Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Technologies, Inc.

Other

Lee R Dischert

Robert J Topper

Thomas J Leacock

Jerome D Shields

Kenneth E Vavreck

Joseph F Hacke

David Noa

Daniel Charnitsky

Miles A Kaspar, Iii

An exemplary method of providing positive power control of an electrical device which uses a toggle power command signal, and apparatus perform the method. This exemplary method uses an apparatus that includes a remote control unit and a signal translator. A positive power command signal is produced by and transmitted from the remote control unit. This positive power command signal is received by the signal translator. A present power condition of the electrical device is determined by the signal translator and compared to the positive power command signal. The toggle power command signal is then produced by and transmitted from the signal translator, if the positive power command signal and the present power condition of the electrical device do not match.

Method and apparatus for positive control of devices with toggle power control

A Personal Computer (PC) in a second location, provides video signals to a television monitor located in a first location. A stereo amplifies audio from the PC and provides the signal to loudspeakers in the first location. A keyboard, mouse, and controller in the first location, use infrared radiation to transmit commands. An IR receiver, in the first location, detects the commands and provides them to the PC. A communication port is used to receive the initial commands. After the initial remote commands negotiate control the input select switch interchanges the input devices of the second location with input devices of the first location. The interchange gives control of the PC to the first location keyboard, mouse and controller. A video switch/matrix in the second location is also controlled from the first location so that video is provided from the PC to the TV monitor in the first location.

Method and apparatus for remote use of personal computer

A method, apparatus, and system for displaying widescreen video images on a stand video display is disclosed. Letterboxing, which occurs when a widescreen image is displayed in its entirety on a standard video display, is removed by enlarging the widescreen image and panning the enlarged widescreen image responsive to a multi-channel audio signal corresponding to the widescreen image.

Method, apparatus, and system for displaying widescreen video images on standard video displays

Apparatus for inserting an externally supplied video image into a computer graphics image. A TV card (), responsive to synchronization signals, is connected to a video source to receive and convert an input video stream and also connected to provide a scaled and positioned video image () synchronized to a computer graphics image. A graphics card () is configured to provide the TV card (), with a computer graphics image () having an embedded color key signal, video scaling and positioning parameters and horizontal and vertical synchronization signals. A window keyer () is connected to the TV card () and the graphics card () to provide the video stream and the computer graphics image to a computer monitor ().

Method and apparatus for keying of secondary video into primary video

An interlace to progressive scan video signal conversion system interpolates lines between respective lines of upper and lower fields which constitute an interlace-scan image frame to produce lines of a progressive-scan image frame. The produced lines have effective spatial and temporal positions between the respective lines of the lower field and the lines of the upper field. One line from the upper field is interpolated with two lines from the lower field which are immediately above and immediately below the one line in the interlaced frame in order to generate two lines for the progressive frame. Optionally, the interlace-scan to progressive-scan method is applied only to relatively low-frequency components of the luminance signal with the higher frequency luminance signal components being selected from one of the two interlaced fields and either line-doubled or interpolated and line-doubled before being added to the progressive-scan low-frequency luminance signal components. The chrominance components of the interlace scan video signal from one field are line doubled, separated into color-difference signal components and applied to a matrix with the progressive-scan luminance signal components.

Method and apparatus for converting an interlace-scan video signal into

A filter system that filters a digital signal to produce a filtered digital signal where the digital signal has alternating first data values and second data values. The filter system includes a demultiplexer that produces a first signal that includes the first data values and a second signal that includes the second data values. A first filter is provided to filter the first signal and the second signal to produce a first filtered signal including filtered first data values. A second filter is provided to filter the first signal and the second signal to produce a second filtered signal including filtered second data values. A multiplexer alternately selects the filtered first data values and the filtered second data values to produce the filtered digital signal.

High speed interpolation filter and a method thereof

An apparatus for mixing portions of a video signal produced by a single video source. The apparatus includes an input terminal for receiving a current video signal. A memory, coupled to the input terminal, receives the current video signal and stores a plurality of frames of the current video signal to produce a delayed video signal. A mixer, coupled to the input terminal and the memory, combines the current video signal and the delayed video signal to produce a mixed video signal. The mixer may combine video signals in a first domain, such as the spatial domain, or video signals that have been transformed into a second domain, such as the spatial frequency domain.

Method and apparatus for video fade effect with a single video source

A system and method for reducing signal-to-noise ratio in a multi-component analog signal during analog to digital conversion. The multi-component analog signal is made up of a plurality of separate analog signals, with each of the separate analog signals having separate amplitude levels. A reference gain control signal, corresponding to the largest amplitude component of the multi-component signal, is first determined. Next, the reference gain control signal is used to generate a gain control signal. The gain control signal is then used to adjust each component of the multi-component signal by a gain value. Finally, the gain adjusted signals are converted to corresponding digital signals.

System and method for reducing noise during analog to digital conversion

A technique is disclosed for correcting black shading errors in a video camera. The technique involves calculating a horizontal correction waveform as a function of the average pixel values for the columns of a field. Next, a vertical correction waveform is calculated as a function of the average pixel values for the rows of a field. Then, calculation of a diagonal correction waveform as a function of the average pixel values along predetermined diagonals is performed. Finally, an input video signal representing real images is combined with the correction waveforms to produce a video output signal having substantially reduced black shading errors. Correction waveforms can be determined in any order.

Apparatus and method for black shading correction

An apparatus is provided for processing the output signals of a charge transfer device having at least one row of photoelectric elements. The charge transfer device produces output signals with charge levels that are provided to a shift register having a plurality of elements. The successive charge levels from each photoelectric element are provided to respective shift register elements, and the charge levels are transferred within the shift register to a readout terminal. Some of the charge is retained by each element as the charge is transferred. The retained charge is added to the next charge transferred into the element. This adding of residual charges averages the charges transferred, producing undesirable noise. A sample and hold device removes sampling artifacts inherent in the signal provided by the CCD, to produce a signal representing successive image pixel values. A peaking filter emphasizes high frequency components relative to low frequency components, to compensate for low pass filtering effects which may occur in the CCD.

Dynamic peaking aperture correction for use with a CCD camera

A clocking circuit and method for phasing a signal with an unknown phase to a clock signal includes a time requirement duration (TRD) signal which has two states and the duration of one of the states is indicative of a combined setup and hold time requirement for the storage device intended to capture the unknown phase signal. The TRD signal is then clocked as a function of the unknown phase signal and called a toggle clock phase (TCP) signal. The TCP signal is then used to modify the phase of a clock enable for the storage device signal to ensure adequate setup and hold time for the clocking of the unknown phase signal.

Apparatus and method for reliably clocking a signal with arbitrary phase

A color video camera includes circuitry which generates a peaking signal that is applied to each of the color signals to enhance high-frequency components of the video signal relative to low-frequency components. The circuitry adds high-frequency components from the green video signal, as the peaking signal, at instants when the amplitudes of the green and red color signals are approximately equal. If there is a significant difference between the amplitudes of the red and green video signals, however, a combination of the high frequency components of both of these signals is used as the peaking signal. In one exemplary embodiment of the invention, the peaking signal includes in-band horizontal and vertical contour signals and out-of-band aperture correction signal.

Color signal aperture correction system having automatically selected

A color video signal processing system determines when one component color signal has been limited by clipping and limits the other component color signals to maintain accurate hue in the reproduced image. In one system, the other color signals are held at their values at the instant the one signal was detected as being clipped until the signal is no longer clipped. In another system, an attenuation function is applied to the unclipped color signals when any one color signal is detected as being clipped.

Apparatus for clipping or limiting color signals to maintain color

A method and apparatus for reducing the maximum gain applied to a video signal during gamma correction are disclosed. A gamma exponent value, a black level, white level, and a desired maximum gain value are selected. A count of possible input signal values is determined. A modified black level is set equal to the desired black level. A gain limit value for the gamma correcting transfer function is calculated, and the smallest input signal for which the applied gain is less than or equal to the gain limit is determined. A black level correction factor is calculated. The modified black level is increased by the black level correction factor, and a determination is made whether the black level correction factor has decreased to less than a predetermined threshold value. The gamma correction function is recalculated and further black level corrections are added until the correction threshold is reached. The final transfer function increases linearly and has a gain equal to the gain limit value for video signal values near the desired black level. The gamma function increases non-linearly at a decreasing rate near the white level.

Apparatus and a method for limiting gain in a digital gamma corrector

A method and apparatus for deriving a motion aperture signal that is added to a video signal to cause amplification of the high frequencies of the video signal during movement is disclosed. This method and apparatus operates with an interlaced scan television system by line interpolation of the fields adjacent to a present field of interest. One suggested interpolation means uses delay lines working in conjunction with a summer to vertically align adjacent fields with the field of interest. In order to match the amplitude response of the interpolation means operating on the adjacent fields and the amplitude response of the present field of interest, a filter is disclosed having the same delay line components as the interpolation means.

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Medford, NJ, United States of America

Lee R Dischert