Abstract: A high temperature camera apparatus having an elongated steel camera housing tube and an elongated camera support member, supporting a video camera at the furnace interior end of the camera housing tube. A ceramic heat shield tube telescopically surrounds at least a portion of the camera, and preferably the portion of the camera housing tube which contains the camera. The exterior surface of the camera housing tube is plated and polished to provide a highly reflective surface, and the ceramic heat shield tube is telescopically surrounded by an outer steel tube. The ceramic heat shield is spaced in position around the camera housing tube by a plurality of spacers projecting outwardly from the outer surface of the camera housing tube. A steel end plate is fixed at the furnace interior end of the camera housing tube, and is provided with an image hole aligned with the image axis of the camera, and a plurality of spaced ventilation holes surrounding the image hole.

Abstract: An object recognizing device for recognizing an object by transmitting laser light from a laser light source and receiving reflected light from the object by a light sensor, wherein the laser light source and the light sensor are disposed at a relative vertical distance of not less than 20 cm therebetween with a divergence angle .theta..sub.1 of the laser radiation emitted from the laser light source being set at a value of not more than 5 mrad and being smaller than an angle .alpha. formed between an optical axis of the laser light and an optical axis of the reflected light entering into the light sensor, and which is, therefore, capable of effectively recognizing any object even in an atmosphere containing aerosol, e.g., fog or haze.

Abstract: 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; a encoding control portion connected to a buffer memory, a specified area extracting portion and the motion extracting portion to control quantizing and encoding process.

Abstract: A system for matching the shape of a toothbrush to the occlusal (chewing surface of the teeth) regarding both size and shape (angles of the chewing surface), and to a device implementing the system. The system provides a variety of differently shaped toothbrushes, as well as the means for choosing the closest possible match between the size and shape of the posterior teeth and the brush. The device comprises: 1 a housing provided with means for placing the imprint thereon; 2 a sensor adapted to scan the imprint; 3 and display means for displaying the result of the scanning.

Abstract: An outdoor enclosure for a video surveillance system comprises: a housing having an outer wall with an opening; an observation bubble disposed over the opening, the housing being adapted for supporting a video surveillance camera; and, first and second fans mounted in the enclosure to establish an air flow pattern when the fans are operating which circulates substantially unidirectionally around the video surveillance camera when the camera is disposed in the bubble, the circulating air flow pattern being substantially free of dead zones inside the bubble and efficiently conducting thermal energy from within the enclosure to the outer wall and to the bubble for subsequent dissipation outside the enclosure. The enclosure can comprise a temperature responsive heater mounted in the circulating air flow pattern adjacent to the fans, downstream from the heater and upstream from the bubble. The fans are substantially transversely aligned within the circulating air flow pattern.

Abstract: A timing synchronization method and apparatus for processing a compressed information stream comprising a plurality of information segments representative of a sequence of information frames. Information segments representative of information frames are deleted in response to an indicium of buffer overutilization.

Abstract: A picture encoding method in which an input picture signal is encoded in a pre-set sequence by one of a plurality of encoding modes including at least the intra-frame coding and forward predictive coding for generating encoded data including intra-frame coded picture and forward predictive-coded picture. The scene changes in the input image signals are detected, the forward predictive-coded image directly after a detected scene change is changed to an intra-frame coded image, while at least one of intra-frame coded pictures before and after the detected scene change is changed to a forward predictively coded image. This prohibits the picture from becoming degraded in quality due to scene change.

Abstract: An aid for marine navigation includes a low-light video camera mounted within a weather-proof enclosure on a vantage point of a marine vessel for improved night vision. A conventional video camera is also mounted with the low-light video camera for daytime viewing. Video signals from the cameras are automatically selected depending on light conditions for transmission to a cabin of the vessel. Motors rotate the housing in a horizontal plane and in a vertical plane for enabling remote-controlled aiming of the cameras from the helm of the marine vessel. Sensors provide information on azimuth and elevation of the cameras for overlaying the video signal transmitted from the camera housing with this information for display with the video image on a monitor near the helm. Information on longitude and latitude, as well as vessel velocity and direction, from a global satellite positioning system receiver is also displayed.

Abstract: An MPEG digital video decoder system, method and computer program product are presented for monitoring decoding of an encoded digital video signal for one or more predefined illegal conditions. Error detection logic is coupled to the variable length (VLC) decoder, inverse quantizer (IQ), inverse discrete cosine transformer (IDCT) and motion compensator (MC) of the decoder for detecting an illegal condition within at least one of the VLC decoder, IQ, IDCT and MC during decoding of the encoded digital video signal. The monitored illegal conditions can include a VLC/IQ control error, an IQ level overrun, and IQ/IDCT buffer error, an MC idle error and an MC macroblock start error. Error signals are reported to a central error register which is monitored periodically by the decoder's control processor. The control processor initiates recovery within the decoder system prior to stoppage of the system due to the illegal condition.

Abstract: A motion image coding apparatus providing enhanced image quality as compared with the prior art includes a coding unit for coding first, second and third frames, a prediction efficiency calculating circuit for calculating prediction efficiency in inter-frame prediction, in coding by the coding unit using said first or second frame as a reference frame, and a reference frame interval determining circuit for determining a reference frame interval which is a time interval between the first and second frames, time interval between the second frames and time interval between the first frames.

Abstract: An image processing system comprises an image shifting circuit for shifting an image by processing an input video signal, a scene-change detecting circuit for detecting the presence or absence of a scene change in the input video signal, and a control circuit for controlling the amount in which the image is shifted by the image shifting circuit, according to the presence or absence of the scene change detected by the scene-change detecting circuit.

Abstract: The invention discloses an apparatus for decoding a video sequence, compressed according to a known data modeling method suitable for transmission or storage, into decompressed frames, suitable for viewing, the data model comprising a plurality of spatial intensity changes patterns, called intensity loads, a plurality of spatial address change patterns, called address loads, and a plurality of values, called scores, specifying for each frame how much of each load should be present. Each of the loads includes respective hardware components for storing and processing it. The respective components are connected in a pipeline consisting of parallel synchronous data paths, through which pipeline the intermediate image and motion field are continuously transmitted.

Abstract: A decoding device and decoding method for decoding main video data, sub video data and audio data included in a bit stream. The decoding device includes a divider which divides the bit stream into a header and data. The device also includes an extractor and a formatter, the extractor extracts first timing information which defines timing for outputting the decoded signal from the header, and the formatter inserts the first timing information to a prescribed position of the data. The device further includes a decoder for decoding the data to generate the decoded signal, and an output controller for controlling timing for outputting the decoded signal based on second timing information which defines a reference for the timing for outputting the decoded signal and the first timing information inserted at the prescribed position of the data. The decoding method includes the steps of dividing the bit stream into a header and data, and extracting the first timing information from the header.

Abstract: A lamp arc observing apparatus includes a lens unit installed in the path of light emitted from a lamp, a camera for viewing the image of the electrodes of the lamp through the lens unit, and a light intensity controlling device installed between the lens unit and the camera for controlling the intensity of light incident on the camera so that the camera can capture the image of the electrodes of the lamp.

Abstract: In a stereoscopic video transmission system, where an enhancement layer image is disparity predicted using a lower layer images, the lower layer image is made to more closely match the enhancement layer image by shifting the lower layer image to the right to compensate for inter-ocular camera lens separation. The motion vector search range for disparity prediction is reduced to improve coding efficiency. At an encoder, the optimal offset, x, between the enhancement layer image and the lower layer image is determined according to either a minimum mean error or a minimum mean squared error between the enhancement and lower layer images. The offset x is bounded by an offset search range X. The x rightmost pixel columns of the lower layer image are deleted, and the x leftmost columns of the lower layer image are padded to effectively shift the lower layer image to the right by x pixels to obtain the reference image for use in disparity predicting the enhancement layer image.

Abstract: A prediction method, merged method, has been introduced in the enhancement layer of a multiple layer video coding. This merged method was designed to efficiently handle the prediction of the non moving parts in coding of the enhancement layer VOP or frame. All the information for this merged mode prediction is obtained from the base layer, and no additional side information is transmitted. This prediction mode when used together with combination of the existing forward mode, backward mode, and interpolated mode, can improve the coding efficiency for enhancement layer video coding, especially in low bit rate coding. The method can be used in most multiple layer video coding schemes, especially in spatial scalability video coding.

Abstract: A method of performing motion estimation is disclosed which reduces the memory bandwidth requirements and simplifies the computations for performing block matching. First, multibit pixel values of frames are converted to single bit pixel values. Then, a previous frame of single bit pixel values and a reference frame of single bit pixel values are stored. To find a best match block in the previous frame, sum-of-absolute differences of pixel values between the reference frame and a block in a search area within the previous frame are compared. Finally, a motion vector representing the difference between the reference block and the best matched block in the previous frame is calculated. The value of a reference pixel is thresholded with respect to a low-pass filtered average value around the reference pixel. The reference pixel is substituted by the average value of the neighboring pixels. The multibit pixel values may be eight bit intensity values.

Abstract: A field/frame conversion method for compressed digital video, especially MPEG type video, having mixed field/frame mode macroblocks in the DCT domain utilizes a 1-D IDCT/DCT approach rather than the conventional 2-D IDCT/DCT approach. A vertical 1-D IDCT is performed on the DCT domain mixed field/frame mode macroblock to obtain a horizontal 1-D DCT domain macroblock. Thereafter, field/frame conversion is performed on the horizontal 1-D DCT domain macroblock to yield a field or frame mode horizontal 1-D DCT domain macroblock, depending on the required conversion. Finally, a vertical 1-D DCT is performed on the field/frame converted horizontal 1-D DCT domain macroblock to yield a 2-D DCT domain macroblock.

Abstract: A difference vector determination element used in an apparatus for coding motion vector includes register memories (PMV) of which number is equal to sum of maximum transmission numbers N and M of forward predictive and backward predictive motion vectors. Motion vector counter counts the number of transmission of motion vectors to output a motion vector count signal. Register index designation signal generator designates indices of (1.about.N(N+1).about.(N+M)) in order of transmission of forward predictive or backward predictive motion vectors on the basis of attached information such as motion compensation mode, prediction type, and picture structure, etc. of motion vector, and the motion vector count signal from the motion vector counter to allow switch to perform switching operation, thus allowing register memories (PMV) and motion vectors to have one-to-one correspondence relationship.

Abstract: A method for coding a video signal made up of a plurality of sequential video frames. First, correspondence information relating color frame information values to types of video coding is provided, the color frame information values and types of coding being related on a one to one basis such that for each value of color frame information there is only one corresponding type of coding. Next, a value of color frame information is determined for each video frame and the type of coding to be used on the frame is selected by associating the frame's color frame information with a coding type via the correspondence information. Finally, the image frames are coded according to the coding types selected by referencing the correspondence information.