FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is related to audio coding/decoding and, particularly, to
audio coding /decoding in the context of bandwidth extension (BWE). A well
known implementation of BWE is spectral bandwidth replication (SBR), which
has been standardized within MPEG (Moving Picture Expert Group).
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
WO 00/45378 discloses an efficient spectral envelope coding using variable
time/frequency resolution and time/frequency switching. An analogue input signal
is fed to an A/D converter, forming a digital signal. The digital audio signal is fed
to a perceptual audio encoder, where source coding is performed. In addition, the
digital signal is fed to a transient detector and to an analysis filter bank, which
splits the signal into its spectral representation (subband signals). The transient
detector operates on the subband signals from the analysis bank or operates on
the digital time domain samples directly. The transient detector divides the signal
into granules and determines, whether subgranules within the granules are to be
flagged as transient. This information is sent to an envelope grouping block,
which specifies the time/frequency grid to be used for the current granule.
According to the grid, the block combines uniformly sampled subband signals in
order to obtain non-uniformly sampled envelope values. These values might be
the average or, alternatively, the maximum energy for the subband samples that
have been combined. The envelope values are, together with the grouping
information, fed to the envelope encoder block. This block decides in which
direction (time or frequency) to encode the envelope values. The resulting
signals, the output from the audio encoder, the wide band envelope information,
and the control signals are fed to a multiplexer, forming a serial bitstream that is
transmitted or stored.

On the decoder side, a de-multiplexer restores the signals and feeds the output
of the perceptual audio encoder to an audio decoder, which produces a lowband
digital audio signal. The envelope information is fed from the de-multiplexer to
the envelope decoding block, which, by use of control data, determines in which
direction the current envelope is coded and decodes the data. The lowband
signal from the audio decoder is routed to a transposition module, which
generates an estimate of the original highband signal consisting of one or several
harmonics from the lowband signal. The highband signal is fed to an analysis
filterbank, which is of the same type as on the encoder side. The subband
signals are combined in a scale factor grouping unit. By use of control data from
the de-multiplexer, the same type of combination and time/frequency distribution
of the subband samples is adopted as on the encoder side. The envelope
information from the de-multiplexer and the information from the scale factor
grouping unit is processed in a gain control module. The module computes gain
factors to be applied to the subband samples prior to reconstruction using a
synthesis filterbank block. The output of the synthesis filterbank is thus an
envelope adjusted highband audio signal. The signal is added to the output of a
delay unit, which is fed with the lowband audio signal. The delay compensates
for the processing time of the highband signal. Finally, the obtained digital
wideband signal is converted to an analogue audio signal in a digital to analogue
converter.
When sustained chords are combined with sharp transients with mainly high
frequency contents, the chords have high energy in the lowband and the
transient energy is low, whereas the opposite is true in the highband. The
envelope data that is generated during time intervals where transients are
present is dominated by the high intermittent transient energy. Typical coders
operate on a block basis, where every block represents a fixed time interval.

Transient detector look-ahead is employed on the encoder side so that envelope
data spanning across borders of blocks can be processed. This enables a more
flexible selection of time/frequency resolutions.
The international standard ISO/IEC 14496-3 discloses a time/frequency grid in
Section 4.6.18.3.3, which describes the number of SBR envelopes and noise
floors as well as the time segment associated with each SBR envelope and noise
floor. Each time segment is defined by a start time border and a stop time border.
The time slot indicated by the start time border is included in the time segment,
the time slot indicated by the stop time border is excluded from the time segment.
The stop time border of a segment equals the start time border of the next
segment in the sequence of segments. Thus, time borders of SBR envelopes
within a SBR frame are decodable on a decoder side. The corresponding time
grid/frequency grid is determined by the encoder.
US Patent 6,453,282 B1 discloses a method and device for detecting a transient
in a discrete-time audio signal. An encoder comprises a time/frequency transform
device, a quantization/coding device and a bitstream formatting device. The
quantization/coding stage is controlled by a psycho-acoustic model stage. The
time/frequency transform stage is controlled by a transient detector, where the
time/frequency transform is controlled to switch over from a long window to a
short window in case of a detected transient. In the transient detector, either the
energy of a filtered discrete-time audio signal in the current segment is compared
with the energy of the filtered discrete-time audio signal in a preceding segment
or a current relationship between the energy of the filtered discrete-time audio
signal in the current segment and the energy of the unfiltered discrete-time audio
signal in the current segment is formed and this current relationship is compared
with a preceding corresponding relationship. Whether a transient is present in the

discrete-time audio signal, is detected using one and/or the other of these
comparisons.
The coding of speech signals is particularly demanding due to the fact that
speech comprises not only vowels, which have a predominantly harmonic
content, in which the majority of the overall energy is concentrated in the lower
part of the spectrum, but also contains a significant amount of sibilants. A sibilant
is a type of fricative or affricate consonant, made by directing a jet of air through
a narrow channel in the vocal tract towards the sharp edge of the teeth. The term
sibilant is often taken to be synonymous with the term strident. The term sibilant
tends to have an articulafory or aerodynamic definition involving the production of
a periodic noise at an obstacle. Strident refers to the perceptual quality of
intensity as determined by amplitude and frequency characteristics of the
resulting sound (i.e. an auditory or possibly acoustic definition).
Sibilants are louder than their non-sibilant counterparts, and most of their
acoustic energy occurs at higher frequencies than non-sibilant fricatives, [s] has
the most acoustic strength at around 8.000 Hz, but can reach as high as 10.000
Hz. [I] has the bulk of its acoustic energy at around 4.000 Hz, but can extend up
to around 8.000 Hz. For the sibilants, there do exist I PA symbols, where alveolar
and post-alveolar sibilants are known. There also exist whistled sibilants and,
depending on the corresponding language, other related sounds.
All these sibilant consonants in speech have in common that, if immediately
preceded by a vowel, a strong shift of energy from the low frequency part into the
high frequency part takes place. A transient detector, which is directed to the
detection of an energy increase over time might not be in the position to detect
this energy shift. This, however, may not be too problematic in baseband audio

coding, in which e.g. a bandwidth extension is not applied, since sibilants have a
duration which is, normally, longer than transient events occurring in a very short
time context. In baseband coding such as AAC coding, the whole spectrum is
encoded with a high frequency resolution. Therefore, an energy shift from the low
frequency portion to the high frequency portion is not necessarily required to be
detected due to the comparatively stationary nature of sibilants in speech signals,
when the length of a sibilant such as a [s] in a word "sister" is compared to the
frame length of a long window function. Furthermore, the high frequency part is
encoded with a high bitrate anyway.
The situation, however, becomes problematic, when sibilants occur in the context
of bandwidth extension. In bandwidth extension, the low frequency portion is
encoded with a high resolution/high bitrate using a baseband coder such as an
AAC encoder, and the highband is encoded with a small resolution/small bitrate
typically only using certain parameters such as a spectral envelope using
spectral envelope values which have a frequency resolution much lower than the
frequency resolution of the baseband spectrum. To state it differently, the
spectral distance between two spectral envelope parameters will be higher (e.g.
at least ten times) than the spectral distance between the spectral values in the
lowband spectrum.
On the decoder side, a bandwidth extension is performed, in which the lowband
spectrum is used to regenerate the highband spectrum. When, in such a context,
an energy shift from the lowband portion to the highband portion takes place, i.e.,
when a sibilant occurs, it becomes clear that this energy shift will significantly
influence the accuracy/quality of the reconstructed audio signal. However, a
transient detector looking for an increase (or decrease) in energy will not detect
this energy shift, so that spectral envelope data for a spectral envelope frame,

which covers a time portion before or after the sibilant, will be affected by the
energy shift within the spectrum. On the decoder side, the result will be that due
to the lack of time resolution, the whole frame will be reconstructed with an
average energy, in the high frequency portion, i.e., not with the low energy before
the sibilant and the high energy after the sibilant. This will result in a decrease of
quality of the estimated signal.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
It is the object of the present invention to provide a bandwidth extension concept,
which results in an improved bandwidth extended audio signal.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is based on the finding that in the context of bandwidth
extension, a shift of energy from the low frequency portion to the high frequency
portion is required to be detected. In accordance with the present invention, a
spectral tilt detector is applied for this purpose. When such a shift of energy is
detected, although, for example, the total energy in the signal has not changed or
has even been reduced, a start time instant signal is forwarded from the spectral
tilt detector to a controllable bandwidth extension parameter calculator so that the
bandwidth extension parameter calculator sets a start time instant for a frame of
bandwidth extension parameter data. The end time instant of the frame can be
set automatically, such as a certain amount of time subsequent to the start time
instant or in accordance with a certain frame grid or in accordance with a stop
time instant signal issued by the spectral tilt detector, when the spectral tilt
detector detects the end of the frequency shift or, stated differently, the frequency
shift back from the high frequency to the low frequency. Due to psycho-acoustic

post-masking effects, which are much more significant than pre-masking effects,
an accurate control of the start time instant of a frame is more important than a
stop time instant of the frame.
Preferably, and in order to save processing resources and processing delays,
which is particularly necessary for mobile device (e.g. mobile phones)
applications, a spectral tilt detector is implemented as a lowrlevel LPC analysis
stage. Preferably, the spectral tilt of a time portion of the audio signal is
estimated based on one or several low-order LPC coefficients. Based on a
threshold decision with a predetermined threshold of the spectral tilt, and
preferably based on a change in the sign of the spectral tilt which is a threshold
decision with a threshold of zero, the issuance of the start time instant signal is
controlled. When only the first LPC coefficient is used in the spectral tilt
estimation, it is sufficient to only determine the sign of this first LPC coefficient,
since this sign determines the sign of the spectral tilt and, therefore, determines
whether a start time instant signal has to be issued to the bandwidth extension
parameter calculator or not.
Preferably, the spectral tilt detector cooperates with a transient detector, which is
adapted for detecting an energy change, i.e., an energy increase or decrease of
the whole audio signal. In an embodiment, the length of a bandwidth extension
parameter frame is higher, when a transient in the signal has been detected,
while the controllable bandwidth extension parameter calculator sets a shorter
length of a frame, when the spectral tilt detector has signaled a start time instant
signal.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS
Preferred embodiments of the present invention are subsequently described with
respect to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Fig. 1a is a preferred embodiment of an apparatus/method for calculating
bandwidth extension data of an au- dio signal;
Fig. 1b illustrates the resulting framing for an audio sig- nal having
transients and the corresponding time portions of the spectral tilt
detector;
Fig. 1c illustrates a table for controlling the time/frame resolution of the
parameter calculator in response to signals from the spectral tilt
detector and an additional transient detector;
Fig. 2a illustrates a negative spectral tilt of a non- sibilant signal;
Fig. 2b illustrates a positive spectral tilt for a sibi- lant-like signal;
Fig. 2c explains the calculation of the spectral tilt m based on low-order
LPC parameters;
Fig. 3 illustrates a block diagram of an encoder in accor- dance with a
preferred embodiment of the present invention; and
Fig. 4 illustrates a bandwidth extension decoder.
DETAIL DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Before discussing Figs. 1 and 2 in detail, a bandwidth extension scenario is
described with respect to Fig. 3 and 4.
Fig. 3 shows an embodiment for the encoder 300, which comprises SBR related
modules 310, an analysis QMF bank 320, a low pass filter (LP-filter) 330, an AAC
core encoder 340 and a bit stream payload formatter 350. In addition, the

encoder 300 comprises the envelope data calculator 210. The encoder 300
comprises an input for PCM samples (audio signal 105; PCM = pulse code
modulation), which is connected to the analysis QMF bank 320, and to the SBR-
related modules 310 and to the LP-filter 330. The analysis QMF bank 320 may
comprise a high pass filter to separate the second frequency band 105b and is
connected to the envelope data calculator 210, which, in turn, is connected to the
bit stream payload formatter 350. The LP-filter 330 may comprise a low pass
filter to separate the first frequency band 105a and is connected to the AAC core
encoder 340, which, in turn, is connected to the bit stream payload formatter 350.
Finally, the SBR-related module 310 is connected to the envelope data calculator
210 and to the AAC core encoder 340.
Therefore, the encoder 300 down-samples the audio signal 105 to generate
components in the core frequency band 105a (in the LP-filter 330), which are
input into the AAC core encoder 340, which encodes the audio signal in the core
frequency band and forwards the encoded signal 355 to the bit stream payload
formatter 350 in which the encoded audio signal 355 of the core frequency band
is added to the coded audio stream 345 (a bit stream). On the other hand, the
audio signal 105 is analyzed by the analysis QMF bank 320 and the high pass
filter of the analysis QMF bank extracts frequency components of the high
frequency band 105b and inputs this signal into the envelope data calculator 210
to generate SBR data 375. For example, a 64 sub-band QMF BANK 320
performs the sub-band filtering of the input signal. The output from the filterbank
(i.e. the sub-band samples) are complex-valued and, thus, over-sampled by a
factor of two compared to a regular QMF bank.
The SBR-related module 310 may, for example, comprise an apparatus for
generating the BWE output data and controls the envelope data calculator 210.

Using the audio components 105b generated by the analysis QMF bank 320, the
envelope data calculator 210 calculates the SBR data 375 and forwards the SBR
data 375 to the bit stream payload formatter 350, which combines the SBR data
375 with the components 355 encoded by the core encoder 340 in the coded
audio stream 345.
Alternatively, the apparatus for generating the BWE output data may also be part
of the envelope data calculator 210 and the processor may also be part of the
bitstream payload formatter 350. Therefore, the different components of the
apparatus may be part of different encoder components of Fig. 3.
Fig. 4 shows an embodiment for a decoder 400, wherein the coded audio stream
345 is input into a bit stream payload deformatter 357, which separates the
coded audio signal 355 from the SBR data 375. The coded audio signal 355 is
input into, for example, an AAC core decoder 360, which generates the decoded
audio signal 105a in the first frequency band. The audio signal 105a
(components in the first frequency band) is input into an analysis 32 band QMF-
bank 370, generating, for example, 32 frequency subbands 10532 from the audio
signal 105a in the first frequency band. The frequency subband audio signal
10532 is input into the patch generator 410 to generate a raw signal spectral
representation 425 (patch), which is input into an SBR tool 430a. The SBR tool
430a may, for example, comprise a noise floor calculation unit to generate a
noise floor. In addition, the SBR tool 430a may reconstruct missing harmonics or
perform an inverse filtering step. The SBR tool 430a may implement known
spectral band replication methods to be used on the QMF spectral data output of
the patch generator 410. The patching algorithm used in the frequency domain
could, for example, employ the simple mirroring or copying of the spectral data
within the frequency subband domain.

On the other hand, the SBR data 375 (e;g. comprising the BWE output data 102)
is input into a bit stream parser 380, which analyzes the SBR data 375 to obtain
different sub-information 385 and input them into, for example, an Huffman
decoding and dequantization unit 390 which, for example, extracts the control
information 412 and the spectral band replication parameters 102, implying a
certain framing time resolution of SBR data. The control information 412 controls
the patch generator 410. The spectral band replication parameters 102 are input
into the SBR tool 430a as well as into an envelope adjuster 430b. The envelope
adjuster 430b is operative to adjust the envelope for the generated patch. As a
result, the envelope adjuster 430b generates the adjusted raw signal 105b for the
second frequency band and inputs it into a synthesis QMF-bank 440, which
combines the components of the second frequency band 105b with the audio
signal in the frequency domain 10532. The synthesis QMF-bank 440 may, for
example, comprise 64 frequency bands and generates by combining both signals
(the components in the second frequency band 105b and the subband domain
audio signal 10532) the synthesis audio signal 105 (for example, an output of
PCM samples, PCM = pulse code modulation).
The synthesis QMF bank 440 may comprise a combiner, which combines the
frequency domain signal 10532 with the second frequency band 105b before it
will be transformed into the time domain and before it will be output as the audio
signal 105. Optionally, the combiner may output the audio signal 105 in the
frequency domain.
The SBR tools 430a may comprise a conventional noise floor tool, which adds
additional noise to the patched spectrum (the raw signal spectral representation
425), so that the spectral components 105a that have been transmitted by a core
coder 340 and that are used to synthesize the components of the second

frequency band 105b exhibit similar tonality properties like the second frequency
band 105b, as depicted in Fig. 3, of the original signal.
Fig. 1a illustrates an apparatus for calculating bandwidth extension data of an
audio signal in a bandwidth extension system, in which a first spectral band is
encoded with a first number of bits and a second spectral band different from the
first spectral band is encoded with a second number of bits. The second number
of bits is smaller than the first number of bits. Preferably, the first frequency band
is the low frequency band and the second frequency band is the high frequency
band, although other bandwidth extension scenarios are known, in which the first
frequency band and the second frequency band are different from each other,
but are not the lowband and the highband. Furthermore, in accordance with the
key teaching of bandwidth extension techniques, the highband is encoded much
coarser than the lowband. Preferably, the bit rate required for the highband is at
least 50% or even more preferably at least 90% reduced with respect to the
bitrate for the lowband. Thus, the bitrate for the second frequency band is 50% or
even less than the bitrate for the lowband.
The apparatus illustrated in Fig. 1a comprises a controlled bandwidth extension
parameter calculator 10 for calculating bandwidth extension parameters 11 for
the second spectral band in a frame-wise manner for a sequence of frames of
the audio signal. The controllable bandwidth extension parameter calculator 10 is
configured to apply a controllable start time instant for a frame of the sequence of
frames.
The inventive apparatus furthermore comprises a spectral tilt detector 12 for
detecting a spectral tilt in a time portion of the audio signal, which is provided via
line 13 to different modules in Fig. 1a. The spectral tilt detector is configured for

signalling a start time instant for a frame of the audio signal depending on a
spectral tilt of the audio signal to the controllable bandwidth extension parameter
calculator 10 so that the bandwidth extension parameter calculator 10 is in the
position to apply a start time border as soon as a start time instant signalled from
the spectral tilt detector 12 has been received.
Preferably, a spectral tilt signal/start time instant signal is output, when a sign of
a spectral tilt of the time portion of the audio signal is different from a sign of the
spectral tilt of the audio signal in the preceding time portion of the audio signal.
Even more preferably, a start time instant signal is issued, when the spectral tilt
changes from negative to positive. Analogously, a stop time instant can be
signalled from the spectral tilt detector 12 to the bandwidth extension parameter
calculator 10 when a spectral tilt change from a positive spectral tilt to a negative
spectral tilt takes place. However, the stop time instant can be derived without
having regard to spectral tilt changes in the audio signal. Exemplarily, the stop
time instant of the frame can be set by the bandwidth extension parameter
calculator autonomously, when a certain time period has expired since the start
time instant of the corresponding frame.
In the preferred embodiment illustrated in Fig. 1a, an additional transient detector
14 is provided, which analyses the audio signal 13 in order to detect energy
changes in the whole signal from one time portion to the next time portion. When
a certain minimum energy increase from one time portion to the next time portion
is detected, the transient detector 14 is configured for outputting a start time
instant signal to the controllable bandwidth extension parameter calculator 10 so
that the bandwidth extension parameter calculator sets a start time instant of a
new bandwidth extension parameter frame of the sequence of bandwidth
extension parameter data frames.

Preferably, the apparatus for calculating bandwidth extension data furthermore
comprises a music/speech detector 15 for detecting, whether a current time
portion of the audio signal is a music signal or a speech signal. In case of a
music signal, the music/speech detector 15 will, preferably, disable the spectral
tilt detector 12 in order to save power/computing resources and in order to avoid
bit rate increases due to unnecessary small frames in non-speech signals. This
feature is particularly useful for mobile devices, which have limited processing
resources and which have, even more importantly, limited power/battery
resources. Then, however, the music/speech detector 15 detects a speech
portion in the audio signal 13, the music/speech detector enables the spectral tilt
detector. A combination of the music/speech detector 15 with the spectral tilt
detector 12 is advantageous in that spectral tilt situations mainly occur during
speech portions, but do occur, with less probability during music portions. Even
when those situations occur during music passages, the missing of these
occurrences is not so dramatic due to the fact that music has a much better
masking characteristic than speech. Sibilants are, as has been found out,
important for the intelligibility of decoded speech and important for the subjective
quality impression the listener has. Stated differently, the authenticity of speech
is much related to the clear reproduction of sibilant portions of speech. This is,
however, not so critical for music signals.
Fig. 1b illustrates an upper time line illustrating the framing set by the bandwidth
extension parameter calculator 10 for a certain portion in time of an audio signal.
The framing comprises several regular borders, which occur in the framing
without a detection of sibilants, which are indicated at 16a-16d. Additionally, the
framing comprises several frame borders which originate from the inventive
sibilant or spectral tilt change detection. Theses borders are indicated at 17a-
17c. Additionally, Fig. 1b makes clear that the frame start time of a certain frame

such a frame i is coincident with a frame stop time of the frame i-1, i.e., a
preceding frame.
In the Fig. 1b embodiment, the stop time instants such as the regular borders
16a-16d of the frames are set automatically after the expiration of a certain time
period after a frame start time instant. The length of this period determines the
time resolution for bandwidth extension parameter framing without the detection
of sibilants.
As illustrated in Fig. 1c, this time resolution can be set based on whether a start
time instant signal originates from the transient detector 14 in Fig. 1a or the
spectral tilt detector 12 in Fig. 1a. A general rule in the embodiment illustrated in
Fig. 1c is that, as soon as the start time instant signal is received from the
spectral tilt detector, a higher time resolution (smaller time period between the
start time instant and the stop time instant of the framing illustrated in Fig. 1b) is
set. When, however, the spectral tilt detector does not detect anything, but the
transient detector 14 actually detects a transient, then this means that only an
energy increase has taken place, but an energy shift has not taken place. In such
a situation, the automatically set stop time instant of the frame 10b is farther
apart in time from the start time instant due to the fact that a sibilant is obviously
not in the audio signal and a - non problematic - music signal or other audio
signal is present.
In this context, it is to be noted that setting borders in dependence on a transient
detector or a spectral tilt detector increases the bitrate of the encoded signal. The
lowest possible bitrate would be obtained, if the frames in Fig. 1b would have a
large length. On the other hand, however, a large framing reduces the time
resolution of the bandwidth extension parameter data. Therefore, the present

invention makes it possible to set a new start time instant (which means a stop
time instant of the preceding frame), only when it is actually required.
Additionally, the varying time resolution depending on the actual situation, i.e.,
whether a transient was detected or a tilt change (e.g. caused by a sibilant) was
detected, allows to adapt even further the framing in an optimal way to the
quality/bitrate requirements so that, always, an optimum compromise between
both contradicting targets can be reached.
The lower time line in Fig. 1b illustrates an exemplary time processing performed
by the spectral tilt detector 12. In the Fig. 1b embodiment, the spectral tilt
detector operates in a block-based way and, specifically in an overlapping way
so that overlapping time portions are searched for spectral tilt situations.
However, the spectral tilt detector can also operate on a continuous stream of
samples and does not necessarily have to apply the block-based processing
illustrated in Fig. 1b. Preferably, the start time instant of the frame is set shortly
before the detection time of a spectral tilt change. However, the controllable
bandwidth extension parameter calculator has some freedom for setting a new
frame border as long as it is assured that, with respect to a regular frame, the
start of the transient detected by the transient detector or the start of the sibilant
detected by the spectral tilt detector is located within the first 25% of the frame
with respect to time or even more preferably is located within the first 10% in time
of the frame length in a regular framing, in which it is set, when a. spectral tilt
output signal is not obtained.
Preferably, it is additionally made sure that at least a portion of the detected
spectral tilt change is in the new frame and is not located in the earlier frame, but
there might occur situations, in which a certain "beginning portion" of a spectral
tilt change becomes located in the preceding frame. This beginning portion,

however, should preferably be less than 10% of the whole time of the spectral tilt
change.
In the Fig. 1b embodiment, a spectral tilt has been detected in a time zone 18a,
18b and 18c, and the "time instant" of the spectral tilt change is set to be
occurring in the time zone 18a. Thus, the controllable bandwidth extension
parameter calculator 10 will make sure that a frame is set at any time instant
within a time zone 18a, 18b, 18c. This feature allows the bandwidth extension
parameter calculator to keep a certain basic framing in case such a basic framing
is necessary, provided that the significant portion of the spectral tilt change is
located subsequent to the start time instant, i.e., not in the earlier frame but in the
new frame.
Fig. 2a illustrates a power spectrum of a signal having a negative spectral tilt. A
negative spectral tilt means a falling slope of the spectrum. Contrary thereto, Fig.
2b illustrates a power spectrum of a signal having a positive spectral tilt. Said in
other words, this spectral tilt has. a rising slope. Naturally, each spectrum such as
the spectrum illustrated in Fig. 2a or the spectrum illustrated in Fig. 2b will have
variations in a local scale which have slopes different from the spectral tilt.
The spectral tilt may be obtained, when, for example, a straight line is fitted to the
power spectrum such as by minimizing the squared differences between this
straight line and the actual spectrum. Fitting a straight line to the spectrum can
be one of the ways for calculating the spectral tilt of a short-time spectrum.
However, it is preferred to calculate the spectral tilt using LPC coefficients.
The publication "Efficient calculation of spectral tilt from various LPC parameters"
by V. Goncharoff, E. Von Colin and R. Morris, Naval Command, Control and

Ocean Surveillance Center (NCCOSC), RDT and E Division, San Diego, CA
92152-52001, May 23, 1996 discloses several ways to calculate the spectral tilt.
In one implementation, the spectral tilt is defined as the slope of a least-squares
linear fit to the log power spectrum. However, linear fits to the non-log power
spectrum or to the amplitude spectrum or any other kind of spectrum can also be
applied. This is specifically true in the context of the present invention, where, in
the preferred embodiment, one is mainly interested in the sign of the spectral tilt,
i.e., whether the slope of the linear fit result is positive or negative. The actual
value of the spectral tilt, however, is of no big importance in the preferred
embodiment of the present invention, in which the sign is considered, i.e. a
threshold decision with a zero threshold is applied. In other embodiments,
however, a threshold different from zero can be useful as well.
When linear predictive coding (LPC) of speech is used to model its short-time
spectrum, it is computationally more efficient to calculate spectral tilt directly from
the LPC model parameters instead of from the log power spectrum. Fig. 2c
illustrates an equation for the cepstral coefficients ck corresponding to the nth
order all-pole log power spectrum. In this equation, k is an integer index, pn is the
nth pole in the all-pole representation of the z-domain transfer function H(z) of
the LPC filter. The next equation in Fig. 2c is the spectral tilt in terms of the
cepstral coefficients. Specifically, m is the spectral tilt, k and n are integers and N
is the highest order pole of the all-pole model for H(z). The next equation in Fig.
2c defines the log power spectrum S(co) of the Nth order LPC filter. G is the gain
constant and ak are the linear predictor coefficients, and w is equal to 2*Trxf,
where f is the frequency. The lowest equation in Fig. 2c directly results in the
cepstral coefficients as a function of the LPC coefficients ak. The cepstral
coefficients ck are then used to calculate the spectral tilt. Generally, this method

will be more computationally efficient than factoring the LPC polynomial to obtain
the pole values, and solving for spectral tilt using the pole equations. Thus, after
having calculated the LPC coefficients ak, one can calculate the cepstral
coefficients ck using the equation at the bottom of Fig. 2c and, then, one can
calculate the poles pn from the cepstral coefficients using the first equation in
Fig. 2c. Then, based on the poles, one can calculate the spectral tilt m as defined
in the second equation of Fig. 2c.
It has been found that the first order LPC coefficient crt is sufficient for having a
good estimate for the sign of the spectral tilt. a1 is, therefore, a good estimate for
d. Thus, d is a good estimate for p1. When p1 is inserted into the equation for
the spectral tilt m, it becomes clear that, due to the minus sign in the second
equation in Fig. 2c, the sign of the spectral tilt m is inverse to the sign of the first
LPC coefficient a1 in the LPC coefficient definition in Fig. 2c.
Fig. 3 illustrates the spectral tilt detector 12 in the context of an SBR encoder
system. Specifically, the spectral tilt detector 12 controls the envelope data
calculator and other SBR-related modules in order to apply a start time instant of
a frame of SBR-related parameter data. Fig. 3 illustrates the analysis QMF bank
320 for decomposing the second frequency band, which is preferably the high
band, into a certain number of sub-bands such as 32 sub-bands in order to
perform a sub-band-wise calculation of the SBR parametric data. Preferably, the
spectral tilt detector performs a simple LPC analysis to retrieve only the first
order LPC coefficient as discussed in the context of Fig. 2c. Alternatively, the
spectral tilt detector 12 performs a spectral analysis of the input signal and
calculates the spectral tilt, for example, using the linear fit or any other way for
calculating the spectral tilt. Generally, it will be preferred that the resolution of the
spectral tilt detector with respect to a frequency decomposition is lower than the

frequency resolution of the QMF bank 320. In other embodiments, the spectral tilt
detector 12 will not perform any kind of frequency decomposition such as in the
context of calculating only the first order LPC coefficient a1 as discussed in the
context of Fig. 2c.
In other embodiments, the spectral tilt detector is configured to not only calculate
the first order LPC coefficients but to calculate several low order LPC coefficients
such as LPC coefficients until the order of 3 or 4. In such an embodiment, the
spectral tilt is calculated to such an high accuracy that one can not only signal a
new frame when the slope changes from negative to positive, but it is also
preferable to trigger a new frame, when the spectral tilt changes from a high
magnitude with a negative sign for a very tonal signal to a low magnitude
(absolute value) with the same sign. Furthermore, with respect to the stop time
instant, it is preferred to calculate the end of a frame, when the spectral tilt has
changed from a high positive value to a low positive value, since this can be an
indication that the characteristic of the signal changes from sibilant to non-
sibilant. Irrespective of the way of calculating the spectral tilt, the detection of a
frame start time instant can not only be signalled by a sign change, but can,
alternatively or additionally, be signalled by a tilt value change in a certain
predetermined time period, which is above a decision threshold.
In the sign embodiment, the decision threshold is an absolute threshold at a tilt
value of zero, and in the change embodiment, the threshold is a threshold
indicating a change of the tilt, and this calculation can also be carried out by
applying an absolute threshold in a function obtained by calculating the first
derivative of the tilt function over time. Here, the spectral tilt detector is
configured to signal thestart time instant of the frame, when a difference value
between a spectral tilt value of the time portion of the audio signal and a spectral

tilt value of the audio signal in the preceding time portion of the audio signal is
higher than a predetermined threshold value. The difference value can be an
absolute value (e.g. for negative difference values) or a value with a sign (e.g. for
positive difference values) and the predetermined threshold value is, in this
embodiment, different from zero.
As discussed in the context of Fig. 3 and 4, the bandwidth extension parameter
calculator 10 is configured to calculate the spectral envelope parameters. In
other embodiments, however, it is preferred that the bandwidth extension
parameter calculator additionally calculates noise floor parameters, inverse
filtering parameters and/or missing harmonic parameters as known from the
bandwidth extension portion of MPEG 4.
Basically, it is preferred to set a stop time instant of a frame in response to a
spectral tilt detector output signal or in response to an event independent of the
spectral tilt detector output signal. The event used by the bandwidth extension
parameter calculator to signal a frame stop time instant is, for example, the
occurrence of a time instant being a fixed time period later in time with respect to
the start time instant. As discussed in the context of Fig. 1c, this fixed time period
can be low or high. When this fixed time period is high, then this means that
there is a low time resolution, and when this fixed time period is low, then this
means that there is a high time resolution. Preferably, when the transient
detector 14 signals a transient, the first time period is set, but a low time
resolution is applied. In this embodiment, the fixed time period later in time with
respect to the start time instant is, therefore, higher than in the other case, where
a start time instant signal is output by the spectral tilt detector. When a start time
instant is output by the spectral tilt detector, then this means that there is a
sibilant portion in a speech signal, and, therefore, a high time resolution is

necessary. Therefore, the fixed time period is set to be smaller than in the case,
where a start time instant for a frame was signalled by the transient detector 14
in Fig. 1a.
In other embodiments, a spectral tilt detector can be based on linguistic
information in order to detect sibilants in speech. When, for example, a speech
signal has associated meta information such a the international phonetic spelling,
then an analysis of this meta information will provide a sibilant detection of a
speech portion as well. In this context, the meta data portion of the audio signal
is analyzed.
Although some aspects have been described in the context of an apparatus, it is
clear that these aspects also represent a description of the corresponding
method, where a block or device corresponds to a method step or a feature of a
method step. Analogously, aspects described in the context of a method step
also represent a description of a corresponding block or item or feature of a
corresponding apparatus. Depending on certain implementation requirements,
embodiments of the invention can be implemented in hardware or in software.
The implementation can be performed using a digital storage medium, for
example a floppy disk, a DVD, a CD, a ROM, a PROM, an EPROM, an EEPROM
or a FLASH memory, having electronically readable control signals stored
thereon, which cooperate (or are capable of cooperating) with a programmable
computer system such that the respective method is performed.
Some embodiments according to the invention comprise a data carrier having
electronically readable control signals, which are capable of cooperating with a
programmable computer system, such that one of the methods described herein
is performed.

Generally, embodiments of the present invention can be implemented as a
computer program product with a program code, the program code being
operative for performing one of the methods when the computer program product
runs on a computer. The program code may for example be stored on a machine
readable carrier.
Other embodiments comprise the computer program for performing one of the
methods described herein, stored on a machine readable carrier.
In other words, an embodiment of the inventive method is, therefore, a computer
program having a program code for performing one of the methods described
herein, when the computer program runs on a computer.
A further embodiment of the inventive methods is, therefore, a data carrier (or a
digital storage medium, or a computer-readable medium) comprising, recorded
thereon, the computer program for performing one of the methods described
herein.
A further embodiment of the inventive method is, therefore, a data stream or a
sequence of signals representing the computer program for performing one of
the methods described herein. The data stream or the sequence of signals may
for example be configured to be transferred via a data communication
connection, for example via the Internet.
A further embodiment comprises a processing means, for example a computer,
or a programmable logic device, configured to or adapted to perform one of the
methods described herein.

A further embodiment comprises a computer having installed thereon the
computer program for performing one of the methods described herein.
In some embodiments, a programmable logic device (for example a field
programmable gate array) may be used to perform some or all of the
functionalities of the methods described herein. In some embodiments, a field
programmable gate array may cooperate with a microprocessor in order to
perform one of the methods described herein. Generally, the methods are
preferably performed by any hardware apparatus.
The above described embodiments are merely illustrative for the principles of the
present invention. It is understood that modifications and variations of the
arrangements and the details described herein will be apparent to others skilled
in the art. It is the intent, therefore, to be limited only by the scope of the
impending patent claims and not by the specific details presented by way of
description and explanation of the embodiments herein.
One embodiment of the invention is an apparatus for calculating bandwidth
extension data of an audio signal in a bandwidth extension system, in which a
first spectral band is encoded with a first number of bits and a second spectral
band different from the first spectral band is encoded with a second number of
bits, the second number of bits being smaller than the first number of bits, the
apparatus comprising: a controllable bandwidth extension parameter calculator
for calculating bandwidth extension parameters for the second frequency band in
a frame-wise manner for a sequence of frames of the audio signal, wherein a
frame has a controllable start time instant and a spectral tilt detector for detecting
a spectral tilt in a time portion of the audio signal and for signalling the start time
instant for the frame depending on the spectral tilt of the audio signal.

In a further embodiment of the invention, the controllable bandwidth extension
parameter calculator or the spectral tilt detector are configured to process
overlapping frames or time portions.
In a further embodiment of the invention, the controllable bandwidth extension
parameter calculator is configured for performing a frequency selective
processing of the audio signal in the second spectral band with a frequency
resolution, and in which the spectral tilt detector is operative to process the time
portion in the time domain or in a frequency selective way with a frequency
resolution being smaller than the frequency resolution used by the controllable
bandwidth extension parameter calculator.
In a further embodiment of the invention, the apparatus further comprises a
speech/music detector, the speech/music detector being operative to activate the
spectral tilt detector in a speech portion of the audio signal and to deactivate the
spectral tilt detector in a music portion of the audio signal.
In a further embodiment, the apparatus further comprises a transient detector for
controlling the controllable bandwidth extension parameter calculator to set the
start time instant, when a transient is detected, wherein the controllable
bandwidth extension parameter calculator is configured to set a start time instant,
when either the spectral tilt detector or the transient detector has output a start
time instant signal, wherein the controllable ~ bandwidth extension parameter
calculator is configured for applying the sequence of frames with a higher time
resolution in response to a signalling from the spectral tilt detector compared to a
time resolution applied, when the controllable bandwidth extension parameter
calculator has received a signalling from the transient detector in a time portion of
the audio signal, for which the spectral tilt detector has not signalled a start time
instant.

WE CLAIM
1. Apparatus for calculating bandwidth extension data of an audio signal in a
bandwidth extension system, in which a first spectral band is encoded
(340) with a first number of bits and a second spectral band different from
the first spectral band is encoded (210) with a second number of bits, the
second number of bits being smaller than the first number of bits,
comprising:
a controllable bandwidth extension parameter calculator (10) for
calculating bandwidth extension parameters for the second frequency
band in a frame-wise manner for a sequence of frames of the audio signal,
wherein a frame has a controllable start time instant; and
a spectral tilt detector (12) for detecting a spectral tilt in a time portion of
the audio signal and for signalling the start time instant for the frame
depending on the spectral tilt of the audio signal.
2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the spectral tilt detector (12) is
configured to signal the start time instant of the frame, when a sign of a
spectral tilt of the time portion of the audio signal is different from a sign of
the spectral tilt of the audio signal in the preceding time portion of the
audio signal.
3. Apparatus as claimed in claims 1 or 2, wherein the spectral tilt detector
(12) is operative to perform an LPC analysis of the time portion for
estimating one or more low order LPC coefficients and to analyze the one
or more low order LPC coefficients for determining, whether the portion of
the audio signal has a positive or a negative spectral tilt.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the spectral tilt detector (12) is
operative to only calculate the first LPC coefficient and to not calculate
additional LPC coefficients and to analyze a sign of the first LPC
coefficient and to signal a start time instant of the frame depending on the
sign of the first LPC coefficient.
5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the spectral tilt detector (12) is
configured for determining the spectral tilt as a negative spectral tilt, in
which a spectral energy decreases from lower frequencies to higher
frequencies, when the first LPC coefficient has a positive sign, and to
detect the spectral tilt as a positive spectral tilt, in which the spectral
energy increases from lower frequencies to higher frequencies, when the
first LPC coefficient has a negative sign.
6. Apparatus as claimed in one of the preceding claims, wherein the
controllable bandwidth extension parameter calculator (10) is configured
for calculating one or more of the following parameters for the frame:
spectral envelope parameters, noise parameters, inverse filtering
parameters, or missing harmonics parameters.
7. Apparatus as claimed in one of the preceding claims, wherein the
controllable bandwidth extension parameter calculator (10) is configured
for setting the start time instant of a frame depending on a start time
instant of the time portion of the audio signal, on which the spectral tilt
detection is based.
8. Apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein the controllable bandwidth
extension parameter calculator (10) is configured to set the start time

instant of the frame identical to the start time instant of the time portion, in
which the spectral tilt change has been detected.
9. Apparatus as claimed in one of the preceding claims, wherein the
controllable bandwidth extension parameter calculator (10) or the spectral
tilt detector (12) are configured to process overlapping frames or time
portions.
10.Apparatus as claimed in one of the preceding claims, wherein the
controllable bandwidth extension parameter calculator (10) is operative to
set a stop time instant of a frame in response to the spectral tilt detector
(12) or in response to an event independent on a spectral tilt of the audio
signal.
11. Apparatus as claimed in claim 10, wherein the event used by the
controllable bandwidth extension parameter calculator (10) is the
occurrence of a time instant being a fixed time period later in time than the
start time instant.
12. Apparatus as claimed in one of the preceding claims, wherein the
controllable bandwidth extension parameter calculator (10) is configured
for performing a frequency selective processing of the audio signal (320)
in the second spectral band with a frequency resolution, and in which the
spectral tilt detector (12) is operative to process the time portion in the
time domain or in a frequency selective way with a frequency resolution
being smaller than the frequency resolution used by the controllable
bandwidth extension parameter calculator (10).

13. Apparatus as claimed in one of the preceding claims, comprising:
a transient detector (14) for controlling the controllable bandwidth
extension parameter calculator (10) to set the start time instant, when a
transient is detected,
wherein the controllable bandwidth extension parameter calculator is
configured to set a start time instant, when either the spectral tilt detector
(12) or the transient detector (14) has output a start time instant signal.
14. Apparatus as claimed in one of the preceding claims, comprising a
speech/music detector (15), the speech/music detector being operative to
activate the spectral tilt detector (12) in a speech portion of the audio
signal and to deactivate the spectral tilt detector (12) in a music portion of
the audio signal.
15. Apparatus as claimed in one of the preceding claims, wherein the spectral
tilt detector (12) is configured for determining, whether the time portion
comprises a sibilant of a speech portion or a non-sibilant of a speech
portion, wherein the spectral tilt detector (12) is configured to signal the
start time instant for the frame, when a change from a non-sibilant to a
sibilant is detected.
16. Apparatus as claimed in claim 13, wherein the controllable bandwidth
extension parameter calculator (10) is configured for applying the
sequence of frames with a higher time resolution in response to a
signalling from the spectral tilt detector (12) compared to a time resolution
applied, when the controllable bandwidth extension parameter calculator

(10) has received a signalling from the transient detector (14) in a time
portion of the audio signal, for which the spectral tilt detector (12) has not
signalled a start time instant.
17. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the spectral tilt detector (12) is
configured to signal the start time instant of the frame, when a difference
between a spectral tilt value of the time portion of the audio signal and a
spectral tilt value of the audio signal in the preceding time portion of the
audio signal is greater than a predetermined threshold value.
18. Method of calculating bandwidth extension data of an audio signal in a
bandwidth extension system, in which a first spectral band is encoded
(340) with a first number of bits and a second spectral band different from
the first spectral band is encoded (210) with a second number of bits, the
second number of bits being smaller than the first number of bits,
comprising:
calculating (10) bandwidth extension parameters for the second frequency
band in a frame-wise manner for a sequence of frames of the audio signal,
wherein a frame has a controllable start time instant; and
detecting (12) a spectral tilt in a time portion of the audio signal and
signalling the start time instant for the frame depending on the spectral tilt
of the audio signal.

ABSTRACT

TITLE : "APPARATUS FOR CALCULATING BANDWIDTH EXTENSION DATA
OF AN AUDIO SIGNAL IN A BANDWIDTH EXTENSION SYSTEM"
Apparatus for calculating bandwidth extension data of an audio signal in a
bandwidth extension system, in which a first spectral band is encoded (340) with
a first number of bits and a second spectral band different from the first spectral
band is encoded (210) with a second number of bits, the second number of bits
being smaller than the first number of bits, comprising a controllable bandwidth
extension parameter calculator (10) for calculating bandwidth extension
parameters for the second frequency band in a frame-wise manner for a
sequence of frames of the audio signal, wherein a frame has a controllable start
time instant; and a spectral tilt detector (12) for detecting a spectral tilt in a time
portion of the audio signal and for signalling the start time instant for the frame
depending on the spectral tilt of the audio signal.