Abstract: A video camera apparatus and a video surveillance system having a video camera are provided with a video compression unit which utilizes quantization for spatial processing and motion vectors for temporal processing. The camera apparatus and surveillance system include a camera with an adjustment mechanism which allows panning, tiring, zooming and focusing of the camera. The adjustment mechanism has a device for generating adjustment indication signals which indicate the state of adjustment of the camera. The adjustment indication signals are generated by a remote control panel or by means of transducers which detect the state of panning, tilting, zooming or focusing. A processor generates an instruction to the compression unit to adjust the degree of compression processing by video compression unit in response to the adjustment indication signals.

Abstract: An antenna assembly, and an associated method, which exhibits a selected the antenna beam configuration. The direction of a primary lobe and of a null is selected to improve the signal-to-noise and signal-to-interference ratios of communication signals transmitted between two communication stations. When implemented to form a portion of a base station of a cellular communication system, the traffic capacity of the communication system can be increased and the infrastructure costs of the system can be reduced.

Abstract: A reflective rotund lens is positioned for projecting a panoramic picture of its horizontal surroundings at a given elevation onto a CCD array, for converting the picture into "pixel form" or an image signal. The image signal is digitized via an A/D converter circuit. A digital signal processor system is programmed for extracting a strip of pixel locations representative of an image ring mapped to pixel locations via superimposition upon the image, whereby all pixel locations outside of the image ring are eliminated by passing the pixels thereof through said A/D converter circuit at a rate higher than the conversion rate of the A/D converter circuit.

Abstract: A satellite communication system by which information of afflicted areas can be collected rapidly and accurately at the time of disaster such as an earthquake or the like, and which is easy to introduce. In the system, a center station accommodates a plurality of extensions of a private branch exchange. Portable terrestrial stations are made to one-to-one correspond to the extensions accommodated in the private branch exchange and the center station connects the extensions to the corresponding portable terrestrial stations. The respective frequency bands of a communication satellite to be used for the transmission from each of the portable terrestrial stations to the center station and for the transmission from the center station of each of the portable terrestrial stations corresponding to the one extension are stationarily secured. Each portable terrestrial station is small-sized so as to be portable by a person or by a motorcycle.

Abstract: To facilitate editing of first and second compressed picture data each having been obtained by prediction-coding, the second compressed picture data is modified by decoding a frame of the second compressed picture data at an editing point and re-coding the decoded data such that every frame around the editing point can be decoded after editing. The first compressed picture data and the modified second compressed picture data are linked to complete the editing. To facilitate mixing of a compressed picture data with a non-compressed picture data, the compressed picture data is decoded and added to the non-compressed picture data to obtain a mixed picture data. The mixed picture data is re-coded to be a compressed picture data. In each of the editing and mixing, the re-coding may be performed by using at least one of the motion compensation information, motion vector information and orthogonal transform mode information which can be derived from the compressed picture data during the decoding process.

Abstract: To realize a multi-eye image pickup apparatus which can perform proper exposure for each of a plurality of image pickup devices, the multi-eye image pickup apparatus having a plurality of image pickup devices is arranged to have an exposure amount controlling device provided for each of the image pickup devices, for controlling an exposure amount, and a control unit for determining an exposure amount of each exposure amount controlling device, based on photometric values of pickup images obtained by the plurality of image pickup devices or based on photometric values of split images obtained by splitting each of the pickup images into a plurality of zones.

Abstract: A method of adaptively performing motion compensation in a video processing apparatus is provided. The video processing apparatus processes macroblocks of compressed video information. Some of these macroblocks have motion vectors associated therewith. The method is conveniently implemented on a general purpose computer in one embodiment. In accordance with the disclosed method, the performance of the processor in the computer is monitored and a measurement of this performance is made. A threshold dependent on the measured processor performance is then set. For those macroblocks which have motion vectors associated therewith, the magnitude of the motion vector is determined. If the magnitude of the motion vector of a particular macroblock exceeds the threshold, then motion compensation is performed on that macroblock. However, if the magnitude of the motion vectors or motion vectors associated with a particular macroblock do not exceed the threshold, then no motion compensation is performed.

Abstract: A surveillance information recording system comprises a recording device loaded with a recording medium for recording video information concerning the object or place to be monitored, and a dummy device which can eject a recording medium in a manner similar to that in which a recording medium is ejected from an ordinary recording device. The recording device is located in an inconspicuous place, or concealed. The dummy device is located in a relatively conspicuous place. An intruder will mistakenly believe that if he carries out an ejecting operation on the dummy device and takes away the ejected recording medium, no evidence against him will be left behind. As an alternative, two loading sections may be provided in a single recording device, the recording of information being carried out in one of the loading sections, and the recording medium in the other loading section being ejected responsive to an ejecting operation.

Abstract: A frame size regulating circuit provides high picture quality to a viewer by regulating a frame width according to a picture brightness signal and pulsewidth modulation signals. The circuit includes a microprocessor for generating pulsewidth modulation signals for respectively regulating horizontal and vertical sizes of the frame according to horizontal and vertical sync signals from the external, and a horizontal-size control signal generator part for generating a horizontal size control signal for regulating the horizontal size according to the first pulsewidth modulation signal of the microprocessor and a picture brightness signal from a flyback transformer.

Abstract: An endoscope system comprises a plurality of endoscope components including at least one endoscope light source apparatus for supplying illumination light to an endoscope and at least one video signal processing unit for processing video signals provided by the endoscope, a main control unit for controlling the plurality of endoscope system components, and a main operational instruction unit connected to the main control unit and used to operate the plurality of endoscope system components. The main operational instruction unit includes a display capable of selectively displaying operational instruction input screens associated with functions possessed by the plurality of endoscope system components.

Abstract: A mixer circuit is provided which incorporates inductive elements for low voltage applications. The circuit consists of a balanced amplifier and a switch composed of transistor pairs driven by a local oscillator signal for multiplying the signal to produce a circuit output signal having a predetermined intermediate frequency. Inductors are used to provide degenerative feedback in the balanced amplifier portion of the circuit. The inductors generate negligible noise and produce a negligible dc voltage drop. The transistors in the circuit are thereby maintained in saturation regions of operation as desired. In accordance with another aspect of the invention, an inductor or, alternatively, a parallel inductor-capacitor circuit, is used as a constant current source in conjunction with the input transistors in the balanced amplifier portion of the circuit.

Abstract: In a radio pager capable of receiving a paging signal subjected to multilevel digital frequency modulation, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) receives a demodulated voltage signal in the form of an analog signal from a demodulator. The ADC functions to define the upper limit of an analog signal conversion range with a first reference voltage and to define the lower limit of the same with a second reference voltage. Even when at least one of the demodulation sensitivity and demodulated center voltage of the demodulated voltage signal changes with a change in temperature and causes the signal to change, the relation between the signal range of the demodulated voltage signal and the analog signal conversion range of the ADC is maintained constant. Therefore, even if the demodulated voltage signal before temperature compensation changes, the ADC is capable of outputting a stable digital signal identical in content or data with an intermediate frequency signal input to the demodulator.

Abstract: An integrated circuit includes a single pole double throw switch including a transmitting and receiving port, a transmitting port, and a receiving port. A transmission switch is coupled between the transmitting port and the transmitting and receiving port. A reception switch is coupled between the receiving port and the transmitting and receiving port. The reception switch includes a field effect transistor having a gate, a drain and a source. A voltage generating circuit receives first and second power supply voltages. The first power supply voltage is greater than the second power supply voltage. The voltage generating circuit generates a third voltage lower than the second power supply voltage and applies the third voltage to the gate of the field effect transistor of the reception switch during transmission.

Abstract: A moving picture signal decoding system includes a processing order determination element having a logic calculation device for decoding additional data, determining as to whether an orthogonal transformation is performed with respect to a divided signal of each block or a residual signal after motion compensation, and changing a processing order in accordance with a determined content; a decoding element for decoding transformation coefficient data; an inverse scanning element for inversely scanning the transformation coefficient decoded by the decoding element; an inverse quantization element for inversely quantizing the transformation coefficient after inversely scanning; an inverse orthogonal transformation element for inversely and orthogonally transforming the inverse quantized signal; and a motion compensation element for compensating a motion on the basis of the additional data decoded by the processing order determination element; wherein the processing order determination element decompresses the ad

Abstract: A method for decoding a video signal in which the decoding operation is completed within a predetermined time irrespective of the presence of an error which is generated on a bit strings. In the case where a bit strings formed by coding a video signal for each of predetermined blocks, the decoding operation is suspended upon the detection of the presence of an error in the bit strings followed by resuming the decoding operation from any of the synchronous codes present on the bit strings. At this time, it is judged on the basis of the position of the error detected from the bit strings as to from which synchronous code out of the synchronous codes present on the bit strings the decoding operation is resumed thereby completing within a predetermined time the decoding operation of a series of data groups including an error part of the bit strings.

Abstract: In a multi-eye image pick-up apparatus, an optical axis angle controller sets the optical axes of first and second video camera portions at predetermined optical axis angles when a power supply voltage for allowing an image pick-up operation is supplied. When the optical axes of the first and second video camera portions do not cross each other at a position in front of the apparatus, in-focus detection is performed using an overlapping region between image pick-up regions of the first and second video camera portions.

Abstract: A fading simulator for generating multipath-faded test signals which have attenuation notches of precisely controllable frequency position and attenuation depth from a modulated input signal of known bandwidth. The input signal is fed to a splitter that directs two in-phase components to a first path and a second path. The input to each path is divided by a splitter into in-phase and quadrature sub-signals having a quadrature phase relationship, each sub-signal being fed to a respective inverting attenuator, the outputs of the attenuators then being combined in a combiner and the combined output being passed through a variable delay line to generate the output of the respective path. The outputs of each path are then combined in a combiner circuit to generate the multipath-faded test signal. All four inverting attenuators are preferably substantially identical to one another so that the two paths have close to identical temperature-drift and other characteristics.

Abstract: A moving image coder has a forward predicting motion vector/prediction error amount detecting section for detecting an optimum motion vector from a past frame, making a predicted image and calculating a prediction error amount from the present frame. The coder also has a backward predicting motion vector/prediction error amount detecting section for detecting an optimum motion vector from a future frame, making a predicted image and calculating a prediction error amount from the present frame. The coder further has a comparator/mode selecting section for inputting the prediction error amounts from the forward predicting motion vector/prediction error amount detecting section and the backward prediction motion vector/prediction error amount detecting section, making a comparative calculation of the input prediction error amounts, and selecting one of a forward prediction mode, a backward prediction mode and a bidirectional prediction mode.

Abstract: A moving image coder has an arithmetic unit for calculating an average value of a coding object block; an arithmetic unit for obtaining an alternating current component by subtracting the average value from each of pixel values of the coding object block; an arithmetic unit for obtaining a intra frame activity amount by making a calculation of the same kind as an error calculation in a motion prediction with respect to the obtained alternating current component; and a comparator for comparing the intra frame activity amount with a predicting error amount calculated when the motion prediction is made. The inter frame coding mode or the intra frame coding mode is judged by large and small relations of the predicting error amount and the intra frame activity amount. In this moving image coder, codings of a intra frame block and a inter frame differential block are adaptively switched in a small hardware scale.

Abstract: A video signal transmission method and apparatus for instantaneously providing a normally reproduced picture upon start of an image data transmission or in other potentially unstable states through steady processing, wherein the image signal of one frame is first divided into a plurality of blocks. The image signal of the divided blocks is coded by intraframe coding and interframe coding. The intraframe-coded signal for one frame is transmitted periodically. Meanwhile, the magnitude of the correlation between two blocks is detected, one of the two blocks belonging to a given frame and corresponding to the other block belonging to the preceding frame. Then the quantization characteristic of the image signal to be transmitted is controlled in accordance with the detected magnitude of the correlation.