Audio Encoding of Tonal Components in High-Frequency Bands

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing audio signal coding methods struggle to accurately determine tonal component information in high frequency bands, leading to suboptimal quality in three-dimensional audio coding.

Innovation Solution

Utilize the power spectrum ratio to perform peak search and obtain coding parameters such as quantity, location, and energy information of peaks in the frequency bands, enhancing the accuracy of tonal component detection.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If the number of sub-bands is increased to improve frequency resolution, then frequency analysis precision is improved, but computational complexity and processing time increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvefrequency analysis precisionVSAvoidcomputational complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The audio signal is divided into multiple frequency sub-bands using filter banks, where each sub-band is processed independently. This segmentation allows parallel processing of different frequency components, improving frequency resolution while managing computational complexity through distributed processing across multiple channels.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent transforms the audio signal from the time domain to the frequency domain using filter banks, adding a frequency dimension to the analysis. This dimensional transformation enables simultaneous analysis of multiple frequency components, improving frequency resolution without proportionally increasing processing complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

2Measurement precision

If the number of sub-bands is increased to improve frequency resolution, then frequency analysis precision is improved, but encoding time increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvefrequency analysis precisionVSAvoidencoding time
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

By segmenting the frequency spectrum into parallel sub-bands, the encoding process can operate on multiple frequency components simultaneously. This segmentation enables the system to achieve high frequency resolution while maintaining efficient encoding throughput through parallel processing architectures.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The filter bank performs preliminary frequency decomposition of the audio signal before the main encoding process. This preliminary action organizes the signal into ready-to-process sub-bands, enabling subsequent quantization and encoding steps to proceed efficiently with pre-organized frequency data.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

3Manufacturing precision

If quantization bit depth is increased to improve audio quality, then fidelity is improved, but data rate increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveaudio fidelityVSAvoiddata rate
Core Design Contradiction:
Manufacturing precisionVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

Different quantization bit depths are applied to different frequency sub-bands based on their perceptual importance. Critical frequency regions use higher quantization precision to maintain audio fidelity, while less critical regions use lower precision, thereby reducing overall data rate while maintaining perceived quality.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The patent dynamically adjusts quantization parameters (bit depth) based on signal characteristics and perceptual considerations. By changing the quantization parameter according to frequency content and masking effects, the system optimizes the balance between audio fidelity and data rate efficiency.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentEP4131263B1Audio signal encoding method and apparatus
Publication Date: 2026.05.20 HUAWEI TECH CO LTD
  • EP4131263B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4131263B1 patent drawingFigure 2~3
  • EP4131263B1 patent drawingFigure 4~5

AI summary

An audio signal coding method, an apparatus, a coding device, and a computer-readable storage medium are provided. The method includes: obtaining a current frame of an audio signal (101); obtaining a coding parameter based on a power spectrum ratio of a current frequency in a current frequency area of at least a part of signals of the current frame, where the coding parameter indicates tonal component information of the at least a part of signals, the tonal component information includes at least one of location information of a tonal component, quantity information of tonal components, amplitude information of the tonal component, or energy information of the tonal component, and the power spectrum ratio of the current frequency is a ratio of a value of a power spectrum of the current frequency to a mean value of power spectrums of the current frequency area (102); and performing bitstream multiplexing on the coding parameter to obtain a coded bitstream (103). Because the power spectrum ratio is a ratio of a power spectrum to a mean power spectrum, and can better reflect a signal characteristic, the tonal component information can be accurately obtained, so that a decoder side can reconstruct a high frequency band signal more accurately based on the tonal component information, and the audio signal can be accurately obtained. This improves quality of coding.