Rca Inc.

Northshore Laboratories, Inc.

Nitor

General Electric Company

Nothshore Laboratories, Inc.

James Henry Arbeiter

Roger Frank Bessler

Frank C Gibeau

Curtis R Carlson

Joseph O Sinniger

Thomas R Craver

Digital image processing apparatus, making use of both diagonal interpolators and a binary mask, for deriving a displayed enlarged image from an input image without introducing visible &ldquo;staircasing&rdquo;, blurred edges and non-linear artifacts in the enlarged image to thereby produce a perceptually natural looking enlarged image that retains the &ldquo;look and feel&rdquo; of the input image.

Digital processing apparatus for variable image-size enlargement with high-frequency bandwidth synthesis

Apparatus comprising a logic member and a shear member incorporating an upsampler are used to enlarge the number of pixels in at least one image dimension by a factor F&equals;N/M, where N is a first given-valued integer, M is a second given-valued integer and 1<N/M&lE;2. The shear member shears the original image at certain positions of the one dimension that are determined solely by the value of factor F, thereby introducing zero-valued shear-gap pixels at each of the certain positions. The logic member, in response to solely the 6 pixel values of those pixels within a 2&times;3 sub-area that borders a zero-valued shear-gap pixel at each particular certain position, fills the zero-valued shear-gap at that particular certain position with an interpolated pixel value of the original image when the logic means determines that that zero-valued shear-gap occurred at a soft edge of the original image or, alternatively, with a logically-chosen non-interpolated hard-edge object pixel value or non-interpolated background pixel value when the logic means determines that that zero-valued shear-gap occurred at a hard edge of the original image. Such apparatus is effective in substantially reducing blur in the display of hard-edge objects of an enlarged-size image on a flat-panel screen composed of a predetermined fixed number of individual light-controlling elements without adversely affecting the display of soft-edge objects of the enlarged-size image on the flat-panel screen.

Digital processing apparatus and method for use in enlarging the size of an image displayed on a 2D fixed-pixel screen

An input data stream of pixel values, representing an original video image having predetermined horizontal and vertical resolutions that has been spatially sampled at a first spatial sampling frequency, is upsampled and interpolated to derive an output data stream of interpolated pixel values at a second spatial sampling frequency that represents an oversampled video image that has been enlarged in size with respect to the original video image but has the same full bandwidth as the original video image. The pixel values of the input data stream and the interpolated pixel values of this output data stream are both employed to synthetically derive the interpolated pixel values of a correction-waveform data stream that defines spatial frequencies that are higher in frequency than the highest frequency in the full bandwidth of the original video image. A data stream representing an extended-full-bandwidth enlarged video image is derived by summing corresponding interpolated pixel values of the correction-waveform data stream and the data stream representing the oversampled enlarged video image. In this manner, the sharpness of the edge information of the original video image is preserved in the extended-full-bandwidth enlarged video image. Optionally, the data stream representing the extended-full-bandwidth enlarged video image may be further processed to synthetically add a drop shadow effect to a displayed enlarged video image, which provides perspective that enhances the appearance of the displayed enlarged video image.

Processing apparatus for synthetically extending the bandwidth of a spatially-sampled video image

A compressed data system, which communicates content of each of successive original frames of a digital motion picture over a limited-bandwidth transmission channel, comprises a digitally-controlled pre-processor and a digitally-controlled post-processor. The digitally-controlled pre-processor is effective in reducing the spatial-frequency bandwidth of the content of an original frame, applied to the input of a compression encoder, in response to the digital control value of a first digital control signal, applied as a control input to the pre-processor, being indicative of the fact that the bandwidth of the compressed data to be communicated over the limited-bandwidth transmission channel would exceed the limited bandwidth of the transmission channel. Further, the pre-processor derives one or more digital control values of a second digital control signal communicated over the limited-bandwidth transmission channel without ever being compressed directly to the digitally-controlled post-processor. The digitally-controlled post-processor is capable of employing the one or more digital control values of the second digital control signal communicated thereto to control the synthetic extension of the spatial-frequency bandwidth of the content of any communicated digital motion picture frame having a reduced spatial-frequency bandwidth by an amount which results in the substantially restoration to the spatial-frequency bandwidth of the corresponding original frame. Permits either an increase the number of frames per second of a motion picture that can be communicated over narrow-band transmission channel or, in a wide-band channel, no decrease in the level of quantization of the image samples in response to the occurrence of excessive image-frame spatial information.

Processing apparatus for use in reducing visible artifacts in the display of statistically compressed and then decompressed digital motion pictures

Method and apparatus for a multi-application, laser-array-based image system utilizes three linear laser arrays. Each linear array generates multiple (N&gt;1) parallel output beamlets at one of the three primary colors (red, green, blue). The corresponding 1 to N output beamlets of the three linear arrays, each individually modulated in luminance according to a specific encoding scheme representing the video image to be produced on the viewing screen, are combined spatially to form a single white light linear array source. Through a projection/scanner optical system, the N output beamlets of the white light source are simultaneously directed to, and swept horizontally across a distant viewing screen, resulting in a swath of N lines of a graphic video image. By producing M contiguous swaths vertically down the viewing screen, a full image of M.times.N lines is produced. The red, green, and blue linear laser arrays may consist of arrays of semiconductor laser diodes made of suitable semiconductor materials so as to directly emit radiation at wavelengths corresponding to red, green, and blue colors, respectively. Alternatively, the red, green and blue color arrays may be formed by arrays of semiconductor laser diodes emitting radiation at twice the desired red, green and blue wavelengths, whose radiation is coupled to arrays of second harmonic generation crystal elements.

Methods and apparatus for image projection

Filtering apparatus responsive to a sequence of samples of an input signal that is digitally-sampled at a given frequency, wherein the input signal defines information having at least one dimension. The apparatus includes first resampler for resampling the input-signal to derive a first signal at a first frequency which is substantially equal to the reciprocal 1/C of a given factor C times the given frequency, and second resampler for resampling the first signal to derive a second signal at a second frequency which is substantially equal to the given factor C times the first frequency. The given factor C is an improper fraction having a least-common-denominator larger than one. This filtering apparatus is particularly suitable for variably spatially low-pass, high-pass, band-pass or hierarchical-pyramid filtering two-dimensional image information in each of its two-dimensions by amounts which are independent of one another.

D-dimensional, fractional bandwidth signal processing apparatus

A digital resampler comprises a combination of first means and second means. The first means, which includes interpolation filter means, is responsive to the digital-signal sample values of an input sample stream for producing a first derived sample stream of digital-signal sample values in which the given sampling period P of the input stream is multiplied directly by a factor equal to M'/CL, where C is a given positive integer and M' is smaller than CL, either 2.sup.n (M'/CL) or 2.sup.-n (M'/CL) is equal to M/L and the absolute value of n is at least equal to zero, so that the sampling period of the first derived sample stream is (M'/CL)P. The second means, which includes octave prefiltering and sample means, is responsive to the first derived sample stream of digital-signal sample values for producing as an output a second derived sample stream of digital-signal sample values in which the first derived sampling period (M'/CL)P of the first derived sample stream is multiplied by a factor equal to either 2.sup.n (M'/CL) or 2.sup.-n (M'/CL), so that the sampling period of the second derived sample stream is (M/L)P.

Resampling apparatus suitable for resizing a video image

An image signal processing system DPCM encodes the signal, then Huffman and run length encodes the signal to produce variable length code words, which are then tightly packed without gaps for efficient transmission without loss of any data. The tightly packing apparatus has a barrel shifter with its shift modulus controlled by an accumulator receiving code word length information. An OR gate is connected to the shifter, while a register is connected to the gate. Apparatus for processing a tightly packed and decorrelated digital signal has a barrel shifter and accumulator for unpacking, a Huffman and run length decoder, and an inverse DCPM decoder.

Non-destructive lossless image coder

By staggering the phases of the decimations of the subbands in a quadrature mirror filter bank odd-tap kernels may be usefully employed.

Quadrature mirror filters with staggered-phase subsampling

A display processor using first and second chrominance map memories for storing values of first and second color-difference signals, each normalized respective to luminance signal. An image memory supplies, at pixel scan rate, data used to provide read-addresses to said first and second chrominance map memories and data used to describe the luminance signal. The first and second chrominance map memory read-outs are each multiplied by the luminance signal of appropriate spatial bandwidth to generate descriptions of the first and second color-difference signals i non-normalized form. These first and second color-difference signals and a full-spatial-bandwidth luminance signal are supplied to color matrixing circuitry. The color matrixing circuitry responds to these signals to provide red, green and blue drive signals to display apparatus. The display apparatus may comprise video amplifiers for the drive signals and a color kinescope, by way of example.

Display processor with color matrixing circuitry and two map memories

The amount of hardware required to implement a Burt Pyramid or an FSD (filter-subtract-decimate) pyramid analyzer (or synthesizer) stage of a sampled temporal signal representing an n-dimensional information component or (such as a video signal) is substantially reduced by employing a time-synchronized multiplexed analyzer stage to derive (or a time-synchronized multiplexed synthesizer stage that is responsive to) a single serial stream of samples of a predetermined plural number of sub-spectra that are arranged in a predetermined temporal order format with respect to one another in accordance with each of a given set of time synchronized, repetitively generated, serially applied control signals.

Multiplexed real-time pyramid signal processing system

The number of bits per digital sample that is required to be stored in each of one or more delay means of an input-weighted multitap digital filter is reduced with respect to that required by the prior art. The savings in storage hardware becomes more and more significant as the number of samples stored in each delay means becomes larger and larger. A plurality of filter delay means, each storing as many as 800 samples, are used in vertical filters of image processors operating in real time on horizontally scanned two-dimensional images, such as television images.

Compact-structure input-weighted multitap digital filters

Pipe-line architecture is employed for analyzing in delayed real time the frequency spectrum of an information component (having one or more dimensions) of a given temporal signal having a highest frequency of interest of no greater than f.sub.0, and/or for synthesizing in delayed real time such a temporal signal from the analyzed frequency spectrum thereof. Such pipe-line architecture is particularly suitable for image-processing the two-dimensional spatial frequencies of television images defined by a temporal video signal.

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Hopewell, NJ, United States of America

James Henry Arbeiter