The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 19, 1977
Filed:
Sep. 02, 1975
Albert F Hartung, Woodland Hills, CA (US);
Frank W Lehan, Santa Barbara, CA (US);
Charles T Barooshian, Pacific Palisades, CA (US);
Edward J Zacharski, Malibu, CA (US);
System Development Corporation, Santa Monica, CA (US);
Abstract
Method and apparatus for scrambling and unscrambling television video and audio signals in a subscription television system in which program selections of subscribers are known at a central transmitting site, and control signals encoded into vertical blanking intervals of the video signals are addressed to receivers authorized to receive unscrambled transmissions, to selectively control unscrambling at those receivers. In an unscrambler at each subscriber's receiver, the control signals are decoded, and, if addressed to the particular subscriber's receiver, operate to enable or disable the unscrambler, or to frequently vary its mode of operation, thereby greatly increasing the security of the system and deterring viewing of scrambled transmissions. Video scrambling and unscrambling are effected by inversion of selected horizontal lines of a transmitted television picture, and a technique is disclosed for inversion or non-inversion selected on a line-by-line basis, with an appropriate control signal being transmitted with each line.