Patent ID: 7627482
Filing Date: 2009-12-01
Classification: G10L

Abstract:
1. A method of encoding sound signals from a plurality of channels using a sound signal encoder, said sound signal encoder comprising a plurality of gain controllers and a to-be-correlated object setter, the method comprising the steps of: generating, with the gain controllers, an arbitrary number of gain control information correspondingly to the amplitude of the sound signals from the plurality of channels for gain control of the sound signals; setting, using the gain control information generated for a first-channel sound signal and gain control information generated for a second-channel sound signal, one of the second-channel gain control information or predetermined gain control information as a to-be-correlated object for encoding in correlation with each first-channel gain control information; and encoding the second-channel gain control information, and encoding the first-channel gain control using the correlation with the gain control information set as the to-be-correlated object, wherein in the to-be-correlated object setting step, gain control information as the to-be-correlated object is set on the basis of a time-based distance between gain-controlled position information included in the first-channel gain control information and gain-controlled position information included in the second-channel gain control information.