The present invention provides an audio-visual dialogue system that allows a user to create an ‘avatar’ which may be customised to look and sound a particular way. The avatar may be created to resemble, for example, a person, animal or mythical creature, and generated to have a variable voice which may be female or male. The system then employs a real-time voice conversion in order to transform any audio input, for example, spoken word, into a target voice that is selected and customised by the user. The system is arranged to facially animate the avatar using a real-time lip-synching algorithm such that the generated avatar and the target voice are synchronised.

The present invention provides an audio-visual dialogue system that allows a user to create an ‘avatar’ which may be customised to look and sound a particular way. The avatar may be created to resemble, for example, a person, animal or mythical creature, and generated to have a variable voice which may be female or male. The system then employs a real-time voice conversion in order to transform any audio input, for example, spoken word, into a target voice that is selected and customised by the user. The system is arranged to facially animate the avatar using a real-time lip-synching algorithm such that the generated avatar and the target voice are synchronised.

An audio signal transmission device for encoding an audio signal includes an audio encoding unit that encodes an audio signal and a side information encoding unit that calculates and encodes side information from a look-ahead signal. An audio signal receiving device for decoding an audio code and outputting an audio signal includes: an audio code buffer that detects packet loss based on a received state of an audio packet, an audio parameter decoding unit that decodes an audio code when an audio packet is correctly received, a side information decoding unit that decodes a side information code when an audio packet is correctly received, a side information accumulation unit that accumulates side information obtained by decoding a side information code, an audio parameter missing processing unit that outputs an audio parameter upon detection of audio packet loss, and an audio synthesis unit that synthesizes decoded audio from the audio parameter.

An audio signal transmission device for encoding an audio signal includes an audio encoding unit that encodes an audio signal and a side information encoding unit that calculates and encodes side information from a look-ahead signal. An audio signal receiving device for decoding an audio code and outputting an audio signal includes: an audio code buffer that detects packet loss based on a received state of an audio packet, an audio parameter decoding unit that decodes an audio code when an audio packet is correctly received, a side information decoding unit that decodes a side information code when an audio packet is correctly received, a side information accumulation unit that accumulates side information obtained by decoding a side information code, an audio parameter missing processing unit that outputs an audio parameter upon detection of audio packet loss, and an audio synthesis unit that synthesizes decoded audio from the audio parameter.

In a CELP-type speech coding apparatus, switching between an orthogonal search of a fixed codebook and a non-orthogonal search is performed in a practical and effective manner. The CELP-type speech coding apparatus includes a parameter quantizer that selects an adaptive codebook vector and a fixed codebook vector so as to minimize an error between a synthesized speech signal and an input speech signal. The parameter quantizer includes a fixed codebook searcher that switches between the orthogonal fixed codebook search and the non-orthogonal fixed codebook search based on a correlation value between a target vector for the fixed codebook search and the adaptive codebook vector obtained as a result of a synthesis filtering process.

In a CELP-type speech coding apparatus, switching between an orthogonal search of a fixed codebook and a non-orthogonal search is performed in a practical and effective manner. The CELP-type speech coding apparatus includes a parameter quantizer that selects an adaptive codebook vector and a fixed codebook vector so as to minimize an error between a synthesized speech signal and an input speech signal. The parameter quantizer includes a fixed codebook searcher that switches between the orthogonal fixed codebook search and the non-orthogonal fixed codebook search based on a correlation value between a target vector for the fixed codebook search and the adaptive codebook vector obtained as a result of a synthesis filtering process.

Disclosed is an LPC residual signal encoding/decoding apparatus of an MDCT based unified voice and audio encoding device. The LPC residual signal encoding apparatus analyzes a property of an input signal, selects an encoding method of an LPC filtered signal, and encode the LPC residual signal based on one of a real filterbank, a complex filterbank, and an algebraic code excited linear prediction (ACELP).

Disclosed is an LPC residual signal encoding/decoding apparatus of an MDCT based unified voice and audio encoding device. The LPC residual signal encoding apparatus analyzes a property of an input signal, selects an encoding method of an LPC filtered signal, and encode the LPC residual signal based on one of a real filterbank, a complex filterbank, and an algebraic code excited linear prediction (ACELP).

Disclosed is an LPC residual signal encoding/decoding apparatus of an MDCT based unified voice and audio encoding device. The LPC residual signal encoding apparatus analyzes a property of an input signal, selects an encoding method of an LPC filtered signal, and encode the LPC residual signal based on one of a real filterbank, a complex filterbank, and an algebraic code excited linear prediction (ACELP).

Disclosed is an LPC residual signal encoding/decoding apparatus of an MDCT based unified voice and audio encoding device. The LPC residual signal encoding apparatus analyzes a property of an input signal, selects an encoding method of an LPC filtered signal, and encode the LPC residual signal based on one of a real filterbank, a complex filterbank, and an algebraic code excited linear prediction (ACELP).