Abstract: The invention relates generally to transmitting and receiving multiple channels of information, particularly audio information which represents a multidimensional sound field. More particularly, the invention relates to devices and methods which provide signals that are compatible with multi-channel receivers and with matrix decoders such as the decode MP-Matrix used for many motion picture soundtracks. In a multi-channel transmitter, a network prepares intermediate signals which are encoded by signal analysis processors into a signal for subsequent transmission or storage. In a multi-channel receiver, information extracted from the received encoded signal is combined in a network and processed by signal synthesis processors to provide output signals which are compatible with a matrix decoder.

Abstract: In an image processing device, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) transforms an image generated by an imaging device and having a high pixel density to a corresponding digital image signal. A YC processor processes the digital image signal to output an image signal in the form of a luminance signal and chrominance signals. A memory controller includes an address generator capable of generating a particular address signal for thinning, or reducing, the image signal. The address signal is fed to a frame memory. When the image signal is written to or read out of the frame memory, an image represented by the image signal is thinned by the address signal. The thinned image data are coded by a compander and then written to a memory card or reproduced by a playback circuit. The reproduced image signal appears on a video monitor or similar display.

Abstract: A display apparatus for a television having a screen of an aspect ratio different from that of an original image, wherein an image is distorted in at least one of the vertical and horizontal directions such that an expansion ratio or a reduction ratio gradually changes, and the distorted image is displayed on the screen. With the display apparatus, an image with a different aspect ratio can be displayed on the whole screen with minimally reduced missing image portions and distortion. Also, a vista size image can be displayed with an impression that a zoom-up effect is emphasized, while missing image portions are minimally reduced in left and right side portions.

Abstract: A method for translating the generic, raw information of a broadcast on-screen program guide service into a displayable screen signal that can drive TV electronics, utilizing the step of building a virtual generic screen before creating the displayable screen signal in order to ease the translation burden from generic to TV specific information.

Abstract: A gamma-compensating circuit has a voltage amplifying unit for amplifying a gamma-compensated picture signal from a broadcasting station and a nonlinear-compensation unit for converting an output amplification degree of the voltage amplifying unit to linearize the amplified gamma-compensated picture signal in accordance with a voltage level of the gamma-compensated picture signal. A linearized amplified gamma-compensated picture signal is obtained from the gamma-compensated picture signal transmitted from a broadcasting station.

Abstract: In a television system including a source of an intermediate frequency (IF) signal, which signal includes an IF picture carrier amplitude modulated with video information, synchronous demodulator means responds to the IF signal, for providing an in-phase first output video signal that has both luminance and chrominance components, and for providing a quadrature-phase second output video signal that has a chrominance component but substantially no luminance component. Chroma circuitry is responsive to the quadrature-phase second output video signal for generating first and second color-difference signals.

Abstract: A method is provided for generating a output composite video data stream. During a first phase of a set of processing phases, a frame of first video data is received and then downscaled to produce a first block of data. Also during the first phase, the first block is stored and then retrieved from a first memory space. The first block is next upscaled and then output as a first field of a composite video data stream. During a second phase of the set of processing phases, a frame of second video data is received and downscaled to produce a second block of data. Also during the second phase, the second block of data is stored and then retrieved from a second memory space. The second block is next upscaled during the second processing phase and then output as a second field of the composite video stream.

Abstract: A television set has a cabinet, a cathode-ray tube and first and second speakers having respectively first and second centerlines. The cabinet is formed with first and second sound-reflecting sidewall portions and with first and second open portions facilitating egress of sound from the speakers to the exterior of the cabinet. The speakers are mounted adjacent to the first and second sidewalls, respectively, near the neck portion of the cathode-ray tube and are oriented so that the first and second centerlines intersect the first and second sound-reflecting sidewall portions at first and second points and at first and second angles of incidence. First and second lines passing through the first and second points and oriented in accordance with first and second angles of reflection respectively equal to the first and second angles of incidence pass through the first and second open portions and converge towards a point in front of the television set.

Abstract: Adverse visual effects on a video display caused by switching operations in a digital-to-analog converter of the video subsystem and by parasitic impedance loading the DAC are minimized. Current cells associated with the DAC generate discrete currents for the video display. Each current cell has a current source for providing a current continuously and first and second switching mechanisms. The first switching mechanism is actuated by a select signal for switching the current to a current sink having a dummy resistance R.sub.d, and the second switching mechanism is actuated by an nselect signal for switching the current to the video display. The select and nselect signals, are generated from input data. A first feedback loop combines the select signal with the data to derive the nselect signal so that the nselect signal is generated after the select signal decreases to a predefined threshold, preferably zero.

Abstract: A rejection filter for use at an ATV receiver which is designed to process co-channel interference so as to produce at the filter output of the filter, a residual interference spectrum which is as flat as possible. The filter exploits the fact that only the picture and the sound carriers need to be sufficiently attenuated and cancels NTSC co-channel interference with only a small degradation in performance when AWGN is also present.

Abstract: The outputs of N kinds of spectral response characteristics from an image sensor are passed through low-pass filters to obtain N kinds of outputs from the 1st through Nth, and the output signal of a pixel of interest having the Kth (1.ltoreq.K.ltoreq.N) spectral response characteristic is multiplied by the ratio of the low-pass filter output of the image sensor output at the coordinates of the pixel of interest to the Kth low-pass filter output at the coordinates of the pixel of interest, thereby the luminance signal with alleviated attenuation of the harmonics components is obtained.

Abstract: A linear illuminator for image reading by the use of a linear sensor comprises a linear illumination light source, a cylindrical rotational member provided about the circumference of the linear illumination light source, and plurality of color separation filters installed on the rotational member. By controlling the rotation of the rotational member, plural kinds of color separation linear illumination light are output in the time series. The cylinder may have a shielding area between filters, which enables measurement of the dark current of the linear sensor.

Abstract: A vestigial-sideband amplitude-modulation transmitter using a balanced modulator for generating a suppressed carrier that is in quadrature phasing with the video carrier of a television signal receives as modulating signal a binary phase-shift-keying (BPSK) signal encoding digital signals. The quadrature transmission reduces the visibility of the lower-frequency PSK sidebands in the TV signal as viewed on screen. The symbol rate of the PSK is made to be a multiple of the horizontal line scan rate of video signal. To reduce the visibility of the higher-frequency PSK sidebands in the TV signal as viewed on screen, the BPSK is transmitted twice during respective frames of successive pairs of data frames, which data frames recur at the same rate as video frames. To reduce the interference of video with the BPSK, the BPSK is comb filtered at the digital signal receiver and after symbol detection is subjected to partial-response filtering for recovering the digital signal originally encoded in the BPSK signal.

Abstract: An imaging apparatus is disclosed which is integrally provided with two image pickup systems for respectively converting subject light into image signals and two displays for respectively displaying images relative to the image signals obtained by the two image pickup systems. In the disclosed imaging apparatus, since the operations of the two image pickup systems are synchronized, it is not necessary to insert an element, such as a prism, in each optical path. Further, since a common signal processing circuit is provided for performing predetermined processing of the image signals outputted from the two image pickup systems, the size of the imaging apparatus is reduced.

Abstract: Automatically fine tuned pictures and sounds can be obtained from a novel color television system having a video/audio signal adjusting circuit, a remote controller operable for generating a program mode selection signal, a memory having a plurality of memory locations for storing operating parameter data for the video and the audio processing circuit corresponding to program modes, a microprocessor responsive to the program mode selection signal for receiving the operating parameter data corresponding thereto and for generating an audio control signal and a video control signal, a video signal adjusting circuit responsive to the video control signal for adjusting the video signal to have a video characteristic corresponding to the program mode selection signal, and an audio signal adjusting circuit responsive to the audio control signal for adjusting the audio signal to have a frequency band characteristic corresponding to the program mode selection signal.

Abstract: According to a presently preferred embodiment of the invention, image enhancement apparatus for digital video images comprises a two-stage filter comprising a median filter and a recursive filter. The median filter operates in one, two, and three dimensions wherein the cluster of pixels framing the center pixel are ranked, and the median value of the pixel cluster is chosen as the correct pixel value. The pixel cluster configuration is selectable, as are the planes where the pixels are located. Multiple weights may be given to the appropriate median filter inputs. A motion detector is used to prevent replacement of each pixel by its pixel cluster median value when there is excessive motion. Finally an adjustable pixel-replacement threshold is defined. Each pixel must deviate from its median value before it is replaced by that value.

Abstract: A high-performance television receiver synchronously detects the picture IF signal. A synchronous impulse noise in the IF signal generates either positive-going noise or negative-going noise in the video signal supplied from a synchronous video detector, which noise is subsequently replaced by a value of video signal occurring previous to the impulse noise in the following manner. The video signal contaminated with impulse noise is supplied as input signal both to an impulse noise detector and to a delay line. The output signal from the delay line, delayed by about 240 ns, is supplied as the signal for tracking by a track-and-hold circuit. The detected impulse noise signal is used to actuate the hold condition in the track-and-hold circuit. By stretching the pulse from the impulse noise detector for the 600-800 ns duration overlapping the duration of most impulse noise, the track-and-hold circuit replaces most impulse noise with previously stored values of the delayed video signal.

Abstract: In the digital processing of video signals, a vertical detail enhancement system is provided that has a transfer characteristic with a transitional region between a coring region and an active region split into three steps. The slopes of the first, second and third step regions are 25%, 50% and 75% of the enhancement gain, respectively. The levels of enhancement in the step regions are set at 25%, 50% and 75% of the level of enhancement in the active region. A vertical detail signal is compared with a coring level selected by a coring multiplexer among a plurality of hardcoded coring levels to set a coring point at the transfer characteristic. Then, the vertical detail signal is successively compared with the coring level incremented by the selected widths of the step regions to control a step choice unit defining a required attenuation of the vertical detail signal value. A paring level is selected by a paring multiplexer among a plurality of hardcoded paring levels.

Abstract: A video signal noise reduction system is disclosed in which corresponding image pixels from a current frame and image pixels from a noise reduced previous frame are averaged to produce respective noise reduced pixel values. In the disclosed exemplary embodiment of the invention, a processed frame memory stores a noise reduced image and a motion estimator identifies a target block of pixels in this processed frame memory to be used in calculating a noise reduced video signal. A motion compensated noise reduction processor combines the block of the noise reduced image pixels stored in the processed frame memory with a current block of pixels generated from the video signal to produce a motion block of noise reduced pixels. The relative weighting applied to the stored pixel and the current pixel depends on the number of pixels that were used to generate the stored pixel.

Abstract: A television set with an integrated radio tuner, such that simulcast radio broadcasts may be played through the television sound system at the viewer's discretion. A user-programmable memory provides the viewer with the ability to store multiple television channel/radio frequency associations. A remote control device provides the viewer with the capability of selecting either normal television audio or radio simulcast sound.