Audio Signal Processing Device Attack Sound Enhancement

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Existing digital signal processing devices struggle to accurately enhance attack sounds in audio signals while controlling reverberation and noise, leading to inconsistent sound quality and S/N ratio, as they rely on amplitude thresholds and fail to distinguish between musical instrument sounds and voice, and do not effectively manage stationary noise components.

Innovation Solution

An acoustic signal processing device that adjusts attack and reverberation components based on amplitude spectrum variations, using weighting and filtering techniques to enhance or reduce these elements, and includes a noise controller to manage noise levels, allowing for individual settings for each frequency band and improving sound quality by transforming audio signals between time and frequency domains.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Illumination intensity

If attack sound is amplified based on a predetermined threshold, then the sharpness of output sound is improved, but voice signals may be incorrectly amplified along with musical instrument attack sounds

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesharpness of output soundVSAvoidaccuracy of attack sound detection
Core Design Contradiction:
Illumination intensityVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent changes the detection parameter from absolute amplitude threshold to rate of change of amplitude spectrum. By detecting the temporal variation rate rather than fixed amplitude levels, the system can distinguish attack sounds (which have high variation rates) from voice signals (which have lower variation rates), thereby improving detection accuracy while maintaining sharpness enhancement

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces dynamic detection by measuring the rate of change of amplitude spectrum over time. This dynamic approach allows the system to adapt to different amplitude levels and distinguish between transient attack sounds and sustained voice signals, resolving the contradiction between sharpness enhancement and accurate detection

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

2Reliability

If attack sound is amplified to enhance sharpness, then sound quality is improved, but stationary noise components may be boosted reducing the S/N ratio

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesound qualityVSAvoidnoise amplification
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent uses dynamic detection based on the rate of change of amplitude spectrum to identify transient attack sounds. By targeting only signals with high temporal variation rates, the system enhances sharpness while avoiding amplification of stationary noise components that have low variation rates, thus improving sound quality without significantly boosting noise

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Solution Approach 2:

The patent applies enhancement selectively to specific time-frequency regions where attack sounds occur (high variation rate regions) rather than uniformly across all frequency bands. This localized approach improves sharpness where needed while leaving stationary noise regions unaffected, maintaining better S/N ratio

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

3Illumination intensity

If uniform amplification of predetermined frequency band is applied, then attack sound enhancement is achieved, but S/N ratio is significantly reduced due to noise amplification

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveattack sound enhancementVSAvoidS/N ratio reduction
Core Design Contradiction:
Illumination intensityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies amplification locally only to frequency components exhibiting high temporal variation rates (attack sounds) rather than uniformly across the entire frequency band. This selective local enhancement improves attack sound sharpness while avoiding amplification of stationary noise in other frequency regions, thus preserving the S/N ratio

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The patent uses dynamic criteria (rate of change of amplitude spectrum) to determine which frequency components receive amplification. This dynamic selection process ensures that only transient attack sounds are enhanced while stationary noise components remain unaffected, resolving the contradiction between enhancement and S/N ratio maintenance

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Data Source

PatentEP2827330B1Audio signal processing device and audio signal processing method
Publication Date: 2016.12.14 FAURECIA CLARION ELECTRONICS CO LTD
  • EP2827330B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2827330B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP2827330B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

Provided is an acoustic signal processing device for producing an output sound meeting listener's preferences by adjusting attack sound, reverberation, and noise component. The device includes: an FFT section for transforming an input audio signal from a time-domain to a frequency-domain to calculate a frequency spectrum signal and for generating a first amplitude spectrum signal and a phase spectrum signal; an attack component controller (10) for controlling an attack component of the first amplitude spectrum signal to generate a second amplitude spectrum signal; a reverberation component controller (20) for controlling a reverberation component of the first amplitude spectrum signal to generate a third amplitude spectrum signal; a first adding section (40) for synthesizing the first amplitude spectrum signal, the second amplitude spectrum signal, and the third amplitude spectrum signal to generate a fourth amplitude spectrum signal; and an IFFT section for generating an audio signal transformed from a frequency domain to a time domain based on the fourth amplitude spectrum signal and the phase spectrum signal generated by the FFT section.