Abstract: A scene change monitor includes a camera (12) for monitoring a given scene. The camera (12) is operable to sequentially generate frames (18) of visual information, which frames are then divided up into pixels and the value of the pixels for each frame accumulated in an accumulator (25). The accumulator (25) provides on the output thereof a frame value for each frame (18) and stores this value in a register (22). A difference generator (24) is operable to generate the difference between select ones of the registers (22) for select ones of the frames (18) and generate a difference value for input to a comparator (26). The comparator (26) compares the difference value to a scene change threshold and, if it exceeds this value, a VCR activation signal is generated for turning a VCR (16) on to record the scene.

Abstract: A video-to-FAX conversion system includes a video camera (10) for generating video signals which are then captured by a frame grabber and stored in a frame buffer (14). The data in the frame buffer is comprised of digitized values from the video signal which are stored in pixels with a first aspect ratio. A conversion device (16) is operable to map information in the frame buffer to the binary output space of a Group III FAX protocol and perform contrast enhancement thereon. The contrast enhancement includes the steps of first generating a histogram of all of the pixel values in the frame buffer (14) after expansion thereof into the output space of the Group III FAX. The histogram values are then utilized to generate an adjusted value for each of the gray scale values available for the pixels in the frame buffer 14. Each pixel in the frame buffer (14) is then expanded and the contrast enhancement applied thereto to adjust the values therein.