US 12,726,759 B2Granted

Spatial metadata direction harmonization

AssigneeNokia Technologies Oy

InventorsJouni Kristian Paulus, Tapani Pihlajakuja, Lasse Juhani Laaksonen, Mikko-Ville Laitinen

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Abstract

An apparatus comprising means for: obtaining, with respect to at least two sources within an audio scene, ordered directional metadata parameters associated with the at least two sources and identifying a direction-of-arrival with respect to the at least two sources and arranged in frames arranged as a grid of time-frequency tiles with respect to a time-axis and a frequency axis; determining an ordering error with respect to at least one time-frequency tile directional metadata parameter, the ordering error configured to identify that at least one neighbouring time-frequency tile directional metadata parameter associated with another order index is more similar and/or less different with respect to the at least one time-frequency tile directional metadata parameter than the at least one neighbouring time-frequency tile directional metadata parameter associated with the same order index; and reordering the determined at least one time-frequency tile directional metadata parameter to the another order index.

Claims21

Dependent claims

An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform:

obtaining, with respect to at least two sources within an audio scene, directional metadata parameters, the directional metadata parameters associated with the at least two sources, the directional metadata parameters identifying a direction-of-arrival with respect to the at least two sources and arranged in frames arranged as a grid of time-frequency tiles with respect to a time-axis and a frequency axis, wherein each tile comprises at least two sets of ordered directional metadata parameters, one set for each of the at least two audio sources, wherein each set is associated with an order index defining an order among the at least two sets in the tile to provide the ordered directional metadata parameters;
for a first time-frequency tile and a, neighbouring, second time-frequency tile, wherein the first tile has a first set of ordered directional metadata parameter having a first order index and a second set of ordered directional metadata parameter having a second order index, wherein the second tile has a third set of ordered directional metadata parameter having the first order index and a fourth set of ordered directional metadata parameter having the second order index:
determining a first difference measure by determining a difference between the first and third sets and a difference between the second and fourth sets;
determining a second difference measure by determining a difference between the first and fourth sets and a difference between the second and third sets;
and upon the first difference measure being larger than, or equal to the second difference measure, interchanging the order indexes of the first and second sets;
and
encoding the ordered directional metadata parameters into a bitstream to be output.

4 more elements

A method for an apparatus comprising:

obtaining, with respect to at least two sources within an audio scene, directional metadata parameters, the directional metadata parameters associated with the at least two sources, the directional metadata parameters identifying a direction-of-arrival with respect to the at least two sources and arranged in frames arranged as a grid of time-frequency tiles with respect to a time-axis and a frequency axis, wherein each tile comprises at least two sets of ordered directional metadata parameters, one set for each of the at least two audio sources, wherein each set is associated with an order index defining an order among the at least two sets in the tile to provide the ordered directional metadata parameters;
for a first time-frequency tile and a, neighbouring, second time-frequency tile, wherein the first tile has a first set of ordered directional metadata parameters having a first order index and a second set of ordered directional metadata parameters having a second order index, wherein the second tile has a third set of ordered directional metadata parameters having the first order index and a fourth set of ordered directional metadata parameters having the second order index:
determining a first difference measure by determining a difference between the first and third sets and a difference between the second and fourth sets;
determining a second difference measure by determining a difference between the first and fourth sets and a difference between the second and third sets;
and upon the first difference measure being larger than, or equal to the second difference measure, interchanging the order indexes of the first and second sets;
and
encoding the ordered directional metadata parameters into a bitstream to be output.

4 more elements

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following:

obtaining, with respect to at least two sources within an audio scene, directional metadata parameters, the directional metadata parameters associated with the at least two sources, the directional metadata parameters identifying a direction-of-arrival with respect to the at least two sources and arranged in frames arranged as a grid of time-frequency tiles with respect to a time-axis and a frequency axis, wherein each tile comprises at least two sets of ordered directional metadata parameters, one set for each of the at least two audio sources, wherein each set is associated with an order index defining an order among the at least two sets in the tile to provide the ordered directional metadata parameters;
for a first time-frequency tile and a, neighbouring, second time-frequency tile, wherein the first tile has a first set of ordered directional metadata parameters having a first order index and a second set of ordered directional metadata parameters having a second order index, wherein the second tile has a third set of ordered directional metadata parameters having the first order index and a fourth set of ordered directional metadata parameters having the second order index:
determining a first difference measure by determining a difference between the first and third sets and a difference between the second and fourth sets;
determining a second difference measure by determining a difference between the first and fourth sets and a difference between the second and third sets;
and upon the first difference measure being larger than, or equal to the second difference measure, interchanging the order indexes of the first and second sets;
and
encoding the ordered directional metadata parameters into a bitstream to be output.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 19/332,149Filed 18 Sep 2025 · continuation
Priority: GB 230479131 Mar 2023
Published: US 2026/0019742 A115 Jan 2026
Granted: 1 Sep 2026
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification4 codes

H04R 1/323
For obtaining desired directional characteristic only: for loudspeakers
G06F 16/683
Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually: using metadata automatically…
H04R
Loudspeakers, microphones, gramophone pick-ups or like acoustic electromechanical transducers
G06F
Computing and data processing