# US 12,014,745 B2 · Transforming audio signals captured in different formats into a reduced number of formats for simplifying encoding and decoding operations > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 12,014,745 B2 - Document ID: US12014745B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 17/882,900 - Filed: 2022-08-08 - Published: 2022-11-24 - Granted: 2024-06-18 - Earliest claimed: 2018-10-08 - Assignees: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation - Applicants: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation; Dolby International AB - Inventors: Stefan Bruhn; Michael Eckert; Juan Felix Torres; Stefanie Brown; David S. McGrath - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12014745B2 ## CPC - G10L 19/008: Multichannel audio signal coding or decoding using interchannel correlation to reduce redundancy, e.g. joint-stereo, intensity-coding or matrixing - 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 3/00: Systems employing more than two channels, e.g. quadraphonic (H04S5/00, H04S7/00 take precedence) - H04S 2400/01: Multi-channel, i.e. more than two input channels, sound reproduction with two speakers wherein the multi-channel information is substantially preserved - H04S 2400/15: Aspects of sound capture and related signal processing for recording or reproduction - H04S 2420/11: Application of ambisonics in stereophonic audio systems - G10L: SPEECH ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES OR SPEECH SYNTHESIS; SPEECH RECOGNITION; SPEECH OR VOICE PROCESSING TECHNIQUES; SPEECH OR AUDIO CODING OR DECODING - H04S: STEREOPHONIC SYSTEMS ## Abstract The disclosed embodiments enable converting audio signals captured in various formats by various capture devices into a limited number of formats that can be processed by an audio codec (e.g., an Immersive Voice and Audio Services (IVAS) codec). In an embodiment, a simplification unit of the audio device receives an audio signal captured by one or more audio capture devices coupled to the audio device. The simplification unit determines whether the audio signal is in a format that is supported/not supported by an encoding unit of the audio device. Based on the determining, the simplification unit, converts the audio signal into a format that is supported by the encoding unit. In an embodiment, if the simplification unit determines that the audio signal is in a spatial format, the simplification unit can convert the audio signal into a spatial “mezzanine” format supported by the encoding. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method comprising: receiving, by a simplification stage from an acoustic pre-processing stage, audio signals in multiple formats and metadata of the audio signals, wherein the audio signals represent audio that has been captured by at least one microphone; receiving, by the simplification stage from a device, attributes of the device, the attributes including one or more audio formats supported by the device, the one or more audio formats including a spatial audio format; converting, by the simplification stage, the audio signals into a spatial mezzanine format that is compatible with the one or more audio formats; and providing, by the simplification stage, the converted audio signal to an encoding stage for downstream processing. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the simplification stage comprises one or more computer processors a computer processor. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the spatial mezzanine format includes a representation as m Objects and n-th order HOA (“mObj+HOAn”), where m and n are low integer numbers. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the encoding stage is an immersive voice and audio services (IVAS) compliant processing stage. ### Claim 5 A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: receiving, by a simplification stage from an acoustic pre-processing stage, audio signals in multiple formats and metadata of the audio signals, wherein the audio signals represent audio that has been captured by at least one microphone; receiving, by the simplification stage from a device, attributes of the device, the attributes including one or more audio formats supported by the device, the one or more audio formats including a spatial audio format; converting, by the simplification stage, the audio signals into a spatial mezzanine format that is compatible with the one or more audio formats; and providing, by the simplification stage, the converted audio signal to an encoding stage for downstream processing. ### Claim 6 A system comprising: one or more processors; and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: receiving, by a simplification stage from an acoustic pre-processing stage, audio signals in multiple formats and metadata of the audio signals, wherein the audio signals represent audio that has been captured by at least one microphone; receiving, by the simplification stage from a device, attributes of the device, the attributes including one or more audio formats supported by the device, the one or more audio formats including a spatial audio format; converting, by the simplification stage, the audio signals into a spatial mezzanine format that is compatible with the one or more audio formats; and providing, by the simplification stage, the converted audio signal to an encoding stage for downstream processing. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The method according to claim 1, further comprising: when the one or more audio formats includes a mono format or a stereo format, bypassing the converting and providing the mono format or the stereo format to the encoding stage. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein converting the audio signal into the spatial mezzanine format comprises generating metadata for the audio signal, wherein the metadata comprises a representation of a portion of the audio signal. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, further comprising transmitting the encoded audio signal by transmitting the metadata that comprises the representation of the portion of the audio signal. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the spatial mezzanine format represents the audio signal as a number of audio objects in an audio scene both of which are relying on a number of audio channels for carrying spatial information. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The method of claim 10, wherein the spatial mezzanine format further comprises metadata for carrying a further portion of spatial information. ### Claim 12 (depends on 5) The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the spatial mezzanine format includes a representation as m Objects and n-th order HOA (“mObj+HOAn”), where m and n are low integer numbers. ### Claim 13 (depends on 5) The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the encoding stage is an immersive voice and audio services (IVAS) compliant processing stage. ### Claim 14 (depends on 6) The system of claim 6, wherein the spatial mezzanine format includes a representation as m Objects and n-th order HOA (“mObj+HOAn”), where m and n are low integer numbers. ### Claim 15 (depends on 6) The system of claim 6, wherein the encoding stage is an immersive voice and audio services (IVAS) compliant processing stage. ### Claim 16 (depends on 6) The system according to claim 6, further comprising: when the one or more audio formats includes a mono format or a stereo format, bypassing the converting and providing the mono format or the stereo format to the encoding stage. ### Claim 17 (depends on 6) The system of claim 6, wherein converting the audio signal into the spatial mezzanine format comprises generating metadata for the audio signal, wherein the metadata comprises a representation of a portion of the audio signal. ### Claim 18 (depends on 17) The system of claim 17, further comprising transmitting the encoded audio signal by transmitting the metadata that comprises the representation of the portion of the audio signal. ### Claim 19 (depends on 6) The system of claim 6, wherein the spatial mezzanine format represents the audio signal as a number of audio objects in an audio scene both of which are relying on a number of audio channels for carrying spatial information. ### Claim 20 (depends on 19) The system of claim 19, wherein the spatial mezzanine format further comprises metadata for carrying a further portion of spatial information.