Method and device for slowing a digital audio signal

• US 9,928,849 B2
• Filed: 08/08/2012
• Issued: 03/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Inventors: Wolff, Christophe
• Primary Examiner(s): Cordero, Marivelisse Santiago
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gonzalez, Lennin Rodrigues
• Application Number:
  US14/238,602
• Publication Number:
  US 20140229167A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,057 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/045 using thinning out or insertion of a waveform
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/00 Speech or voice analysis techniques not restricted to a single one of groups G10L15/00 - G10L21/00 muting semiconductor-based amplifiers when some special characteristics of a signal are sensed by a speech detector, e.g. sensing when no signal is present, H03G3/34

Abstract

A method for slowing a digital audio signal from the transmitter in order to transmit a slowed-down digital audio signal to a receiver, comprises the conversion of the digital audio signal received from a transmitter into a text made up of a series of words, assigning a timestamp bookmark to each word of the text, identifying words that belong to patterns referenced in a database of patterns to be eliminated, the definition of a rate of slowing, the adaptation of timestamped bookmarks to a slowed-down time frame based on the time of slowing, the slowing of the digital audio signal, the deletion of patterns to be eliminated, and the transmission to the receiver of a slowed-down digital audio signal.

Claims

1. A method for slowing a digital audio signal received from a transmitter in order to transmit a slowed-down digital audio signal to a receiver, comprising:

converting the digital audio signal received from the transmitter into a text composed of a series of words,

assigning a timestamp bookmark to each word in the text relative to an absolute time reference,

identifying words that belong to patterns referenced in a database, which allows the patterns to be eliminated to be deduced,

adding, from the text converted from the digital audio signal, new patterns of words to be eliminated into the database, wherein the new patterns of words to be eliminated are assigned qualifiers that include a number of occurrences of a word or a group of words,

assigning, to the new patterns of the words to be eliminated, qualifiers that comprise a number of occurrences of a word or a group of words,

defining a rate of slowing based on the patterns to be eliminated,

adapting the timestamp bookmarks to a slowed-down time frame based on the rate of slowing,

slowing down the digital audio signal,

deleting the patterns to be eliminated from the digital audio signal based on at least the assigned qualifiers, and

transmitting a slowed-down digital audio signal to the receiver.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the pattern database receives the new patterns from a pattern recognition block.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the pattern database receives a list of required words whose presence is permitted in the patterns that comprise the conversation.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising assigning a priority level to each pattern.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the bookmark timestamps are assigned with reference to the absolute time, then converted into a slowed-down timeframe.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the series of words are in American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) format.

7. A device, comprising:

an input that receives a digital audio signal from a transmitter,

a converter that converts the digital audio signal into a text composed of a series of words,

a timestamper that associates timestamp bookmarks with each of the text'"'"'s words,

a pattern database that contains the referenced patterns, wherein the reference patterns comprise words to be eliminated,

a pattern recognition block that identifies the words contained in the referenced patterns and deduces the patterns to eliminate and adds, from the text converted from the digital audio signal, new patterns of words to be eliminated into the pattern database, wherein the new patterns of words to be eliminated are assigned qualifiers that comprise a number of occurrences of a word or a group of words,

a pattern filtering block that filters the patterns to be eliminated,

a flow controller that defines a rate of slowing,

a digital audio signal slower that slows the digital audio signal based on the rate of slowing,

a reconstitution block that deletes the patterns to be eliminated from the digital audio signal based on at least the assigned qualifiers and reconstructs the digital audio signal, and

an output that restores a slowed-down digital audio signal.

8. The device according to claim 7, wherein the pattern database is specific to each language.

9. The device according to claim 7, wherein the converter comprises a language detector.

10. The device according to claim 7, further comprising:

a timeframe adaptation block that defines a slowed-down timeframe based on the rate of slowing,

a timestamp bookmark adaptation block that adjusts the timestamp bookmarks within the slowed-down timeframe, and

a reference clock that provides an absolute reference time to the pattern recognition block, to the slower, and to the timeframe adaptation block.

11. An apparatus, comprising:

means for converting a digital audio signal received from a transmitter into a text composed of a series of words,

means for assigning a timestamp bookmark to each word in the text relative to an absolute time reference,

means for identifying words that belong to patterns referenced in a database, which allows the patterns to be eliminated to be deduced and adding, from the text converted from the digital audio signal, new patterns of words to be eliminated into the database, wherein the new patterns of words to be eliminated are assigned qualifiers that comprise a number of occurrences of a word or a group of words,

means for defining a rate of slowing based on the patterns to be eliminated deduced from the database,

means for adapting the timestamp bookmarks to a slowed-down time frame based on the rate of slowing,

means for slowing down the digital audio signal,

means for deleting the patterns to be eliminated from the digital audio signal based on at least the assigned qualifiers, and

means for transmitting a slowed-down digital audio signal to a receiver.