Abstract: A method and system for video motion compensation in which an overall interframe motion vector is divided into a relative block motion vector and a subblock motion vector. Image reconstruction is achieved by adjusting the delay between the synchronization pulse and the start of the pixel data according to the subblock motion vector, and accessing stored data from memory according to the relative block motion vector. Accessing memory in a block-quantized format ensures that page mode accesses are confined to the same memory row.

Abstract: A portable personal computer is provided that includes a main housing having a base and an upper housing erecting on top of the base for containing circuitry of the portable personal computer. The base contains a power supply unit for the computer. The upper housing includes a top end and an inner wall. A display is pivotally attached to the upper housing adjacent the top end of the upper housing such that the display is held against the inner wall of the upper housing in a closed position. A detachable keyboard is provided which has a top row and a bottom row for inputting data into the portable personal computer. The keyboard is mounted onto the portable personal computer and covers the display in the closed position such that the computer constitutes an integrated entity. The keyboard is removed from the computer in an open position for operation. The display is exposed when the keyboard is removed from the computer. The display can swing away from the inner wall of the upper housing in the open position.

Abstract: A disc storage unit includes discs having surfaces with concentric tracks for storing data in sectors. Each sector has identification information including a physical address designating a particular disc surface, sector and track. The physical addresses are contiguous for one surface to another at a first or last sector in a radially outermost or innermost track, respectively. Heads are provided for reading and writing data from and onto the discs. The position of each head within a track is determined using servo information recorded between adjacent sectors. Address converting circuitry converts logical addresses from an external computer into physical addresses on the discs, including physical addresses which span a plurality of tracks located on both surfaces of a disc, when reading or writing data at logical addresses is commanded. Head selecting circuitry responds to the physical addresses by selecting each head corresponding to a surface of the disc on which the physical addresses are located.

Abstract: A fine tracking miniature galvanometer actuator is used as a fine tracking positioner for a read/write head in the optical disk drive of an information storage and/or retrieval system. An efficient magnetic circuit is used in conjunction with a small and lightweight rotor design which offers high performance characteristics in terms of frequency response and sensitivity. No mechanical springs or torsion bars are necessary to maintain the rotor in a neutral or zero position. The present invention is also useful in other systems using electro-optical transducers including reflecting-type galvanometer recording systems used for producing variable-area sound tracks .

Abstract: An optical disk recording and/or reproducing apparatus realizes a high ability to transmit data by operating a plurality of optical disk drives in parallel. By actuating the data recording or reproducing operation in parallel after these optical disk drives all have completed seeking the target track, deviation in synchronism between these drives can be suppressed below a one track maximum, resulting in the parallel operation of a plurality of optical disk drives using a a small capacity memory. In addition, by transmitting data via a high speed FIFO memory connected to each drive interface and a host interface to a RAM, speedy data transmission using the parallel operation of the plurality of drives is made possible.

Abstract: In an optical or magneto-optical recording and/or reproducing apparatus, an apparatus for locating a pre-designated one of a large number of tracks on the recording medium by a light beam at a high speed during signal recording, reproduction or erasure. The light beam irradiated on the recording medium is swept in the direction of traversing the tracks, the reflected light of the light beam from the recording medium is detected by a photodetector, and a predesignated one of the tracks is retrieved on the basis of the results of detection of the reflected light. The sweeping movement of the light beam is controlled by feedback control of the track traverse velocity of the light beam prevailing until the beam gets to the predesignated track.

Abstract: In a method of driving liquid crystal cells in an active matrix addressed display of the resistively-coupled transistor type whereby interlacing of alternate rows of pixels is achieved, rows N-1, N+1, N+3, - - - of the cells are addressed in sequence in a first field period by applying transistor turn-on pulses to the associated row address lines while reference signals are applied to the row address lines associated with rows, N, N+2, N+4, - - - in sequence, the turn-on pulse for the row N-1 and the reference signal for the row N being coincident. During a second field period of the transistor turn-on pulses are applied to the address lines for rows N, N+2, N+4, - - - while reference signals are applied to the address lines for rows N-1, N+3, N+5, - - - the turn-on pulse for the row N and the reference signal for the row N+1 being coincident. The reference signal may be of two different magnitudes which alternate at the line rate or at the frame rate of a television video signal.

Abstract: The image sensing apparatus of the invention can easily and promptly search those areas of the main tracks of a floppy disk which store no data, or search or edit (e.g. copy) stored data, with the use of control data of a queue track and without an overhead. Further, it can automatically detect whether a recording medium is formatted upon insertion thereof, and then format it in a suitable manner if it has no formats.

Abstract: A video signal recording and reproducing apparatus in which video signals based on a plurality of television systems in which the numbers of scanning lines and the frame frequencies are different are recorded by the same VTR. The numbers of effective pixels in one horizontal scanning period and the numbers of effective scanning lines per frame which are based on the respective television systems are made coincident. Only the effective scanning lines are recorded. The rotational speed of the cylinder is also changed in proportion to the frame frequency and tape patterns are made coincident for the respective television systems.

Abstract: A video surveillance system for monitoring a continuous web of material negotiating the tortuous path through a paper making machine employs a plurality of video cameras for the continuous monitoring of the web arranged in pairs, each pair addressing a different location of interest along the paper making path. All of the cameras are operated using a single external sync signal and produce video output signals which, in turn, are fed to a plurality of video image splitters, each splitting the video output from a pair of cameras. Video recorders are provided for recording and playing back the split video output signals from each video image splitter through video monitors. The system is computer controlled and responsive to input signals indicative of web failure.

Abstract: A digital video signal is shuffled such that blocks of a luminance signal and a chrominance signal existing at a same position on an image plane are contained in a same segment recorded on a recording medium or in a plurality of segments recorded simultaneously in parallel using a plurality of channels. Thus, the luminance signal and chrominance signal being at the same position on the image plane are always obtainable simultaneously even during high-speed reproducing in a digital VTR.

Abstract: A trackball (10) is rotatably mounted on rollers (12, 14). The rollers are connected with rotational encoders (16, 18) for producing a series of pulses. Up/down counters (20, 22) convert the pulses into an indication of translation along two axes. Downward, non-rotational pressure on the trackball causes a transducer (B) to output an electrical signal which is recognizable as a selection signal. In some embodiments, the transducer is a strain gauge or other transducer (50) which provides an output whose magnitude varies with the amount of force. A comparitor (54) compares the output of the transducer with a selectable threshold to indicate whether a selection signal is to be issued. In other embodiments, the transducer has two states, e.g. a mechanical switch (70). The transducer changes states in response to the force on the trackball exceeding a preselected minimum.

Abstract: In a disk performance apparatus, an audio signal processor is provided so as to remove the higher components with frequency higher than the prescribed frequency of audio signals included in outputs of a reading device for reading recorded signals of a disk during still or slow picture reproducing and the lower components with frequency lower than that corresponding to the period of the track jump, and incompatibility in the auditory sensation of the reproducing sound is eliminated.

Abstract: A recording digital VCR for recording digital PAL signals sampled at four times the chrominance subcarrier frequency, includes: a selection range shifter for shifting a sample in the horizontal direction by two samples depending on the field number; a sync. ID attacher for attaching sync. and ID including the field number; and an RF recorder for recording the signals on the tape. When the data signals recorded on the tape are reproduced at a high speed, samples stored across the fields in a reproduction memory can have the same address and same phase. Thus, it is possible to realize a recording format for reproducing a color at a high speed which has an excellent picture quality.

Abstract: A tape recording system for use in a video cassette tape recorder capable of recording a reproducing signal of a video tape to another video tape by directly interfacing the reproducing high frequency signal without reproducing signal processing and recording signal processing, which includes a reproducing signal switching unit for buffering and outputting a high-frequency reproducing signal without a demodulation processing, a recording signal switching unit for controlling the level of a video signal into a proper recording current corresponding to the characteristic of video head without a modulation processing so as to directly switch the video signal to a recording section, and a level displaying unit for comparing the recording signal of the recording signal switching unit and a reference frequency.

Abstract: An entertainment apparatus includes a loudspeaker for producing an orchestral background for singer's accompaniment and a TV monitor for displaying a background video relevant to a song sang by the singer. In a compact disk, accompaniment data and corresponding song text data are recorded with respect to each of a plurality of songs, and in a video disk, stored are a plurality of background video data each being used in conjunction with a song selected. When a desired song is selected, its accompaniment data and the corresponding song text data are read from the compact disk and one of the plurality of background video data is read from the video disk. The song text data is superimposed on the background video data so that the song text and the background video are superimposedly displayed on the TV monitor. In synchronous with the display on the TV monitor, the accompaniment data is reproduced from the loudspeaker to give an orchestral background for singers.

Abstract: An electronic endoscope system compatible with solid-state image sensor elements of different types, including a rotary color wheel located in the path of illuminating light from a light source and provided with RGB filter zones successively and alternately with a color-shifting main light-blocking zone to transmit illuminating light rays of red, green and blue wavelength sequentially therethrough, and a light guide for directing the red, green and blue illuminating light rays from the color wheel toward an internal portion under observation, while picking up images of a subject under sequential irradiations by red, green and blue light rays from the light guide. Each one of the filter zones is bisected by an intermediate light blocking zone which is provided at a median point thereof.

Abstract: An editing apparatus for editing digital video signals employs a number of video recording and/or reproduction devices, a signal processing mechanism, and a switching mechanism, wherein the number of transfer lines and the area occupied by the associated connectors is decreased by converting parallel signals into serial format.

Abstract: A matte synthesizer and method generates baseband video signal information from user inputs for selecting levels of luminance, saturation and hue. The synthesizer includes continuously variable controls for inputting user selections over respective ranges of adjustment, a processor programmed to calculate directly a plurality of discrete amplitude samples in a chroma cycle of a video signal corresponding to a periodic wave at a baseband frequency of the video signal with a DC level determined by the luminance, a peak-to-peak amplitude determined by the saturation, and a phase shift relative to a reference burst determined by the hue, and a multiplexing method operable to read out the discrete amplitude samples to an output, during each cycle of the chroma baseband frequency. The discrete amplitude samples are calculated for a vertical field of the composite video signal and displayed during the next field. The signal thus obtained is filtered and superimposed with a synchronizing signal.

Abstract: A color picture signal processing circuit, a filter circuit and a luminance/carrier chrominance signal separation circuit implemented by employing the filter circuit. The circuit processing signal includes an adaptive-type (C) comb line filter through which the luminance signal is caused to pass. The output of the filter undergoes amplitude limitation in a limiter circuit, the output of which is subtracted from the original luminance signal. The carrier chrominance signal is added to the luminance signal to obtain a composite picture signal.