Methods and apparatus to extract a pitch-independent timbre attribute from a media signal

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10629178-B2
Application number	US-201916659099-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 21, 2019
Priority date	Mar 13, 2018
Publication date	Apr 21, 2020
Grant date	Apr 21, 2020

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to classify media based on a pitch-independent timbre attribute from a media signal are disclosed. An example apparatus includes an interface to access a media signal; and an audio characteristic extractor to determine a spectrum of audio corresponding to the media signal; and determine a timbre-independent pitch attribute of the audio based on an inverse transform of a complex argument of a transform of the spectrum.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus to extract a timbre-independent pitch attribute from a media signal, the apparatus comprising:
an interface to access a media signal; and
an audio characteristic extractor to:
determine a spectrum of audio corresponding to the media signal; and
determine a timbre-independent pitch attribute of the audio based on an inverse transform of a complex argument of a transform of the spectrum.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the media signal is the audio.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the media signal is a video signal having an associated audio component, further including an audio extractor to extract the audio from the video signal.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the audio characteristic extractor is to determine the spectrum of the audio using a constant Q transform.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the audio characteristic extractor is to determine the transform of the spectrum using a Fourier transform and determine the inverse transform using an inverse Fourier transform.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the audio characteristic extractor is to determine a pitch-independent timbre attribute of the audio based on an inverse transform of a magnitude of the transform of the spectrum.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the interface is a first interface, further including a second interface to:
transmit the timbre-independent pitch attribute to a processing device; and
in response to transmitting timbre-independent pitch attribute to the processing device, receive at least one of a classification of the audio or an identifier corresponding to the media signal from the processing device.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the second interface is to transmit the at least one of the classification of the audio or the identifier corresponding to the media signal to a user interface.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the first interface is the second interface.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the interface is a microphone to receive the media signal via ambient audio.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the media signal corresponds to a media signal to be output by a media output device.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the interface receives the media signal from a microphone.

13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to at least:
determine a spectrum of audio corresponding to a media signal; and
determine a timbre-independent pitch attribute of the audio based on an inverse transform of a complex argument of a transform of the spectrum.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the media signal is the audio.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the media signal is a video signal with an audio component, wherein the instructions when executed cause the machine to extract the audio from the video signal.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the instructions when executed cause the machine to determine the spectrum of the audio using a constant Q transform.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the instructions when executed cause the machine to determine the transform of the spectrum using a Fourier transform and determine the inverse transform using an inverse Fourier transform.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the instructions when executed cause the machine to determine a timbre-independent pitch attribute of the audio based on an inverse transform of a magnitude of the transform of the spectrum.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the instructions when executed cause the machine to:
transmit the timbre-independent pitch attribute to a processing device; and
in response to transmitting the timbre-independent pitch attribute to the processing device, receive at least one of a classification of the audio or an identifier corresponding to the media signal from the processing device.

20. A method to extract a timbre-independent pitch attribute from a media signal, the method comprising:
determining, by executing an instruction with a processor, a spectrum of audio corresponding to a received media signal; and
determining, by executing an instruction with the processor, a timbre-independent pitch attribute of the audio based on an inverse transform of a complex argument of a transform of the spectrum.

Assignees

• Nielsen Co Us Llc

Inventors

• Rafii Zafar

Classifications

• G10H2210/056

  for extraction or identification of individual instrumental parts, e.g. melody, chords, bass; Identification or separation of instrumental parts by their characteristic voices or timbres · CPC title

• G10H2250/235

  Fourier transform; Discrete Fourier Transform [DFT]; Fast Fourier Transform [FFT] · CPC title

• G10H2250/221

  Cosine transform; DCT [discrete cosine transform], e.g. for use in lossy audio compression such as MP3 · CPC title

• G10H1/06 Primary

  Circuits for establishing the harmonic content of tones {, or other arrangements for changing the tone colour} · CPC title

• G10H3/125 Primary

  Extracting or recognising the pitch or fundamental frequency of the picked up signal · CPC title