Abstract: An object recognition apparatus that can recognize an object in an image acquired by an on-vehicle camera mounted on a vehicle with high efficiency and accuracy. A recognition processing is carried out in a cut off range, which is cut off from the image, and in which an object to be recognized is supposed to be present. The cut off range is obtained using support information supplied from a position detection device and/or an anti-lock brake device of the vehicle. Since the object in the image changes its position as the vehicle moves, the displacement must be estimated during the object recognition. The estimation requires camera attitude parameters of the on-vehicle camera with respect to the road, and the estimation is performed using support information supplied from the position detection device and/of the anti-lock brake device. This will improve the efficiency and accuracy of obtaining the camera attitude parameters.

Abstract: A high-speed motion estimating apparatus for a high-definition television is disclosed including a sub-screen forming portion for forming and outputting sub-search areas and prediction blocks corresponding to the respective steps from an input reference image and prediction image; a motion estimating portion for obtaining and outputting a minimum average absolute error and motion vector having the minimum average absolute error corresponding to one sub-search area from the sub-screen forming portion in the respective steps; and a minimum average absolute error motion vector detecting portion for obtaining and outputting a final motion vector having the minimum average absolute error and minimum average absolute error in the respective steps, using motion vectors having the minimum average absolute error and minimum average absolute error which are the outputs of the motion estimating portion.

Abstract: The invention provides a transceiver in which a mutual interference between the transmitting and receiving circuits can be suppressed, without a shielding plate therebetween. The transceiver comprises the first and second printed circuit boards, which are positioned face to face. Components of the transceiver are mounted on the front surfaces of the aforementioned printed circuit boards, and compose the transmitting and receiving circuits. The front surfaces of the first and second boards are respectively divided into the transmitting and receiving regions As and Bs, on which corresponding components are respectively mounted. The aforementioned regions As and Bs are so formed that they are respectively positioned face to face, then the components of the transmitting and receiving circuits are never positioned back to back, and the mutual interferences between the transmitting and receiving circuits does not occurs, even if a shielding plate is eliminated.

Abstract: A method for an RF base station (105) to transmit an emergency message to a selective call receiver (104). The base station (105) receives incoming messages that are to be transmitted to selective call receivers, some of which incoming messages are emergency messages that include an emergency code, such as "911". The base station (105) creates a shortened emergency message by removing the emergency code from an incoming emergency message, and sends the shortened emergency message to a selective call receiver (104), along with an alert instruction for actuating a priority alert in the selective call receiver (104).

Abstract: A system and method for performing motion estimation. Interlaced frames are reduced in resolution using field based scaling, and a first search is performed on the reduced resolution frames. This first search is performed by computing motion errors between the fields of a current frame and the fields of a reference frame to obtain vectors that approximately describe inter-field motion. These same motion errors are used to compute frame errors, which are used to obtain vectors that approximately describe inter-frame motion. The approximate field and frame vectors are then refined to get more precise vectors.

Abstract: On a decoding side, parameters (minimum value MIN and dynamic range DR) are optimized in such a manner that a decoded error of original signal values and restored values becomes minimum. A maximum value detecting portion 2 detects the maximum value MAX of pixels of each block composed of (3.times.3) pixels. Likewise, a minimum value detecting portion 3 detects the minimum value MIN. A subtracting portion 4 generates a dynamic range DR. A subtracting portion 5 subtracts MIN from each of input pixel values y and generates normalized values. A step width calculating portion 6 calculates a quantizing step width .DELTA. with DR. A quantizing portion 7 generates quantized values x (each of which is composed of 4 bits) with .DELTA.. A least squares method based estimating portion 8 generates decoded values y' with y and x and obtains an optimized dynamic range DR' and an optimized minimum value MIN' in such a manner that the sum of square of an error (y'-y) becomes minimum.

Abstract: A video encoder control system and method are disclosed for controlling a video encoder using a processor having a multiple field delay circuit for delaying input video data by a predetermined number of frames, and a statistics generator for generating statistics from the video data to control the encoder. The statistics generator calculates a sum of absolute values of field differences between pixels, with the sum used for detecting a redundant field, for generating a film flag, and for controlling the encoder using the film flag. The statistics generator calculates averages of blocks of pixels, and a fade detector uses the averages for detecting fades between successive frames to generate a fade flag to control the encoding. The rate controller responds to the statistics to change the resolution of the encoding of successive frames. The processor outputs the film flags, scene change flags, and fade flags to the rate controller to control the encoding of the delayed video data.

Abstract: The present invention is a radio transmitter/receiver in which a receiving local oscillation means composed of a PLL including a dividing circuit is free from an erroneous operation due to an invasion of a transmitting signal and a suppression of power consumed is achieved. A frequency mixing circuit 3 receives a local oscillation signal S3 from a receiving local oscillation means 5 and converts a receiving signal S1 into an intermediate frequency signal. A transmitting section 6 output a transmitting signal S4 during talking. A transmitting detection circuit 7 detects the transmitting signal S4 to output a transmitting detection signal S5. An amplifying circuit 51 of receiving local oscillation means 5 is supplied with a current from a current source circuit 52 and amplifies the local oscillation signal S3. The current source circuit 52 increases the supply current upon the receipt of the transmitting detection signal S5 and increases the gain of the amplifying circuit 51.

Abstract: In a compression system including a quantizer for quantifying a matrix of coefficients according to a matrix of quantizing values, and which is responsive to rate buffer occupancy for providing quantizing scale factors to modify the quantizing matrix, significant channel capacity may be salvaged without significant loss of image quality by incorporating apparatus to limit the minimum values of quantizing scale factors that are applied to the quantizing matrix.

Abstract: A two-dimensional contour enhancement is performed along a plurality of lines on a two-dimensional frequency characteristic chart, the line intersecting with each other at middle points between successive color cross generating regions and not passing through an origin. Then, the contour enhancement can be carried out in a frequency region of 3-4 MHz in which a visual effect of contour enhancement appears most effective, while the enhancement in the cross color generating regions can be suppressed.

Abstract: In an image sequence encoding device, a specified area and a motion area are extracted from an input image and encoded by allocating a relatively increased amount of codes to the specified area and a relatively reduced amount of codes to the motion area to improve the quality of the specified area of the image. The image sequence encoding device is provided with a specified area extracting portion connected to a frame memory to extract a specified area from an input image; a motion area extracting portion connected to a motion detecting portion to extract a motion area according to a magnitude of motion vectors and a specified area of a preceding frame; an encoding control portion connected to a buffer memory; a specified area extracting portion and a motion extracting portion to control quantizing and encoding process.

Abstract: A device for transcoding coded digital signals which are representative of a sequence of images, which device comprises a variable length decoding channel (12) followed by a variable length encoding and decoding channel (13), is described. According to the invention, a prediction sub-assembly (140) is connected in cascade between these two channels, and this sub-assembly comprises, in series, between two subtracters (114, 45), a picture memory (41) and a circuit (42) for motion compensation in view of displacement vectors which are representative of the motion of each image. Other implementations are possible, and particularly a scalable one in which said prediction sub-assembly comprises at least two and more generally a plurality of similar encoding and decoding channels arranged in cascade and corresponding to the same number of image quality levels.

Abstract: A motion detector and a motion area detector detect shifts of areas at which motions exist by using signals of fields before and after the field to be detected. According to shifts of the detected areas, an initial vector closest to the true motion is selected among prospective initial vectors produced at an initial vector selector or an initial vector detector by a block matching method, thereby reducing detection errors in motion vectors occurring at a time of the detection of motion vectors, and thereby improving accuracy of motion vectors, so that image distortions would be reduced in an interpolating process.

Abstract: A magnifying device for magnifying an object and displaying the object on a monitor is disclosed. The magnifying device includes a hand held unit or scanner and a base unit. The scanner includes a solid state camera which is mounted in a housing. The scanner includes a focusing control and a zoom control. The focusing and zoom controls are interconnected so that the image will not have to be refocused if the magnification of the image is changed. The camera converts the image to an electrical signal which is sent to the base unit. A mobile holder for the scanner is provided having an upper frame of space apart, horizontally extending arms. The arms extend laterally from the top edge of a vertical side wall. The scanner can be removeably attached between the arms and there by elevated above the object being read. The side wall has a pair of wheels attached to the bottom corners. There is a support member at one corner which extends laterally from the wall and parallel to the support arms.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for generating a fully intra-coded video frame from a received progressive refresh bitstream representing a series of inter-coded video frames. Intra-coded macroblocks of received video frames are identified, selected, processed and stored to facilitate later combination into a single fully intra-coded composite video frame suitable for use during VTR trick play operation. As part of the intra-coded macroblock selection process, in various embodiments, the large sets of adjacent macroblocks are given priority over previously selected macroblocks that correspond to non-adjacent positions within a video frame or which correspond to a smaller set of adjacent video frames.

Abstract: An enhanced services communication system (10) has a standard services region and an enhanced services region (58) in which communication may be carried out. Subscriber units (49, 109) located within the enhanced services region (58) request enhanced services that include dynamic allocation of bandwidth. A variable bandwidth repeater switch (42) evaluates the availability of requested bandwidth and allocates the bandwidth to the subscriber units (49, 109) when available. Transmission of data using enhanced services occurs using wideband wired interfaces (115), wideband wireless interfaces (70), or PSTN interfaces (103). Selection of dynamic allocation of bandwidth may rely upon economic, propagation duration, or link quality factors, among other considerations.

Abstract: In a digital recording and reproducing apparatus, at least a first area to record an image signal and a second area to record an audio signal are provided on a recording medium, the digitized image signal and audio signal are separately recorded in the areas. The apparatus has arrangement for recording image annexed information annexed to the image signal into a third area provided for the first area and arrangement for recording audio annexed information annexed to the audio signal into a fourth area provided for the second area. Recording start identification information is recorded in the third and fourth areas for only a predetermined period after the start of the recording.

Abstract: The scene cut detector compares predicted macroblocks from an anchor image to input macroblocks from an input image on a macroblock-by-macroblock basis to generate a residual macroblock representing the difference between each predicted macroblock and each input macroblock. A variance for each residual macroblock and a variance for each input macroblock is computed after each comparison. The residual variance is compared to the input macroblock variance. Whenever the variance of the residuals macroblock exceeds the variance of the input macroblock, a counter is incremented. The scene cut detector repeats this process until each macroblock in the predicted image is compared to each input macroblock. If the count value ever exceeds a threshold level while a input image is being processed, the scene cut detector sets a scene cut indicator flag.

Abstract: A radio receiver has an antenna circuit, a high-frequency amplifier, a tuned circuit, a mixer for generating a first intermediate frequency signal, and an AGC circuit applied with an output signal of the radio receiver for controlling a gain of the receiver. An intermodulation predicting circuit is provided. The intermodulation predicting circuit has a high-frequency amplifier applied with an output of the radio receiver, and a mixer for generating a second intermediate frequency signal. The intermodulation predicting circuit has a dynamic range smaller than that of the radio receiver. Therefore an intermodulation prediction signal based on a received broadcasting signal is produced earlier than a response to the received broadcasting signal at the radio receiver.

Abstract: The invention relates to a single-camera autostereoscopic picture-taking device implementing an array of cylindrical lenses, characterized in that it comprises in succession:a single inlet objective (L1, L2);said lens array (20), which has a focal length such that for an image area equal to the pitch (p) of the lenses making it up, the image of the entrance pupil of the telecentric objective (L1, L2) has a nominal width equal to said pitch;a transfer optical system (L3, L4) having magnification of less than unity; andan image sensor (22),the transfer optical system (L3, L4) directing the light rays that emerge from the lens array (20) onto the image sensor (22), the image (21) of the lens array (20) in the transfer optical system (L3, L4) being such that the pitch (p) of the lenses of the lens array (20) corresponds therein to an integer number of image points (pixels) of the image sensor (22).