Audio Recording Enhancement via Signal Suppression

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Solution Overview

Problem

Audio recordings often contain background sound signals of poor quality due to microphone directionality and codec optimization for foreground audio, leading to inadequate reproduction of audio content when attempting to enhance the recording.

Innovation Solution

A method and system that access the audio recording, suppress the background sound signal using the original audio signal, and add an enhanced version of the audio content to improve the quality of the recording, avoiding additional digital-to-sound-to-digital conversion steps and optimizing encoding for the type of audio content.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Manufacturing precision

If audio processing is applied to improve the quality of background sound signal recording, then the quality of the sound signal recording may be improved, but the processing rarely obtains sufficiently good results

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvequality of sound signal recordingVSAvoideffectiveness of audio processing

Core Design Contradiction:

Manufacturing precisionVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts and removes the background sound signal from the audio recording using the original audio signal as a reference. By separating the background sound component from the foreground speech, the system can replace it with a higher quality version without interfering with the primary speech content.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent uses a copy of the original audio signal (before digital-to-sound-to-digital conversion) to replace the degraded background sound recording. This copying approach bypasses the quality degradation caused by multiple conversion steps and provides a clean, high-fidelity background audio track.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

2Measurement precision

If the microphone is directed at the foreground sound source, then the foreground audio component is captured well, but the background audio component quality deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveforeground audio capture qualityVSAvoidbackground audio recording quality

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSManufacturing precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the audio recording into foreground speech components and background sound components. By using the original audio signal to identify and extract the background sound portion, the system can process and enhance only the background component while preserving the foreground speech quality.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The original audio signal serves as an intermediary reference that bridges the gap between the degraded background recording and the desired high-quality background audio. It enables the system to identify what background sound was present without having to physically redirect the microphone.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Measurement precision

If codec optimization is applied for foreground audio, then foreground speech quality is improved, but background audio component quality deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveforeground speech qualityVSAvoidbackground audio quality

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSManufacturing precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies different quality levels to different audio components: foreground speech receives optimized encoding for speech clarity, while background audio is replaced with the uncompressed or lightly compressed original audio signal. This local quality differentiation ensures each component receives appropriate processing for its specific requirements.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

4Adaptability or versatility

If additional digital-to-sound-to-digital conversion steps are introduced, then audio processing capability is enhanced, but background audio quality deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveaudio processing capabilityVSAvoidbackground audio quality

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSManufacturing precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs the background audio replacement using the original audio signal before any digital-to-sound-to-digital conversion degrades its quality. By acting preliminarily and substituting the background component early in the processing chain, the system avoids multiple conversion steps that would otherwise degrade the background audio quality.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentUS10032475B2Enhancing an audio recording

Publication Date: 2018.07.24 KONINK KPN NV

AI summary

A system and method are provided for enhancing an audio recording which comprises a recording of a sound signal obtained from the play-out of an audio signal via a speaker. The audio signal, and thereby the sound signal, may represent certain audio content, e.g., a radio station or TV audio. To perform the enhancing, the recording of the sound signal is suppressed using the audio signal, thereby obtaining an intermediate audio recording. An original version of the audio content is then added to the intermediate audio recording to obtain an enhanced audio recording. This original version is generally of higher quality as it generally does not represent a background audio component but rather was purposefully recorded or generated.