Abstract: Methods and apparatus for reading data from the burst cutting area of a digital video disc. The present location of an optical head assembly is determined. The distance from the present location of the optical head assembly to the burst cutting area is calculated. The optical head assembly is moved by the calculated distance toward the burst cutting area. Data stored in the burst cutting area is read. The read data is checked for error. Repeat until there is no error in the data.

Abstract: A phase-locked loop circuit for synchronizing an edge of an output signal with an edge of an input signal. The circuit detects an edge of an input clock signal, and a corresponding edge on an output signal. If the output signal edge is out of phase with the input clock edge, the circuit shifts the output signal by 180 degrees to effectively produce a single double-length clock phase. The synchronized phase-locked loop circuit provides predictable phase-locked loop output phase synchronization with an input clock.

Abstract: Method and system for adjusting or controlling a noise floor of a filtered signal for low frequencies. A filtered digital signal, having M bits, is processed to form an one-bit XOR signal. This XOR signal is added to the filtered signal to produce a modified filtered signal. A selected number of LSB bits of the modified filtered signal is removed to form a dithered filtered signal with a noise floor that is reduced for low frequencies.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for creating a background or foreground image at different resolutions with a scalable graphic thereon is described. In one embodiment, the method comprises selecting a version of an image for display with a scalable graphic. The version of the image is at one of a plurality of resolutions. The method also includes generating the version of the image from a first image bitstream from which versions of the image at two or more of the plurality of resolutions could be generated. One of the versions is generated using a first portion of the first image bitstream and a second of the versions is generated using the first portion of the first image bitstream and a second portion of the first image bitstream.

Abstract: The present invention is a method and system to provide adaptive control in an optical storage medium. The method comprises providing a beam of light, reflecting the beam of light off an optical disk and detecting the reflected beam. A value of the reflected beam is compared with a predetermined value, and an output signal is generated if the value of the reflected beam is greater than the predetermined value. A timing signal having a timing interval is generated and a control signal is generated if the output signal occurs over the timing interval. One of a current servo signal and a predetermined servo signal is provided in response to the control signal and a position of the light beam is controlled based on one of the current servo signal and the predetermined servo signal.

Abstract: A method and apparatus in an optical disk system employing a decision feedback equalization (DFE) technique to provide a boosted signal resolution at a data slicer input while minimizing noise. In one embodiment, an optical equalizer includes a feed forward equalizer (FFE) that equalizes the signal from the optical disk and provides an equalized signal and a feedback equalizer (FBE) that generates a feedback signal. The feedback signal is subtracted from the equalized signal to provide a signal having increased resolution and low noise, which is then applied to a data slicer. In one embodiment, the boost provided by the FFE is lower than in conventional equalizers to minimize noise. As the boost of the FFE is reduced, the number of taps in the FBE is increased to provide optimized system performance.

Abstract: A system and method of processing an image including black text data and non-black text data are described. The system and method use a parametric analysis for discrimination of halftones, texts, and photographs. The parametric analysis provides results that track measurable image metrics without the inherent risk of errant decision making during classification. The creation of symbolic representations is intrinsically a classification process that is subject to error. It represents a fundamental departure from fuzzy logic image segmentation. In the parametric analysis, no pattern matching, no auto-correlation, no screening parameter calculation, and no conventional edge detector (such as a high pass filter) are used.

Abstract: A digital camera system in which capture, processing and storage functions are partitioned differently than in existing systems. A hand-held digital camera is used with a workstation that may exist in a commercial image processing service center. A minimal amount of image data processing is performed in the digital camera, thereby allowing significant digital camera cost reductions due to lower memory requirements, lower processing requirements, and lower power requirements. Real-time single pass image compression techniques are employed within this digital camera to permit rapid gathering and storage of raw or minimally processed image data. The workstation to which the image data are transferred performs the image processing normally done within existing cameras. This processing takes advantage of the increased computational power that is possible to have in such a workstation, compared to that of a small camera, and the increased time over which such processing may be performed.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for image interpolation provides a simple method that can up-scale an image in various scale ratios, including fractional scaling ratios, and can yield a sharp image with reduced unpleasant visual artifacts. An embodiment uses a power weight function that is gradient dependent and uses a function that has a linear dependence on the distance to compute interpolated pixels. A further embodiment uses a power that can be adapted according to the local contrast of edges.

Abstract: A technique for determining cell starting times for DVD titles entails maintaining a snapshot in memory of starting times for the “most likely” to be played cells, and maintaining in memory a list of “hints” so that starting times for cells outside this most likely list can be quickly accessed. The “most likely” to be played cells are those of an active program chain. An active program chain is the program chain currently being played at any particular time. The hints list can be provided by a chapter array which contains starting times of only chapters (e.g., PTTs) of an active program chain (e.g., PGC). The snapshot in memory of starting times of most likely to be played cells can be provided by a cell array that contains cell starting times for only cells of the active PGC. The stored information is sufficient to determine current running time of a title. There is no need to store starting times for PTTs or cells of non-active program chains.

Abstract: A memory efficient method for translating and displaying sub-picture images for DVD data. The method uses less memory than prior systems. Rather than storing the sub-picture image in a memory, the method decodes and displays the sub-picture images on-the-fly. Subsequent sub-picture pixels are being translated as a given sub-picture pixel is being displayed on a display.

Abstract: An image is divided into nonoverlapping tiles, and the tiles are processed in a predefined order. Each tile is processed by applying a predefined family of transform layers to the tile so as to generate successive sets of transform coefficients. The sets of transform coefficients correspond to spatial frequency subbands of the image. The subbands are grouped in accordance with the transform layer that generated them. For one or more respective groups of subbands one or more parameters are generated whose value is indicative of the density of image features in the tile. The tile is classified in accordance with the values of the one or more parameters. Based on the classification, a set of quantization factors for the tile are selected, and then the transform coefficients of the tile are scaled by the selected set of quantization factors to as to generate a set of quantized transform coefficients.

Abstract: A technique for determining cell starting times for DVD titles entails maintaining a snapshot in memory of starting times for the “most likely” to be played cells, and maintaining in memory a list of “hints” so that starting times for cells outside this most likely list can be quickly accessed. The “most likely” to be played cells are those of an active program chain. An active program chain is the program chain currently being played at any particular time. The hints list can be provided by a chapter array which contains starting times of only chapters (e.g., PTTs) of an active program chain (e.g., PGC). The snapshot in memory of starting times of most likely to be played cells can be provided by a cell array that contains cell starting times for only cells of the active PGC. The stored information is sufficient to determine current running time of a title. There is no need to store starting times for PTTs or cells of non-active program chains.

Abstract: A slip defect management apparatus and method efficiently avoids processing of bad data read from a DVD and provides very rapid slipping of defective sectors in a write operation.

Abstract: A method of writing data on a disk includes the step of writing a first subset of data on a disk such that an amount of write power to write the first subset of data is adjusted in a closed-loop operation. A write-power signal representing the amount of write power to write the first subset of data is measured. After a write interruption, such as from a buffer under-run, a second subset of the data is written on the disk in an open-loop operation using the measured write power, such that the second subset of data is adjacent to the first subset of data.

Abstract: A compact disk drive controller to control the access of information from an optical compact disk (CD) digital data storage device by a host computer using an integrated drive electronics (IDE) data bus or an industry standard architecture (ISA) data bus is disclosed. A digital signal processor (DSP) interface to the drive electronics of the CD drive, a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) controller, an error correction code (ECC) data corrector, an error detection and correction (EDC) device employing cyclical redundancy checking techniques (EDC/CRC), and a host computer interface are described.

Abstract: Speed of operation is increased in a DVD error correcting apparatus by first correcting rows of DVD data from PI check bytes in a PI engine and storing it in SRAM and feeding the corrected PI data into SDRAM and a PO engine, where only the syndromes are stored in an 8K SRAM, and only the bytes to be corrected are written to SDRAM. Speed of operation is enhanced by transferring most of the random and small burst of data to SRAM in big bursts with a minimum number of random accesses to the main SDRAM or DRAM.

Abstract: A technique for modifying data of an image, such as can be implemented in a still camera or video recorder in order to correct for defects in its optical and/or electronic systems, includes generating data to modify the image as a function of radial position across it. A variation of the intensity across an image (lens shading) that appears in data from a two-dimensional detector is an example of an application of the technique. In order to make modifications to the data, positions of a two-dimensional raster scan pattern of an image sensor are converted to radial positions and this is then used to generate the modification data. The modification data is generated on the fly, at the same rate as the image data is being acquired, so that the modification takes place without slowing down data transfer from the image sensor.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for sub-1× recording is described. The method of writing a mark on a compact disk (CD-R) medium spinning at a slow rate comprises varying the laser power between a write power and a read power while writing the mark, such that when read, the mark is read as a single mark.

Abstract: A method and apparatus which enables fast testing of light sensing integrated circuits is disclosed. The integrated circuit is positioned in a test head which includes a light source output providing a flat field light to shine on the light sensing portion of the integrated circuit under test. The light is provided to the light source output through an optical fiber from a light box which includes electronic filtering and shutter operations. Light is provided to the light box through another optical fiber from a precision light source. The operation of the light box, including adjusting filtering characteristics and shutter timing is controlled from a tester which also controls the integrated circuit under test in the test head. A high speed data link couples output signals from the test head to dedicated signal processing circuitry which analyzes the output signals to determine whether the integrated circuit passes or fails testing.