Apparatus and method for extracting a test signal section from an audio signal

A device implemented on a computer which is programmed to extract a test signal section from an audio signal, the device comprising, implemented on the computer:

• a parser for parsing a temporal or spectral structure of the audio signal in order to differentiate an information-carrying section of the audio signal from a preceding non-information-carrying section of the audio signal or a subsequent non-information-carrying section of the audio signal;
• and
• a generator for generating the test signal section based on the information-carrying section of the audio signal,
• wherein the audio signal comprises voiced portions and pause portions between the voiced portions, and the parser is implemented to perform a voice activity detection in order to detect a voiced portion as an information-carrying section arranged in temporal respect between two pause portions as non-information-carrying sections, and
• wherein the parser is further implemented to subject the voiced portion to a speech detection and to parse the information-carrying section with regard to a speech and/or a sentence context, and
• wherein the generator is implemented in order to consider the speech and/or the sentence context when generating the test signal section based on the information-carrying section of the audio signal such that the test signal section has a temporal length which is greater than or equal to a predetermined minimum length and smaller than or equal to a predetermined maximum length.

A device implemented on a computer which is programmed to extract a test signal section from an audio signal, the device comprising, implemented on the computer:

• a parser for parsing a temporal or spectral structure of the audio signal in order to differentiate an information-carrying section of the audio signal from a preceding non-information-carrying section of the audio signal or a subsequent non-information-carrying section of the audio signal;
• and
• a generator for generating the test signal section based on the information-carrying section of the audio signal,
• wherein the generator is implemented
• to detect a temporal length of the information-carrying section,
• to determine whether the temporal length exceeds a predetermined maximum value, and
• in the case of exceeding the predetermined maximum value, to fade out a part at the beginning or at the end of the information-carrying section to obtain a modified information-carrying section whose temporal length is smaller than the predetermined maximum value, and
• in a transition range between a faded-out portion and a non-modified portion, to obtain a continuous level change of the modified information-carrying section, and
• to generate the test signal section so that the test signal section includes the transition range and the non-modified section.

A device implemented on a computer which is programmed to extract a test signal section from an audio signal, the device comprising, implemented on the computer:

• a parser for parsing a temporal or spectral structure of the audio signal in order to differentiate an information-carrying section of the audio signal from a preceding non-information-carrying section of the audio signal or a subsequent non-information-carrying section of the audio signal;
• and
• a generator for generating the test signal section based on the information-carrying section of the audio signal,
• wherein the audio signal comprises a music portion, and
• wherein the parser for parsing is implemented to perform a level detection, a loudness detection or a modulation detection in order to differentiate a non-information-carrying section from an information-carrying section.

A method for extracting a test signal section from an audio signal, comprising:

• a computer parsing a temporal or spectral structure of the audio signal in order to differentiate information-carrying sections of the audio signal from non-information-carrying sections of the audio signal, the information-carrying sections of the audio signal and the non-information-carrying sections alternate within the audio signal;
• and
• the computer generating a sequence of test signal sections based on the information-carrying sections of the audio signal;
• and
• the computer transmitting the sequence of test signal sections to a measurement device for a non-intrusive quality assessment resulting in a quality measurement value per test signal section of the sequence of test signal sections.

A digital storage medium having stored thereon a computer program having a program code for performing, when the computer program runs on a computer, a method for extracting a test signal section from an audio signal, comprising:

• parsing a temporal or spectral structure of the audio signal in order to differentiate information-carrying sections of the audio signal from non-information-carrying sections of the audio signal, the information-carrying sections of the audio signal being separated from each other by the non-information-carrying sections of the audio signal, wherein the information-carrying sections and the non-information-carrying sections alternate within audio signal;
• generating a sequence of test signal sections based on the information-carrying sections of the audio signal;
• and
• transmitting the sequence of test signal sections to a measurement device for a non-intrusive quality assessment resulting in a quality measurement value per test signal section of the sequence of test signal sections.