Patent ID: 7860721
Filing Date: 2010-12-28
Classification: G10L

Abstract:
1. An audio encoding device that encodes a degree of a difference between plural audio signals which are to be separated from a representative audio signal, said audio encoding device comprising: a selecting unit operable to select one of plural segmentation methods for segmenting a frequency band into one or more sub-bands; a difference degree encoding unit operable to encode the degree of the difference between the plural audio signals for each sub-band obtained by the selected segmentation method; and a segmentation information encoding unit operable to encode segmentation information for identifying the selected segmentation method, wherein a number of the sub-bands obtained by each of the plural segmentation methods differs depending on the segmentation method, wherein the plural segmentation methods include: a first segmentation method for segmenting the frequency band into one or more sub-bands; and a second segmentation method for segmenting the frequency band into plural sub-bands, and wherein one of the sub-bands obtained by the first segmentation method is equivalent to one of: one of the sub-bands obtained by the second segmentation method; and a frequency band in which at least two adjacent sub-bands obtained by the second segmentation method are grouped.