Removing time delays in signal paths

• US 7,716,043 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Issued: 05/11/2010
• 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:
  US11/541,472
• Publication Number:
  US 20070094014A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,320 Days
• Field of Search: 704500-504, 704/200, 704/201, 704/203, 704/205, 704/220, 704/228, 704/229, 704/230
• 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 encoded according to a downmix coding scheme and a plural-channel audio coding scheme and spatial information to generate a plural-channel audio signal, the downmix signal including the plural-channel audio signal and the spatial information being delayed within the audio signal;

first decoding, in the audio decoding apparatus, the downmix signal according to the downmix coding scheme; and

second decoding, in the audio decoding apparatus, the decoded downmix signal according to the plural-channel audio coding scheme, comprising;

converting, in the audio decoding apparatus, the downmix signal of a first domain into a downmix signal of a second domain; and

generating, in the audio decoding apparatus, the plural-channel audio signal by combining the downmix signal of the second domain with the spatial information,

wherein, before receiving the audio signal, the spatial information is delayed by an amount of time substantially equal to a sum of a first delay time and a second delay time, the first delay time including an elapsed time of the first decoding, and the second delay time including an elapsed time of the converting.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first domain is a time domain and wherein the second domain is a frequency domain.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the frequency domain comprises a quadrature mirror filter domain.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the second delay time is 961 time samples.

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

an audio signal receiving unit receiving an audio signal including a downmix signal encoded according to a downmix coding scheme and a plural-channel audio coding scheme and spatial information to generate a plural-channel audio signal, the downmix signal including the plural-channel audio signal and the spatial information being delayed within the audio signal;

a processor of a first decoder decoding the downmix signal according to the downmix coding scheme; and

a processor of a second decoder decoding the first-decoded downmix signal according to the plural-channel audio coding scheme, comprising;

converting the downmix signal of a first domain to a second domain; and

generating the plural-channel audio signal by combining the downmix signal of the second domain with the spatial information,

wherein, before receiving the audio signal, the spatial information is delayed by an amount of time substantially equal to a sum of a first delay time and a second delay time, the first delay time including an elapsed time of the first decoding and the second delay time including an elapsed time of the converting.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein processor of the second decoder converts the downmix signal of a time domain to the downmix signal of a frequency domain.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the frequency domain comprises a quadrature mirror filter domain.

8. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the second delay time is 704 time samples.

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

receiving an audio signal including a downmix signal encoded according to a downmix coding scheme and a plural-channel audio coding scheme and spatial information to generate a plural-channel audio signal, the downmix signal including the plural-channel audio signal and the spatial information being delayed within the audio signal;

first decoding the downmix signal according to the downmix coding scheme; and

second decoding the first-decoded downmix signal according to the plural-channel audio coding scheme, comprising;

converting the downmix signal of a first domain to a second domain; and

generating the plural-channel audio signal by combining the downmix signal of the second domain with the spatial information,

wherein, before receiving the audio signal, the spatial information is delayed by an amount of time substantially equal to a sum of first delay time and a second delay time, the first delay time including an elapsed time of the first decoding and second delay time including an elapsed time of the converting.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the first domain is a time domain and the second domain is a frequency domain and the second delay time is 704 time samples.