Patents Examined by Christopher Onuaku
  • Patent number: 7190882
    Abstract: An in-car video system with inputs for one or more analog or digital video cameras, one or more of which may be wireless, and having inputs for one or more microphones, one or more of which may be wireless. The system includes circuitry to digitize the input signals, if necessary, merge the data with system status data and compress the resulting data with any algorithm, preferably MPEG 4. A digital data cassette recorder records the compressed data, and a decompression circuit and active matrix display and audio channel provide monitoring capability of live video and audio. In some embodiments, a hard disk continuously records all data and archives previously recorded data to tape when so ordered to provide after-the-fact recording capability. In some embodiments, anti-tampering circuitry renders the recorded data tamper-proof, and a local playback circuit allows local playback of either live or previously recorded video.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2001
    Date of Patent: March 13, 2007
    Assignee: Applied Concepts, Inc.
    Inventor: Robert S. Gammenthaler
  • Patent number: 7187844
    Abstract: An information recording apparatus include: a processing unit for processing recording information to be recorded and for generating processed information; a storage unit for temporarily storing the processed information; a recording unit for recording the processed information onto an information storage medium; a position storing unit for storing, at a time of interrupting recording of the processed information, an interruption storage position which is a storage position in the storage unit of the processed information corresponding to a timing at which interruption is instructed; an interrupting unit for interrupting recording of the processed information after storing the interruption storing position; and a restart unit for restarting the recording of the processed information based on the stored interruption storage position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2000
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2007
    Assignee: Pioneer Corporation
    Inventors: Kyoichi Terao, Hiroshi Iwamura, Shigeru Adachi
  • Patent number: 7187848
    Abstract: The erasion level appending range of a file is instructed. According to this instruction, the erasion level is set. When this setting range does not agree with the cell unit of the current cell, the current cell is divided to set a sequence of divided cells. Playback management information of each of the divided cells and current cell is re-created, and erasion level information is appended to playback management information of the divided cell that belongs to the appending range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2004
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2007
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Shinichi Kikuchi, Hideo Ando, Kazuhiko Taira, Yuji Ito, Hideki Mimura
  • Patent number: 7184652
    Abstract: There is provided a digital video recording/reproduction apparatus which can precisely perform a reproduction process while preventing noise generation even when a program has been recorded in overwriting fashion, such being realized by detecting a discontinuous portion in the stream at the time of reproduction. A PMT_PID or an ES_PID contained in each packet of a partial TS is recorded on a recording medium so as to take a different value each time there is a discontinuity in a stream. As a result, in a reproduction process of a recording medium which has been recorded in this manner, especially when data which has been overwritten on an already-recorded medium is to be reproduced, the discontinuous portion in the stream (i.e., the recorded portion immediately following the overwritten portion) can be easily determined. Thus, a precise reproduction process can be performed while preventing noise from being generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2002
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2007
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Keishi Sugimoto, Naoe Kato
  • Patent number: 7174090
    Abstract: In a digital VTR having a certain recording bit rate, within a range not higher than a remaining data rate after recording the bit stream, first HP data D1 is recorded in first specific regions, and second HP data D2 is recorded in second specific regions in specific tracks. In middle-speed and high-speed fast replay, the magnetic tape is transported continuously at a middle-speed or high-speed higher than the standard speed for normal replay, and the first HP data D1 is used in common, and at a low-speed fast replay of about twice the normal speed, the speed of the magnetic tape is alternated between a speed near the standard speed for normal replay, and a speed near the low-speed fast, and at the speed near the standard speed, the second HP data disposed in the second specific regions in the specific tracks and the first HP data disposed in the first specific regions in the specific tracks are both replayed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2007
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masako Asamura, Satoshi Kurahashi, Tomohiro Ueda, Taketoshi Hibi, Tatsuo Yamasaki, Junko Ishimoto, Tohru Inoue, Ken Onishi
  • Patent number: 7174082
    Abstract: In a de-emphasis circuit designing method for minimizing the number of peripheral components of a video signal processing integrated circuit (IC), a circuit device for determining the level of a reproduced video signal of the de-emphasis circuit is included in the video signal processing IC. The number of components is reduced by designing all circuit elements of the circuit device for determining the level of the reproduced video signal of the de-emphasis circuit so that they are incorporated into the video signal processing IC at the time of design of the video signal processing IC, thereby reducing cost and reducing any deviation in the playback (PB) level due to external component deviation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2007
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Chul-min Kim
  • Patent number: 7167632
    Abstract: A broadcast network sends audiovisual transmissions to a plurality of receivers. The transmissions contain also short audiovisual transmissions, typically advertising spots and information for triggering the displaying of an advertisement page. The receivers are furnished with a large recording capacity that allows the recording of several short audiovisual transmissions. At a time defined by the information transmitted in the audiovisual transmissions, the short audiovisual transmissions are, upon reception in the receiver, automatically replaced by transmissions of the same type previously recorded in the receiver. The receiver resumes normal displaying of the transmissions at the end of the broadcasting of the audiovisual transmissions of a certain type. According to an improvement, the recording of the transmissions can be performed according to the preferences of the user. The preferences of the user are defined during a configuration phase.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2007
    Assignee: Thomson Licensing
    Inventors: Michel Cosmao, Louis Chevallier, Pierre Houeix
  • Patent number: 7162145
    Abstract: In a multi-media system for transferring and receiving a transport stream (MPEG2-TS) between a receiver and a recording/reproducing device using the IEEE 1394 interface, a program number command of a selected program is transferred from the receiver to the recording/reproducing device during a recording/playback mode, and the recording and playback are controlled by only one input device for the receiver. Therefore, other devices of the multi-media system can be controlled without extra hardware added to the receiver. Further, an on-screen graphic (OSG) is provided by the receiver, resulting in a consistent OSG.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 1997
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2007
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Il-ju Na, Jeong-tae Kim
  • Patent number: 7158713
    Abstract: In an information recording and reproducing apparatus, a plurality of first video-contents signals are recorded on a first recording medium. A plurality of second video-contents signal are recorded on a second recording medium. The second recording medium differs from the first recording medium, and is removable. Signals representative of thumbnails are generated in response to the second video-contents signals respectively. The signals representative of the thumbnails are recorded on the first recording medium in cases where the plurality of the second video-contents signals are recorded on the second recording medium. The signals representative of the thumbnails are reproduced from the first recording medium. The thumbnails represented by the reproduced signals are displayed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2007
    Assignee: Victor Company Japan, Ltd.
    Inventors: Nobuyuki Goto, Noriaki Fukutsu
  • Patent number: 7155109
    Abstract: A computing system connected to storage medium and one or more rendering devices identifies and processes only selected frames of data that are stored on the storage medium, thereby reducing the resources and bandwidth is required to process and transmit the data to the rendering device(s) at a desired playback. The computing system has various modes for selecting the frames to be processed and transmitted. In one mode, all frames are selected. In another mode, only the key frames are selected. In yet other modes, only certain key frames are selected. Upon selecting the frames to be transmitted to the rendering device(s), the time stamps assigned to the selected frames are scaled so that the selected frames will be displayed for an appropriate duration of time that corresponds with the desired playback rate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2002
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Matthijs A. Gates, Jai Srinivasan
  • Patent number: 7136578
    Abstract: A data recording and reproducing apparatus (11) which generates a plurality of divided data through dividing input data D1 using a distributor (22) if recording data, while generating redundancy-code data P1 and P2 using Read-Solomon-code data which can perform error-correcting on a plurality of divided data, and records the divided data and the redundancy-code data P1, P2 on HDDs 211 to 21K, 281 and 28Z. The data recording and reproducing apparatus (11) reproduces the divided data and the redundancy-code data from the HDDs 211 to 21K, 281 and 28Z, performs error-correcting processing on the divided data based on the redundancy-code data by an error corrector (31), and outputs the divided data which have been error-corrected after multiplying the divided data by a data multiplier (32) if reproducing data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2003
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2006
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Norikazu Ito, Satoshi Yoneya, Masakazu Yoshimoto, Satoshi Katsuo, Jun Yoshikawa, Satoshi Yutani, Koichi Sato, Tomohisa Shiga, Hiroyuki Fujita, Masaki Hirose
  • Patent number: 7133599
    Abstract: A realtime data recording method allows recovery of recorded file data upon occurrence of a fault for use as a readable file. Prior to recording, initial management data are generated such that the entire area on a recording medium 1 is reflected as a recording range. After the initial management data has been recorded, data recording is started. During the recording, a writing status of the recording medium (or apparatus) is set as in-writing status, and realtime sector information generated in parallel to data recording is recorded in a non-volatile memory for management of a recording status. Upon restarting after a recording fault, the in-writing status of recording medium 1 is read to see if the medium has been set open, and inconsistency between the recording information of the sector information and the in-writing status recording information is detected. Correct management data is recorded and re-recorded onto the recording medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2003
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2006
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Tsukasa Hasegawa, Masahiro Kageyama, Tamotsu Ito
  • Patent number: 7113691
    Abstract: A method of and an apparatus for writing data on and reading data from a recording medium such as an optical disc, a magnetic disc and, particularly, a tape are described. When a block of the medium is defective, the data to be written in said block is stored in an auxiliary memory. Subsequently, all the data from the auxiliary memory is copied to a predetermined spare area of the medium. Conversely, when the medium is read, data is first copied from the spare area of the medium to the auxiliary memory. If a block then appears to be defective, the correct information is read from the auxiliary memory. Thus, it is possible to write and read a real-time audio and/or video signal in a reliable manner without the possible presence of any defective blocks affecting the data transfer rate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2006
    Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
    Inventor: Ewout Brandsma
  • Patent number: 7113692
    Abstract: A recording/reproducing device has an NTSC decoder which receives a video signal and outputs a video signal, an MPEG audio encoder which receives an audio signal and outputs an audio signal, and a synchronous control circuit which detects a synchronizing signal from the video signal input to the NTSC decoder and uses that signal to generate an output synchronizing signal that is different from the input synchronizing signal. The output synchronizing signal is used to output the video signal from the NTSC decoder. In the recording/reproducing device, the NTSC decoder and the MPEG audio encoder provide a delay to the input video signal and audio signal, respectively, and output the video signal and audio signal in accordance with the output synchronizing signal generated by the synchronous control circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2006
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Hajime Nitta, Toshimichi Hamada, Masashi Ohta, Kiyoshi Ota
  • Patent number: 7110662
    Abstract: A DVD-Audio which includes a data zone for storing data to be reproduced and an information zone for storing information on the data to be reproduced. The information zone includes directories of a video title set (VIDEO_TS) and an audio title set (AUDIO_TS). The AUDIO_TS directory includes information on an audio manager (AMG) having information on audio titles. The data zone includes the audio titles each having an audio title set information (ATSI) followed by a plurality of contiguous audio objects (AOBs). The ATSI includes a plurality of audio stream attributes each having an audio coding mode, first to third quantization bit numbers, first to third sampling frequencies and decoding algorithm information relating to the number of audio channels. Each of the AOBs includes a plurality of audio packs recorded with audio data corresponding to the decoding algorithm stored in the audio stream attribute.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2006
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Jung-Kwon Heo
  • Patent number: 7106946
    Abstract: A transport stream recording device, method thereof, transport stream reproduction device, method thereof, and recording medium for efficiently recording and reproducing transport streams. A source packet having a four byte TP_extra_Header attached to a 188 byte transport packet is generated, 32 source packets of 192 bytes each are collected, and aligned units generated equivalent to a three sector portion of data (6144 bytes) are recorded or reproduced on the recording medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2006
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Motoki Kato
  • Patent number: 7106954
    Abstract: A digital image and speech recording and reproducing apparatus is arranged to quickly and simply retrieve, classify, and erase a great deal of data for improving the operativity in small-sized equipment. The apparatus includes a recording and reproducing unit for a moving image signal, a recording and reproducing unit for a still image signal, a recording and reproducing unit for a digital speech signal operated in synchronous to the image, a display for displaying the image for said moving image signal or said still image signal, a recording condition recording unit for recording recording conditions containing data information about recorded data for distinguishing said moving image from said still image and recording time information for recording an image or a speech.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2006
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hisashi Inoue, Keiji Nagayama, Tomishige Yatsugi
  • Patent number: 7103263
    Abstract: In a program receiver and a method of display processing of a program explanation screen, it is possible to display a reproduced program explanation screen as high-definite as a received program explanation screen when reproducing received program explanation information after recorded. Unrelated and unnecessary information is not displayed in reproduction when program explanation screen generating means for generating a received program explanation screen based on program explanation information added to the received program data is employed to generate a reproduced program explanation screen based on program explanation information added to the reproduced data. This enables efficient graphics processing and helps the user distinguish the received program explanation screen from the reproduced program explanation screen to prevent confusion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2006
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Naoki Murayama, Ichiro Hamada, Tatsuya Wakahara, Hajime Inoue
  • Patent number: 7103267
    Abstract: A camera which records positional data, which is obtained by a GPS unit during photographing, and image data on a memory card. The camera receives the positional data representing the photographing place from the GPS unit, and records the positional data and the image data on the memory card. While the GPS unit is measuring the position to obtain the positional data to be recorded, an image pickup circuit including a CCD sensor, etc. which converts image light into an image signal, a recording circuit for recording the image signal on the memory card, an LCD monitor which is used as a view finder, a strobe unit and a printer are halted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2006
    Assignee: Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Izumi Miyake
  • Patent number: 7099557
    Abstract: A portable recording and/or reproducing apparatus for recording and/or reproducing data to and/or from a storage medium are provided. The medium has a data area and a management area. The data area stores data and the management area stores management information for managing the data. The apparatus includes stopping means for stopping reproduction of the data according to a user's input. Updating means for updates the management information so that an address of the storage medium corresponding to the stop position of the reproduced data determined by the user's input becomes the end address of the reproduced data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2000
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2006
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Shiro Morotomi, Tomoyo Kashimoto