Thomson Licensing

Thomson Consumer Electronics Inc.

Beckman Coulter, Inc.

Shenzhen Tcl New Technology Ltd.

Thomson Licensing S.a.

Ronald Thomas Keen

Mark Francis Rumreich

William A Lagoni

Mark Nierzwick

Jason L Hessler

Todd J Christopher

William John Testin

John Alan Hague

Charles B Neal

Robert Lawrence O'Brien

Mark Robert Zukas

Ronald C Johnson

Katherine Chu

Bradley D Carstens

Brandon L Reese

Jason Hessler

A circuit for delivering electrical energy to an AC mains connection is disclosed. The circuit includes a voltage source and a switch connected between the voltage source and the AC mains connection. The switch operates to transfer current from the voltage source to the AC mains. The circuit further includes a controller to control the switch. The controller operates to generate a simulated signal that represents a waveform of the AC mains without any distortion present on the waveform of the AC mains.

Regenerative braking system

A centrifuge includes a regenerative braking safety system including an electrical system reversibly coupled to a power source. A motor is coupled to the electrical system. The motor is capable of driving a rotor using power delivered through the electrical system, and is further capable of supplying the electrical system with recovered energy. The recovered energy is electrical energy converted from kinetic energy of the rotor during regenerative braking of the motor. The safety system includes a power cut-off configured to disable the effect of regenerative braking of the motor when the electrical system is decoupled from the power source.

Regenerative braking safety system and method of use

A video apparatus such as a television signal receiver enables a video display that readily indicates the detected degree of a video attribute such as motion and/or other video attribute present in the video display. According to an exemplary embodiment, the video apparatus includes first circuitry operative to receive video data. Second circuitry is operative to enable a video display corresponding to the video data. The video display includes first and second video attributes. The first video attribute varies in proportion to a detected degree of the second video attribute.

Apparatus and method for indicating the detected degree of motion in video

Centrifuge

An exemplary embodiment of the present invention relates to an electrostatic discharge/electromagnetic interference (ESD/EMI) protection circuit for an integrated circuit. The ESD/EMI protection circuit comprises an input that is adapted to receive a communication signal, a Zener diode pair connected between the input and a ground that is shared with the input, a resistor coupled to the input, and a capacitor coupled in series with the resistor between the input and the integrated circuit.

System and method for providing electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection and electromagnetic interference (EMI) protection

There is provided a system and/or method of monitoring media content. More specifically, in one embodiment, there is provided a method of monitoring operation of an electronic device having a plurality of signal inputs, the method comprising periodically collecting images from each of the plurality of signal inputs, storing the collected images for later evaluation if an image storage option is enabled, and sending the collected images for direct viewing if the image storage option is not enabled.

Parental monitoring method using periodic image sampling

The invention teaches a method, means and apparatus for clamping a back porch interval of a video signal including clamping a sync-tip level of said video signal to a variable reference voltage, comparing a back-porch voltage level of the sync-tip clamped video signal to a predetermined reference voltage, generating an error signal representative of the difference between the back-porch voltage level and the predetermined reference voltage, and adjusting the variable reference voltage in response to the error signal such that the error signal is minimized.

Back-porch clamp

On a line scanned video display, the frequency of an artifact producing signal within the video passband is selected to be an odd harmonic of one half the horizontal line scan frequency so that adjacent scan lines of the artifact are 180 degrees out of phase with each other. Thus, the artifact is rendered largely visually canceled when viewed due to the integrating characteristics of the eye of the viewer, even though the artifact is still there.

Apparatus and method for reducing the visual effects of artifacts present in a line scanned video display

A television monitor display comprises a first selectable source of a first video display signal and a second selectable source of a second signal for video display. A video processor receives signals from the first and second selectable sources and controllably combines the second signal with said first video display signal. A sync separator is coupled to receive the combined signal and generate therefrom separated synchronizing signals. A controller is responsive to user selection of the first selectable source and generates a disable signal for controlling the video processor to inhibit combining of the second signal for a predetermined time.

Minimizing video disturbance during switching transients and signal absence

A color video display signal processor comprises a source of a color difference signal and an analog to digital converter for converting the color difference signal to a digital signal. A potential divider is coupled to reference voltages of the analog to digital converter for generating a clamp voltage. A clamp arrangement is coupled to the color difference signal and to the analog to digital converter and receives the clamp reference voltage. In response to a clamp pulse the clamp arrangement couples said clamp voltage to said color difference signal.

Color difference signal processing

An ACC system includes a controllable amplifier having an input coupled to receive a chroma input signal and an output for providing an chroma output signal of controllable amplitude. A first feedback path, including a cascade connection of means for providing a signal representative of a measured burst amplitude, means for providing an error signal representative of the difference between a desired burst amplitude and the measured burst amplitude, and an integrator, is coupled between the output of the controllable amplifier and a gain control input of the controllable amplifier. A second feedback path, coupled from an output of the integrator to an input thereof, reduces the gain of the amplifier means in a controlled manner for values of a burst component of the chroma input signal below a predetermined threshold value provided by a control signal source, the reduction being at a predetermined rate controlled by a scaling signal device, thereby providing an output system response characteristic having a precisely controllable knee and slope below a predetermined amplitude of a burst component of the chroma input signal.

Automatic chroma control circuit with controlled saturation reduction

A chrominance signal C is separated (,) into component vectors U and V and coupled via respective paths each including a controllable gain amplifier (,) to respective outputs (,). A chroma overload protection unit (,) is provided including a saturation calculator (,) determines the saturation of the vector components and provides a saturating indicating signal to a gain characteristic unit (,) which jointly controls the gain of the amplifiers to proportionally limit the vector component magnitudes as a given function of the saturation indicating signal on a pixel by pixel basis thereby providing output component vectors (U,V) exhibiting no tint shift upon limiting conditions. In a digital embodiment, the amplifiers are implemented by multipliers (,) having outputs subjected to symmetrical rounding (,), saturation is calculated (,A) by an approximation to the square root of the sum of squares of the vector components, and plural look up tables (,A) are provided for generating the gain control signal G.

Apparatus and method for preventing oversaturation of chrominance signals

Video signal processing apparatus includes a picture enhancement processor for processing a video signal to produce an enhanced video signal. The video signal includes a signal component representing video image data and another signal component representing non-image data such as vertical sync and a binary information component. The binary information component represents binary information that may occur, for example, during vertical blanking such as closed caption data, content advisory information (V-chip), or extended data services information. A control unit modifies the enhancement performed by the picture enhancement processor during intervals of the video signal that include non-image information. Modifying enhancement processing (e.g., reducing or disabling) during intervals that include the non-image information reduces degradation of the non-image information caused by the enhancement processing.

Video signal processing apparatus

A television system utilizes a common signal processing unit (e.g., a common chrominance demodulator) for processing a combined video signal suitable for coupling to a display device for producing an image having a portion attributable to a main video signal and a portion attributable to an auxiliary video signal. If the common signal processing unit relies upon the color information (e.g., color burst) contained in the main video signal, and the main signal is either non-existent or lacking such color information, then a substitute color information signal will be generated so that the combined video signal may be processed to roduce a color auxiliary image, and a monochrome (or non-existent) main image.

Television system for displaying main and auxiliary images with color

Adjustment and maintenance of a phase relationship between a video signal and a scan synchronizing signal to assure proper horizontal centering is provided in a horizontal deflection system. A first phase locked loop generates a first timing signal at a first frequency, synchronously with a horizontal synchronizing component in a video signal. A presettable counting circuit operates synchronously with the first timing signal for dividing a clock signal to generate a second timing signal at a second frequency. A second phase locked loop generates a scan synchronizing signal from the second timing signal. A microprocessor may supply different numbers to a register, the output of the register being coupled to the presettable counting circuit. Different numbers change the relative phase between the first and second timing signals by incremental steps. The microprocessor monitors a video source selection switch to gate one of alternative video sources as a video and synchronizing signal output and adjusts the relative phase between the horizontal synchronizing component of the selected video source and a synchronous timing signal by a factor appropriate for the selected video source. A manually operable circuit may be coupled in a feedback path of the second phase locked loop for adjusting the relative phase between the second timing signal and the scan synchronizing signal, over a range corresponding to an incremental step.

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Indianapolis, IN, United States of America

Ronald Thomas Keen