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:
Jan. 02, 2001
Filed:
Dec. 10, 1996
Tetsu Shigetomi, Kanagawa, JP;
Sony Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An entertainment system wherein a video image and an image containing icons, both having an aspect ratio of 4:3, are displayed on a display screen with an aspect ratio of 16:9 in such a manner that they do not overlap each other. This enables the user to enjoy a clean video image even if dirt from the fingers is left on the touch panel containing the icons disposed on the display screen. Additionally, there is no concern of image quality deterioration, because the source video image is an image with an aspect ratio of 4:3 and is displayed without changing this aspect ratio. The entertainment system includes a scaler to compress a video image with a 4:3 aspect ratio in the horizontal direction, an icon generator that generates icons in a horizontally compressed manner, a mixer to combine the compressed video image with the compressed icons, an NTSC (National Television Standards Committee); and encoder to convert the digital signal into an analog one, and an LCD with circuitry to expand the the combined image to a 16:9 aspect ratio.