Sony Corporation

Ikuo Someya

Nobuo Ueki

Makoto Kondo

Koji Aoyama

Masuyoshi Kurokawa

Kazuhiko Nishibori

Takaya Hoshino

Toshio Sarugaku

Yukihiko Mogi

Masahiro Komoda

Akira Shimizu

Toshio Amano

Toshiaki Kojima

Osamu Oda

Toshihiko Hamamatsu

Norihito Ichikawa

Shigeo Fujishiro

Aya Takechi

Koji Yamamura

A time control apparatus provided in a slave machine and synchronizing time information with time information of a master machine connected over a network includes: calculation units respectively calculating time difference candidates of the slave machine with respect to the master machine and network delays indicative of an average of times necessary for communication of first and second messages over the network based on transmission and reception times of the first messages which are transmitted from the master machine and received using the slave machine and transmission and reception times of the second messages which are transmitted from the slave machine and received using the master machine; a selection unit selecting one of the calculated time difference candidates as a time difference based on the calculated network delays; and an adjustment unit adjusting the time information of the slave machine based on the selected time difference.

Time control apparatus, time control method, and program

A data processing apparatus for converting discrete original image data into interpolated image data having a different number of sampling data from the original image data, including generating means for generating a plurality of the interpolated image data from the original image data, first virtualizing means for generating first virtual data including a virtual succession of the original image data, second virtualizing means for generating second virtual data including a virtual succession of each of the plural interpolated image data, error calculating means for calculating error between each of the second virtual data with respect to the plural interpolated image data and the first virtual data, and selecting means for selecting either one of the plural interpolated image data based on the error.

Data processing apparatus, data processing method, program, and recording medium

An apparatus for processing an image signal prevents burn-in of display devices such as a PDP and an LCD. A number-of-pixels conversion section generates pixel data located at interpolation positions in horizontal or vertical directions based on information about the interpolation positions obtained from a controller, to obtain an image signal in which the number of pixels is converted. A panel driver shifts the display position of an image in a PDP in the horizontal or vertical directions by as much as one pixel, each time a predetermined period of time elapses, within a predetermined range based on information about the display position obtained from the controller in order to prevent a screen from being burned-in. The controller changes the phase of each of the interpolation positions in a change unit smaller than 360&#xb0; for a period of time when the display position of the image is shifted by as much as one pixel, the interval between the interpolation positions being set to 360&#xb0;. This allows the shift distance of the image in every shift to be shorter than the distance between the pixels, thereby allowing any unpleasant visual feeling due to the image movement to be mitigated.

Apparatus and method for processing image signal and image display apparatus utilizing the same

A double-rate signal achieved by subjecting a video signal to double-rate conversion is supplied to a scan line number converter. In the converter, the portion of the effective scan lines of the double-rate signal is written into a frame memory on the basis of a signal achieved by multiplying horizontal and vertical synchronous signals based on the double-rate signal. In the effective scan line section of HDTV signal, the video signal written in the frame memory is read out on the basis of horizontal and vertical reference signals based on the HDTV signal. Out of the effective scan line section of the HDTV signal, a pedestal level signal written in a memory is read out on the basis of the horizontal and vertical reference signals based on the HDTV signal, thereby achieving HDTV signal whose vertical scan line number is equal to 1125 lines. Accordingly, the HDTV signal suffers no degradation because the video signal in the section of 960 effective scan lines of the double-rate signal is not interpolated.

Video signal processing circuit and method for converting number of scan lines and image display device using the same

The present invention provides an image signal processing apparatus and a method thereof in which each of the fields forming the unit-frame is specified, with respect to the inputted image signal, based on a difference value calculated in signal level between a detected pixel in a current field and a detected pixel at the same position in a field which comes one frame behind the current field, a motion vector for a field which comes two frames behind the current field is detected, with respect to the detected pixel in the current field, the detected pixel is shifted, with respect to the specified first field, in a direction opposite to the motion vector within the range of the detected motion vector, the detected pixel is shifted, with respect to the specified fourth field, in a direction along the motion vector, and the detected pixels is shifted, with respect to the specified second and third fields, so as to make the pixels gradually closer to the pixel position shifted with respect to the fourth field, in the consecutive order of the fields from the first field, in the direction along the motion vector or in the direction opposite to the motion vector.

Image signal processing apparatus and processing method

An image processing apparatus for expanding the frequency band of enhancement to increase the effect of improvement of the image quality and realizing enhancement in two dimensions for an image signal by a simple circuit configuration, provided with a vertical high-pass filter, a vertical low-pass filter, a horizontal high-pass filter, and a horizontal low-pass filter as enhancers which extract high frequency components and low frequency components in vertical and horizontal directions, respectively and switches for appropriately selecting a signal of predetermined frequency components in the vertical and horizontal directions to enhance a signal of a predetermined frequency band. Accordingly, two-dimensional filtering is able to be achieved using one-dimensional filters in the vertical and horizontal directions and the enhancement effect can be improved by appropriately selecting the enhancement mode in accordance with the characteristic of the image signal.

Image processing apparatus

A double-rate signal achieved by subjecting a video signal to double-rate conversion is supplied to a scan line number converter. In the converter, the portion of the effective scan lines of the double-rate signal is written into a frame memory on the basis of a signal achieved by multiplying horizontal and vertical synchronous signals based on the double-rate signal. In the effective scan line section of HDTV signal, the video signal written in the frame memory is read out on the basis of horizontal and vertical reference signals based on'the HDTV signal. Out of the effective scan line section of the HDTV signal, a pedestal level signal written in a memory is read out on the basis of the horizontal and vertical reference signals based on the HDTV signal, thereby achieving HDTV signal whose vertical scan line number is equal to 1125 lines. Accordingly, the HDTV signal suffers no degradation because the video signal in the section of 960 effective scan lines of the double-rate signal is not interpolated

An image signal processing apparatus according to the present invention receives an image signal inputted thereto that is generated by subjecting a telecine-converted image to double speed conversion, in which signal one film frame is formed by four fields, identifies a first field on the basis of a difference value calculated between pixel signal levels, and shifts the position of a detected pixel in a vector direction of a motion vector such that an amount of shift is progressively increased as transition is made from the identified first field to the subsequent fields.

Image signal processing apparatus and method

A double-rate signal achieved by subjecting a video signal to double-rate conversion is supplied to a scan line number converter, wherein the portion of the effective scan lines of the double-rate signal is written into a frame memory based on a signal achieved by multiplying horizontal and vertical synchronous signals of the double-rate signal. In the effective scan line section of an HDTV signal, the video signal written in the frame memory is read out based on horizontal and vertical reference signals of the HDTV signal. Out of the effective scan line section of the HDTV signal, a pedestal level signal written in a memory is read out based on the horizontal and vertical reference signals of the HDTV signal, thereby achieving an HDTV signal whose vertical scan line number is equal to 1125 lines. Accordingly, the HDTV signal suffers no degradation because the video signal in the section of 960 effective scan lines of the double-rate signal is not interpolated

This invention relates to a video signal converter, a conversion method of video signal, respectively suitable to be applied when a video signal according to National Television System Committee (NTSC) is illustratively converted to a video signal corresponding to an extended graphics array (XGA), an image display unit using the converter and conversion method, and a television receiver. A signal in each field of a video signal S according to NTSC in which the number of lines is 252.5 (effective line number is 240) is converted to a signal in each frame of a video signal S corresponding to XGA in which the number of lines is 840 (effective line number is 768). A video signal converter is composed of an image adaptive double-speed conversion circuit for converting a video signal S to a video signal S according to an interlaced scanning method in which the number of lines is doubled and an interpolation circuit for converting the video signal S to a video signal S . A video signal S acquired by image adaptive conversion processing is a video signal of high image quality. A video signal S acquired by interpolation processing based upon the video signal S is a video signal of high image quality free of the deterioration of the quality of an image, compared with a video signal S acquired only by interpolation processing based upon a video signal S .

Video signal converter, conversion method of video signal, image display unit using them and television receiver

A waveform equalizing filter unit includes a waveform equalizing filter with a plurality of taps each having a unitary delay element and a coefficient multiplier, a clock switching circuit for selecting a clock signal from at least two different frequencies, with the selected clock signal being fed to each of the unitary delay elements of the waveform equalizing filter, and a control circuit for selectively switching the tap coefficients of the coefficient multiplier in the waveform equalizing filter based upon which one of the different clock signals has been selected. A signal time adjuster is further included in a stage situated before the waveform equalizing filter that receives the input signal prior to being fed to the waveform equalizing filter to adjust the timing of the input signal in synchronism with the operation of selecting one of the different clock signal frequencies.

Waveform equalizing filter unit

An image signal transmitting system which comprises a first field offset sub-sampling circuit for processing a first image signal as a still image, the first image signal being in a relatively lower region of temporal motion frequency in a motion frequency band, a frame/line offset sub-sampling circuit for processing the first image signal, a line offset sub-sampling circuit for processing a second image signal as a moving image, the second image signal being in a relatively higher region of temporal motion frequency in the motion frequency band, a second field offset sub-sampling circuit for processing a third image signal, the third image signal being a middle region of temporal motion frequency in the motion frequency band between the lower temporal frequency region and the higher temporal frequency region, whereby the third image signal is sub-sampled only by the second field offset sub-sampling circuit, and each of the sub-sampling circuits has the same sampling points for the first, second and third image signals.

Video signal transmitting system

A decoding apparatus for decoding a transmitted encoded image signal having first, second and third interpolating devices for respectively processing the encoded image signal as a still image, moving image and middle image so as to obtain first, second and third image signals. The temporal frequency of the encoded image signal is detected and, in response thereto, the first, second or third image signal is supplied from the apparatus. A summation mixing circuit mixes the overlapping portions between the first and second image signals and between the second and third image signals.

Television signal receiving apparatus

A video display system has a circuit for sequentially superimposing N (N.gtoreq.2) information signals upon a video signal for display on the picture screen of a television receiver, at predetermined positions in parallel relation, and a circuit for changing the display positions so as to display information signals sequentially from a corner of the picture screen.

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Tokyo, Japan

Ikuo Someya