Hierarchical decorrelation of multichannel audio

1. A method for encoding an audio signal comprised of a plurality of channels, the method comprising:

segmenting an audio signal into frames;

transforming each of the frames into a frequency domain representation;

estimating, for each frame, a signal model;

quantizing the signal model for each frame;

performing hierarchical decorrelation using the frequency domain representation and the quantized signal model for each of the frames; and

quantizing an outcome of the hierarchical decorrelation using a quantizer,

wherein performing the hierarchical decorrelation includes:

selecting a set of channels, of the plurality of channels of the audio signal, based on a number of bits saved for audio compression;

performing a unitary transform on the selected set of channels, yielding a set of decorrelated channels; and

combining the set of decorrelated channels with remaining channels of the plurality of channels other than the selected set of channels.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the estimated signal model for each frame yields a spectral matrix.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining whether to further decorrelate the combined channels based on computational complexity; and

responsive to determining not to further decorrelate the combined channels, passing the combined channels as output.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the unitary transform is calculated from the quantized signal model.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the unitary transform is a Karhunen-Loeve transform (KLT).

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selected set of channels is two.

7. A method for encoding an audio signal comprised of a plurality of channels, the method comprising:

segmenting an audio signal into frames;

normalizing each of the frames of the audio signal to obtain a constant signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in each of the plurality of channels;

performing hierarchical decorrelation on the frames using a unitary transform in time domain, yielding a plurality of decorrelated channels;

transforming the plurality of decorrelated channels to frequency domain;

applying one or more weighting terms to the plurality of decorrelated channels;

quantizing the plurality of decorrelated channels with the weighting terms to obtain a quantized audio signal; and

encoding the quantized audio signal using an entropy coder to produce an encoded bit stream.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising extracting power spectral densities (PSDs) for the plurality of decorrelated channels.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the one or more weighting terms are based on the PSDs of the plurality of decorrelated channels.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the quantized audio signal is encoded using a probabilistic model based on the PSDs of the plurality of decorrelated channels.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein normalizing each of the frames of the audio signal includes applying a normalization factor based on temporal characteristics of the audio signal.

12. The method of claim 7 , wherein each of the frames of the audio signal is normalized against an excitation power for the frame.

13. An apparatus for encoding a multichannel audio signal, the apparatus comprising:

one or more mono audio coders; and

a decorrelation processor operable to:

select a plurality of channels of a multichannel audio signal based on at least one criterion;

perform a unitary transform on the selected plurality of channels, yielding a plurality of decorrelated channels;

combine the plurality of decorrelated channels with remaining channels of the audio signal other than the selected plurality; and

output the combined channels to the one or more mono audio coders, wherein the one or more audio coders are configured to:

receive the combined channels from the decorrelation processor in the time domain;

transform the combined channels to the frequency domain;

apply one or more weighting terms to the combined channels;

quantize the combined channels with the applied weighting terms to obtain a quantized audio signal; and

encode the quantized audio signal to produce an encoded bit stream.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the unitary transform is realized in the time domain.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the decorrelation processor is operable to:

determine whether the combined channels should be further decorrelated based on computational complexity; and

responsive to determining that the combined channels should not be further decorrelated, pass the combined channels as output to the one or more audio coders.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the decorrelation processor is operable to stop decorrelating the combined channels when either a predefined maximum cycle is reached or the gain factor at a cycle is close to zero.

17. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the unitary transform includes a gain and a delay factor.

18. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the one or more mono audio coders is further configured to extract power spectral densities (PSDs) for the combined channels.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the one or more weighting terms are based on the PSDs of the combined channels.

20. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the one or more mono audio coders is further configured to encode the quantized audio signal using a probabilistic model based on the PSDs of the combined channels.

21. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the one or more mono audio coders is further configured to transform the combined channels to the frequency domain by applying a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) to the combined channels.