Apparatus and method for efficient object metadata coding

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9743210-B2
Application number	US-201615002374-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 20, 2016
Priority date	Jul 22, 2013
Publication date	Aug 22, 2017
Grant date	Aug 22, 2017

Abstract

An apparatus for generating one or more audio channels is provided. The apparatus includes a metadata decoder for receiving one or more compressed metadata signals. Each of the one or more compressed metadata signals includes a plurality of first metadata samples. The metadata decoder is configured to generate one or more reconstructed metadata signals and to generate each of the second metadata samples of each reconstructed metadata signal of the one or more reconstructed metadata signals depending on at least two of the first metadata samples of the reconstructed metadata signal. The apparatus includes an audio channel generator for generating the one or more audio channels depending on the one or more audio object signals and depending on the one or more reconstructed metadata signals. An apparatus for generating encoded audio information including one or more encoded audio signals and one or more compressed metadata signals is provided.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An apparatus for generating one or more audio channels, wherein the apparatus comprises:
a metadata decoder for receiving one or more compressed metadata signals, wherein each of the one or more compressed metadata signals comprises a plurality of first metadata samples, wherein the first metadata samples of each of the one or more compressed metadata signals indicate information associated with an audio object signal of one or more audio object signals, wherein the metadata decoder is configured to generate one or more reconstructed metadata signals, so that each reconstructed metadata signal of the one or more reconstructed metadata signals comprises the first metadata samples of a compressed metadata signal of the one or more compressed metadata signals, said reconstructed metadata signal being associated with said compressed metadata signal, and further comprises a plurality of second metadata samples, wherein the metadata decoder is configured to generate the second metadata samples of each of the one or more reconstructed metadata signals by generating a plurality of approximated metadata samples for said reconstructed metadata signal, wherein the metadata decoder is configured to generate each of the plurality of approximated metadata samples depending on at least two of the first metadata samples of said reconstructed metadata signal, and
an audio channel generator for generating the one or more audio channels depending on the one or more audio object signals and depending on the one or more reconstructed metadata signals,
wherein the metadata decoder is configured to receive a plurality of difference values for a compressed metadata signal of the one or more compressed metadata signals, and is configured to add each of the plurality of difference values to one of the approximated metadata samples of the reconstructed metadata signal being associated with said compressed metadata signal to acquire the second metadata samples of said reconstructed metadata signal.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the metadata decoder is configured to generate each reconstructed metadata signal of the one or more reconstructed metadata signals by upsampling one of the one or more compressed metadata signals, wherein the metadata decoder is configured to generate each of the second metadata samples of each reconstructed metadata signal of the one or more reconstructed metadata signals by conducting a linear interpolation depending on at least two of the first metadata samples of said reconstructed metadata signal.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the metadata decoder is configured to receive the plurality of difference values for a compressed metadata signal of the one or more compressed metadata signals, wherein each of the difference values is a received difference value being assigned to one of the approximated metadata samples of the reconstructed metadata signal being associated with said compressed metadata signal,
wherein the metadata decoder is configured to add each received difference value of the plurality of received difference values to the approximated metadata sample being associated with said received difference value to acquire one of the second metadata samples of said reconstructed metadata signal,
wherein the metadata decoder is configured to determine an approximated difference value depending on one or more of the plurality of received difference values for each approximated metadata sample of the plurality of approximated metadata samples of the reconstructed metadata signal being associated with said compressed metadata signal, when none of the plurality of received difference values is associated with said approximated metadata sample,
wherein the metadata decoder is configured to add each approximated difference value of the plurality of approximated difference values to the approximated metadata sample of said approximated difference value to acquire another one of the second metadata samples of said reconstructed metadata signal.

4. An apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein at least one of the one or more reconstructed metadata signals comprises position information on one of the one or more audio object signals, or comprises a scaled representation of the position information on said one of the one or more audio object signals, and
wherein the audio channel generator is configured to generate at least one of the one or more audio channels depending on said one of the one or more audio object signals and depending on said position information.

5. An apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein at least one of the one or more reconstructed metadata signals comprises a volume of one of the one or more audio object signals, or comprises a scaled representation of the volume of said one of the one or more audio object signals, and
wherein the audio channel generator is configured to generate at least one of the one or more audio channels depending on said one of the one or more audio object signals and depending on said volume.

6. An apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is configured to receive random access information, wherein, for each compressed metadata signal of the one or more compressed metadata signals, the random access information indicates an accessed signal portion of said compressed metadata signal, wherein at least one other signal portion of said metadata signal is not indicated by said random access information, and wherein the metadata decoder is configured to generate one of the one or more reconstructed metadata signals depending on the first metadata samples of said accessed signal portion of said compressed metadata signal, but not depending on any other first metadata samples of any other signal portion of said compressed metadata signal.

7. An apparatus for decoding encoded audio data, comprising:
an input interface for receiving the encoded audio data, the encoded audio data comprising a plurality of encoded channels or a plurality of encoded objects or compress metadata related to the plurality of objects, and
an apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the metadata decoder of the apparatus according to claim 1 is a metadata decompressor for decompressing the compressed metadata,
wherein the audio channel generator of the apparatus according to claim 1 comprises a core decoder for decoding the plurality of encoded channels and the plurality of encoded objects,
wherein the audio channel generator further comprises an object processor for processing the plurality of decoded objects using the decompressed metadata to acquire a number of output channels comprising audio data from the objects and the decoded channels, and
wherein the audio channel generator further comprises a post processor for converting the number of output channels into an output format.

8. An apparatus for generating encoded audio information comprising one or more encoded audio signals and one or more compressed metadata signals, wherein the apparatus comprises:
a metadata encoder for receiving one or more original metadata signals, wherein each of the one or more original metadata signals comprises a plurality of metadata samples, wherein the metadata samples of each of the one or more original metadata signals indicate information associated with an audio object signal of one or more audio object signals, wherein the metadata encoder is configured to generate the one or more compressed metadata signals, so that each compressed metadata signal of the one or more compressed metadata signals comprises a first group of two or more of the metadata samples of an original metadata signal of the one or more original metadata signals, said compressed metadata signal being associ

Assignees

• Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forschung E V

Inventors

• Borss Christian
• Ertel Christian

Classifications

• H04S2400/11

  Positioning of individual sound objects, e.g. moving airplane, within a sound field (H04S2420/13 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04S2400/03

  Aspects of down-mixing multi-channel audio to configurations with lower numbers of playback channels, e.g. 7.1 -> 5.1 (H04S2400/01 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04S5/005 Primary

  of the pseudo five- or more-channel type, e.g. virtual surround · CPC title

• H04S3/008

  in which the audio signals are in digital form, i.e. employing more than two discrete digital channels (data reduction aspects thereof based on psychoacoustics G10L19/02) · CPC title

• G10L19/008 Primary

  Multichannel audio signal coding or decoding using interchannel correlation to reduce redundancy, e.g. joint-stereo, intensity-coding or matrixing · CPC title