Granted Patent B2

US 12,418,768 · App. 18/363,978 · Granted Sep 16, 2025

Inventors: Guillaume Fuchs (Erlangen, DE); Oliver Thiergart (Erlangen, DE); Srikanth Korse (Erlangen, DE); Stefan Döhla (Erlangen, DE); Markus Multrus (Erlangen, DE); Fabian Küch (Erlangen, DE); Alexandre Bouthéon (Erlangen, DE); Andrea Eichenseer (Erlangen, DE); Stefan Bayer (Erlangen, DE)

Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FÖRDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.

H04S7/307G10L19/02G10L19/0212H04N19/119H04N19/176H04N19/593H04S2400/01H04S2420/11H04S2420/13

Abstract

Claims (46)

1. An apparatus for generating a sound field description from an input signal comprising one or more channels, the apparatus comprising:

an input signal analyzer configured for acquiring diffuseness data from the input signal;

a sound component generator configured for generating, from the input signal, one or more sound field components of a first group of sound field components, the first group of sound field components comprising, for each sound field component of the first group of sound field components, a direct component and a diffuse component, and for generating, from the input signal, a second group of sound field components, a sound field component of the second group of sound field components comprising only a direct component,

wherein the sound component generator comprises an energy compensator configured for performing an energy compensation of the sound field components of the first group when generating the first group of sound field components, the energy compensator comprising a compensation gain calculator for

calculating a compensation gain using the diffuseness data, the maximum order of the sound field components of the first group and the maximum order of the sound field components of the second group, wherein the compensation gain calculator is configured to decrease the compensation gain with an increasing maximum order of the sound field components of the first group and to increase the compensation gain with an increasing maximum order of the sound field components of the second group, or

calculating a compensation gain using the diffuseness data, the number of the diffuse components in the first group, and the maximum order of the sound field components of the second group, wherein the compensation gain calculator is configured to decrease the compensation gain with an increasing number of the diffuse components in the first group and to decrease the compensation gain with an increasing maximum order of the sound field components of the first group.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the sound component generator comprises a mid-order components generator comprising:

a reference signal provider configured for providing a reference signal for a sound field component of the first group of sound field components;

a decorrelator configured for generating a decorrelated signal from the reference signal,

wherein the direct component of the sound field component of the first group is derived from the reference signal, wherein the diffuse component of the sound field component of the first group is derived from the decorrelated signal, and

a mixer configured for mixing the direct component and the diffuse component using at least one of a direction of arrival data provided by the input signal analyzer and the diffuseness data.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 ,

wherein the input signal comprises only a single mono channel signal, and wherein the sound field components of the first group of sound field components are sound field components of a first order or a higher order, or wherein the input signal comprises two or more channels, and wherein the sound field components of the first group of sound field components are sound field components of a second order or a higher order.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the input signal comprises a mono signal or at least two channels, and wherein the sound component generator comprises a low order components generator configured for generating the low-order sound field components by copying, or taking the input signal, or performing a weighted combination of the channels of the input signal.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the input signal comprises the mono signal, and wherein the low order components generator is configured to generate a zero order Ambisonics signal by taking or copying the mono signal, or

wherein the input signal comprises at least two channels, and wherein the low-order components generator is configured to generate a zero order Ambisonics signal by adding the two channels and to generate a first order Ambisonics signal based on a difference of the two channels, or

wherein the input signal comprises a first order Ambisonics signal with three or four channels, and wherein the low order components generator is configured to generate a first order Ambisonics signal by taking or copying the three or four channels of the input signal, or

wherein the input signal comprises an A-format signal comprising four channels, and wherein the low-order components generator is configured to calculate a first order Ambisonics signal by performing a weighted linear combination of the four channels.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the sound component generator comprises a high-order components generator configured for generating the sound field components of the second group, the sound field components of the second group comprising an order being higher than a truncation order used for generating the sound field components of the first group of sound field components.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the compensation gain calculator is configured

to increase the compensation gain with an increasing number of the sound field components in the second group, or

to increase the compensation gain with an increasing diffuseness data.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the compensation gain calculator is configured for calculating the compensation gain additionally using a first energy- or amplitude-related measure for an omnidirectional component derived from the input signal and using a second energy- or amplitude-related measure for a directional component derived from the input signal, the diffuseness data, and direction data acquired from the input signal.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the compensation gain calculator is configured to calculate a first gain factor depending on the diffuseness data and at least one of the number of the sound field components in the second group, the number of the diffuse components in the first group, the maximum order of the sound field components of the first group, and the maximum order of the sound field components of the second group, to calculate a second gain factor depending on a first amplitude or energy-related measure for an omnidirectional component derived from the input signal, a second energy- or amplitude-related measure for a directional component derived from the input signal, the direction data and the diffuseness data, and to calculate the compensation gain using the first gain factor and the second gain factor.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the compensation gain calculator is configured to perform a gain manipulation using a limitation with a fixed maximum threshold or a fixed minimum threshold or using a compression function for compressing low or high gain values towards medium gain values to acquire the compensation gain.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the sound component generator comprises a compensation gain applicator configured for applying the compensation gain to at least one sound field component of the first group.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the compensation gain applicator is configured to apply the compensation gain to each sound field component of the first group, or to only one or more sound field components of the first group with a diffuse portion, or to diffuse portions of the sound field components of the first group.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the input signal analyzer is configured to extract the diffuseness data from metadata associated with the input signal or to extract the diffuseness data from the input signal by a signal analysis of the input signal comprising two or more channels or components.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the input signal only comprises one or two sound field components, the one or two sound field components being up to an input order, wherein the sound component generator comprises a sound field components combiner configured for combining the sound field components of the first group and the sound field components of the second group to acquire a sound field description comprising sound field components being up to an output order, the output order being higher than the input order.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

an analysis filter bank configured for generating the one or more sound field components of the first group and the second group for a plurality of different time-frequency tiles, wherein the input signal analyzer is configured to acquire a diffuseness data item for each time-frequency tile, and wherein the sound component generator is configured to perform the energy compensation separately for each time-frequency tile.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

a high-order decoder configured for using the one or more sound field components of the first group and the one or more sound field components of the second group to generate a spectral domain or time domain representation of the sound field description generated from the input signal.

17. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first group of sound field components and the second group of sound field components are orthogonal to each other, or wherein the sound field components are at least one of coefficients of orthogonal basis functions, coefficients of spatial basis functions, coefficients of spherical or circular harmonics, and Ambisonics coefficients.

18. A method for generating a sound field description from an input signal comprising one or more channels, comprising:

acquiring diffuseness data from the input signal;

generating, from the input signal, one or more sound field components of a first group of sound field components, the first group of sound field components comprising, for each sound field component of the first group of sound field components, a direct component and a diffuse component, and generating, from the input signal, a second group of sound field components, a sound field component of the second group of sound field components comprising only a direct component,

wherein the generating comprises performing an energy compensation of the sound field components of the first group when generating the first group of sound field components, the performing the energy compensation comprising

calculating a compensation gain using the diffuseness data, the maximum order of the sound field components of the first group and the maximum order of the sound field components of the second group, wherein the performing the energy compensation is configured to decrease the compensation gain with an increasing maximum order of the sound field components of the first group and to increase the compensation gain with an increasing maximum order of the sound field components of the second group, or

calculating a compensation gain using the diffuseness data, the number of the diffuse components in the first group, and the maximum order of the sound field components of the second group, wherein the performing the energy compensation is configured to decrease the compensation gain with an increasing number of the diffuse components in the first group and to decrease the compensation gain with an increasing maximum order of the sound field components of the first group.

19. A non-transitory digital storage medium having a computer program stored thereon to perform, when said computer program is run by a computer, the method for generating a sound field description from an input signal comprising one or more channels, comprising:

acquiring diffuseness data from the input signal;

generating, from the input signal, one or more sound field components of a first group of sound field components, the first group of sound field components comprising, for each sound field component of the first group of sound field components, a direct component and a diffuse component, and generating, from the input signal, a second group of sound field components, a sound field component of the second group of sound field components comprising only a direct component,

wherein the generating comprises performing an energy compensation of the sound field components of the first group, when generating the first group of sound field components, the performing the energy compensation comprising

calculating a compensation gain using the diffuseness data, the maximum order of the sound field components of the first group and the maximum order of the sound field components of the second group, wherein the performing the energy compensation is configured to decrease the compensation gain with an increasing maximum order of the sound field components of the first group and to increase the compensation gain with an increasing maximum order of the sound field components of the second group, or

calculating a compensation gain using the diffuseness data, the number of the diffuse components in the first group, and the maximum order of the sound field components of the second group, wherein the performing the energy compensation is configured to decrease the compensation gain with an increasing number of the diffuse components in the first group and to decrease the compensation gain with an increasing maximum order of the sound field components of the first group.

Assignments (1)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (3)

References Cited (127)