Sony Corporation

Waseda University

Other

Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.

Kenzo Akagiri

Makoto Akune

Kyoya Tsutsui

Masayuki Nishiguchi

Masayuki Katakura

Naoto Iwahashi

Yoshiaki Oikawa

Yoshihito Fujiwara

Osamu Shimoyoshi

Hiroshi Suzuki

Motomi Ookouchi

Takahiro Watanabe

Kenichi Imai

Takahiro Fukuhara

Naoya Haneda

Makoto Mitsuno

Mitsuyuki Hatanaka

Tadao Yoshida

Miki Abe

Tomoko Sato

Tetsunori Kobayashi

Tadao Suzuki

Mark Franklin Davis

Masashi Takeda

Craig C Todd

Seiji Kimura

Shinako Matsuyama

Hisayoshi Moriwaki

Ray M Dolby

Yasuhiro Toguri

Takayuki Sasaki

Koji Suginuma

Kei Yamada

Makoto Morito

Mitsuru Hanajima

Takashi Yazu

Hideki Fukasawa

Yoshinari Chida

Tomoko Umezawa

Hiromi Takano

Hiromi Setoguchi

Tetsuji Ogawa

Satoshi Kanba

In a source sound separator, first and second target sound predominant spectra are generated respectively by first and second processing operations for linear combination for emphasizing the target sound, using received sound signals of two microphones arrayed at a distance from each other. A target sound suppressed spectrum is generated by processing for linear combination for suppression of the target sound, using the two received sound signals. Further, a phase signal containing a larger amount of signal components of the target sound and exhibiting directivity in the direction of the target sound is generated by processing of linear combination, using the two received sound signals. The target sound and the interfering sound are separated from each other using the first and second target sound predominant spectra, the target sound suppressed spectrum, and the phase signal.

Source sound separator with spectrum analysis through linear combination and method therefor

The invention provides a sound source separation system, a sound source separation method, and an acoustic signal acquisition device which can precisely separate a target sound and a disturbance sound coming from an arbitrary direction, and which ensures miniaturization of a device. A sound source separation systemcomprises two microphonesdisposed side by side in a direction in which a target sound comes from, a target sound superior signal generatorwhich performs a linear combination process for emphasizing the target sound, using the received sound signals of the microphones to generate a target sound superior signal, a target sound inferior signal generatorwhich performs a linear combination process for suppressing the target sound, using the received sound signals of the microphones, to generate a target sound inferior signal, and a separation unitwhich separates the target sound and a disturbance sound, using a target sound superior signal spectrum and a target sound inferior signal spectrum.

Sound source separation system, sound source separation method, and acoustic signal acquisition device

The events experienced are stored automatically, so that the information of higher utility for a user may be taken out with responsiveness and efficiency higher than is possible with a technique of keyword retrieval over a network. An information registration unitincludes an information acquisition unit, for acquiring the empirical information, a private information adding unit, for adding the private information, a data recognition processing unit, for recognizing the acquired information, a data definition processing unit, for classifying the recognized data in accordance with the preset definitions, a data storage unitfor storage of the classified data, and a data processing unitfor generating the predictive information inferable from the empirical information and the private information. The information exploitation unitincludes an information acquisition unit, for acquiring the current state, a retrieval inputting unit, supplied with the retrieval conditions, a data recognition processing unit, for recognizing the acquired information, a retrieving unit, for extracting the information fitted to the retrieval conditions or the analogous information from the data storage unit, and an information presenting unitfor presenting the extracted information to the user.

Private information storage device and private information management device

It is intended to remove a risk of illegal high quality restoration while enabling trial viewing of contents such as music, to make it possible to reproduce contents with high quality by acquiring a relatively small amount of data, and to make it possible to implement hardware at a lower cost. To generate trial listening data containing dummy data, a pseudo random number R is generated first. A remainder r of R divided by 128 is calculated. The remainder r is coded and incorporated into high sound quality restoration data. A bandwidth limitation region of trial listening data is replaced by dummy data starting from its rth bit. As a result, the head position of the dummy data in the trial listening data varies frame by frame, whereby the safety of the trial listening data can be increased.

Signal reproducing method and device, signal recording method and device, and code sequence generating method and device

A signal () of a first code string made through replacing a part of a code string of a predetermined format with dummy data is sent to code string rewriting means () via code string resolution means (). A signal () of a second code string for complementing the dummy data part in the signal () is sent to the code string rewriting means () via control means () and the dummy data in the first code string is rewritten to the second code string. At the time of trial viewing/listening, a signal () from the code string resolution means () is selected by a switch (), and when the second code string () is acquired through content purchase, a signal () from the code string rewriting means () is selected by the switch (). Thus, trial viewing/listening of a content such as music is made possible while the possibility of decryption is eliminated. By acquiring a relatively small quantity of data, reproduction of a high-quality content is made possible.

Signal reproducing apparatus and method, signal recording apparatus and method, signal receiver, and information processing method

A center (content supply center) ( ) for storing and managing contents, and user terminals ( to ) used by respective users are connected via networks ( to ). The center ( ) sends signals of contents for trial viewing/listening to the user terminals for free or at a low price. The user terminals ( to ) can receive the signals of the contents for trial viewing/listening and select and purchase only the content that the user likes from the received contents so as to reproduce the content with high quality. This enables trial viewing/listening. It is not necessary to download a large quantity of data with high quality from the content supply center or the like and there will be more opportunities of content purchase.

Content supply system and information processing method

In order to efficiently retrieve AV data by using signal characteristics as retrieval conditions, in a first step, a comparison and determination section computes a correlation coefficient (degree of similarity) of a spectrum coefficient of coded audio data and a spectrum coefficient of a sample waveform, and extracts correlation coefficients such that the value of the computed spectrum coefficient is larger than a threshold value which is set in the first step, and assumes them to be retrieval results. In a second step, the comparison and determination section determines whether or not the retrieval result is satisfactory. When it is determined that the number of pieces of audio data retrieved in the first step is equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold value and the retrieval result is not satisfactory, the process proceeds to a third step. In the third step, the comparison and determination section determines whether or not the number of frequency bands of the sample waveform, which is the retrieval conditions, is less than its maximum value. When it is determined that the number of frequency bands is less than its maximum value, in a fourth step, the number of frequency bands of the waveform signal, which is the retrieval conditions, is incremented by 1, and the process returns to the first step.

Information processing for retrieving coded audiovisual data

The present invention relates to an image coding apparatus/method, an image decoding apparatus/method, and a transmission medium, which conduct high-efficiency coding or decoding of an image, and applicable in a system performing efficient transmission or accumulation of images. In coding an image after splitting the image into a plurality of bands, the invention is characterized in a process comprising the steps of splitting the image into a plurality of bands, applying quadrature transformation to the images of the resultant band components, quantizing the resultant quadrature transformation coefficients, and generating a coded bit stream by variable-length-coding the quantization coefficient. This permits coding less susceptible to block strain at a high compression ratio.

Image coding apparatus, image coding method, image decoding apparatus, image decoding method and transmission medium

Information searching apparatus and method and a transmission medium with which an edition point can be detected simply from coded data without decoding all the coded data. Particularly, in the present invention, an audio signal is divided into plural blocks on the frequency axis every predetermined time (every predetermined frame), and a scale factor serving as a floating coefficient and a word length are coded as a parameter. In a recording medium are recorded coded audio data and the parameters together with the number Ni of the parameters. In a high-speed searching operation, the parameter number Ni is extracted, and a frame for which the parameter Ni varies stepwise is detected as the edition point.

Apparatus and method for detecting edition point of audio/video data stream

If all original subbands are not selected for processing in conventional subband coders or decoders aliasing distortion is generated by the characteristics of their subband band-splitting filters or subband band synthesis filters. To improve sound quality in a subband decoder the decoded frequency components in the overlap region adjacent to a subband selected not to be decoded are band-limited prior to synthesis. Alternatively, in a subband coder the sound quality in a processed subband adjacent to one not to be coded is improved by band-limiting the filtering frequency overlap region between these subbands prior to coding. By thus decoding only the non-overlapping part of the subband adjacent to an omitted subband signal distortion is reduced.

Subband coder or decoder band-limiting the overlap region between a processed subband and an adjacent non-processed one

Efficient encoding method, efficient code decoding method, efficient

Signal-reproduction method and apparatus receive a code string formed by coding a frequency-axial spectral signal obtained by performing the spectral transformation of a time-axial acoustic-waveform signal, and decode the received code string. Subsequently, the method and apparatus reproduce the acoustic-waveform signal by extracting part of the spectral signal, and performing the reverse-spectral-transformation of the extracted part.

Signal-reproduction method and apparatus

Two-stage compression and expansion of coupling processed multi-channel

A digital signal processing method and apparatus processes a signal obtained on splitting the entire frequency band of an input digital signal into a plurality of sub-bands. The entire frequency band of the input digital signal is split into a plurality of sub-bands, and signals of each sub-band are allocated to a plurality of sub-words divided from a word of the input digital signal. In allocating the signals, the information for reducing the noise in at least one of the sub-bands is allocated to the sub-word different from the sub-word to which is allocated the signal of the sub-band whose noise is to be reduced.

Methods and apparatus for processing digital signals by allocation of

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Kenzo Akagiri