patent Office: 979 Days
• Field of Search: 700/94, 382/100, 382/232, 382/240, 380/51, 380/54, 380/201, 380/210, 380/252, 380/287, 370522-529
• 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 19/032 Quantisation or dequantisation of spectral components
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/173 Transcoding, i.e. converting between two coded representations avoiding cascaded coding-decoding
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00007 Time or data compression or expansion audio compression based on psychoacoustics G10L19/00; data processing for reproducing audio data at different playback speeds G10L21/04; video compression H04N19/00; data compression per se H03M7/30
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/10527 Audio or video recording; Data buffering arrangements G11B20/12 - G11B20/18 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/00028 Advanced audio coding [AAC]
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/00036 AC-3, i.e. ATSC digital audio compression standard
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/10546 specifically adapted for audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/265 Mixing

Abstract

Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture for mixing compressed digital bit streams are disclosed. An example method disclosed herein comprises acquiring a frame associated with a first compressed digital bit stream, unpacking the frame to obtain a plurality of original transform coefficient sets, and modifying the plurality of original transform coefficient sets to mix a second digital bit stream with the first compressed digital bit stream.

Claims

1. A method to mix data streams, the method comprising:

obtaining a first set of transform coefficients from a first compressed data stream, the first set of transform coefficients including a first set of mantissa codes and a first set of exponents;

determining a second set of mantissa codes based on the first set of transform coefficients and a second data stream;

replacing the first set of mantissa codes in the first set of transform coefficients with the second set of mantissa codes, without replacing the first set of exponents in the first set of transform coefficients, to mix the second data stream with the first compressed data stream to form a third data stream without uncompressing the first compressed data stream; and

at least one of transmitting or storing the third data stream.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first compressed data stream is compressed according to an audio compression standard, and the second data stream is an uncompressed audio data stream.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein determining the second set of mantissa codes includes:

determining a set of mantissa values based on the first set of transform coefficients and the second data stream; and

processing the set of mantissa values based on compression information obtained from the first compressed data stream to determine the second set of mantissa codes.

4. A method as defined in claim 3, wherein determining the set of mantissa values includes:

processing the first set of transform coefficients to determine first time domain data;

combining second time domain data from the second data stream with the first time domain data to determine third time domain data; and

processing the third time domain data to determine the set of mantissa values.

5. A method as defined in claim 3, wherein processing the set of mantissa values includes quantizing the set of mantissa values based on the compression information to determine the second set of mantissa codes.

6. A method as defined in claim 5, wherein the compression information includes a quantization step size.

7. A method as defined in claim 5, wherein quantizing the set of mantissa values includes setting a first one of the second set of mantissa codes to at least one of a positive limit or a negative limit when a first one of the set of mantissa values corresponding to the first one of the second set of mantissa codes is outside a range of mantissa values determined from the compression information.

8. A tangible computer readable storage memory device or storage disk comprising computer readable instructions which, when executed, cause a computing device to at least:

obtain a first set of transform coefficients from a first compressed data stream, the first set of transform coefficients including a first set of mantissa codes and a first set of exponents;

determine a second set of mantissa codes based on the first set of transform coefficients and a second data stream; and

replace the first set of mantissa codes in the first set of transform coefficients with the second set of mantissa codes, without replacing the first set of exponents in the first set of transform coefficients, to mix the second data stream with the first compressed data stream without uncompressing the first compressed data stream.

9. A memory device or storage disk as defined in claim 8, wherein the first compressed data stream is compressed according to an audio compression standard, and the second data stream is an uncompressed audio data stream.

10. A memory device or storage disk as defined in claim 8, wherein to determine the second set of mantissa codes, the instructions, when executed, further cause the computing device to:

determine a set of mantissa values based on the first set of transform coefficients and the second data stream; and

process the set of mantissa values based on compression information obtained from the first compressed data stream to determine the second set of mantissa codes.

11. A memory device or storage disk as defined in claim 10, wherein to determine the set of mantissa values, the instructions, when executed, further cause the computing device to:

process the first set of transform coefficients to determine first time domain data;

combine second time domain data from the second data stream with the first time domain data to determine third time domain data; and

process the third time domain data to determine the set of mantissa values.

12. A memory device or storage disk as defined in claim 10, wherein to process the set of mantissa values, the instructions, when executed, further cause the computing device to quantize the set of mantissa values based on the compression information to determine the second set of mantissa codes.

13. A memory device or storage disk as defined in claim 12, wherein the compression information includes a quantization step size.

14. A memory device or storage disk as defined in claim 12, wherein to quantize the set of mantissa values, the instructions, when executed, further cause the computing device to set a first one of the second set of mantissa codes to at least one of a positive limit or a negative limit when a first one of the set of mantissa values corresponding to the first one of the second set of mantissa codes is outside a range of mantissa values determined from the compression information.

15. An apparatus to mix data streams, the apparatus comprising:

an unpacking unit to obtain a first set of transform coefficients from a first compressed data stream, the first set of transform coefficients including a first set of mantissa codes and a first set of exponents; and

a modification unit to;

determine a second set of mantissa codes based on the first set of transform coefficients and a second data stream; and

replace the first set of mantissa codes in the first set of transform coefficients with the second set of mantissa codes, without replacing the first set of exponents in the first set of transform coefficients, to mix the second data stream with the first compressed data stream to form a third data stream without uncompressing the first compressed data stream; and

a repacking unit to output the third data stream to at least one of a transmitter or memory.

16. An apparatus as defined in claim 15, wherein the first compressed data stream is compressed according to an audio compression standard, and the second data stream is an uncompressed audio data stream.

17. An apparatus as defined in claim 15, wherein to determine the second set of mantissa codes, the modification unit is further to:

determine a set of mantissa values based on the first set of transform coefficients and the second data stream; and

process the set of mantissa values based on compression information obtained from the first compressed data stream to determine the second set of mantissa codes.

18. An apparatus as defined in claim 17, wherein to determine the set of mantissa values, the modification unit is further to:

process the first set of transform coefficients to determine first time domain data;

combine second time domain data from the second data stream with the first time domain data to determine third time domain data; and

process the third time domain data to determine the set of mantissa values.

19. An apparatus as defined in claim 17, wherein to process the set of mantissa values, the modification unit is further to quantize the set of mantissa values based on the compression information to determine the second set of mantissa codes.

20. An apparatus as defined in claim 19, wherein the compression information includes a quantization step size.

21. An apparatus as defined in claim 19, wherein to quantize the set of mantissa values, the modification unit is further to set a first one of the second set of mantissa codes to at least one of a positive limit or a negative limit when a first one of the set of mantissa values corresponding to the first one of the second set of mantissa codes is outside a range of mantissa values determined from the compression information.