Removing time delays in signal paths

• US 7,653,533 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Issued: 01/26/2010
• 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 Suk, Oh, Hyen O., Lim, Jae Hyun, Jung, Yang Won, Kim, Dong Soo
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo; Huyen X.
• Application Number:
  US11/540,920
• Publication Number:
  US 20070094011A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,215 Days
• Field of Search: 704501-504, 704/201, 704/227, 704/228, 704/203, 704/205, 704/229, 704/230, 704/500, 704/220
• US Class Current: 704/201
• 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 decoding an audio signal performed by an audio decoding apparatus, comprising:

receiving, in the audio decoding apparatus, an audio signal including a downmix signal of a time domain and spatial information, the spatial information being delayed within the audio signal according to a first scheme;

domain converting, in the audio decoding apparatus, the downmix signal of the time domain according to a second scheme;

delaying, in the audio decoding apparatus, the domain-converted downmix signal by an amount of time substantially equal to a difference between an amount of delay of the spatial information within the audio signal and an elapsed time during the domain converting of the downmix signal; and

combining, in the audio decoding apparatus, the delayed downmix signal with the spatial information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the spatial information is not delayed by the audio decoding apparatus.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first scheme includes converting the downmix signal of the time domain to a real quadrature mirror filter (QMF) domain and converting the downmix signal of the real OMF domain to a complex QMF domain, and wherein the second scheme includes directly converting the downmix signal of the time domain to a complex QMF domain.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the amount of time is approximately equal to an elapsed time during the converting the downmix signal of the real QMF domain to the complex QMF domain.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first scheme is for reducing power loss and wherein the second scheme is for improving sound quality.

6. An apparatus for decoding an audio signal, comprising:

an audio signal receiving unit receiving an audio signal including a downmix signal of a time domain and spatial information, the spatial information being delayed within the audio signal according to a first scheme;

a processor of a domain converting unit converting the downmix signal of the time domain according to a second scheme;

a delaying unit delaying the domain-converted downmix signal by an amount of time substantially equal to a difference between an amount of delay of the spatial information within the audio signal and an elapsed time during the domain converting of the downmix signal; and

a processor of a spatial information combining unit combining the delayed downmix signal with the spatial information.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the spatial information is not delayed in the apparatus.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the first scheme includes converting the downmix signal of the time domain to a real quadrature mirror filter (QMF) domain and converting the downmix signal of the real QMF domain to a complex QMF domain, and wherein the second scheme includes directly converting the downmix signal of the time domain to a complex QMF domain.

9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the amount of time is approximately equal to an elapsed time during the converting the downmix signal of the real QMF domain to the complex QMF domain.

10. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the first scheme is for reducing power loss and wherein the second scheme is for improving sound quality.

11. A computer-readable medium selected from the group consisting of a non-volatile medium, a volatile medium, and combinations thereof the computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform:

receiving an audio signal including a downmix signal of a time domain and spatial information, the spatial information being delayed within the audio signal according to a first scheme;

domain converting the downmix signal of the time domain according to a second scheme;

delaying the domain-converted downmix signal by an amount of time substantially equal to a difference between an amount of delay of the spatial information within the audio signal and an elapsed time during the domain converting of the downmix signal; and

combining the delayed downmix signal with the spatial information.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the first scheme includes converting the downmix signal of the time domain to a real quadrature mirror filter (QMB) domain and converting the downmix signal of the real QMF domain to a complex QMF domain, and wherein the second scheme includes directly converting the downmix signal of the time domain to a complex QMF domain.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the amount of time is approximately equal to an elapsed time during the converting the downmix signal of the real QMF domain to the complex QMF domain.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the first scheme is for reducing power loss and wherein the second scheme is for improving sound quality.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the domain-converted downmix signal is delayed in delay unit of a decoding apparatus, and wherein the spatial information is not delayed by the decoding apparatus.