RU2417459C2 - Method and device for decoding audio signal - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: information technology.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to a method and a device for decoding an audio signal, designed to provide a method for decoding an audio signal by using information on an object, which includes information on the level of the object and information on the amplification coefficient of the object, for modifying the step-down mixing audio signal in form of change in contribution of the object into each step-down mixing channel. The invention is meant to provide a device for decoding an audio signal by using information on an object, which includes information on the level of the object and information on the amplification coefficient of the object so as to modify the step-down mixing audio signal in form of change in contribution of each object into each step-down mixing channel.

EFFECT: fast and efficient decoding of multi-object audio signals by shortening processing time.

21 cl, 9 dwg, 1 tbl

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a method and apparatus for decoding an audio signal, and in particular, to a method and apparatus for decoding an audio signal received via various digital media.

State of the art

When down-mixing several audio objects into a mono or stereo signal, several types of information (or parameters) can be extracted from the signals of individual objects. These kinds of information can be used in an audio decoder. The audio output signal of the multi-object control unit (MCU) can be generated using kinds of information corresponding to the signals of individual objects.

The Multipoint Conference Control Unit (MCU) represents a device that can be used to make teleconferencing communicate the presented signals from a remote location through a conference call. Recently, the number of experiments that use convergence methods has increased, in line with drawing attention to these methods.

A conventional MCU combiner typically receives the combined signal with multi-channel audio signals. But when multichannel audio signals having only a multichannel parameter are used in the MCU, it can control only one of the gain and pan of the channels, but it cannot control the gain and pan of the object.

Description of the invention

Technical problem

The decoder receives a downmix signal and additional information and can generate an output signal using additional information. The output signal may be reproduced based on other input information, such as a user control or a playback configuration. To control the signals of individual objects, the decoder can receive multi-object signals and process them for decoding.

However, a device and method for decoding all multi-object signals requires a large frequency band. Therefore, a new device and method for decoding multi-object signals is needed to reduce resource requirements, such as a large frequency band. In addition, for backward compatibility, taking into account channel-oriented decoding, additional information corresponding to the object is required, which can be flexibly converted into a multi-channel parameter.

Technical solution

Therefore, the present invention has been made, taking into account the above problems, and it relates to a method and apparatus for decoding an audio signal, which largely eliminates the disadvantages of the related art and eliminates one or more problems of the related art.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for decoding an audio signal by using object information including object level information and object gain information to modify an audio down-mix signal in the form of a change in an object's contribution to each down-mix channel.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for decoding an audio signal by using object information including object level information and object gain information to modify an audio down-mix signal in the form of a change in the contribution of each object to each down-mix channel.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for decoding an audio signal comprising a downmix signal and a combined object parameter performed in an MCU combiner to control an object gain and output in a remote conference or the like.

Other advantages, objects, and features of the invention are set forth, in part, in the description that follows, and, in part, will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the study of the following, or may be learned from practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention can be realized and obtained by means of the construction specifically indicated in the written description and its claims, as well as in the accompanying drawings.

Beneficial effects

Various embodiments of the present invention provide a method and apparatus for quickly and efficiently decoding multi-object audio signals by reducing processing time, computer resources, thereby reducing resource requirements, such as a large frequency band. The parameters of the objects according to the embodiments of the present invention can provide backward compatibility, taking into account the channel-oriented decoding process.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a better understanding of the invention, illustrate preferred embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the present invention. In the drawings:

1 is an exemplary block diagram of an audio decoding apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a flowchart illustrating an audio decoding method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is an exemplary block diagram of an audio decoding apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention;

4 is an exemplary block diagram of a parameter generating unit according to one embodiment of the present invention;

5 is an exemplary block diagram of an object gain information generating unit according to one embodiment of the present invention;

6 is an exemplary block diagram of a parameter generating unit according to another embodiment of the present invention;

7 is an exemplary block diagram of an apparatus for processing an audio signal according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is an example block diagram of an MCU combining unit according to one embodiment of the present invention; FIG.

Fig.9 is an exemplary block diagram of a unit encoding parameters of the combined objects according to one embodiment of the present invention.

The best embodiment of the invention

In order to accomplish these tasks and other advantages according to an object of the invention embodied and broadly described herein, the present invention of an audio decoding method comprises receiving a down-mix signal of an audio signal, object information and mixing information, wherein the object information includes object level information , information about the comparison of objects and information about the gain of the object, and information about the level of the object is generated by normalizing the level of the object corresponding to the object, using one of the levels of the object as reference information, information on the comparison of objects is provided from the combination of two selected objects, information about the gain of the object contains at least one of information about the value of the gain of the object and information about the ratio of the amplification of the objects ; generating downmix signal processing information using object information and mixing information; and processing the down-mix signal of the audio signal using the down-mix signal processing information.

It should be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description of the present invention are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide an additional explanation of the claimed invention.

Variant of invention

A detailed reference is made below to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, examples of which are shown in the accompanying drawings. Where possible, the same reference numbers are used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or similar components.

Before describing the present invention, it should be noted that most of the terms described in the present invention correspond to the general terms well known in the art, but some terms have been selected by the application as necessary and are described below in the following description of the present invention. Therefore, it is preferred that the terms defined by the applicant be understood based on their meanings in the present invention.

FIG. 1 is an example block diagram of an apparatus 1000 for decoding an audio signal according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is an example block diagram of an audio decoding apparatus 2000 according to another embodiment of the present invention.

The two embodiments of the device 1000 and 2000 have the difference that the device 1000 has a multi-channel decoder 1300, while the device 2000 does not have a multi-channel decoder 1300. Other elements, such as a parameter generating unit 1100 and 2000 and a downmix signal processing unit 1200 and 2200 are the same in figures 1 and 3.

As shown in FIG. 1, an apparatus 1000 for decoding an audio signal (hereinafter simply referred to as “decoder 1000”) includes a parameter generating unit 1100, a downmix signal processing unit 1200, and a multi-channel decoder 1300. The parameter generating unit 1100 is configured to the ability to receive information about the object and information about the mixing from the user control or from the bitstream and generating information about the processing of the signal down-mixing.

Information about the object includes information about the level of the object, information about the comparison of objects and information about the gain of the object. Information about the level of the object can be generated by normalizing the level of the object corresponding to each object, using one of the levels of the object as reference information. Information about matching objects can be provided from a combination of two selected objects. Information about the gain of the object includes information about the value of the gain of the object or information about the ratio of the gain of the objects. The downmix signal processing information includes a parameter for controlling an object gain and object panning, which is input to the downmix signal processing unit 1200.

The downmix signal processing unit 1200 is configured to receive an downmix signal of the audio signal with information on processing the downmix signal from the parameter generating unit 1100. The downmix signal processing unit 1200 may process the downmix signal using the downmix signal processing information, thereby generating a processed downmix signal. For example, the downmix signal processing unit 1200 may apply the downmix signal processing information to the downmix signal of the audio signal to change one or all of the object's gain and position of the object of the downmix signal of the audio signal to generate a processed downmix signal.

The processed downmix signal may be input to a multi-channel decoder 1300 for upmixing and output using an output device such as a speaker. The output of the multi-channel parameters from the parameter generating unit may also be input to the multi-channel decoder 1300. In some embodiments of the present invention, the multi-channel decoder 1300 can also be used as a decoder of the Moving Image Expert Group (MPEG) surround sound system.

Alternatively, the processed downmix signal may be directly transmitted to the output device and output by the output device, such as the device 2000 shown in FIG. 2. In order to directly output the processed signal through the speakers, the downmix signal processing unit 2200 may function as a bank of synthesis filters and output pulse code modulation (PCM) data. It can also select either directly output as a PCM signal, or input to a multi-channel decoder by user selection.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the present invention and also refers to FIG. The method is a flowchart of a decoding method for an audio signal. In step S110, an audio down-mix signal, object information and mixing information is received. At 120, information is processed about the downmix signal using the object information and the mixing information. In step S130, the processed downmix signal is generated to process the downmix signal of the audio signal using the downmix signal processing information.

The configuration of the parameter generating unit 1100 is explained in detail below with reference to FIGS. 4-6.

1. Object Information

1.1 Reference and facility level information

4 is an exemplary block diagram of an apparatus for processing an audio signal according to one embodiment of the present invention, in particular, an exemplary block diagram of a parameter generating unit. As shown in FIG. 4, the parameter generating unit 1100 may be configured to receive information about an object and generate information about processing the downmix signal using the object parameter.

The parameter generating unit 1100 may include an object level information decoding unit 1110 a, an object gain information generating unit 1120 a, and an object mapping information generating unit 1130 a.

The downmix signal of the audio signal includes many of the object signals, and the object signals have an object level in each object signal.

Information about the level of the object is generated by normalizing the level of the object using the reference information, the reference information can be one of the levels of the object, more specifically, the reference information can be the highest level of the object among all levels of the object.

For example, it is assumed that the down-mix signal of the audio signal includes an object s_i, and the object level of each object s_i is Ps_i.

If the energy of the object level is transmitted, since it should encode the parameter of the object, the parameter of the object includes information about the object of the following form:

Ps_i can be obtained in various ways. For example, Ps_i may be equal to "s_i (n) ^∧ 2" or "E [s_i (n) ^∧ 2]". Ps_i can be transmitted as information corresponding to each type of information about the level of the object. In this case, “s_i (n)” refers to the signal of the ith object, and s_i (n) can be either a time domain signal or a subband signal in a given band.

However, if the information about the object level corresponding to the signal of each object is transmitted as the value itself, the object level of the object signal can be difficult to quantize due to an excess increase in the dynamic range change.

Thus, information about the level of the object can be normalized, using reference information, the highest energy level of the object of all the energies of the object. If the reference information can be r_1, information about the level of the object can be transmitted as in the mathematical expression below:

(mathematical expression 1)

E [s_i (n) ^∧ 2] / E [r_1 (n) ^∧ 2], r_1 (n) = reference information

All information about the level of an object is contained in a range equal to or less than 1.

Therefore, the dynamic range can be compressed sufficiently to encode the audio signal.

Additionally, information about the level of the object may include reference information, default information, the initial energy of the level of the object to use another signal process. Information about the level of the object corresponds to each object, and the number of types of information about the level of the object is equal to the number of objects in the downmix signal.

1.2 Object gain information

The parameter of the object contains information about the gain of the object, including at least one of information about the value of the gain of the object and information about the ratio of the gain of the objects. 5 is an exemplary block diagram of an apparatus for processing an audio signal according to one embodiment of the present invention, in particular, an exemplary block diagram of a decoding unit of gain information of an object of parameter generating unit 1100.

An object gain information generating unit 1120 a includes an object gain value information generating unit 1121 and an object gain ratio information generating unit 1122. The gain information of an object refers to a signal of one object of a downmix method for generating a downmix signal having more than one channel.

1.2.1 Information about the value of the gain of the object

Information about the value of the gain of the object contains the value of the gain of the object. In some embodiments of the present invention, an object gain is applied to each object before generating the processed downmix signal.

For example, when an audio down-mix signal includes a plurality of objects, each object gain value information corresponding to each object is multiplied by the object level of each object to generate each amplified object, and all amplified objects are summed to generate a processed down-mix signal.

(mathematical expression 2)

X = sum {a_i * s_i}

where X is the processed downmix signal to be transmitted to the mono channel, s_i is the level of the object and a_i is information about the value of the gain of the object of the object contributing to each channel.

1.2.2 Information on the ratio of the gain of objects

Information about the gain of the object additionally contains information about the ratio of the gain of the objects, as well as information about the value of the gain of the object. Information about the ratio of the gain of the objects includes the value of the relationship between the gain of each object, which contributes to each channel of the processed signal down-mixing.

The gain ratio information of the objects can be used to process the downmix signal by the downmix signal processing unit 1200, thereby obtaining a processed downmix signal to be transmitted on 2 (i.e., stereo) or more channels. In the case of a stereo channel, the processed downmix signal to be transmitted on each stereo channel is represented by mathematical expression 3. Information about the ratio of the amplification factors of objects can be obtained from mathematical expression 4.

(math expression 3)

x_1 = sum {a_i * s_i},

x_2 = sum {b_i * s_i},

where x_1 and x_2 are the processed downmix signal to be transmitted on each channel, respectively, s_i is the level of the object and a_i and b_i are information about the value of the gain of the object of the object contributing to each channel.

(mathematical expression 4)

m_i = a_i / b_i,

where m_i is information about the ratio of the gain of the objects of each object.

Information about the gain of the object, i.e. information (a_i and b_i) about the value of the gain of the object and information (m_i) about the ratio of the gain of the objects can be transmitted to the block 1100 generating parameters with a different combination of information about the gain of the object contained in the bit stream. Associations include, for example, (a_i, b_i), (m_i, a_i) and (m_i, b_i). Block 1100 generating parameters can decode the Association to restore the original information about the object. You can understand that the decoding of associations performed by block 1100 generating parameters can be adapted for another decoder, for example, multi-channel decoder 1300.

Alternatively, when the object gain information is transmitted to the parameter generating unit 1100 in combination with the information (a_i, b_i) of the gain value of the object, the gain value information of the object can be scaled. If there is an agreement that b_i is scaled to 1, although object level information is transmitted and only a_i as object gain information, the parameter generating unit 1100 can recover information about the original object according to the agreement. By scaling the gain value of the object, the number of parameters transmitted to the parameter generating unit 1100 can be reduced.

Alternatively, information (m_i) on the ratio of the gain of objects can be obtained with a different value as mathematical expression 5.

(mathematical expression 5)

m_i = a_i / b_i,

m_i = (a_i + α / b_i + β),

m_i = (a_i * s_i) / (b_i * s_i)

(α, β are a very small number that prevents the numerator and denominator from becoming equal to zero.)

In the case where the information about the ratio of the gain of the objects contains s_i, the same value of m_i may not include the same value of s_i. For example, in case 1) a_i = 0.5, b_i = 0.5, 2) a_i = 2, b_i = 2 all in this case have the same m_i (= 1), but the cases have different values a_i, b_i.

To get the processed down-mix signal to be transmitted on each channel, a new method can be used as mathematical expression 6:

(mathematical expression 6)

x_1 = sum {a_i '(n) * s_i' (n)},

x_2 = sum {b_i '(n) * s_i' (n)}

where a_i 'and b_i' are values that satisfy the following conditions,

(a_i '+ b_i' = C) or (a_i '^ 2 + b_i' ^ 2 = C) or (a_i '= C or + b_i' = C), where s_i = g_i * s_i).

Finally, information about the ratio of the gain of the objects can be transmitted m_i '(= a_i' / b_i '). The number of parameters transmitted to the parameter generating unit 1100 can be reduced. To prevent audio distortion in the decoder 1000 or 2000, m_i may be transmitted.

1.3 Object mapping information

As shown in FIG. 4, the parameter decoding unit 1100 receives object mapping information. The object mapping information is evaluated between two objects and represents the mapping / relationship between the two objects.

In the case where two objects have the same channel origin and are transmitted on different channels, information about the mapping of objects may exist.

Firstly, if the object signal includes stereo objects, stereo objects can generate a mono object that mixes stereo objects with decreasing, and generate a descendant object parameter indicating the relationship between the stereo objects channels (hereinafter, this method is a “mono way”). In this case, information about the level of the object is generated using the energy level of the object of the mono object.

Secondly, stereo objects recognize the signal of two individual mono objects. In this case, information about the level of the object is generated using the level of two individual mono objects (hereinafter, this method is a “stereo method”). The number of types of information to be transmitted using the second method is larger than the number using the first method.

To process a stereo object, for example, the signal of the first channel of stereo objects may be s_i, the signal of the second channel of stereo objects is s_j as each signal of a mono object.

The object level of the aforementioned channel signal may be Ps_i, Ps_j.

In the case of a stereo object, each object information representing the L and R channels of a given object is similar to each other. Therefore, object mapping information can be used to represent the similarity between object information.

Therefore, in order to encode Ps_i and Ps_j, it is believed that each mono object using a stereo method associates the same component object.

Information about object matching includes one of the channel power, which represents, for example, the left channel of a stereo object, and a normalized power value using the representation as follows.

(math expression 7)

Ps_j '= Ps_j / Ps_i or

Ps_j '= 10log10 (Ps_j) -10log10 (Ps_i) = 10log10 (Ps_j / Ps_i)

To reduce the number of transmitted bits of information about the object, it is effective to use information about the mapping of objects.

And object mapping information can be generated using the representation as follows.

(math expression 8)

Ps_i ', Ps_j' = Ps_i, Ps_j / sqrt (Ps_i * Ps_j)

Information on object mapping represents the relationship between the objects, whether or not the objects are both channels of the same stereo or multichannel object, i.e. each object represents a different channel of the same origin.

In addition, with respect to the relationship between the two entities, difference information may be used.

Various information includes a signal of the sum or difference of a stereo object as follows.

(math expression 9)

M = (L + R) / 2, S = (L-R) / 2,

Ps_M = (Ps_L + Ps_R) / 2, Ps_S = (Ps_L-Ps_R) / 2.

Object mapping information including the aforementioned M and Ps_M can improve transmission efficiency and is easy to perform error compensation.

The number of types of information on object mapping varies adaptively in accordance with the components of the same object in order to reduce the bit rate of the object parameter. Match flag information indicating whether the object is part of a stereo object or a multi-channel object can be taken from the object information. Match_flag may be included in the object information and may be received by the information generating unit 1100.

The value of the match flag information is shown in the table.

Match_flag Value one matching 0 no matching

In the case where “match_flag” is 0, the object mapping information is not transmitted to the object mapping information decoding unit 1130a. When match flag is not received by the decoder 1000 or 2000, a default value may be used to process the downmix signal of the audio signal. Otherwise (“match_flag” is 1), the object matching information is transmitted to the block 1130 a for decoding the object matching information about the similarity between the selected two objects.

In addition, information about the facility additionally separately includes reference information. When reference information is present, the reference information may be an identifier for an MCU combiner.

An audio signal encoding method according to the present invention comprises a step of receiving a multi-object audio signal and a step of generating a down-mix signal of an audio signal and object information including object level information, object gain coefficient information and object comparison, object level information and object matching information from multi-object audio signal, characteristics of information about the level of the object, information about the gain of the object and the comparison of objects the same as in the decoding method. Therefore, the method of encoding an audio signal according to the present invention may not be limited as defined above.

Furthermore, the audio signal encoding apparatus according to the present invention comprises a downmix unit generating a downmix signal of an audio signal from a multi-object audio signal, and an object information unit extracting object information including object level information, object gain information and object information matching objects from a multi-object audio signal. The audio encoding device may not be limited as defined above.

2. MCU combiner

An audio signal containing multi-object signals can be used by the MCU to control the gain of an object and output in a remote conference, etc. In the case where an audio signal containing multi-object signals is used, it is effective to control the gain of the object and the pan in accordance with the characteristic of the signal of each object.

For example, a multi-channel audio signal includes vocal sound, background music (BGM), commentary sound. As the case requires, it is impossible to detect or control a special kind of object signals when only a musical background is used or listened to without vocal sound and commentary sound or a message is sent to someone in a teleconference.

In addition, a decoding method of the present invention using object information can be used in an improved karaoke system.

6 is an exemplary block diagram of an apparatus for processing an audio signal according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 6, an audio signal processing apparatus according to an embodiment may comprise an encoder 1 3100, encoder 2 4100, a combining unit 5000 including an MCU combining unit 5100 and a downmix device 5200. Encoder 1 3100 and encoder 2 4100 can be configured to receive each audio signal_1 or audio signal_2 and generate downmix signal_1 and object information_1 about encoder 1 3100 and generate downmix signal_2 and object information_2 about encoder 2 4100.

The combining unit 5000 may be configured to receive downmix signal_1 and object information_1 from encoder 1 3100, downmix signal_2 and object information_2 from encoder 2 4100 and control information from a user control and generating a downmix signal and information about the combined objects.

The downmix signal, the output of the combining unit 5000, may be generated by a conventional downmix unit. Therefore, the details of the elements of the downmix device 5200 are omitted.

2.1 Parameter of merged objects

7 is an exemplary block diagram of an apparatus for processing an audio signal according to an embodiment of the present invention, in particular, an exemplary block diagram of an MCU combining unit 8100. As shown in FIG. 7, the MCU combining unit 5100 may be configured to generate information about the combined objects using object information_1, object information_2, and control information. Information about the combined objects includes all the information corresponding to the downmix signal_1 from the encoder 1 3100 and the downmix signal_2 from the encoder 2 4100.

The MCU combining unit 5100 includes an object information decoding unit 5110 and integrated object information encoding unit 5120. The object information decoding unit 5110 can be configured to receive object information_1 from encoder 1 3100 and object information_2 from encoder 2 4100 and generate a reference value_1, object level information_1 and object information_1 about the gain of the object from information_1 about the object and reference value_2, information_2 about the level of the object and information_2 about the gain of the object. Reference values, object level information and gain information are the same as those shown in FIGS. 1-6. Therefore, details of the method of generating these types of information are omitted.

And, the MCU combining unit 5100 can be configured to receive at least two kinds of object information from each of the multiple encoders without restricting input signals, and generate information about the combined objects containing several kinds of information corresponding to the downmix signal.

2.2 Management Information

Fig. 8 is an exemplary block diagram of an apparatus for processing an audio signal according to an embodiment of the present invention, in particular, an exemplary block diagram of a unit for encoding information about combined objects. As shown in FIG. 8, unit 518 for encoding information about combined objects can be configured to receive these kinds of information and control information from a user control and generate information about combined objects to be input to a decoder (not shown).

The control information may process information_1 about the object and information_2 about the object and can be applied to combine the above information_1 about the object and information_2 about the object in block 5120 encoding information about the combined objects. Information about the combined objects can be generated for processing by the management information, the control information indicating the combination of some objects making up information about the combined objects and controlling the gain of the object in the combination of types of information about the object.

The control information includes object control information, gain control information, and destination information. Each of the object control information, gain control information, and destination information may explain the following.

2.2.1 Object Management Information

The object management information may determine targets for generating information about the combined entities. Information management object can determine the required subset of audio objects information_1 about the object or information_2 about the object.

Information management object can be processed into information about the level of the object in block 5112 encoding information about the level of the object. Information about the combined objects may include information corresponding to certain objects defined by the object management information, and may be used for several purposes.

For example, information_1 about the object contains music, which includes the signals of objects of a vocal composition, piano, guitar and information_2 about the object contains signals of the object of a violin, vocal composition. In order to generate an audio signal containing signals of objects of a piano, guitar, violin, it is possible to obtain information about the combined objects using the object control information from the user control without the signals of the object of the vocal composition.

2.2.2 Gain Control Information

Block 5113 encoding information about the gain of the object can be made with the possibility of receiving information_1 about the gain from information_1 about the object, information_2 about the gain from information_2 about the object, information control gain and destination information and generate information about the gain of the object information about the object .

Gain control information can be used to control the gain of the object for the MCU combiner. In contrast to the object control information, the gain control information can process the object information in the object gain information encoding unit 5113, the object information being selected using the object control information in the object level information encoding unit 5112. The gain control information may be a value in the range 0-1.

2.2.3 Purpose Information

Among the range of gain control information, if the gain control information corresponding to the object information_i is 0, the object information is not included in the information about the combined objects. When the gain control information is 0 or 1, the gain control information determines the destination information. The destination information may include special gain control information having a value of 0 or 1, and indicators to which destinations the downmix signal should be output.

Destination information can be used for a special function, such as a whispering function, a secret meeting, and to control the destination of an object's signal.

As shown in FIG. 8, destination information can be input to the object gain information encoding unit 5123 and can process gain information_1 and gain information_2 to control the gain of the object information about the combined objects. If the MCU combiner has three ports, the destination information may include each gain value (0, 1) corresponding to each output port.

Gain control information and destination information may be entered simultaneously or separately into an object gain information encoding unit 5113.

2.3 The process of generating information about the combined objects

FIG. 8 is an exemplary block diagram of a combined entity information coding unit 5120. As shown in Fig. 8, the unit 518 for encoding information about the combined objects can be adapted to receive a reference value_1, a reference value_2, information_1 about the level of the object, information_2 about the level of the object, information_1 about the gain of the object, information_2 about the gain of the object, control information object, gain control information and destination information, and generating information about the combined objects using the object control information, the control information gain and destination information.

2.3.1 Definition of reference information

Referring again to FIG. 8, a unit information encoding unit 5120 includes a reference value generating unit 5121, an object level information encoding unit 5122, and an object gain information encoding unit 5123.

In order to generate information about the combined objects, first, reference information of the information about the combined objects can be evaluated. Each type of information_i about the object may include reference information to normalize each level of the object and generate information about the level of the object. But in the case of combining at least two types of information about the object to generate information about the combined objects, information about the combined objects can determine the normalization of the level of the object that makes up the information about the level of the object information about the combined objects.

The reference information of information about the combined objects can be determined in several ways. For example, the reference information information about the combined objects may be reference information_1 or the largest reference information information_i about the object.

Instead of changing the reference information, information about the combined objects can use information about the level of the object information_i about the object as information about the combined objects

2.3.2 Information about the level of the object information about the combined objects

The reference information generating unit 5121 may evaluate the combined information information of the combined entities as the above-described method. Before changing the reference information information of the combined objects, information_i about the level of the object is normalized using the reference information_i.

The inventors assume that the information about the level of the object information_1 about the object is (mathematical expression 10), and the information about the level of the object information about the combined objects is (mathematical expression 11).

(math expression 10)

OL_1n = EO_1n / (reference information information_1 about the object)

(OL_1n represents the level information of the nth object of information_1 about the object, EO_1n represents the energy of the level of the nth object of information_1 about the object)

(math expression 11)

OL_k = OL_1n * (reference information information_1 about the object) / (reference information information about the object)

(OL_k represents information about the level of the k-th object of information about the combined objects)

2.3.2 Object gain information

Block 5123 encoding information about the gain of the object can be configured to receive the gain_1 of the gain of the object, gain_2 of the gain of the object, gain control information and destination information, and generate information about the gain of the object using gain control information and destination information. In the case where the destination information from the user’s control indicates the on / off information about the object, i.e. information about the destination is 0 or 1, information about the gain of the object information_i about the object is 0 or 1. In the case when the gain control information can be entered from the user control, information about the gain of the object and information about the gain of the object, using gain control information.

2.3.3 Object mapping information

Information about the object mapping indicates the similarity / difference between the channels of the stereo object or multi-channel object, therefore, the information about the object mapping may be affected by the combination of information about the object in block 5100 combining MCU.

Information about mapping objects of information about combined objects may include information about mapping objects to information_i about the object as it is.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and changes can be made to the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the inventions. Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications and variations of this invention provided that they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.

Therefore, the present invention is applicable to encoding and decoding an audio signal.

Claims (21)

1. A method of decoding an audio signal, comprising:
receiving a down-mixing signal of an audio signal, object information and mixing information, wherein the object information includes object level information, object mapping information and object gain information, object level information is generated by normalizing the level of the object corresponding to the object, using one of the levels of the object as reference information, information on the comparison of objects is provided from the union of two selected objects, information on the gain of the object contains at least one of information about the value of the gain of the object and information about the ratio of the gain of the objects;
generating downmix signal processing information using object information and mixing information; and
processing the down-mix signal of the audio signal using information on the processing of the down-mix signal. 2. The method according to claim 1, in which the reference information contains the highest level of the object among all levels of the object. 3. The method according to claim 1, in which the number of types of information about the level of the object is equal to the number of objects in the down-mixing signal of the audio signal. 4. The method according to claim 1, in which information on the comparison of objects contains information about the relationship, representing another object with the same origin. 5. The method according to claim 1, in which information about the mapping of objects exists on the basis of the flag_mapping. 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the object mapping information comprises a default value based on the match_ flag. 7. The method according to claim 1, in which the information about the value of the gain of the object contains the value of the gain to be applied to the object to generate a down-mix signal of the audio signal. 8. The method according to claim 1, in which the information about the ratio of the gain of the objects contains the ratio of the gain for the relative contribution to at least two channels of the signal down-mixing of the audio signal. 9. The method according to claim 1, in which the information about the object also contains reference information. 10. The method according to claim 1, in which the information about the object also contains the flag_matches. 11. The method according to claim 1, also containing:
receiving the processed down-mix signal of the audio signal as an output signal. 12. The method according to claim 1, also containing:
upmixing the processed downmix signal using a multi-channel parameter. 13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the down-mix signal of the audio signal is received as a broadcast signal. 14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the down-mix signal of the audio signal is received from a digital medium. 15. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored on it which, when executed by a decoder, cause the processor to perform operations containing:
receiving a down-mixing signal of an audio signal, object information and mixing information, wherein the object information includes object level information, object mapping information and object gain information, object level information is generated by normalizing the level of the object corresponding to the object, using one of the levels of the object as reference information, information on the comparison of objects is provided from the combination of two selected objects, information on the gain of the object includes at least one of information about the ratio of the gain of the objects and information about the value of the gain of the object;
generating downmix signal processing information using processing information and mixing information;
processing the down-mix signal of the audio signal using information on the processing of the down-mix signal. 16. An apparatus for decoding an audio signal, comprising:
an information generating unit receiving information about the object and information about mixing, wherein the information on the object includes information about the level of the object, information about the comparison of objects and information about the gain of the object, information about the level of the object is generated by normalizing the level of the object corresponding to the object using one of the levels of the object as reference information, information on the comparison of objects is provided from the combination of two selected objects, information on coefficients the gain of the object contains at least one of information about the value of the gain of the object and information about the ratio of the gain of the objects, and generating information about the processing of the down-mix signal using information about the object and information about mixing; and
a downmix signal processing unit receiving an downmix signal of an audio signal and downmix signal processing information, and a downmix processing signal of an audio signal using downmix signal processing information. 17. A method of encoding an audio signal, comprising:
multi-object audio signal reception; and
generating a down-mixing signal of an audio signal and object information including object level information, object gain coefficient information and object mapping, wherein object level information and object mapping information from a multi-object audio signal, object level information is generated by normalizing the object level corresponding to the object, using one of the levels of the object as reference information, information on the comparison of objects is provided association of two selected objects, information on the gain of the object comprises at least one of information about the value of the gain of the object and information regarding objects gain. 18. The method according to 17, in which the reference information contains the highest level of the object among all levels of the object. 19. The method according to 17, in which the number of types of information about the level of the object is equal to the number of objects in the down-mixing signal of the audio signal. 20. The method according to 17, in which the information on the comparison of objects contains information about the relationship, representing another object with the same origin. 21. An apparatus for encoding an audio signal, comprising:
a down-mix unit generating a down-mix signal of an audio signal from a multi-object audio signal; and
an object information unit extracting information about an object including information about an object level, information about an object gain and information about matching objects from a multi-object audio signal, wherein information about an object level and information about matching objects from a multi-object audio signal, information about an object level generated by normalizing the level of the object corresponding to the object, using one of the levels of the object as reference information, information about the comparison of objects is provided from the union of two selected objects, information about the gain of the object contains at least one of information about the value of the gain of the object and information about the ratio of the gain of the objects.

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