# US 2010/0169079 A1 · Psychoacoustic time alignment > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2010/0169079 A1 - Document ID: US20100169079A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 12/345,685 - Filed: 2008-12-30 - Published: 2010-07-01 - Earliest claimed: 2008-12-30 - Assignees: AudioCodes Ltd. - Inventors: Ilan Shallom; Nitay Shiran - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20100169079A1 ## CPC - G10L 25/69: for evaluating synthetic or decoded voice signals - H04R 29/00: Monitoring arrangements; Testing arrangements {(for hearing aids H04R25/30; detection of loudspeaker connection H04R5/04; sound-field adaptation dependent on speaker detection H04S7/308)} - 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) ## Abstract A method of providing a quality measure for an output voice signal generated to reproduce an input voice signal, the method comprising: partitioning the input and output signals into frames; for each frame of the input signal, determining a disturbance relative to each of a plurality of frames of the output signal; determining a subset of the determined disturbances comprising one disturbance for each input frame such that a sum of the disturbances in the subset set is a minimum; and using the set of disturbances to provide the measure of quality. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method of providing a quality measure for an output voice signal generated to reproduce an input voice signal, the method comprising: partitioning the input and output signals into frames; for each frame of the input signal, determining a disturbance relative to each of a plurality of frames of the output signal; determining a subset of the determined disturbances comprising one disturbance for each input frame such that a sum of the disturbances in the subset set is a minimum; and using the set of disturbances to provide the measure of quality. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) A method according to claim 1 wherein the disturbances comprise asymmetric disturbances. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) A method according to claim 1 and limiting choices of disturbances for inclusion in the subset by a constraint. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) A method according to claim 3 wherein, if a disturbance for an i-th frame in the input signal relative to a j-th frame in the output signal is represented by Di,j(i) then if Di,j(i) and Di−1,j(i−1) are included in the subset of disturbances, comprising requiring that the disturbances satisfy a constraint: 0≦[j(i)−j(i−1)]≦2. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) A method according to claim 4 wherein, if [j(i)−j(i−1)]=0 then 1≦[j(i)−j(i−2)]≦2. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) A method according to claim 1, wherein, if a given disturbance in the subset of disturbances is greater than a predetermined threshold, at least one frame in each of the input and output signals in a vicinity of the input and output frames used to determine the given disturbance are replaced with frames that define a number of new disturbances greater than the number determined by the at least one frame in each of the input and output signals. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) A method according to claim 6 and comprising determining an alternative disturbance for the given disturbance responsive to the new disturbances. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) A method according to claim 7 and comprising replacing the given disturbance with the alternative disturbance if the alternative disturbance is less than the given disturbance. ### Claim 9 (depends on 7) A method according to claim 7 wherein determining the alternative disturbance comprises using a dynamic programming algorithm. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) A method according to claim 1 and comprising temporally aligning frames in the output signal with frames in the input signal responsive to a correlation of energy envelopes of the input and output signals. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) A method according to claim 1 wherein determining the subset of disturbances comprises using a dynamic programming algorithm. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) Apparatus for testing quality of speech provided by a CODEC the apparatus comprising: an input port for receiving an input audio signal received by the CODEC; an input port for receiving an output audio signal provided by the CODEC responsive to the input signal; and a processor configured to process the input and output signals in accordance with claim 1 to provide a measure of quality of the output signal. ### Claim 13 A computer readable storage medium containing a set of instructions for testing quality of an output signal provided by a CODEC responsive to an input signal, the instructions comprising: instructions for partitioning the input and output signals into frames; instructions for determining for each frame of the input signal, a disturbance relative to each of a plurality of frames of the output signal; instructions for determining a subset of the determined disturbances comprising one disturbance for each input frame such that a sum of the disturbances in the subset set is a minimum; and instructions for providing a measure of quality responsive to the disturbances.