Audio signal processing apparatus

1. An audio signal encoding method comprising the steps of:

quantizing first multiple-channel analog audio signals into corresponding first multiple-channel digital audio signals at a sampling frequency and a quantization bit number;

implementing matrix operation among the first multiple-channel digital audio signals to generate second multiple-channel audio signals correlating with each other;

compressing the second multiple-channel audio signals into compression-resultant multiple-channel signals respectively, the compression-resultant multiple-channel signals relating to a smallest prediction-error lossless compression; and

formatting, using a processor, the compression-resultant multiple-channel signals into a formatting-resultant signal of an audio pack including a pack header and a packet, the packet containing a packet header and an access unit, the access unit being composed of a sub packet and a sync information portion, the sub packet containing at least first and second sub stream portions of the compression-resultant multiple-channel signals, the sync information portion containing the signal representative of the sampling frequency and the signal representative of the quantization bit number, where said access unit is of variable length and said compression-resultant multiple-channel signals are compressed with a variable bit rate.

2. An audio signal encoding method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising the step of:

formatting the packet header to include a presentation time stamp (PTS) to be used as a timing at which a decoded access unit be read out from a output buffer in a decoder side.

3. An audio signal decoding method for decoding an input audio signal into original multiple-channel digital audio signals, wherein the input audio signal has been generated by an audio signal encoding method comprising the steps of 1) quantizing first multiple-channel analog audio signals into corresponding first multiple-channel digital audio signals at a sampling frequency and a quantization bit number; 2) implementing matrix operation among the first multiple-channel digital audio signals to generate second multiple-channel audio signals correlating with each other; 3) compressing the second multiple-channel audio signals into compression-resultant multiple-channel signals respectively, the compression-resultant multiple-channel signals relating to a smallest prediction-error lossless compression; and 4) formatting the compression-resultant multiple-channel signals into a formatting-resultant signal of an audio pack including a pack header and a packet, the packet containing a packet header and an access unit the access unit composed of a sub packet and a sync information portion, the sub packet containing at least first and second sub stream portions of the compression-resultant multiple-channel signals, the sync information portion containing the signal representative of the sampling frequency and the signal representative of the quantization bit number, where said access unit is of variable length and said compression-resultant multiple-channel signals are compressed with a variable bit rate; the audio signal decoding method comprising the steps of:

separating an audio pack into an access unit composed of a sub packet and a sync information portion, where said access unit is of variable length;

extracting compression-resultant multiple-channel signals from the first and second sub stream portions of the sub packet of the access unit;

expanding the extracted compression-resultant multiple-channel signals into multiple-channel digital audio signals respectively, where said compression-resultant multiple-channel signals are compressed with a variable bit rate;

extracting a signal representative of a sampling frequency and a signal representative of a quantization bit number from the sync information portion; and

converting, using a processor, the multiple-channel digital audio signals into analog audio signals in response to the signal representative of the sampling frequency and the signal representative of the quantization bit number.

4. An audio signal decoding method for decoding an input audio signal into original multiple-channel digital audio signals, wherein the input audio signal has been generated by an audio signal encoding method comprising the steps of 1) quantizing first multiple-channel analog audio signals into corresponding first multiple-channel digital audio signals at a sampling frequency′ and a quantization bit number; 2) implementing matrix operation among the first multiple-channel digital audio signals to generate second multiple-channel audio signals correlating with each other; 3) compressing the second multiple-channel audio signals into compression-resultant multiple-channel signals respectively, the compression-resultant multiple-channel signals relating to a smallest prediction-error lossless compression; 4) formatting the compression-resultant multiple-channel signals into a formatting-resultant signal of an audio pack including a pack header and a packet, the packet containing a packet header and an access unit, the access unit composed of a sub packet and a sync information portion, the sub packet containing at least first and second sub stream portions of the compression-resultant multiple-channel signals, the sync information portion containing the signal representative of the sampling frequency and the signal representative of the quantization bit number, where said access unit is of variable length and said compression-resultant multiple-channel signals are compressed with a variable bit rate; and 5) formatting the packet header to include a presentation time stamp (PTS) to be used as a timing at which a decoded access unit be read out from a output buffer in a decoder side, the audio signal decoding method comprising the steps of:

extracting a presentation time stamp (PTS) from the packet header;

separating an audio pack into an access unit composed of a sub packet and a sync information portion, where said access unit is of variable length;

extracting compression-resultant multiple-channel signals from the first and second sub stream portions of the sub packet of the access unit;

extracting a signal representative of a sampling frequency and a signal representative of a quantization bit number from the sync information portion;

expanding the extracted compression-resultant multiple-channel signals into multiple-channel digital audio signals respectively, where said compression-resultant multiple-channel signals are compressed with a variable bit rate;

reading out the expanded multiple-channel digital audio signals from an output buffer at the timing of the presentation time stamp (PTS) extracted from the packet header; and

converting, using a processor, the multiple-channel digital audio signals into analog audio signals in response to the signal representative of the sampling frequency and the signal representative of the quantization bit number.

5. A method of receiving and decoding for receiving and decoding an input audio signal into original multiple-channel digital audio signals, wherein the input audio signal has been generated by an audio signal encoding method comprising the steps of 1) quantizing first multiple-channel analog audio signals into corresponding first multiple-channel digital audio signals at a sampling frequency and a quantization bit number; 2) implementing matrix operation among the first multiple-channel digital audio signals to generate second multiple-channel audio signals correlating with each other; 3) compressing the second multiple-channel audio signals into compression-resultant multiple-channel signals respectively, the compression-resultant multiple-channel signals relating to a smallest prediction-error lossless compression; and 4) formatting the compression-resultant multiple-channel signals into a formatting-resultant signal of an audio pack including a pack header and a packet, the packet containing a packet header and an access unit, the access unit composed of a sub packet and a sync information portion, the sub packet containing at least first and second sub stream portions of the compression-resultant multiple-channel signals, the sync information portion containing the signal representative of the sampling frequency and the signal representative of the quantization bit number, where said access unit is of variable length and said compression-resultant multiple-channel signals are compressed with a variable bit rate; the method comprising the steps of:

receiving an audio pack through a communication line;

separating the audio pack into an access unit composed of a sub packet and a sync information portion, where said access unit is of variable length;

extracting compression-resultant multiple-channel signals from the first and second sub stream portions of the sub packet of the access unit;

expanding the extracted compression-resultant multiple-channel signals into multiple-channel digital audio signals respectively, where said compression-resultant multiple-channel signals are compressed with a variable bit rate;

extracting a signal representative of a sampling frequency and a signal representative of a quantization bit number from the sync information portion; and

converting, using a processor, the multiple-channel digital audio signals into analog audio signals in response to the signal representative of the sampling frequency and the signal representative of the quantization bit number.