Audio decoder, apparatus for generating encoded audio output data and methods permitting initializing a decoder

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10614824-B2
Application number	US-201916256243-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 24, 2019
Priority date	Oct 18, 2013
Publication date	Apr 7, 2020
Grant date	Apr 7, 2020

Abstract

An audio decoder decodes a bit stream of encoded audio data, which bit stream represents a sequence of audio sample values and includes a plurality of frames, wherein each frame includes associated encoded audio sample values. The audio decoder includes a determiner configured to determine whether a frame of the encoded audio data is a special frame including encoded audio sample values associated with the special frame and additional information, wherein the additional information include encoded audio sample values of a number of frames preceding the special frame, wherein the encoded audio sample values of the preceding frames are encoded using the same codec configuration as the special frame, wherein the number of preceding frames is sufficient to initialize the decoder to be in a position to decode the audio sample values associated with the special frame if the special frame is the first frame upon start-up of the decoder.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An audio decoder for decoding a bit stream of encoded audio data, wherein the bit stream of encoded audio data represents a sequence of audio sample values and comprises a plurality of frames, wherein each frame comprises associated encoded audio sample values, the audio decoder comprising:
a determiner configured to determine whether a frame of the bit stream of encoded audio data is a special frame comprising encoded audio sample values associated with a current frame and additional information, wherein the additional information comprise encoded audio sample values of a number of frames preceding the special frame, wherein the encoded audio sample values of the preceding frames are encoded using the same codec configuration as the current frame, wherein the number of preceding frames is sufficient to initialize the decoder to be in a position to generate valid output samples from the audio sample values associated with the current frame if the special frame is the first frame upon start-up of the decoder; and
an initializer configured to initialize the decoder if the determiner determines that the frame is a special frame, wherein initializing the decoder comprises decoding the encoded audio sample values comprised by the additional information before decoding the encoded audio sample values associated with the current frame,
wherein the initializer is configured to switch the audio decoder from a current codec configuration to a different codec configuration if the determiner determines that the frame is a special frame and if the audio sample values of the current frame have been encoded using the different codec configuration, and
wherein the decoder is configured to decode the current frame using the current codec configuration and to discard the additional information if the determiner determines that the frame is a special frame and if the audio sample values of the special frame have been encoded using the current codec configuration.

2. The audio decoder of claim 1 , wherein the additional information comprise information on the codec configuration used for encoding the audio sample values associated with the current frame, wherein the determiner is configured to determine whether the codec configuration of the additional information is different from the current codec configuration.

3. The audio decoder of claim 1 , comprising a crossfader configured to perform crossfading between a plurality of output sample values acquired using the current codec configuration and a plurality of output sample values acquired by decoding the encoded audio sample values associated with the current frame.

4. The audio decoder of claim 3 , wherein the crossfader is configured to perform crossfading of output sample values acquired by flushing the decoder in the current codec configuration and output sample values acquired by decoding the encoded audio sample values associated with the current frame.

5. The audio decoder of claim 1 , wherein an earliest frame of the number of frames comprised in the additional information is not time-differentially encoded or entropy encoded relative to any frame previous to the earliest frame and wherein the special frame is not time-differentially encoded or entropy encoded relative to any frame previous to the earliest frame of the number of frames preceding the special frame or relative to any frame previous to the special frame.

6. The audio decoder of claim 1 , wherein the special frame comprises the additional information as an extension payload and wherein the determiner is configured to evaluate the extension payload of the special frame.

7. An apparatus for generating a bit stream of encoded audio data representing a sequence of audio sample values of an audio signal, wherein the bit stream of encoded audio data comprises a plurality of frames, wherein each frame comprises associated encoded audio sample values, wherein the apparatus comprises:
a special frame provider configured to provide at least one of the frames as a special frame, the special frame comprising encoded audio sample values associated with a current frame and additional information, wherein the additional information comprises encoded audio sample values of a number of frames preceding the special frame, wherein the encoded audio sample values of the preceding frames are encoded using the same codec configuration as the special frame, and wherein the number of preceding frames is sufficient to initialize the decoder to be in a position to generate valid output samples from the audio sample values associated with the current frame if the special frame is the first frame upon start-up of the decoder; and
an output configured to output the bit stream of encoded audio data,
wherein the bit stream of encoded audio data comprises a plurality of segments, wherein each segment is associated with one of a plurality of portions of the sequence of audio sample values and comprises a plurality of frames, wherein the special frame provider is configured to add a special frame at the beginning of each segment irrespective of whether the codec configuration changes or not; and
wherein the special frame within the generated bitstream of encoded audio data permits switching between different codec configurations at the decoder.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the additional information comprise information on the codec configuration used for encoding the audio sample values associated with the current frame.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 , the apparatus comprising:
a segment provider configured to provide segments associated with different portions of the sequence of audio sample values and encoded by different codec configurations, wherein the special frame provider is configured to provide a first frame of at least one of the segments as the special frame; and
a generator configured to generate the bit stream of encoded audio data by arranging the at least one of the segments following another one of the segments.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the segment provider is configured to select a codec configuration for each segment based on a control signal.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the segment provider is configured to provide m encoded versions of the sequence of audio sample values, with m≥2, wherein the m encoded versions are encoded using different codec configurations, wherein each encoded version comprises a plurality of segments representing the plurality of portions of the sequence of audio sample values, wherein the special frame provider is configured to provide a special frame at the beginning of each of the segments.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the segment provider comprises a plurality of encoders, each configured to encode at least in part the audio signal according to one of the plurality of different codec configurations.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the segment provider comprises a memory storing the m encoded versions of the sequence of audio sample values.

14. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the special frame provider is configured to provide the additional information as an extension payload of the special frame.

15. A method for decoding a bit stream of encoded audio data, wherein the bit stream of encoded audio data represents a sequence of audio sample values and comprises a plurality of frames, wherein each frame comprises associated encoded audio sample values, comprising:
determining whether a frame of the bit stream of encoded audio data is a special frame comprising encoded audio sample values associated with a current frame and add

Assignees

• Fraunhofer Ges Forschung

Inventors

• Fischer Daniel
• Czelhan Bernd
• Neuendorf Max
• Rettelbach Nikolaus
• Hofmann Ingo
• Fuchs Harald
• Doehla Stefan
• Faerber Nikolaus

Classifications

• G10L19/167 Primary

  Audio streaming, i.e. formatting and decoding of an encoded audio signal representation into a data stream for transmission or storage purposes · CPC title

• G10L19/24

  Variable rate codecs, e.g. for generating different qualities using a scalable representation such as hierarchical encoding or layered encoding · CPC title

• G10L19/22

  Mode decision, i.e. based on audio signal content versus external parameters · CPC title

• G10L19/00 Primary

  Speech or audio signals analysis-synthesis techniques for redundancy reduction, e.g. in vocoders; Coding or decoding of speech or audio signals, using source filter models or psychoacoustic analysis (in musical instruments G10H) · CPC title

• H03M7/30

  Compression (speech analysis-synthesis for redundancy reduction G10L19/00; for image communication H04N); Expansion; Suppression of unnecessary data, e.g. redundancy reduction · CPC title