Method and apparatus for improving the quality of a recorded broadcast audio program

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RELATED APPLICATION

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/848,429, filed May 17, 2004 and entitled "Method and Apparatus for Automated Recording of Broadcast Audio Content," which is hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

This invention relates to the field of broadcast audio. More particularly, a method and apparatus are provided for improving the quality of a recording of a broadcast audio program.

It is natural for people to want to listen to music, talk shows and other audio programs that they enjoy. However, few people can continuously monitor audio broadcasts for programs that they want to listen to or record for later listening, and don't know when they will be broadcast again. Or, they may hear a program that they would like to listen to again or even purchase, but cannot easily identify the program because they missed an announcement of the title.

In particular, there is little assistance offered to help one find when a particular song or other audio program will be broadcast or to identify a program within a broadcast. Generally, people just choose a station and listen to whatever is played, or else flip among stations or channels until they find something they want to listen to.

Even when something that a person likes is played, he or she usually does not know ahead of time that it will be played, and therefore cannot activate a recording device in time to record the program. The person may not know the name of the program or the artist that created a particular song, or may not recognize it until after it begins.

If someone were to record a broadcast over a period of time, he or she would then have to review the entire recording to identify each program or song and determine if it should be saved. Even then, the listener is unlikely to be able to make a full recording of a desired program--a recording that catches the entire program but none of the preceding or following programs or commercials. Invariably, the beginning or end will be cut off, will be talked over, or a portion of an adjacent program will be captured in the recording.

Also, reception of radio and other audio broadcasts often suffers from interference, noise, signal level fluctuations, broadcast problems and other errors. If a desired program is recorded with a defect, the listener must attempt to record the program again and hope that the next recording is better.

Because there is no standard method of rating the quality of an audio recording, without listening to multiple recordings one generally cannot tell which is likely to be better.

Thus, there is a need for a method and apparatus for automatically recording audio programs that accurately and separately captures each program, so that individual programs can be retained or discarded. There is also a need for an audio program guide to identify audio programs and when they will be, or were, broadcast. Further, there is a need for improving the quality of an audio recording to remove defects or errors. Yet further, there is a need for a system or method for rating the quality of a recorded audio broadcast.

SUMMARY

In one embodiment of the invention, a method and apparatus are provided for improving the quality of a recording of broadcast audio content. Such recordings often contain errors (e.g., noise, signal loss, interference, talkover).

Multiple recordings of a broadcast audio program are made or identified, and are aligned according to some time index of the program, such as the beginning, midpoint or end of one of the recordings. Samples of each recording are taken and compared.

If a majority (or plurality) of the samples agree (e.g., they match within an allowable threshold of variance), one of them is used to generate or populate a new recording. If there is no majority (or plurality), one of the samples may be chosen at random, on the basis of which recording has most often been in the majority (or plurality), or on some other basis.

The method may be repeated or extended to obtain samples of other recordings, to fill in time periods for which no majority of samples previously agreed, or just to keep trying to improve the quality of the recording.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a block diagram depicting an apparatus for automated recording of an audio broadcast, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the software components of an apparatus for automated recording of an audio broadcast, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart demonstrating a method of automatically recording an audio broadcast, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an audio programming guide system, showing sources and destinations of guide contents, according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart demonstrating one method of using an audio programming guide to facilitate the automated recording of broadcast audio, according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 demonstrates the creation of a higher-quality recording of a broadcast audio program from multiple lower-quality recordings, according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart demonstrating a method of using multiple recordings of a broadcast audio program to generate a higher-quality recording, according to one embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description is presented to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the invention, and is provided in the context of particular applications of the invention and their requirements. Various modifications to the disclosed embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments and applications without departing from the scope of the present invention. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features disclosed herein.

In one embodiment of the invention, an apparatus and methods are provided for automatically recording broadcast audio content. The content may comprise music, talk or other type of audio, and may be broadcast via radio (satellite, AM, FM, Internet), cable or other media. In this embodiment, individual programs (e.g., songs, discussions) are identified and separated from preceding and subsequent programs. The separation of broadcast content into individual programs may be performed in real-time (i.e., as the content is received), or may be performed some time after the content is recorded.

In another embodiment of the invention, an audio program guide for broadcast audio is provided. Guide information may be provided before, during and/or after corresponding audio content are broadcast. The guide may be assembled from information from a variety of sources (e.g., broadcasters, playlists, websites, CDDB.RTM.), and may be transmitted via any type of communication link, wired (e.g., cable, Internet, phone line) or wireless (radio, wireless network).

In yet another embodiment of the invention, an apparatus and method are provided for improving the quality of recorded audio content. The content may comprise any type of audio program, and may have been recorded from any source (e.g., radio, cable, live performance).

In another embodiment of the invention, a system for rating the quality of recorded audio programs is provided. The ratings are objective, and therefore facilitate the comparison of the quality of different recordings of a single program. The different recordings may be from different sources (e.g., FM radio, satellite radio