IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,315,520
Granted Patent B2
US 12,315,520 · App. 17/909,677 · Granted May 27, 2025

Sound signal downmixing method, sound signal coding method, sound signal downmixing apparatus, sound signal coding apparatus, program and recording medium

Inventors: Ryosuke Sugiura (Tokyo, JP); Takehiro Moriya (Tokyo, JP); Yutaka Kamamoto (Tokyo, JP)
Assignee: NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION
G10L19/008G10L19/24H04S1/007H04S7/30H04S2400/03
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,315,520
App. No.
17/909,677
Granted
May 27, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

A sound signal downmix method includes an inter-channel relationship information obtaining step of obtaining an inter-channel correlation value and preceding channel information of every pair of two channels included in N channels, the inter-channel correlation value being a value indicating a degree of a correlation between input sound signals of the two channels, the preceding channel information being information indicating which of the input sound signals of the two channels is preceding, and a downmix step of obtaining a downmix signal by weighting and adding the input sound signals of the N channels, the input sound signal of each channel being weighted based on the inter-channel correlation value and the preceding channel information such that the larger a correlation with an input sound signal of a preceding channel that precedes the channel, the smaller a weight, whereas the larger a correlation with an input sound signal of a succeeding channel that succeeds the channel, the larger the weight. The sum of the weights is normalized to 1.

Claims (202)

1. A sound signal downmix method of obtaining a downmix signal that is a monaural sound signal from input sound signals of N channels, N being an integer of three or greater, the sound signal downmix method comprising:

obtaining an inter-channel correlation value and preceding channel information of every pair of two channels included in the N channels, the inter-channel correlation value being a value from 0 to 1 indicating a degree of a correlation between input sound signals of the two channels, the preceding channel information being information indicating which of the input sound signals of the two channels is preceding;

obtaining every sample x M (t) of the downmix signal, wherein

a sample number is denoted as t, every sample of the input sound signal of an ith channel whose i is from 1 to Nis denoted as x i (t), and every sample of the downmix signal is denoted as x M (t),

a set of channel numbers of channels preceding the ith channel is denoted as I Li ,

a set of channel numbers of channels succeeding the ith channel is denoted as I Fi ,

the inter-channel correlation value of a pair of the ith channel and every channel j preceding the ith channel is denoted as γ ij ,

the inter-channel correlation value of a pair of the ith channel and every channel k succeeding the ith channel is denoted as γ ik ,

a weight of the ith channel is denoted as w i , w i being expressed by

[

Math

⁢

22

]

w

i

=

1

N

⁢

∏

j

∈

I

Li

(

1

-

γ

ij

)

⁢

(

1

+

∑

k

∈

I

Fi

γ

ik

)

,

a normalized weight of the ith channel is denoted as w′ i , w′ i being expressed by

[

Math

⁢

23

]

w

i

′

=

w

i

∑

i

=

1

N

w

i

,

 and

every sample x M (t) of the downmix signal is obtained by

[

Math

⁢

24

]

x

M

(

t

)

=

∑

i

=

1

N

w

i

′

×

x

i

(

t

)

;

encoding, based on the downmixed signal in embedded form focused on a monaural embedding, the plurality of sound signals of N channels.

2. A sound signal coding method comprising:

the sound signal downmix method according to claim 1 as a sound signal downmix step;

a monaural coding step of obtaining a monaural code by coding the downmix signal obtained in the downmix step; and

a stereo coding step of obtaining a stereo code by coding the input sound signals of the N channels.

3. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a program causing a computer to execute processing of each step of the sound signal coding method according to claim 2 .

4. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a program causing a computer to execute processing of each step of the sound signal downmix method according to claim 1 .

5. A sound signal downmix apparatus configured to obtain a downmix signal that is a monaural sound signal from input sound signals of N channels, N being an integer of three or greater, the sound signal downmix apparatus comprising:

an inter-channel relationship information obtaining unit configured to obtain an inter-channel correlation value and preceding channel information of every pair of two channels included in the N channels, the inter-channel correlation value being a value from 0 to 1 indicating a degree of a correlation between input sound signals of the two channels, the preceding channel information being information indicating which of the input sound signals of the two channels is preceding; and

a downmix unit configured to obtain every sample x M (t) of the downmix signal, wherein

a sample number is denoted as t, every sample of the input sound signal of an ith channel whose i is from 1 to N is denoted as x i (t), and every sample of the downmix signal is denoted as x M (t),

a set of channel numbers of channels preceding the ith channel is denoted as I Li ,

a set of channel numbers of channels succeeding the ith channel is denoted as I Fi ,

the inter-channel correlation value of a pair of the ith channel and every channel j preceding the ith channel is denoted as γ ij ,

the inter-channel correlation value of a pair of the ith channel and every channel k succeeding the ith channel is denoted as γ ik ,

a weight of the ith channel is denoted as w i , w i being expressed by

[

Math

⁢

25

]

w

i

=

1

N

⁢

∏

j

∈

I

Li

(

1

-

γ

ij

)

⁢

(

1

+

∑

k

∈

I

Fi

γ

ik

)

,

a normalized weight of the ith channel is denoted as w′i, w′i being expressed by

[

Math

⁢

26

]

w

i

′

=

w

i

∑

i

=

1

N

w

i

,

 and

every sample x M (t) of the downmix signal is obtained by

[

Math

⁢

27

]

x

M

(

t

)

=

∑

i

=

1

N

w

i

′

×

x

i

(

t

)

;

encoding, based on the downmixed signal in embedded form focused on a monaural embedding, the plurality of sound signals of N channels.

6. A sound signal coding apparatus comprising:

the sound signal downmix apparatus according to claim 5 as a sound signal downmix unit;

a monaural coding unit configured to obtain a monaural code by coding the downmix signal obtained by the downmix unit; and

a stereo coding unit configured to obtain a stereo code by coding the input sound signals of the N channels.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Sep 6, 2022
From: SUGIURA, RYOSUKE; MORIYA, TAKEHIRO; KAMAMOTO, YUTAKA
To: NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 061000/0036 →
Priority Claims (3)
WO PCT/JP2020/010080 · Mar 9, 2020 · international
WO PCT/JP2020/010081 · Mar 9, 2020 · international
WO PCT/JP2020/041216 · Nov 4, 2020 · international
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20230106832A1 · Apr 6, 2023
References Cited (3)
US 10839812B2 · Dick · 2020 [cited by examiner]
US 20080010072A1 · Yoshida et al. · 2008 [cited by applicant]
WO 2006070751A1 · 2006 [cited by applicant]