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

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10902831-B2
Application number	US-202016821567-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 17, 2020
Priority date	Mar 13, 2018
Publication date	Jan 26, 2021
Grant date	Jan 26, 2021

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to classify media based on a pitch-independent timbre attribute from a media signal are disclosed. An example apparatus includes means for accessing a media signal; and means for: determining a spectrum of audio corresponding to the media signal; and determining a timbre-independent pitch attribute of audio of the media signal 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:
means for accessing a media signal; and
means for:
determining a spectrum of audio corresponding to the media signal; and
determining a timbre-independent pitch attribute of audio of the media signal 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 means for extracting the audio from the video signal.

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

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the determining means 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 determining means 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 , further including means for:
transmitting the timbre-independent pitch attribute to a processing device; and
in response to transmitting timbre-independent pitch attribute to the processing device, receiving at least one of a classification of the audio or an identifier corresponding to the media signal from the processing device; and
transmitting the at least one of the classification of the audio or the identifier corresponding to the media signal to a user interface.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the accessing means is the transmitting means.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the accessing means is to receive the media signal via ambient audio.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the accessing means is to receive the media signal from a microphone.

11. An apparatus to extract a pitch-independent timbre attribute from a media signal, the apparatus comprising:
means for receiving a media signal; and
means for:
determining a spectrum of audio corresponding to the media signal; and
determining a pitch-independent timbre attribute of audio of the media signal based on an inverse transform of a magnitude of a transform of the spectrum.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the media signal is the audio.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the media signal is a video signal with an audio component, further including means for extracting the audio from the video signal.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the determining means is to determine the spectrum of the audio using a constant Q transform.

15. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the determining means is to determine the transform of the spectrum using a Fourier transform and determine the inverse transform using an inverse Fourier transform.

16. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the determining means is to determine a timbre-independent pitch attribute of the audio based on an inverse transform of a complex argument of the transform of the spectrum.

17. The apparatus of claim 11 , further including means for:
transmitting the pitch-independent timbre attribute to a processing device; and
in response to transmitting the pitch-independent timbre attribute to the processing device, receiving at least one of a classification of the audio or a first identifier corresponding to the media signal from the processing device; and
transmitting the at least one of the classification of the audio or a second identifier corresponding to the media signal to a user interface.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the receiving means is the transmitting means.

19. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the receiving means is to receive the media signal via ambient audio.

20. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the receiving means is to receive the media signal from a microphone.

21. An apparatus comprising:
means for receiving a media signal;
means for storing reference pitch-less timbre spectrums; and
means for:
comparing a pitch-less timbre spectrum of the media signal to the reference pitch-less timbre spectrums; and
classifying the media signal based on data corresponding to a reference pitch-less timbre spectrum of the reference pitch-less timbre spectrums that matches the pitch-less timbre spectrum, the classification corresponding to at least one of an instrument or a genre.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 , wherein the comparing means is to:
identify a media source of the media signal based on at least one of the pitch-less timbre spectrum or the classification; and
generate report based on at least one of the classification or the identification.

23. The apparatus of claim 21 , wherein the comparing means is to, when the pitch-less timbre spectrum of the media signal does not match a reference pitch-less timbre spectrum of the reference pitch-less timbre spectrums, prompt for additional information corresponding to the media signal.

24. The apparatus of claim 23 , wherein the storing means is to store the pitch-less timbre spectrum of the media signal as a reference pitch-less timbre spectrum in conjunction with the additional information.

25. The apparatus of claim 21 , further including means for determining a device setting adjustment based on the classification, wherein:
the comparing means is to generate a report including the device setting adjustment; and
the receiving means is to transmit the report to a device that output the media signal.

Assignees

• Nielsen Co Us Llc

Inventors

• Rafii Zafar

Classifications

• G10H3/125 Primary

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

• G10H1/06 Primary

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

• G10H2250/235

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

• 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

• G10H2250/221

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