Patent ID: 7461002

Claim:
A method for time aligning first and second audio signals, wherein one signal has been derived from the other or both have been derived from another signal, comprising deriving reduced-information characterizations of said audio signals, the characterizations being composed of less information than the audio signals themselves, wherein said reduced-information characterizations represent at least the boundaries of auditory events resulting from the division of each of said audio signals into auditory events, each of which auditory events tends to be perceived as separate and distinct, wherein each audio signal is divided into auditory events by detecting changes in signal characteristics with respect to time in the audio signal, and identifying a continuous succession of auditory event boundaries in the audio signal, in which every change in signal characteristics with respect to time exceeding a threshold defines a boundary, wherein each auditory event is an audio segment between adjacent boundaries and there is only one auditory event between such adjacent boundaries, each boundary representing the end of the preceding event and the beginning of the next event such that a continuous succession of auditory events is obtained, wherein neither auditory event boundaries, auditory events, nor any characteristics of an auditory event are known in advance of identifying the continuous succession of auditory event boundaries and obtaining the continuous succession of auditory events, the characterizations having substantially the same relative timing relationship as the audio signals from which they are derived, calculating the time offset of one characterization with respect to the other characterization, and modifying the temporal relationship of said audio signals with respect to each other in response to said time offset such that said audio signals are more closely aligned in time.