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US5054072A Expired / Lapsed US ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Coding of acoustic waveforms

Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Filing: 1989-12-15
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Granted: 1991-10-01
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Expires: 2009-12-15
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Abstract

Abstract Encoding techniques and devices are based on a sinusoidal speech representation model. In one aspect of the invention, a pitch-adaptive channel encoding technique for amplitude coding varies the channel spacing in accordance with the pitch of the speaker's voice. In another aspect of the invention, a phase synthesis technique locks rapidly-varying phases into synchrony with the phase of the fundamental. Phase coding techniques which introduce a voice-dependent random phase and a pitch-adaptive quadratic phase dispersion are also performed.

Inventors

  • 👤 Robert J. McAulay
  • 👤 Thomas F. Quatieri, Jr.

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction US
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-10-24 01:02
CPC Classifications
G; G10; G10L; G10L19/00; G10L19/02

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 28
Claim 1
Independent Claim 111 words
A method of coding speech for digital transmission, the method comprising: sampling the speech to obtain a series of discrete samples and constructing therefrom a series of frames, each frame spanning a plurality of samples; analyzing each frame of samples to extract a set of variable frequency components having individual amplitudes and phases which, in summation, approximate the waveform of the speech frame; estimating a pitch for each frame of samples; coding data representative of the analyzed speech frame and the pitch for digital transmission; synthesizing a set of reconstruction frequency components from the encoded data; and establishing a pitch onset time at which the frequency components come into phase synchrony.
Claim 2
Independent Claim 111 words
A method of coding speech for digital transmission, the method comprising: sampling the speech to obtain a series of discrete samples and constructing therefrom a series of frames, each frame spanning a plurality of samples; analyzing each frame of samples to extract a set of variable frequency components having individual amplitudes and phases which, in summation, approximate the waveform of the speech frame; estimating a pitch for each frame of samples; coding data representative of the analyzed speech frame and the pitch for digital transmission; synthesizing a set of reconstruction frequency components from the encoded data; and establishing a pitch onset time at which the frequency components come into phase synchrony.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 33 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the step of coding the frequency components further includes determining a pitch onset time to establish a time at which the frequency components come into phase synchrony.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim 49 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the step of analyzing each frame to extract frequency components further includes predicting the phases of the frequency components by homomorphic transformation and pitch onset time analysis, and the step of coding the frequency components includes coding only the phase residuals for transmission.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim 37 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the step of coding the frequency components further includes applying a pitch-dependent quadratic phase dispersion to the frequency components to eliminate the need to code phase values for the frequency components.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim 37 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the step of coding the frequency components further includes generating a voicing dependent random phase for said frequency components to eliminate the need to code phase values for the frequency components.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim 48 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the step of analyzing each frame to extract frequency components further includes determining a phase of a fundamental frequency by integrating an instantaneous pitch frequency, and defining the phases of the frequency components as multiples of the phase of the fundamental frequency.
Claim 8
Independent Claim 118 words
A method of coding speech for digital transmission, the method comprising: sampling the speech to obtain a series of discrete samples and constructing therefrom a series of frames, each frame spanning a plurality of samples; analyzing each frame of samples to extract a set of variable frequency components having individual amplitudes and phases; estimating the pitch for each frame of samples; constructing a spectral envelope from the amplitudes of the frequency components; sampling the envelope based upon the pitch estimate to obtain a set of amplitude values at variable channel frequencies, the location of which vary with the pitch; coding the amplitude values for digital transmission; and synthesizing a set of reconstruction frequency components from the encoded values.
Claim 9
Independent Claim 118 words
A method of coding speech for digital transmission, the method comprising: sampling the speech to obtain a series of discrete samples and constructing therefrom a series of frames, each frame spanning a plurality of samples; analyzing each frame of samples to extract a set of variable frequency components having individual amplitudes and phases; estimating the pitch for each frame of samples; constructing a spectral envelope from the amplitudes of the frequency components; sampling the envelope based upon the pitch estimate to obtain a set of amplitude values at variable channel frequencies, the location of which vary with the pitch; coding the amplitude values for digital transmission; and synthesizing a set of reconstruction frequency components from the encoded values.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim 35 words
The method of claim 7 wherein the step of coding the amplitude values further includes defining a set of linearly-spaced channels in a baseband and a set of logarithmically-shaped channels in a higher frequency region.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim 39 words
The method of claim 8 wherein the step of defining said linear and logarithmatically-spaced channels further includes defining a transition frequency from said linearly-spaced frequency channels to said logarithmatically-spaced frequency channels based on a pitch measurement of the speech.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim 117 words
A speech coding device comprising: sampling means for sampling a speech waveform to obtain a series of discrete samples and constructing therefrom a series of frames, each frame spanning a plurality of samples; analyzing means for analyzing each frame of samples by Fourier analysis to extract a set of variable frequency components having individual amplitude and phase values; estimating means for estimating the pitch for each frame of samples; coding means for coding data representative of the analyzed speech frame and a pitch for each frame; synthesizing means for synthesizing a set of reconstruction frequency components from the encoded data; and means for establishing a pitch onset time at which the frequency components come into phase synchrony.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim 117 words
A speech coding device comprising: sampling means for sampling a speech waveform to obtain a series of discrete samples and constructing therefrom a series of frames, each frame spanning a plurality of samples; analyzing means for analyzing each frame of samples by Fourier analysis to extract a set of variable frequency components having individual amplitude and phase values; estimating means for estimating the pitch for each frame of samples; coding means for coding data representative of the analyzed speech frame and a pitch for each frame; synthesizing means for synthesizing a set of reconstruction frequency components from the encoded data; and means for establishing a pitch onset time at which the frequency components come into phase synchrony.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim 27 words
The device of claim 10 wherein the analyzing means further includes a pitch onset estimator for establishing a time at which the frequency components come into phase.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim 37 words
The device of claim 10 wherein the analyzing means further includes a homomorphic phase estimator for estimating the phases of the frequency components and the coding means further includes means for coding only phase residuals for transmission.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim 28 words
The device of claim 10 wherein the coding means further includes a quadratic phase dispersion computer which eliminates the need to code phase values for the frequency components.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim 26 words
The device of claim 10 wherein the coding means further includes a random phase generator for generating a voicing dependent random phase for the frequency components.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim 35 words
The device of claim 10 wherein the analyzing means further includes means for determining the phase of a fundamental frequency by integrating an instantaneous pitch frequency and means for defining a series of onset times.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim 141 words
A speech coding device comprising: sampling means for sampling a speech waveform to obtain a series of discrete samples and constructing therefrom a series of frames, each frame spanning a plurality of samples; analyzing means for analyzing each frame of samples by Fourier analysis to extract a set of variable frequency components having individual amplitude and phase values; estimating means for estimating the pitch of the waveform; envelope construction means for constructing a spectral envelope from the amplitudes of the frequency components; envelope sampling means for sampling the envelope based upon the pitch estimate to obtain a set of amplitude values at variable channel frequencies, the number and spacing of which vary based upon the pitch; coding means for coding the amplitude values for digital transmission; and synthesizing means for synthesizing a set of reconstruction frequency components from the encoded values.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim 141 words
A speech coding device comprising: sampling means for sampling a speech waveform to obtain a series of discrete samples and constructing therefrom a series of frames, each frame spanning a plurality of samples; analyzing means for analyzing each frame of samples by Fourier analysis to extract a set of variable frequency components having individual amplitude and phase values; estimating means for estimating the pitch of the waveform; envelope construction means for constructing a spectral envelope from the amplitudes of the frequency components; envelope sampling means for sampling the envelope based upon the pitch estimate to obtain a set of amplitude values at variable channel frequencies, the number and spacing of which vary based upon the pitch; coding means for coding the amplitude values for digital transmission; and synthesizing means for synthesizing a set of reconstruction frequency components from the encoded values.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim 36 words
The device of claim 16 wherein the coding means further includes means for defining a first set of linearly-spaced frequency channels in a baseband, and a second set of logarithmatically-spaced channels in a higher frequency region.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim 25 words
The device of claim 17 wherein the coding means further includes means for defining a transition frequency from said linearly-spaced channels to said logarithmatically-spaced channels.
Claim 23
Independent Claim 104 words
A system for processing an acoustic waveform comprising: analyzing means for decomposing the waveform into a set of sinusoidal components having individual amplitudes which in sum approximate the waveform over an analysis frame; pitch estimating means for estimating the pitch of the waveform for the analysis frame; and synthesis means for generating a synthetic reproduction of the waveform from the data representative of the analyzed waveform and the pitch, including means for summing a set of sinusoidal reconstruction components and means for establishing a pitch onset time for each analysis frame at which time the phases of the sinusoidal reconstruction components come into synchrony.
Claim 24
Independent Claim 104 words
A system for processing an acoustic waveform comprising: analyzing means for decomposing the waveform into a set of sinusoidal components having individual amplitudes which in sum approximate the waveform over an analysis frame; pitch estimating means for estimating the pitch of the waveform for the analysis frame; and synthesis means for generating a synthetic reproduction of the waveform from the data representative of the analyzed waveform and the pitch, including means for summing a set of sinusoidal reconstruction components and means for establishing a pitch onset time for each analysis frame at which time the phases of the sinusoidal reconstruction components come into synchrony.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim 12 words
The system of claim 19 wherein the waveform is a speech waveform.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim 19 words
The system of claim 19 wherein the analysis means further comprises means for analyzing the waveform by Fourier analysis.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim 23 words
The system of claim 19 wherein the system further comprises means for modifying the time scale of the synthetic reproduction of the waveform.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim 25 words
The system of claim 19 wherein the system further comprises means for coding and transmitting the data representative of the analyzed waveform and the pitch.

References Cited (Backward Citations)

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US3978287A Cited
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US4058676A Cited
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USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows

Annuity Stage Window Opens Payment Deadline Surcharge Period Until Estimated Fee Status
3.5 Years (Year 4) 1994-09-30 1995-04-01 1995-10-01 $2000.00 Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8) 1998-09-30 1999-04-01 1999-10-01 $3760.00 Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12) 2002-09-30 2003-04-01 2003-10-01 $7700.00 Window Closed / Lapsed

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