Layered Sound Field Coding for Dropout-Resilient Reconstruction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing layered coding schemes are inadequate for special types of compressed sound or sound field representations, such as compressed HOA sound representations, particularly in handling transmission conditions with varying quality and avoiding signal dropouts.
Innovation Solution
A method for layered encoding of compressed sound representations, subdividing components into hierarchical layers with basic and enhancement layers, ensuring each layer contains necessary side information for reconstruction, allowing efficient transmission and decoding even if higher layers are not validly received.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the sound representation is subdivided into hierarchical layers with base and enhancement layers, then the adaptability to transmission conditions is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The sound representation is segmented into hierarchical layers (base layer and enhancement layers) with different priorities. The base layer contains essential components for basic sound reconstruction, while enhancement layers contain additional components for improved quality. This segmentation allows the decoder to reconstruct sound using only the base layer when transmission conditions are poor, or incorporate enhancement layers when conditions are good, thus achieving adaptability without requiring complex adaptive logic in the coding scheme itself.
2Reliability
If error protection is increased for the base layer, then the reliability of sound reconstruction is improved, but the bandwidth consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
Error protection is applied locally and differentially to different layers. The base layer receives high error protection (e.g., through redundant coding or error correction codes) to ensure reliable sound reconstruction under poor transmission conditions. Enhancement layers receive reduced or no error protection since they are optional for basic functionality. This local quality differentiation ensures reliability for essential sound reproduction while minimizing overall bandwidth consumption by not applying excessive protection to non-essential enhancement data.
3Loss of information
If all layers are transmitted with equal priority, then the completeness of sound information is improved, but the loss of time for decoding increases
Solution Approach 1:
The base layer is prepared and made available for decoding before enhancement layers are fully received or processed. The decoding system is designed to immediately reconstruct sound using the base layer as soon as it is received, providing audible output without waiting for enhancement layers. Enhancement layers are then integrated in subsequent processing stages to improve quality. This preliminary action of base-layer decoding eliminates decoding time delays while maintaining information completeness through progressive enhancement.
Data Source
AI summary
The present document relates to a method of layered encoding of a compressed sound representation of a sound or sound field. The compressed sound representation comprises a basic compressed sound representation comprising a plurality of components, basic side information for decoding the basic compressed sound representation to a basic reconstructed sound representation of the sound or sound field, and enhancement side information including parameters for improving the basic reconstructed sound representation. The method comprises sub-dividing the plurality of components into a plurality of groups of components and assigning each of the plurality of groups to a respective one of a plurality of hierarchical layers, the number of groups corresponding to the number of layers, and the plurality of layers including a base layer and one or more hierarchical enhancement layers, adding the basic side information to the base layer, and determining a plurality of portions of enhancement side information from the enhancement side information and assigning each of the plurality of portions of enhancement side information to a respective one of the plurality of layers, wherein each portion of enhancement side information includes parameters for improving a reconstructed sound representation obtainable from data included in the respective layer and any layers lower than the respective layer. The document further relates to a method of decoding a compressed sound representation of a sound or sound field, wherein the compressed sound representation is encoded in a plurality of hierarchical layers that include a base layer and one or more hierarchical enhancement layers, as well as to an encoder and a decoder for layered coding of a compressed sound representation.