US 12,475,907 B2
Method of determining a perceptual impact of reverberation on a perceived quality of a signal, as well as computer program product
Niels Martinus Philippe Neumann, Tilburg (NL); and John Gerard Beerends, Hengstdijk (NL)
Assigned to Nederlandse Organisatie voor toegepast-natuurwetenschappelijk onderzoek TNO, 's-Gravenhage (NL)
Appl. No. 18/014,953
Filed by Nederlandse Organisatie voor toegepast-natuurwetenschappelijk onderzoek TNO, 's-Gravenhage (NL)
PCT Filed Jul. 19, 2021, PCT No. PCT/NL2021/050460
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jan. 6, 2023,
PCT Pub. No. WO2022/019757, PCT Pub. Date Jan. 27, 2022.
Claims priority of application No. 20186733 (EP), filed on Jul. 20, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2023/0260528 A1, Aug. 17, 2023
Int. Cl. G10L 21/0232 (2013.01); G10L 21/0208 (2013.01); G10L 25/18 (2013.01); G10L 25/21 (2013.01); G10L 25/45 (2013.01); G10L 25/60 (2013.01); G10L 25/69 (2013.01)
CPC G10L 21/0232 (2013.01) [G10L 25/18 (2013.01); G10L 25/21 (2013.01); G10L 25/45 (2013.01); G10L 25/60 (2013.01); G10L 25/69 (2013.01); G10L 2021/02082 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of determining a perceptual impact of an amount of echo or reverberation in a degraded audio signal on a perceived quality thereof, wherein the degraded audio signal is received from an audio transmission system, wherein the degraded audio signal is obtained by conveying through the audio transmission system a reference audio signal so as to provide the degraded audio signal, the method comprising:
obtaining, by a controller, at least one degraded digital audio sample from the degraded audio signal and at least one reference digital audio sample from the reference audio signal;
determining, by the controller, based on the at least one degraded digital audio sample and the at least one reference digital audio sample, a local impulse response signal;
determining, by the controller, a local energy time curve based on the local impulse response signal, wherein the local energy time curve is proportional to a square root of an absolute value of the local impulse response signal; and
identifying one or more peaks in the local energy time curve, the one or more peaks in time occurring at a delay in the local energy time curve after an onset of the local energy time curve based on the local impulse response signal, and determining an estimate of the amount of echo or reverberation based on an amount of energy in the one or more peaks;
wherein the obtaining the at least one degraded digital audio sample comprises sampling the degraded audio signal in a time domain fraction, the sampling including performing a windowing operation on the degraded audio signal by multiplying the degraded audio signal with a window function so as to yield the at least one degraded digital audio sample;
wherein the obtaining the at least one reference digital audio sample comprises sampling the reference audio signal in the time domain fraction, the sampling including performing a windowing operation on the reference audio signal by multiplying the reference audio signal with the window function so as to yield the at least one reference digital audio sample; and
wherein the window function, used for obtaining the at least one reference digital audio sample and the at least one degraded digital audio sample, has a non-zero value in the time domain fraction to be sampled and a zero value outside the time domain fraction.