|Publication number||US7873427 B1|
|Application number||US 12/563,771|
|Publication date||Jan 18, 2011|
|Priority date||Feb 5, 2003|
|Also published as||US7593781|
|Publication number||12563771, 563771, US 7873427 B1, US 7873427B1, US-B1-7873427, US7873427 B1, US7873427B1|
|Inventors||Paul A. Rhea|
|Original Assignee||American Megatrends, Inc.|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (6), Non-Patent Citations (1), Referenced by (3), Classifications (6), Legal Events (2)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
This patent application is a divisional of U.S. Pat. No. 7,593,781, issued Sep. 22, 2009, and entitled “Audio Feedback Test,” which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/445,103, filed on Feb. 5, 2003, each of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to the field of software and hardware testing. More particularly, embodiments of the invention relate to a method and system for automated audio feedback testing.
In the modern computing environment, a variety of audio functions are available for use in association with computers including audio recording and playback. Many modern computers include audio output devices such as speakers and earphone jacks and audio input devices including microphones and CD players. In prior art systems, manufacturers or others interested in testing the audio functionality of computer hardware and software often required interaction with a human user. That is, testing of various audio characteristics and functionality of a computing system is most commonly performed by providing a user a known audio presentation such as a tone or mix of tones and requiring input from the user in response to the presentation. For example, the user may be provided a tone from the user's left speaker requiring the user to indicate which speaker the tone is emitted from, followed by a similar test from the right speaker. The user may be given a tone at various volumes and asked to verify the varying volumes as a way of verifying that the volume functionality of the audio output is functioning properly. If the user's response to any such test indicated that the tone or mix of tones heard by the user did not correspond with the intended audio presentation, the test failed. Conversely, if the test user responded affirmatively to the intended audio presentation, the test passed. Such prior art testing systems lack efficiency and are costly because of the requirement to utilize human test users. Moreover, because human test users may only respond to audio presentations within the audio range of the human test user, the breadth of testing that may be performed by the human test user is limited.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the various embodiments of the present invention have been made.
In accordance with the present invention, the above-described problems are solved by methods and systems for automating the testing of computer facilitated audio input and output devices. Generally described, at the control of a testing software module, a sound-synthesizing module in a computer sound card generates and plays a tone at a known frequency and intensity. The tone is converted from a digital to analog signal and is sent to a software controlled sound mixing device. At the sound mixing device, the analog tone is looped back through a recording line to an analog to digital converter. The tone is converted from an analog to digital format and is then recorded. The recorded tone is compared to the generated tone. If the recorded tone is substantially similar to the generated tone, designating the sound card as passing the test.
According to an aspect of the invention, the recorded tone is converted from a time domain to a frequency domain using a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis program. The frequency, and if desired, the intensity of the recorded tone is compared against the known frequency, and at the desired intensity of the played tone. If the recorded tone is the same as the played tone, the ability of the sound card to play the tone is designated as passing. If not, the ability of the sound card to play the tone is designated as failing. By converting a played tone from digital to analog, feeding the tone back through a recording line, converting the tone from analog to digital, recording the tone, followed by analysis of the tone, a determination may be made as to the sound quality the tone would have if the tone was passed through an actual output line such as a speaker output line or earphone output line for receipt by a user.
According to another aspect of the invention, the FFT analysis results may be utilized to calculate a signal to noise ratio (SNR), a total harmonic distortion (THD) value, a total harmonic distortion plus noise (THD+N) and a DC-offset value. Each of these calculated values may be compared against pass/fail thresholds for the played tone. According to aspects of the invention, the audio feedback test may also be performed to test the record gain associated with a tone output. The audio feedback test may also be used to test audio output to right and left speaker outputs of a stereo speaker system. The audio feedback test may also be used to test sound mixing functionality of an audio/sound card, and the audio feedback test may be used to test a sound card's play of a tone through a variety of frequencies. The audio feedback test also may be used to test hardware configurations including a CD-ROM cable connection configuration.
These and various other features as well as advantages, which characterize the present invention, will be apparent from a reading of the following detailed description and a review of the associated drawings.
As described briefly above, embodiments of the present invention provide methods and systems for automated audio feedback testing of computer sound cards. These embodiments may be combined, other embodiments may be utilized, and structural changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined by the pending claims and their equivalents.
Referring now to the drawings, in which like numerals refer to like elements through the several figures, aspects of the present invention and the exemplary operating environment will be described.
Referring now to
The mass storage device 34 is connected to the CPU 16 through a mass storage controller (not shown) connected to the bus 22. The mass storage device 34 and its associated computer-readable media, provide non-volatile storage for the computer 4. Although the description of computer-readable media contained herein refers to a mass storage device, such as a hard disk or CD-ROM drive, it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that computer-readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by the computer 4.
By way of example, and not limitation, computer-readable media may comprise computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other solid state memory technology, CD-ROM, DVD, or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by the computer.
According to various embodiments of the invention, the computer 4 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to remote computers through a network 14, such as the Internet or a LAN. The computer 4 may connect to the network 14 through a network interface unit 18 connected to the bus 22. It should be appreciated that the network interface unit 18 may also be utilized to connect to other types of networks and remote computer systems. The computer 4 may also include an input/output controller 20 for receiving and processing input from a number of devices, including a keyboard, mouse, or electronic stylus (not shown in
The computer 4 also includes a redirection device 12. As described above, the redirection device may be internal or external to the computer 4. The redirection device receives and compresses the video output of the computer 4 for transmission over the network 14. The redirection device 12 also transmits the compressed screen displays to a plug-in 7 executing on a remotely located computer, where the data may be decompressed and displayed. Because the redirection device 12 is implemented in hardware, operation of the redirection device 12 is not dependent on the execution of a particular type of operating system 32. Moreover, because the redirection device 12 is implemented in hardware, the operating system 32 does not have to be loaded by the computer 4 for the screen displays of the computer 4 to be compressed and transmitted. In this manner, the computer 4 may be remotely controlled immediately after it is powered on and without the need to load any operating system.
As discussed briefly above, the redirection device 12 also includes input/output ports for connecting peripheral input devices that would otherwise be connected to the computer 4. In particular, a mouse and keyboard (not shown in
Turning now to
The console application 28 comprises an executable application program for controlling the operation of the diagnostics application program 24. For instance, the console application 28 may receive user input identifying particular managed system elements 38A-38C upon which diagnostics should be performed. The console application 28 may also receive the identities of particular tests that should be performed on the managed system elements 38A-38C. Additionally, the console application 28 may receive and display information regarding the progress of the diagnostic and its success or failure once the diagnostic has been completed. The console application 28 may also provide other functionality for executing diagnostics in a batch mode.
In order to provide the above-described functionality, the console application 28 communicates with a diagnostics “triplet” 36A-36C for each managed system element 38A-38C. A triplet 36A-36C comprises a plug-in 30A-30C, a diagnostics control module 32A-32C, and a diagnostics core 34A-34C. The plug-ins 30A-30C relay diagnostic information between the console 28 and the control 32 and convert system information from a proprietary format to a format usable by the console 28. Moreover, the plug-ins 30A-30C receive input such as the selection of particular diagnostic test settings and pass the information to the connected diagnostics control module 32. Other types of commands, such as commands for starting or stopping a diagnostic, may also be passed from the plug-ins 30A-30C to the appropriate diagnostics control module 32A-32C. In order to facilitate communication between the plug-ins 30A-30C and the console application 28, an interface 29 is provided for exchanging system information and a separate interface 31 is provided for exchanging diagnostic information.
The diagnostic cores 34A-34C communicate directly with the appropriate managed system element 38A-38C and perform the actual diagnostic tests. The diagnostic cores 34A-34C also gather information about a particular managed system element 38A-38C and pass the information to the appropriate diagnostics control modules 32A-32C. The diagnostics control modules 32A-32C then pass the information back to the appropriate plug-in 30A-30C.
According to various embodiments of the invention, the diagnostics control modules 32A-32C and the plug-ins 30A-30C are implemented as component object model (“COM”) objects. The diagnostics control modules 32A-32C and the plug-ins 30A-30C communicate via an interface 33 for exchanging system information 33 and a separate interface 35 for exchanging diagnostic information. The diagnostic cores 34A-34C are implemented as standard dynamically linked libraries (“DLLs”).
It should be appreciated that a managed system element 38A-38C may comprise any of the components of a computer system, including software components. For instance, a managed system element 38A may comprise a graphics card or processor, an audio card or processor, an optical drive, a central processing unit, a mass storage device, a removable storage device, a modem, a network communications device, an input/output device, or a cable. According to embodiments of the present invention the managed system element includes the audio/sound cards 300, 400. Testing of sounds and tones and hardware described below may be performed by the diagnostic cores 34A-34C and the analysis function of the core may be directed by the console application 28. It should also be appreciated that this list is merely illustrative and that managed system elements 38A-38C may comprise other types of computing components.
Referring now to
According to various embodiments of the invention, the presentation layer 40 provides an interface to the plug-ins 30A-30C to external programs. For instance, according to one embodiment of the invention, the presentation layer 40 provides functionality for utilizing the diagnostics triplet 36 with a console other than the console application 28, such as a console application provided by a third-party manufacturer. Similarly, the presentation layer 40 may provide functionality for accessing the triplet 36 from a script or a Web page.
In order to provide the above-described functionality, the presentation layer 40 is implemented as an ACTIVEX control in one embodiment of the invention. As known to those skilled in the art, ACTIVEX controls are a type of COM component that can self-register. COM objects implement the “IUnknown” interface but an ACTIVEX control usually also implements some of the standard interfaces for embedding, user interface, methods, properties, events, and persistence. Because ACTIVEX components can support the object linking and embedding (“OLE”) interfaces, they can also be included in Web pages. Because they are COM objects, ACTIVEX controls can be used from languages such as VISUAL BASIC, VISUAL C++, and VBSCRIPT from MICROSOFT CORPORATION, and JAVA from SUN MICROSYSTEMS.
Turning now to
The instrumentation data provider 44 provides a communication path between the instrumentation platform 25 and the diagnostic control module 32C. In this manner, a third-party console 46A may utilize the diagnostic control module 32C and receive diagnostic information regarding the managed system element 38C. Moreover, the instrumentation data provider 44 may generate event messages compatible for use with the instrumentation platform 25. Other objects may subscribe for these events through the instrumentation platform 25 and receive the event messages without polling a results object. Additional details regarding the operation of the instrumentation data provider 44 will be described in greater detail below.
The instrumentation data consumer 42 provides a communication path between the instrumentation platform 25 and the presentation layer 40. Through the instrumentation data consumer 42, the presentation layer 40 and the console application 28 have access to diagnostic information maintained by the instrumentation platform 25. For instance, through the instrumentation data consumer 42, the presentation layer 40 can execute and receive diagnostic result messages from third-party diagnostics 46B configured for use with the instrumentation platform 25 and not otherwise usable by the console application 28. Additionally, the data consumer 42 may register to receive diagnostic event messages from the instrumentation platform 25. The event messages when received may then be converted by the data consumer 42 for use by the presentation layer 40 and the console application 28. Additional details regarding the operation of the instrumentation data consumer 42 will be described in greater detail below.
Turning now to
Referring now to
The wave table synthesizer 415 produces output sounds of the samples contained in the ROM 405 and the RAM 410. The coder/decoder (CODEC) 425 is a hardware component that can convert audio or video signals between analog and digital forms similar to the components 325 and 330 described above with reference to
According to the embodiments described below, testing and display of results associated with the following tests are controlled and performed at the control of software modules in conjunction with the cores 34A, B, and C and console application 28 described above with reference to
Referring now to
According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the test performed on the sound cards 300 and 400 are looped through the sound card internally by playing a pre-produced sound to a mixer, followed by looping the sound back through a record line, followed by a comparison of the played sound to the recorded sound. Generally described then, the functionality of an audio electronics device such as the cards 300 and 400 may be tested for sound quality without the need to play sounds to a human test user.
Individual recording input lines such as the auxiliary in and microphone lines 445 and 450 and individual output lines such as the line out 435 and speaker out 440 may be tested for proper operability. If a given test fails, a tester may use the results of the test to check hardware components, as described above. If the tester determines that all hardware components are in good working order, then software modules responsible for emitting and controlling audio presentation may be tested. Advantageously, the need for a human test subject to listen to a test sound and report a finding is eliminated.
Referring still to
Referring still to
Prior to passing the tone to the mixer the tone is converted from digital to analog just as would be the case where no test is being performed. After the analog tone is received by the mixer, the played tone is looped internally through the internal loopback mechanism 230 (MIDI in and MIDI out) to a digital signal processor 235. At the digital signal processor 235, according to embodiments of the present invention, the played tone is converted from analog to digital by the ADC circuit 330 or CODEC 425. The digital signal processor in accordance with the MIDI input and MIDI output loopback mechanism passes 8 bit samples of the played and recorded tones for the FFT analysis. The digital version of the tone or sound is converted from a time domain to a frequency domain using a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis. Prior to performing the FFT analysis the tone is recorded. By looping the tone through a known record line, operability of the line is checked because if a tone passes through to the recorder then at least the line will pass transmissions notwithstanding other problems that may be associated with the line or sound card in general.
If the recorded tone or sound and the played tone or sound are the same or substantially the same quality as a function a comparison of the FFT transformation results to the known frequency of the played tone, then the sound card components pass the test. An additional advantage of this process is that not only is the quality of the record out lines analyzed, but the basic question of which record out lines are operable at all is tested by iterating the process through all available record output lines when the tone is recorded. Once the operability and quality for any given record output line is confirmed, a registry key may be set for the “passed” line in the computer's registry so that the “passed” input or output line is available for future use.
In addition to the foregoing, analysis of the recorded sound allows for calculations of signal to noise ratio (SNR), total harmonic distortion (THD), total harmonic distortion plus noise (THD+N) and DC-Offset Values. Each such value may then be applied against acceptable thresholds for additional information about the proper operability of the sound card. For example, the SNR relates to how much stronger a signal is than background noise passed through a channel with the signal. The SNR is typically expressed in decibels, and the ratio is a measure of the quality of a transmission. Accordingly, if the SNR is calculated in accordance with the present invention for any given channel (input or output line) the SNR value may be used to determine whether the tested channel has passed or failed by comparing the SNR value to a threshold value considered acceptable by the manufacturer or tester of the sound card 300, 400.
The total harmonic distortion ratio is a ratio of the sum of the powers of all harmonic frequency signals (other than the fundamental) to the power of the fundamental frequency signal. The ratio is measured at the output of a device under specified conditions and is expressed in decibels. The total harmonic distortion plus noise (THD+N) is a measure of the audio clarity of an audio system. The best measure is zero percent and an average computer sound card for a voice channel typically operates at around 10% THD+N. According to embodiments of the present invention, the FFT analysis result of the recorded tone allows for calculation of the THD and THD+N values. If those values exceed an acceptable level, the associated channel (line in or line out) may be designated as having failed the test.
The DC-offset value is associated with the DC Bias value in an analog signal unintentionally introduced by analog devices as part of signal amplification or some other signal processing. The value obtained gives an indication of how much DC-offset is introduced, if any, during the analog signal loopback path. Accordingly, by calculating the DC-offset value through the FFT analysis, a determination can be made as to the amount of DC offset that is introduced when the played sound is converted to analog and looped back through a recording output line for analysis. If a determination is made that too much DC-offset is introduced, the associated channel (input or output line) may be designated as having failed the test.
At step 515, a single tone at a set frequency and intensity is generated from the frequency synthesizer 210, wave table 415, or FM synthesizer 420 and is passed through the CODEC 425 for conversion from digital to analog. After the tone is passed through the mixer 430, the tone is looped back using the internal loopback mechanism 230 through a selected record line such as a microphone input line to the digital signal processor 235. At the digital signal processor, the digital tone is passed through the CODEC 425 and is converted from analog back to digital. At step 520, the tone is recorded and is then converted from a time domain to a frequency domain using a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis. At step 525, the results of the FFT analysis are compared to a known frequency and intensity of the pre-produced and played tone to compare the recorded tone against the played tone. At step 530 a determination is made as to whether the recorded tone matches the played tone. For example, if the FFT analysis plots a single spike at 1000 Hertz and the played tone was a 1000 Hertz tone, then the test passes. If not, the method proceeds to step 535 and test fails, and the method ends at step 590. As should be understood, if no tone at all is recorded through the selected record line, then the line is designated as inoperable.
If desired the method may proceed to step 540, and the DC offset value, the SNR value, the THD value and THD+N value may be calculated using the FFT results calculated for the recorded tone. If the SNR, DC offset, THD, and THD+N values are acceptable as compared to acceptable threshold values for each of those tests, as described above with reference to
As briefly described above, if the sound card being tested in accordance with the steps described for
As described above, a series of application programming interfaces (API) are used for passing sounds or tones from one component of the sound card to another, described above. That is, once the test is initiated at step 510, a playback API call is initiated to cause a sound to be generated from the frequency synthesizer. A recording API call is made for causing the played sound to be recorded after having passed through the loopback mechanism 230 to the record line. According to an embodiment of the present invention, a set of standard Windows 32 APIs are used for calling the playback tone and for calling the recording tone. Exemplary Wave In APIs used for causing a tone or sound to be passed through an input include:
An exemplary set of Wave Out APIs used for causing a sound or tone to pass through an output line or channel at different frequency settings, volume settings, and the like include:
Additionally, standard media control interface API's that are Windows operating system application interfaces that enable a software program to control multimedia devices such as the components of the sound cards 300 and 400 include (input and output API's):
MCI APIs Used:
MIDI APIs Used:
Additional API's for causing data to be passed through the audio components, as described above include memory mapped input output (MMIO) API's including:
MMIO APIs Used:
As known to those skilled in the art, the foregoing API's are asynchronous calls so that a playback call causing a tone to be passed through an input line and a recording call causing a tone to be passed through a recording line may be made simultaneously.
At step 630, the recorded tone is analyzed using an FFT analysis and at step 635 the results of the record gain value are displayed. After the record gain value for a first setting is calculated and displayed, the method returns back to step 615, and the volume level is increased by a desired level, for example by 25%. The same tone is played through the record output line such as a speaker output line at the increased volume level, and the record gain value is calculated, as described above. After the test is performed at all desired volume levels, the volume levels are analyzed to determine whether the record gain varied with the varying recording volume levels, at step 640. If so, the record gain test is determined to have passed. That is, if the record gain test shows that consistent increases in the calculated gain are associated with the corresponding volume increases, the test passes for the output or input line in question. If not, the record gain test is determined to have failed which indicates that a problem with the volume control setting associated with the sound card 300 or 400 may exist.
Any sounds or tones passing through the muted channel are also recorded. At step 730, the recorded tones from the muted channel and the unmuted channel are analyzed using an FFT analysis. The muted channel is functioning properly if no sounds or tones are passing through the muted channel. It is expected that a flat FFT signal without a peak or spike associated with the frequency and intensity of the played tone will be presented. If an FFT signal is presented with a peak or spike at a position that would be expected in the unmuted channel is found for the muted channel, the indication is that the sound or tone passed through the unmuted channel has crossed over through the muted channel.
At step 735 the calculated DC Offset, SNR, THD and THD+N values are calculated and analyzed as described above. At step 740 the unmuted channel may be tested for general operability, as described with reference to
At step 825 an FFT analysis is performed on the output of all channels through which tones or sounds are recorded in accordance with the test. At step 830, a determination is made as to whether an FFT peak or spike in the recorded tone is associated with the known single tone and whether FFT peaks or spikes in the recorded tones or sounds are associated with frequencies and intensities for the MIDI file. At step 835, the results are displayed. At step 840, a determination is made as to whether the known single tone and the known MIDI file tones were recorded after having passed through the mixer line. If not, an indication is presented that one of either the single tone or the MIDI file tones was not mixed properly by the mixer 430, and the method proceeds to step 845 and a failure condition is presented. If both the single tone and the MIDI file tones are detected after passing through the mixer 430, the mixer 430 is determined to have passed the test at step 850. The method ends at step 890. Exemplary APIs used for causing a tone or sound to be passed through, processed by and passed out of the mixer 430 include:
Mixer APIs Used:
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications or variations may be made in the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein.
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|Citing Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
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|U.S. Classification||700/94, 381/58|
|International Classification||G06F17/00, H04R29/00|
|Sep 22, 2009||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: AMERICAN MEGATRENDS, INC., GEORGIA
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:RHEA, PAUL A.;REEL/FRAME:023262/0371
Effective date: 20040130
|Jun 24, 2014||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 4