Removing time delays in signal paths

• US 20070094012A1
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Published: 04/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Pang, Hee, Jung, Yang, Kim, Dong, Lim, Jae, Oh, Hyen
• Granted Patent: US 7,840,401 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/204
• 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 19/167 Audio streaming, i.e. formatting and decoding of an encoded audio signal representation into a data stream for transmission or storage purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/18 Vocoders using multiple modes
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/30 Control circuits for electronic adaptation of the sound field

Abstract

The disclosed embodiments include systems, methods, apparatuses, and computer-readable mediums for compensating one or more signals and/or one or more parameters for time delays in one or more signal processing paths.

Claims

1. A method of processing an audio signal, comprising:

receiving a downmix signal and spatial information;

performing a complexity domain conversion on the downmix signal; and

combining the converted downmix signal and the spatial information, wherein the combined spatial information is delayed by an amount of time that includes an elapsed time of the complexity domain converting.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

delaying the spatial information by an encoding delay.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the complexity domain conversion further comprises:

converting a real Quadrature Mirror Filter (QMF) domain signal to a complex QMF domain signal.

4. A method of processing an audio signal, comprising:

receiving an audio signal of which synchronization between a downmix signal and spatial information is matched according to a first decoding scheme; and

compensating for a time synchronization difference between the downmix signal and the spatial information, if the received audio signal is decoded according to a second decoding scheme.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the time synchronization difference is a difference between a first delay time occurring until a time point of combining the downmix signal and the spatial information in accordance with the first decoding scheme, and a second delay time occurring until a time point of combining the downmix signal and the spatial information in accordance with the second decoding scheme.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein each of the first and second decoding scheme corresponds to one of a decoding scheme based on power and a decoding scheme based on audio quality, and the first and second decoding schemes are different from each other.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein in the time synchronization difference compensating, the downmix signal is led or lagged by the time synchronization difference.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein in the time synchronization difference compensating, the spatial information is led or lagged by the time synchronization difference.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein in the time synchronization difference compensating, the downmix signal is lagged by the time synchronization difference if the first and second decoding schemes correspond to the decoding scheme based on power and decoding scheme based on audio quality, respectively.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the time synchronization difference is a delay time occurring in converting a downmix signal in a real Quadrature Mirror Filter (QMF) domain to a downmix signal in a complex QMF domain.

11. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

generating a plural-channel signal using the combined downmix signal and spatial information; and

compensating for a time synchronization difference between the plural-channel signal and a time-series data.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the time-series data includes at least one of a moving picture, a still image and text.

13. A system for processing an audio signal, comprising:

a first decoder configured for receiving a downmix signal and spatial information;

a converter operatively coupled to the first decoder and configured for performing a complexity domain conversion on the downmix signal; and

a second decoder operatively coupled to the converter and configured for compensating at least one of the converted downmix signal and the spatial information for time delay resulting from the converting, and for combining the converted downmix signal and the spatial information.

14. A system of processing an audio signal, comprising:

a first decoder configured for receiving an audio signal of which synchronization between a downmix signal and spatial information is matched according to a first decoding scheme; and

a second decoder operatively coupled to the first decoder and configured for compensating for a time synchronization difference between the downmix signal and the spatial information, if the received audio signal is decoded according to a second decoding scheme.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the time synchronization difference is a difference between a first delay time occurring until a time point of combining the downmix signal and the spatial information in accordance with the first decoding scheme, and a second delay time occurring until a time point of combining the downmix signal and the spatial information in accordance with the second decoding scheme.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein each of the first and second decoding scheme corresponds to one of a decoding scheme based on power and a decoding scheme based on audio quality, and the first and second decoding schemes are different from each other.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein in the time synchronization difference compensating, the downmix signal is led or lagged by the time synchronization difference.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein in the time synchronization difference compensating, the spatial information is led or lagged by the time synchronization difference.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein in the time synchronization difference compensating, the downmix signal is lagged by the time synchronization difference if the first and second decoding schemes correspond to the decoding scheme based on power and decoding scheme based on audio quality, respectively.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the time synchronization difference is a delay time occurring in converting a downmix signal in a real Quadrature Mirror Filter (QMF) domain to a downmix signal in a complex QMF domain.

21. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

generating a plural-channel signal using the combined downmix signal and spatial information; and

compensating for a time synchronization difference between the plural-channel signal and a time-series data.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the time-series data includes at least one of a moving picture, a still image and text.

23. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the operations of:

receiving a downmix signal and spatial information;

performing a complexity domain conversion on the downmix signal;

compensating at least one of the converted downmix signal and the spatial information for time delay resulting from the converting; and

combining the converted downmix signal and the spatial information.

24. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the operations of:

receiving an audio signal of which synchronization between a downmix signal and spatial information is matched according to a first decoding scheme; and

compensating for a time synchronization difference between the downmix signal and the spatial information, if the received audio signal is decoded according to a second decoding scheme.

25. A method of processing an audio signal, comprising:

receiving a downmix signal and spatial information;

performing a complexity domain conversion on the downmix signal;

compensating at least one of the converted downmix signal and the spatial information for time delay resulting from the converting; and

combining the converted downmix signal and the spatial information.