Sony Corporation

Toshiharu Kondo

Takashi Kohashi

Akihiro Kikuchi

Katsuaki Hirota

Fumiaki Kato

Shuji Shimizu

Satoshi Nakamura

Hideo Kawachi

Koji Ishiwata

Teruhito Noshiro

Yukio Shirako

Funiaki Kato

A recording and reproducing apparatus includes a drive unit that reads data from a first medium and a drive unit control unit that controls the drive unit. The apparatus includes a second medium in which the same amount of data as the amount of data recorded in the first medium can be stored, and from or in which data is read or written at a speed higher than a speed at which data is read or written from or in the first medium. The apparatus further includes an input/output unit that inputs a reading request with which predetermined data is read from among data items stored in the first medium or second medium. The apparatus also includes an access control unit which controls the drive unit control unit or a second medium control unit.

Recording and reproducing apparatus and recording and reproducing method

In an optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus having a device for seeking a predetermined position on a postscript type optical disc, a device for reading recorded data from the disc, and a device for recording data and a time table on predetermined data area and table area of the disc, respectively, a method of recording the time table comprising the steps of: reading position data corresponding to a position of each recorded data on the disc; detecting remaining data area on which no data is recorded; dividing the remaining data area into a plurality of small areas; and recording the position data of each recorded data and each small area on the time table area.

Disc recording/reproducing apparatus with a selectable method of

A video camera capable of photographing in a moving image mode and a still image mode comprises a mechanical shutter provided near the front surface of an image pickup device and a detector provided with an image pickup signal according to the state of the mechanical shutter. A controller receives an output of the detector. The controller includes a filter and a filter controller for controlling the time constant of the filter. The time constant of the filter is decreased by the filter controller when a control signal for the video camera is generated.

Combination moving image and still image video camera with response

In a reproducing system, a reproducing start position of recording information is set in a first reproducing device reproducible in a second reproducing device. The reproducing start position set in the first reproducing device is stored in a detachable external storage medium. The external storage medium is detached from the first reproducing device, attached to a second reproducing device, and the reproducing start position stored in the external storage medium is read into the second reproducing device. Thus the reproducing start position set by the first reproducing device will be reproduced in the second reproducing device to control a location of selection, such as musical numbers.

Reproducing system with detachable storage medium for storing selected

A video signal processing circuit includes a level shifter for shifting the dc level of an input luminance signal; a gain adjuster for increasing the gain for the luminance signal when the luminance signal has a low luminance level and for decreasing the gain for the luminance signal when the luminance signal has a high luminance level; and a shifting amount setting unit for setting the amount for shifting the dc level on the basis of the frequency distribution of the luminance signal and the rate of modulation of the luminance signal.

Apparatus for shifting the DC level of a luminance signal based on

A switching circuit to selectively generate either one of an image pickup signal from an image pickup device and a reproduction video signal in which when the recording mode is set, the switching circuit is set to the side on which the image pickup signal from the image pickup device is supplied. When the reproducing mode is set, the switching circuit is set to the side on which the reproduction video signal is supplied. When the instantaneous reproduction is executed in the recording mode, the optical information from an optical information detecting circuit just before the switching circuit is switched from the side on which the image pickup signal is supplied to the side on which the reproduction video signal is supplied is held. An output of the switching circuit is converted into a digital signal. The digital signal is supplied to a digital signal processing circuit to process the digital signal and is also supplied to the optical information detecting circuit to detect the optical information.

Video camera

An exposure correcting loop detects an image pickup signal level and controls a gain of an AGC amplifier and/or an opening of an iris in accordance with the image pickup signal level. A flicker cancelling loop has a flicker detector and detects a flicker component level in the image pickup signal and controls the gain of the AGC amplifier and/or the opening of the iris so that the flicker component level is cancelled. The exposure correcting loop and flicker detector are independent systems.

Video camera with flicker cancellation

An exposure control apparatus includes a control amount converting table for storing data on a gain control amount associated with data on a detected quantity of incident light. On the basis of an output from the control amount converting table, light quantity gains of light quantity variable means, such as an iris, a shutter, an AGC amplifier, and so forth, are set. The level of a quantity of incident light coming through these light quantity variable means is detected, and the detected data is fed to correcting means. The correcting means corrects an error between data on the control amount of the light quantity gain output from the control amount converting table and an actual light quantity gain of the light quantity variable means. An output from the correcting means is fed to the control amount converting table.

Exposure controller of a video camera

A focus detection signal is generated from the video signal produced by a video camera by deriving higher frequency components of that video signal, detecting when those higher frequency components exceed a minimum threshold level, sensing when the video signal exceeds a maximum threshold, and integrating those higher frequency components which exceed the minimum threshold, except during an interval when the video signal exceeds the maximum threshold, thereby producing the focus detection signal.

Auto-focus system for video camera

In a color video camera providing color video signal components corresponding to a light image projected on an image pickup, only the levels of the color video signals components which correspond to at least substantially white regions of the light image are detected, and such detected levels of the color video signal components are integrated so as to obtain average values thereof as white-balance detection signals. The color video signal components which correspond to at least substantially white regions of the light image, and thus have their levels detected, may be those which occur during intervals corresponding to a white-balance detecting area positioned to correspond with a selected white area of the light image. Alternatively, the color video signal components may be sampled to provide pixel-by-pixel values thereof, whereupon, only those pixel-by-pixel values which are determined to be within a predetermined range of white as defined by a black body radiation curve are subjected to integration. The predetermined range is made relatively wide when the valve of the color video signal components deviate substantially from a desired white-balance relationship and the range is reduced as the values of the conponents come near to the desired relationship.

Color video camera with auto-white balance control

A sampling frequency conversion filter circuit permits the same auto focus circuit to be used with CCD imagers having different numbers of pixels per line. The conversion filter converts a digital signal of a first sampling frequency into a second sampling frequency and for providing a digital signal of the first sampling frequency with a predetermined frequency characteristic includes a delay circuit for delaying an input digital signal of the first sampling frequency by a predetermined amount; a first flip-flop for taking in the input digital signal of the first sampling frequency in synchronism with a clock of the second sampling frequency; a second flip-flop for taking in the digital signal of the first sampling frequency delayed by the predetermined amount through the delay circuit with a clock of the second sampling frequency; an adder for adding outputs of the first and flip-flops; and control circuits for controlling inputs of the first and second flip-flops to obtain from the adder circuit an output equivalent to a result obtained by over-sampling the digital signal of the first sampling frequency at a frequency that is a common multiple of the first sampling frequency and the second sampling frequency, and then re-sampling it at the second sampling frequency via a filter having the predetermined frequency characteristic.

Auto focus frequency conversion filter for CCD imagers having different

A color video camera providing a digital video signal has an auto-focus detector, an auto-exposure detector and an auto-white balance detector formed as sections of an optical detector circuit which further has serial input and output ports common to the auto-focus, auto-exposure and auto-white balance detectors, and a system controller which is common to the auto-focus, auto-exposure and auto-white balance detectors and provides control signals therefor through the serial input port while receiving focus, exposure and white-balance detection signals through the serial output port from the respective detectors. Further, an improved exposure control system is provided which compensates for abnormal lighting conditions, such as, back-lighting or excessive front-lighting of the scene in the field of view of the camera.

Digital color video camera with auto-focus, auto-exposure and auto-white

Apparatus is provided for controlling the aperture of an iris in a camera, such as a television camera. Samples of an image signal produced during a predetermined interval that have magnitudes greater than a threshold level are counted, and the difference between this count and a predetermined count is determined. The aperture of the iris is controlled as a function of this difference.

Automatic gain control circuit for use in a television camera

In an automatic white balance control circuit for adjusting gain levels of a plurality of color signals included in a video signal composed of successive fields and received from a video camera while a light source provides illumination for the scene in the field of view of the camera; first, second and third integrators generate integration signals for each of the received color signals in each of first, second and third fields, respectively, a control signal for each of the fields is generated on the basis of the respective integration signals, and gain levels of at least two of the color signals are adjusted in response to the control signal so as to perform white balancing for preventing variation in video signal brightness or flicker, such as is caused by a difference between the video camera exposure frequency and the light source power supply frequency.

Automatic white balance control circuit which operates on successive

In a camera having a lens for focussing incident light onto a light reception surface of a pick-up so that the latter outputs a camera signal, a stop for limiting the amount of the incident light, and a variable gain amplifier for correcting the level of the camera signal; there is provided a control circuit which controls a focus of the lens, the stop and a gain of the variable gain amplifier on the basis of the output of the variable gain amplifier, thereby simplifying the construction of the camera as a whole.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Toshiharu Kondo