1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for enhancing audio quality in audio systems, specifically, an apparatus for providing high quality audio output by a median filter in audio systems.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Sounds are a fundamental way in which people communicate with others. Regardless, if it is voice or music, all are sent by sounds. As new technologies are developed progressively, sounds remain an important way for people to communicate or relax. Products such as audio systems are important products for people to enjoy music and relax. This is especially true of wireless audio systems. The most convenient way to transmit sounds is via air transmission. However, there are also problems with wireless audio systems, and these problems can arise because audio signals are easily influenced by noise during the wireless transmission process. The distorted signals generate popping sounds, subsequently decreasing acoustic fidelity. Therefore, an important research target is to decrease the effect of distorted signals during the wireless transmission process.
Please refer to
In the prior art transmitting apparatus 12A, the sound inputting devices 14A, 14B have a microphone and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) installed in them. The sound inputting devices 14A, 14B can simultaneously receive two sounds inputted by different audio channels (such as left audio channel or right audio channel). These sounds are recognized as digital data bits (a sample value of each data bit represents an amplitude of the sound) so as to compile sequential digital signals Pa, Pb. The digital signals Pa, Pb are simultaneously transmitted to the parallel/serial converter 16. The parallel/serial converter 16 can encapsulate the two digital signals Pa, Pb of the two sound inputting devices 14A, 14B into a sequential digital signal P1 and output the digital signal P1 to the encoder 18. The encoder 18 adds an error protection code to the digital signal P1. The BMC 19 controls the clock of the digital signal P1 and synchronizes the digital signal P1 so as to form a digital signal P2. The digital signal P2 is transmitted to the modulation module 20. The modulation module 20 modulates the digital signal P2 into an analog baseband signal P3 which is capable of being transmitted via air transmission. The analog baseband signal P3 is sent to the transmitting circuit 22. The transmitting circuit 22 modulates the analog baseband signal P3 into radio frequency signal P4 and transmits the radio frequency signal via air transmission.
After receiving the radio frequency signal P4′ (the corresponding received radio frequency signal relates to P4)transmitted from the transmitting apparatus 12A, the receiving circuit 24 transforms the radio frequency signal P4′ into a baseband signal P5 (the baseband signal P5 corresponds to the original baseband signal P3) and sends the baseband signal P5 to the demodulation module 26. Note that owning to essence of radio transmittion, P4′ may be effected by signal distortion, signal interference, noise, etc. Thus, P4 and P4′ may not be exactly the same. The demodulation module 26 extracts the digital data P6 from the baseband signal P5. The BMC 28 controls the clock of the digital data P6 and synchronizes the digital data P6 so as to generate digital data P7. The digital data P7 corresponds to the original digital data P2. The serial/parallel converter 32 splits the digital data P7 into two digital data Pc, Pd originally identified with the different audio channels. The digital data Pc, Pd corresponding to the digital data Pa, Pb are simultaneously transmitted to audio conversion devices 34A, 34B of different audio channels. The audio conversion devices 34A, 34B are a digital-to-analog converter (DAC). The audio conversion devices 34A, 34B convert the digital signal into analog audio signals Pe, Pf and send the analog audio signals Pe, Pf to the speakers 36A, 36B. The speakers 36A, 36B transmit the acoustic wave corresponding to the analog audio signals Pe, Pf so users are able to hear the sound.
Please refer to
However, the abovementioned the analog signals are influenced by other radio signals or noise when the analog signals are transmitted via air transmission. The analog signals are influenced by the multi-path effect, meaning that some distortions may occur in the analog signal. When the distorted analog signal is received by the receiving apparatus 12B, the corresponding digital signals Pc, Pd may also have some errors. This erroneous information causes the audio conversion device to emit popping sounds. As shown in
In order to prevent the above situation from happening, the prior art technology uses the error protection code to encode the sending signal so as to prevent the error of data. In the transmitting apparatus 12A, the encoder 18 encodes the error protection code in each data of the digital signal P1 according to a coding theorem, so as to form the digital signal P1″. When the receiving apparatus 12B receives the signal with the error protection code, the receiving apparatus 12B transforms the signal into the digital signal P7 and transmits the digital signal P7 to the decoder 30. The decoder 30 corrects the erroneous bits generated during the wireless transmission process according to the error protection code. See
A primary defect of the prior art is that the prior art wireless audio systems must have complicated encoders and decoders installed. In order to encode the error protection code, the prior art transmitting apparatus 12A must have the encoder 18 installed and the prior art receiving apparatus 12B must have the corresponding decoder 30 installed. Since the encoding algorithms and the decoding algorithms are complicated, the related encoder 18 and decoder 30 must have complex circuits. This is especially true for the decoder 30. The circuit of the decoder 30 is the most complicated of the components in the receiving apparatus 12B. Therefore, the cost and time of design, production, and maintain of the prior art audio system 10 is increased. Additionally, each data becomes longer after having the error protection code added, thereby increasing the data processing load of the audio system 10.
It is therefore a primary objective of the present invention to provide an apparatus that uses a median filter to filter out errors in digital signals so as to provide high quality audio output. The prior art encoder and decoder are no longer required in the said invention, thereby decreasing cost of the audio system.
The claimed median filter compares the filtering data with at least one former data and at least one latter data. Abandoning the maximum sample value data and the minimum sample value data so as to obtain the median value data and output the median value data. Therefore, the median filter can efficiently filter out the erroneous data, which will generate the popping sounds. In the embodiment of this invention, the median filter compares the filtering data with one former data and one latter data. The median filter obtains the median value data within the three successive data samples and outputs the median value. This invention will efficiently filter out the erroneous data and prevent the popping sounds, and decrease the cost of the audio system.
Briefly, the claimed invention discloses an apparatus for enhancing audio quality of an audio system. The apparatus comprises a receiving circuit, a demodulation module, a frame synchronization control module, a filter, and an audio conversion device. The receiving circuit is used to receive a radio frequency signal and generate a corresponding baseband signal. The demodulation module is electrically connected to the receiving circuit, and is used to demodulate the baseband signal and correspondingly output sequential data. The frame synchronization control module is electrically connected to the demodulation module, and is used to synchronize the data and outputs sequential data. The filter is electrically connected to the frame synchronization control module, and is used to filter out erroneous data transmitted from the frame synchronization control module. The audio conversion device is connected to the filter for transferring an output of the filter into a corresponding audio signal.
It is an advantage of the claimed invention that said invention does not need the encoder and the decoder installed, as was the case with the prior art. This invention only needs to have the simple and cheap median filter installed. The median filter can efficiently filter out the erroneous data within the digital audio signal, thereby decreasing popping sounds and increasing the acoustic fidelity. The said invention also decreases the cost of the audio system.
These and other objectives of present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment which is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
Please refer to
The sound inputting devices 44A, 44B generates digital signals Sa, Sb and outputs the digital signals Sa, Sb to the parallel/serial converter 46. The parallel/serial converter 46 arranges the digital signals Sa, Sb of two different audio channels into a single sequential digital signal and transmits this sequential digital signal to the frame synchronization control module 49. The frame synchronization control module 49 controls the clock of the digital signal and synchronizes the digital signal so as to form a digital signal S1. The digital signal S1 is transmitted to the modulation module 50. The modulation circuit 48A of the modulation module 50 can be a pi/4-DQPSK modulation circuit so as to modulate the digital signal S1 into a digital signal S2. The spreading circuit 48B performs convolution and multiplication operations on the digital signal S2 and a spreading code Ss1 so as to form a baseband signal S3. The spreading circuit 48B can make use of direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS). That means each bit of the digital signal S2 is represented by several bits. The baseband signal S3 is outputted to the transmitting circuit 52. The transmitting circuit 52 converts the baseband signal S3 into a radio frequency signal S4 and transmits the radio frequency signal S4 via air transmission.
When the receiving apparatus 42B receives the radio frequency signal S4, the receiving circuit 54 transforms the radio frequency signal S4 into a baseband signal S5 and transmits the baseband signal S5 to the demodulation module 56. The de-spreading circuit 58A of the demodulation module 56 performs de-spreading on the baseband signal S5 (performs the convolution and multiplication operations on the baseband signal S5 and a spreading code Ss2) so as to generate a digital signal S6. The demodulation circuit 58B performs the inverse operation of the modulation circuit 48A so as to demodulate the digital signal S6 into a digital signal S7. The digital signal S7 is transmitted to the frame synchronization control module 60. The frame synchronization control module 60 controls the clock of the digital signal S7 and synchronizes the digital signal S7 so as to generate a digital signal S8. The digital signal S8 is transmitted to the serial/parallel converter 62. The serial/parallel converter 62 splits the digital signal S8 into two digital signals Sc, Sd respectively for different audio channels. The filters 64A, 64B filter the digital signals Sc, Sd so as to generate corresponding digital signals Se, Sf. Finally, the audio conversion devices 66A, 66B respectively transform the digital signals Se, Sf into analog audio signals Sg, Sh and transmit the analog audio signals Sg, Sh to the speakers 68A, 68B. The speakers 68A, 68B transmit the acoustic wave corresponding to the analog audio signals Sg, Sh. The audio conversion devices 66A, 66B can be digital to analog converters (DACs). In addition, it is noteworthy that each of the frame synchronization control modules 49, 60 can be a burst mode controller (BMC).
As shown in
When the median filter processes the data D7 corresponding to time t7 within the digital signal Sc, the filter compares the data D6, D7, D8 corresponding to time t6, t7, t8. Since there is no erroneous data, the filter still sends the data D7 in the digital signal Se. Then the median filter processes the data D8 at time t8 within the digital signal Sc. The median filter compares the data of D7 (the former data), D8, D9 (the latter data). After comparing, the media filter transmits the median value data D7 to the digital data Se. Therefore the data within the digital data Se at time t8 is changed to D7, but not the original data D8 within the digital data Sc. Thus, the erroneous data D8 corresponding to time t8 within the digital signal Sc is filtered out by the median filter. The median filter continues to process the data D9 corresponding to time t9 within the digital signal Sc and transmits the median value data D9 to the digital signal Se. The waveform Wc and waveform We shown in
In conclusion, if the data samples do not have erroneous data, the sample values of two successive data samples do not have large change. The filtering data is the same as the median value data when comparing the filtering data with the former data and the latter data. In this situation, the median filter maintains the original waveform. However, when the sample value of one data sample suddenly becomes higher or lower, that means this data sample is an erroneous data. In this invention, the erroneous data is not the median value data when comparing with the former data and the latter data. The median filter chooses the former data or the latter data instead of this erroneous data so as to make the waveform of the output signal much more smooth, thereby preventing the popping sounds.
Please refer to
In contrast to the prior art audio system which uses the complicated encoder and decoder to add the error protection code so as to filter out the erroneous data, the present invention audio system uses the simple median filter to filter out the erroneous data. The transmitting apparatus of the present invention wireless audio system does not need the encoder installed, and the receiving apparatus also does not need the decoder installed. The present invention only needs two simple and inexpensive median filters installed for different audio channels so as to efficiently filter out the erroneous data within the digital signal, thereby decreasing the occurrence of popping sounds and increasing the acoustic fidelity. The present invention can be used not only in wireless audio systems which have frequency bands between 2.4 GHz to 2.5 GHz, but also can be used in frequency bands between 5.15 GHz to 5.35 GHz. Since these frequency bands are commonly used by people, these signals are easily influenced by noise. The present invention can efficiently filter out the erroneous data generated during the transmission process with low cost, and decrease the popping sounds. Since the wireless transmission signals do not need to have error protection codes added, the load of the wireless transmission is decreases. The abovementioned embodiment used the wireless audio system as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to that. The present invention can be used in general digital audio systems to filter out the erroneous data within digital signals so as to increase the acoustic fidelity.
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the apparatus may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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91102551 A | Feb 2002 | TW | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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6466832 | Zuqert et al. | Oct 2002 | B1 |
6671325 | Lee et al. | Dec 2003 | B1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20030153295 A1 | Aug 2003 | US |