# US 11,445,296 B2 · Signal processing apparatus and method, and program to reduce calculation amount based on mute information > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 11,445,296 B2 - Document ID: US11445296B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 17/284,419 - Filed: 2019-10-02 - Published: 2021-11-11 - Granted: 2022-09-13 - Earliest claimed: 2018-10-16 - Assignees: Sony Corporation - Applicants: Sony Corporation - Inventors: Hiroyuki Honma; Toru Chinen; Yoshiaki Oikawa - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11445296B2 ## CPC - G10L 19/008: Multichannel audio signal coding or decoding using interchannel correlation to reduce redundancy, e.g. joint-stereo, intensity-coding or matrixing - H04R 3/04: for correcting frequency response - G10L 19/02: using spectral analysis, e.g. transform vocoders or subband vocoders - H04S 3/008: {in which the audio signals are in digital form, i.e. employing more than two discrete digital channels (data reduction aspects thereof based on psychoacoustics G10L19/02)} - H04S 7/302: {Electronic adaptation of stereophonic sound system to listener position or orientation (H04S7/301 takes precedence)} - H04S 7/303: {Tracking of listener position or orientation} - H04S 7/307: {Frequency adjustment, e.g. tone control (H04S7/301 takes precedence)} - G10L 19/0017: {Lossless audio signal coding; Perfect reconstruction of coded audio signal by transmission of coding error (G10L19/24 takes precedence)} - G10L 19/0212: {using orthogonal transformation} - H04R 2430/01: Aspects of volume control, not necessarily automatic, in sound systems - H04R 2460/03: Aspects of the reduction of energy consumption in hearing devices - H04S 2400/11: Positioning of individual sound objects, e.g. moving airplane, within a sound field (H04S2420/13 takes precedence) - H04S 2420/01: Enhancing the perception of the sound image or of the spatial distribution using head related transfer functions [HRTF's] or equivalents thereof, e.g. interaural time difference [ITD] or interaural level difference [ILD] - G10L: SPEECH ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES OR SPEECH SYNTHESIS; SPEECH RECOGNITION; SPEECH OR VOICE PROCESSING TECHNIQUES; SPEECH OR AUDIO CODING OR DECODING - H04R: LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; ELECTRIC HEARING AIDS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS (producing sounds with frequency not determined by supply frequency G10K) - H04S: STEREOPHONIC SYSTEMS ## Abstract The present technology relates to a signal processing apparatus and method, and a program that make it possible to reduce an arithmetic operation amount. The signal processing apparatus performs, on the basis of audio object mute information indicative of whether or not a signal of an audio object is a mute signal, at least either one of a decoding process or a rendering process of an object signal of the audio object. The present technology can be applied to a signal processing apparatus. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A signal processing apparatus comprising: processing circuitry configured to: perform, on a basis of audio object mute information indicative of whether or not a signal of an audio object is a mute signal, at least either one of a decoding process or a rendering process of an object signal of the audio object; and perform an HRTF (Head Related Transfer Function) process on a basis of a virtual speaker signal obtained by the rendering process and used to reproduce sound by a virtual speaker and virtual speaker mute information indicative of whether or not the virtual speaker signal is a mute signal. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The signal processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, in at least either one of the decoding process or the rendering process, either at least part of an arithmetic operation is omitted or a value determined in advance is outputted as a value corresponding to a result of a predetermined arithmetic operation according to the audio object mute information. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The signal processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to omit, from within the HRTF process, an arithmetic operation for convoluting the virtual speaker signal determined to be a mute signal by the virtual speaker mute information and a transfer function. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The signal processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to generate the audio object mute information on a basis of information regarding a spectrum of the object signal. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) The signal processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to perform the decoding process including decoding of spectral data of the object signal encoded by a context-based arithmetic encoding method, and to not perform calculation of a context of the spectral data determined as a mute signal by the audio object mute information but decodes the spectral data by using a value determined in advance as a result of the calculation of the context. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The signal processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to perform the decoding process including decoding of the spectral data and an IMDCT (Inverse Modified Discrete Cosine Transform) process for the decoded spectral data and outputs zero data without performing the IMDCT process for the decoded spectral data determined as a mute signal by the audio object mute information. ### Claim 7 (depends on 4) The signal processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to generate, on a basis of a result of the decoding process, another audio object mute information different from the audio object mute information used in the decoding process, and to perform the rendering process on a basis of the other audio object mute information. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) The signal processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to perform a gain calculation process of obtaining a gain of the virtual speaker for each object signal obtained by the decoding process and a gain application process of generating the virtual speaker signal on a basis of the gain and the object signal as the rendering process. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The signal processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to omit, in the gain application process, at least either one of an arithmetic operation on the virtual speaker signal determined as a mute signal by the virtual speaker mute information or an arithmetic operation based on the object signal determined as a mute signal by the other audio object mute information. ### Claim 10 (depends on 8) The signal processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to generate the virtual speaker mute information on a basis of a result of the calculation of the gain and the other audio object mute information. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The signal processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least either one of the decoding process or the rendering process is performed on a basis of a priority degree of the audio object and the audio object mute information. ### Claim 12 A signal processing method, executed by processing circuitry, the method comprising: performing on a basis of audio object mute information indicative of whether or not a signal of an audio object is a mute signal, at least either one of a decoding process or a rendering process of an object signal of the audio object; and performing an HRTF (Head Related Transfer Function) process on a basis of a virtual speaker signal obtained by the rendering process and used to reproduce sound by a virtual speaker and virtual speaker mute information indicative of whether or not the virtual speaker signal is a mute signal. ### Claim 13 A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry, perform a signal processing method comprising: performing, on a basis of audio object mute information indicative of whether or not a signal of an audio object is a mute signal, at least either one of a decoding process or a rendering process of an object signal of the audio object; and performing an HRTF (Head Related Transfer Function) process on a basis of a virtual speaker signal obtained by the rendering process and used to reproduce sound by a virtual speaker and virtual speaker mute information indicative of whether or not the virtual speaker signal is a mute signal.