Automatic classification of audio content as either primarily speech or primarily non-speech, to facilitate dynamic application of dialogue enhancement

Abstract

A method for dynamically controlling enhancement of an audio stream is provided, where the audio stream defines a sequence of audio segments over time. Each audio segment defines a waveform having a plurality of waveform attributes. For each audio segment of the sequence of audio segments, the method includes: (i) determining a set of waveform-attribute values of the audio segment's waveform attributes, (ii) computing a first distance between the determined set of waveform-attribute values and a first predefined set of waveform-attribute values representative of speech, and computing a second distance between the determined set of waveform-attribute values and a second predefined set of waveform-attribute values representative of music, (iii) using the computed first and second distances as a basis to classify the audio segment as primarily speech or rather primarily music, and (iv) controlling, based on the classifying, whether or not to enhance the audio segment for output.