Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Bruno Polito
  • Patent number: 6573872
    Abstract: The present invention relates to an antenna comprising a planar dielectric substrate (1) comprising a front (5) and a back dielectric face (6), at least one subantenna means comprising a first (2) and second (3) element for radiating and receiving circular polarized electromagnetic signals, at least one transmission line means (4) for transmitting signals from and to said at least one subantenna means, characterized in that the first (2) and second (3) elements of the subantenna means are slots (2, 3) of a spiral shape and are connected to each other to form a double spiral (9) slot with both spirals (2, 3) having the same sense of rotation, the subantenna means being arranged on the front dielectric face (5) of the substrate and the transmission line (4) means being arranged on the back dielectric faces (6) of the substrate (1).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 25, 2001
    Date of Patent: June 3, 2003
    Assignee: Sony International (Europe) GmbH
    Inventors: Gerald Oberschmidt, Veselin Brankovic, Dragan Krupezevic
  • Patent number: 6574172
    Abstract: When the user enters a command to eject an optical disc from an optical-disc apparatus by operating an input unit, a CPU records information such as an operating mode and a location accessed immediately prior to ejection of the disc into a RAM unit as resume-function related information. The resume-function related information is then supplied to the optical disc to be recorded thereon by way of a write-in channel buffer, a switch, an ECC circuit, an RF & demodulation/modulation circuit and an optical head. Accordingly it is possible to make an access to a location on an optical disc accessed immediately prior to ejection of the disc from an optical-disc apparatus when the disc is reinserted into the optical-disc apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2002
    Date of Patent: June 3, 2003
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Toshiya Hamada, Yasushi Fujinami
  • Patent number: 6571142
    Abstract: A data processing apparatus obtains a prediction coefficient used to predict first data, from second data which has a lower quality than the first data. The apparatus includes a prediction-data extracting section for extracting prediction data used to predict the first data, from the second data; a prediction-coefficient calculation section for obtaining a prediction-coefficient set used to predict the first data by using the first data and the prediction data to both of which a predetermined weight is applied; a prediction-value calculation section for obtaining the prediction value of the first data by using the prediction data and the prediction-coefficient set; a prediction-error calculation section for obtaining the prediction error of the prediction value against the first data; and a weight changing section for changing the weight applied to the first data and to the prediction data, according to the prediction error. The apparatus can obtain a prediction value having a smaller prediction error.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2003
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Tetsujiro Kondo, Kenji Tanaka
  • Patent number: 6556209
    Abstract: A memory apparatus of a digital video signal for storing color compressed video data is disclosed, the color compressed video data being compressed video data that represents components of three primary colors, the memory apparatus comprising a memory portion for storing the color compressed video data and a color restoring portion for restoring the color compressed video data into original video data, wherein said color restoring portion is disposed on a semiconductor substrate that is used in common with said memory portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 1996
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2003
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Tetsujiro Kondo
  • Patent number: 6553073
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide a sending device, a receiving device, and a sending/receiving device which make it possible to easily implement a two-channel compressed moving picture transmission system by using an existing single-channel compressed moving picture transmission system. The sending device includes transmission systems corresponding to two channels including video bit rate reduction encoders 2 and 6 for compressing picture data, and SDDI encoders 4 and 8 for generating predetermined serial signal data from compressed picture data, and a data selector 9 for conducting changeover between serial signal data of channel 1 output from the transmission system of the channel 1 and serial signal data of channel 2 output from the transmission system of the channel 2 on the basis of a reference frame signal RF.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 1998
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2003
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Ichiro Ogata
  • Patent number: 6549537
    Abstract: A communication system is disclosed which can transmit a real-time cell and a nonreal-time cell with no jitters caused in the real-time cell. When a real-time cell and nonreal-time cell are outputted at a same timing, a priority control circuit (40) passes the output timing of nonreal-time ATM cell once and sets in a flag memory (40a) a wait flag indicating that the nonreal-time cell output timing has been passed once. Also, when there is no real-time ATM cell, the priority control circuit (40) judges whether a wait flag is set in the flag memory (40a), and allows to output one nonreal-time ATM cell when a flag is set.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 1998
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2003
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshiyuki Kunito, Takao Terao
  • Patent number: 6549763
    Abstract: A receiving apparatus and method which can prevent second order harmonic interference and beat interference in a direct orthogonal detector is disclosed. When a control signal of the high level is inputted to a control terminal, then a first high frequency switch diode is turned on and a second high frequency switch diode is turned off. In this instance, a filter circuit functions as a low-pass filter. When a control signal of a low level is inputted to the control terminal, then the first high frequency switch diode is turned off and the second high frequency switch diode is turned on. In this instance, the filter circuit functions as a high-pass filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2003
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Tadashi Imai, Kozo Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 6546475
    Abstract: In the disc controlling system, a buffer memory stores sector by sector data read from a disc or data to be written to the disc. A memory controller allows a floppy disc drive to intermittently read sector by sector data from the disc for supply to the buffer memory or intermittently write sector by sector to the disc data supplied from the buffer memory. When the floppy disc drive is not writing data to or reading data from the disc, data read from the disc is supplied sector by sector from the buffer memory to the system bus or data to be written to the disc is supplied sector by sector to the buffer memory from the system bus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2003
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Shinichi Haseno
  • Patent number: 6546140
    Abstract: A method and apparatus can determine the VBV delay from the bit rate without limiting the encoding time and raising the cost. An image compression-coding apparatus adapted to control the volume of generated codes on the basis of the occupied volume of the VBV buffer at the decoder side comprises an MPEG encoder 13 for computationally determining the cumulative value of the number of input bits of each frame and output as volume of generated information, a number of input bits generating section 16 for computationally determining the theoretical value of the number of input bits from the bit rate, a B(n) counter 15 for replacing the value of the volume of generated information by the theoretical value at the end of a number of frames when the theoretical value of the number of input bits becomes equal to an integer and a VBV delay computing section 14 for computationally determining the VBV delay on the basis of the occupied volume of the VBV buffer from the B(n) counter 15.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 1999
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2003
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Daisuke Hiranaka
  • Patent number: 6542510
    Abstract: An electronic network system for implementing ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) and RARP (Reverse Address Resolution Protocol) type communication. ARP type communication is facilitated by including within the ARP response packet an offset address indicating the memory location of the software application that is the subject of the ARP type communication. RARP type communication is facilitated by providing each network node with a network unique ID and using the unique ID when generating RARP requests.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 1999
    Date of Patent: April 1, 2003
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Takahiro Fujimori, Makoto Sato, Tomoko Tanaka
  • Patent number: 6541927
    Abstract: The format of a color video signal that has been inputted into a CPU from a video amplifying circuit is identified, and based on a given parameter variable according to this identified format, a second grid electrode voltage and the cathode bias voltages of cathodes for the three primary colors are determined, thereby driving a cathode ray tube with an optimal driving condition adequate for the video signal format. This parameter variable may be adjusted through a manual operation, allowing a user to set any desired driving condition for the cathode ray tube.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 1, 2003
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Hiroshi Yamashita
  • Patent number: 6538646
    Abstract: The object of the present invention is to provide an image display apparatus suited to display a video program or the like for advertisement purposes. The image display apparatus comprises a storage medium installation section (11), a memory section (13) storing image data read out from a storage medium (1) installed into the storage medium installation section (11), a display section (16) displaying the image data stored in the memory section (13) and a control section (19) for repeatedly executing display of the image data stored in the memory section (13) at the display section (16).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2000
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2003
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Susumu Konuta, Toshiya Kaihoko, Natsuo Ito, Masayo Narato
  • Patent number: 6535854
    Abstract: Home networks low-cost digital interfaces are introduced that integrate entertainment, communication and computing electronics into consumer multimedia. Normally, these are low-cost, easy to use systems, since they allow the user to remove or add any kind of network devices with the bus being active. To improve the user interface a speech unit (2) is proposed that enables all devices (11) connected to the bus system (31) to be controlled by a single speech recognition device. The properties of this device, e.g. the vocabulary can be dynamically and actively extended by the consumer devices (11) connected to the bus system (31). The proposed technology is independent from a specific bus standard, e.g. the IEEE 1394 standard, and is well-suited for all kinds of wired wireless home networks. The speech unit (2) receives data and messages from the device. The speech unit (2) recognizes speaker-dependent commands. A Speech synthesizer synthesizes messages.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 1998
    Date of Patent: March 18, 2003
    Assignee: Sony International (Europe) GmbH
    Inventors: Peter Buchner, Silke Goronzy, Ralf Kompe, Stefan Rapp
  • Patent number: 6532337
    Abstract: A viterbi decoder employed in a digital-signal playback apparatus provided by the present invention such as a video tape recorder and an optical-disc apparatus executes the steps of carrying out tentative discrimination on an input signal, equalizing the input signal in accordance with a result of the tentative discrimination, limiting the number of state transitions of the equalized signal and forming a judgment to select a most probable state transition among the limited number of state transitions. As a result, the viterbi decoder is suited for viterbi decoding and allows the viterbi decoding to be carried out on a digital signal by using a simple configuration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 1998
    Date of Patent: March 11, 2003
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Tadaaki Yoshinaka
  • Patent number: 6529550
    Abstract: A system for seamlessly splicing two encoded video streams. In one implementation of the system, one or more coding parameters are extracted from the first and/or second encoded streams and one or more parameters of the first and/or second encoded streams are changed in accordance with the extracted parameter(s) in order to effectuate seamless splicing. In another implementation, the coding parameters applied to the first encoded stream are referenced when encoding the second stream such that the resulting second encoded stream can be seamlessly spliced with the first encoded stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 1999
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2003
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Katsumi Tahara, Mikita Yasuda, Shinji Negishi
  • Patent number: 6516465
    Abstract: A digital video receiver, a conditional access module and method of transmitting data therebetween, the digital video receiver having a multi line socket for connection to the conditional access module, the socket having a pre-determined plurality of lines for transmitting and receiving transport stream data and a pre-determined plurality of lines for transmitting and receiving control data and resource/application data, the method comprising selectively transmitting resource/application data over the plurality of transport stream lines.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 1998
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2003
    Assignee: Sony United Kingdom Limited
    Inventor: Adrian Charles Paskins
  • Patent number: 6507889
    Abstract: A cassette library (1) is provided with a driving apparatus (13), cassette housing shelves (14, 15) and a cassette carrier (16). A library controller (2) simulates as if driving apparatuses (13) having continuous address numbers were apparently used in the. host computer (3) even when physically discontinuous address numbers are allocated to the driving apparatus (13), thereby making it possible to set occupancy for a driving apparatus with an arbitrary address number. The library controller (2) has the cassette carrier (16) automatically carry, at a preset timing, a cleaning cassette from the cassette housing shelf (14, 15) to the driving apparatus (13) to clean a recording reproduction head of the driving apparatus (13) using the cleaning cassette which is then carried back to the housing section in the original cassette housing shelf (14, 15) after the cleaning work.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 1999
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2003
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Nobuhiro Tsurumaki, Keiji Tadokoro, Masato Yokota, Toru Yumine
  • Patent number: 6504533
    Abstract: An image display apparatus capable of displaying an image signal of an unknown type. Characteristics of an input image signal are examined and, based on the examined characteristics, an attempt is made to identify the input signal as one of a known type. When the input signal can be identified as one of a known type, the signal is converted into a form suitable for display based on retrieved parameters corresponding to the signal's type. When the input signal can not be identified as one of a known type, the number of vertical lines in the signal is multiplied by a predetermined constant and the resulting product is used to convert the signal into a form suitable for display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2003
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroshi Murayama, Tadashi Fujimoto
  • Patent number: 6504994
    Abstract: A data reproduction apparatus and a data storage medium for synchronously reproducing multiplexed data with video, audio, and superimposed dialogue data compressed at a variable rate and performing various functions. Data are reproduced from the data storage medium using sector numbers, and data for negative sector numbers carried by some sectors are also reproduced. Multiplexing information indicating whether or not image, voice, and superimposed dialogue data is each multiplexed and information for the positions of access points used for data search and random access are stored in the positions represented by these negative sector numbers and reproduced so as to enable multiplexed data with video, audio, and superimposed dialogue data compressed at a variable rate to be synchronously reproduced and various functions to be executed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2003
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Makoto Kawamura, Yasushi Fujinami
  • Patent number: 6501717
    Abstract: Level detectors detect levels of digital audio signals of individual channels. A controller predicts whether or not an overflow will take place corresponding to detected signals. When the controller predicts an occurrence of an overflow, attenuators attenuate a signal level of at least one channel. In addition, when variable length delaying devices vary the phases of signals, an overflow can be prevented.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 1999
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2002
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Takahiro Yamazaki