Audio compression
OwnerDonald Martin Monroinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An audio codec and a method of compressing audio data makes use of a filterbank which automatically adapts itself to changes in the sampling frequency/bit rate to mimic the characteristics of the human auditory system. The algorithm used compares the bandwidth of each sub-band at a given depth with the critical bandwidth. If the critical bandwidth is less than the bandwidth of the sub-band, then the sub-band is split into two at the next level, and the process is repeated until the bandwidth of every sub-band is less than the critical bandwidth at the corresponding frequency. The codec thus automatically adapts itself to changes in sampling frequency/bit rate, which is particularly advantageous when very low bandwidths are in use.
Claims18
A method of compression of an audio signal including generating or automatically selecting a filterbank in dependence upon sampling frequency or bit rate.
A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the filterbank is used to define the masking to be applied to the signal.
A coder for compressing an audio signal which automatically selects or generates a filterbank in dependence upon sampling frequency or bit rate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.