Patents Examined by John C. Martin
  • Patent number: 4652917
    Abstract: A system for monitoring the attitude of an object with respect to a fixed based without any material connection to the object, comprising imaging apparatus mounted on the base so that a surface of the object is in the field of view, targets on the surface of such spaced sites, remote from the imaging apparatus that the apparatus images the targets in relative positions determined by the locations of the sites, and computing apparatus determining from changes in the relative positions of the images the causative changes in the attitude of the object with respect to the base.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 1984
    Date of Patent: March 24, 1987
    Assignee: Honeywell Inc.
    Inventor: John W. Miller
  • Patent number: 4597007
    Abstract: A frame comb filter system includes circuitry for reducing motion induced artifacts in reproduced images. Frame comb filtered chrominance signal is line comb filtered to extract motion induced luminance cross components therein. The luminance cross components are added to frame comb filtered luminance signal to reduce motion induced luminance signal errors. The corrected luminance signal is then subtracted from composite video signal to produce the chrominance component of composite video.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 1984
    Date of Patent: June 24, 1986
    Assignee: RCA Corporation
    Inventors: Glenn A. Reitmeier, Christopher H. Strolle
  • Patent number: 4589018
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a technique for the Time-Frequency-Multiplexing (TFM) of three television signals. More particularly, three fields of a TV signal are sent simultaneously to a remote receiver by transmitting one field as is in the baseband of a standard television system signal while the other two fields are transmitted as differential signals, quadrature amplitude modulated onto a subcarrier frequency above baseband. The two differential signals can comprise two field differential signals or a frame and a field differential signal. Arrangements are also provided for transmitters and receivers for implementing the present technique.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 1983
    Date of Patent: May 13, 1986
    Assignee: AT&T Bell Laboratories
    Inventors: Barin G. Haskell, Robert L. Schmidt
  • Patent number: 4589032
    Abstract: A logic signal controlled switching video amplifier is disclosed having minimal power dissipation. By utilizing diode and transistor amplifier switching techniques, charging and discharging currents in the video amplifier are controlled. The stray capacitance associated with circuit wiring and cathode ray tube interelectrode capacitance can be rapidly switched without requiring low impedances or high DC current levels in the video amplifier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 1984
    Date of Patent: May 13, 1986
    Assignee: Rockwell International Corporation
    Inventor: William A. Morey
  • Patent number: 4571566
    Abstract: An electromagnetic relay includes at least one permanent magnet provided with pole pieces and a soft magnetic armature the ends of which cooperate with the pole pieces. The pole shoes are electrically insulated from each other and serve as fixed contacts. In the rest position of the armature, contact forces are obtained from the attraction force exerted by the permanent magnet. In order to exploit the total available permanent magnet force as contact force while, at the same time, achieving high responsiveness and resistance to mechanical stresses and shocks, the armature ends or the ends of the pole pieces facing away from the magnet poles are provided with contact springs which cooperate with the respective opposite pole pieces or armature ends to form contact couples so that, when the armature is switched-over, contact is made first through the contact spring or springs and then, upon bending of the actuated contact spring or springs, the respective armature end engages the pole pieces.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 1983
    Date of Patent: February 18, 1986
    Assignees: Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd., Hans Saur
    Inventor: Hans Saur
  • Patent number: 4571631
    Abstract: Distortion occurring when tan .theta. mapped CIG video is projected onto a ide angle non-tan .theta. display is corrected in both line direction and cross-line direction by varying the propagation time of the pixels within a line to achieve a non-distorted line and by buffering the lines of the display to allow for selective fetching of lines for display in a non-distorted manner. Both pixels and lines are delayed by variable amounts in accordance with their temporal location within a line or frame, respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 1984
    Date of Patent: February 18, 1986
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Denis R. Breglia, Benjamin W. Patz
  • Patent number: 4568976
    Abstract: Apparatus for synchronizing a first video signal corresponding to a first image and a second video signal corresponding to a second image, each of the first and second video signals including vertical and horizontal synchronizing signals, including a video camera which produces the first and second video signals and which generates vertical synchronizing signals for the first and second video signals in response to a negative-going edge of a pulse signal supplied thereto; a storage device which stores the first video signal produced by the video camera; a synchronizing signal generator which supplies vertical and horizontal synchronizing signals synchronized with the corresponding signals of the first video signal when the video camera is viewing the second image; and a monostable multivibrator connected between the vertical synchronizing signal terminals of the synchronizing signal generator and the video camera, and operative during viewing of the second image to produce and supply said negative-going edge
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 1983
    Date of Patent: February 4, 1986
    Inventor: Joseph E. Trammell
  • Patent number: 4568966
    Abstract: Novel means are disclosed for conditioning a standard color-television composite signal, such as the NTSC composite, so that pictorial information is represented according to Nyquist samples which are very coarsely quantized and therefore regenerable. This conditioning does not affect compatibility with a standard receiver or perceptibly reduce the quality of a picture displayed thereon. Carefully designed dither, such as 3-dimensional nasik dither, is employed to preserve picture information and quality despite coarse quantization. An improved receiver also regenerates the received signal so that unwanted noise, distortion and interference are removed. The disclosure exemplifies the teachings of the invention in terms of broadcast and cable television systems and video recording systems. An improved videodisk record is disclosed and means whereby, in a pay-television system, the picture incorporated into a standard composite signal may be key-encrypted according to a private cryptographic key.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 1982
    Date of Patent: February 4, 1986
    Assignee: Quanticon Inc.
    Inventor: Bernard Lippel
  • Patent number: 4567522
    Abstract: A line synchronizing circuit for a picture display device comprising a voltage-controlled oscillator for generating a signal whose frequency is higher than the line frequency, a frequency dividing circuit for dividing the frequency of the oscillator signals and a phase comparison stage for generating a control voltage in dependence on the phase deviation between the signals applied thereto, more specifically a received line synchronizing signal and a locally generated reference signal. The elements of the line phase control loop, are part of an integrated circuit which functions as a frequency synthesizing circuit. The reference-frequency dividing circuit incorporated in the integrated circuit is programmed to operate with a constant divisor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 1985
    Date of Patent: January 28, 1986
    Assignee: U.S. Philips Corporation
    Inventors: Martinus V. C. Stroomer, Frederick M. Boekhorst
  • Patent number: 4563703
    Abstract: A processing system includes a processor 10 and frame store 11. Both the frame store and processor are under the control of address mechanism 12. The addressing mechanism 12 can generate the desired information from address information which is only provided on some of the store locations and which is only updated over more than one frame period. The mechanism includes spatial and temporal address interpolators to effect this operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 1983
    Date of Patent: January 7, 1986
    Assignee: Quantel Limited
    Inventors: Richard J. Taylor, Paul R. N. Kellar, Neil R. Hinson
  • Patent number: 4562481
    Abstract: The disclosed CRT overlay, which is mounted to the display face of a CRT, comprises an overlay panel (typically a non-glare optical filter) mounted at its edges to the CRT display face and a layer of transparent glass beads interposed between the overlay panel and the CRT display face. The glass beads maintain a thin (in the range of 0.005 inches or less) gap between the overlay panel and the display face, such that display clarity is substantially unaffected by the mounting of the overlay panel. The use of the glass beads enables the overlay panel to be mounted without a relatively expensive bonding process, while at the same time avoiding the display clarity degredation associated with currently employed air-gap mounting techniques.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 1982
    Date of Patent: December 31, 1985
    Inventor: Theodore C. Trakas
  • Patent number: 4562485
    Abstract: A copying apparatus includes a carriage on which an original document may be placed, a scanner for scanning the image of an original document placed on the carriage, a memory for storing the original image scanned by the scanner in a state of a group of pixels, a copy mode input device for determining the type of conversion to be used to form a copy image on a copy material in a relationship either faithful to or different from the image of the original document, a first control for controlling the pixel data readout from the memory in response to the input signal from the mode input device for effecting image conversion, a second control for controlling the readout function of the first control in case the image converted by the first control means overflows from the appropriate copying area for producing the image in predetermined position on the copy material, and an image forming device for forming the image on the predetermined position of the copy material in response to the readout data thus controlled
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 1980
    Date of Patent: December 31, 1985
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Katsuyoshi Maeshima
  • Patent number: 4561014
    Abstract: A conventional phase locking loop for locking a local oscillator in phase and frequency to a color burst signal in a television system requires a highly stable (i.e. crystal controlled) oscillator whose free running frequency must be individually adjusted to be as close as possible to the desired frequency. The present invention enables such adjustment to take place automatically in operation rather than as a separate manufacturing step. The output from the oscillator is compared in phase with the color burst signal to which it is to be locked. The output from the phase comparator is applied to one input of a differential amplifier whose output constitutes an error signal for application to a frequency controlling input of the oscillator. The error signal is also applied to a threshold control circuit which causes an up/down counter to count up or down when the error signal lies outside a predetermined range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 1983
    Date of Patent: December 24, 1985
    Assignee: Thomson CSF
    Inventors: Patrick Douziech, Michel Imbert
  • Patent number: 4561013
    Abstract: A color sign inserting circuit for a video signal reproducing system is disclosed, which comprises a the color burst detecting circuit for extracting color burst from a video signal detected from a recording system, a flywheel oscillator locked to the average values of the frequency and phase of a color burst signal extracted from the color burst detecting circuit for detecting time axis variation components, a phase shifter for controlling the phase of the clock output of the flywheel oscillator, and a sign inserting circuit for superimposing the output of the phase shifter and a sign signal on the video signal. Display of an inserted sign in color in the reproduction of video thus can be realized by merely adding an inexpensive color signal shifter to the conventional functions necessary for the video signal processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 1983
    Date of Patent: December 24, 1985
    Assignee: Asahi Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tsutomu Fukui, Tomoyuki Shirai
  • Patent number: 4561106
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is a character recognition process which extracts white regions surrounded by strokes of character pattern information and recognizes characters by determining the directions in which said white regions are opened. The process is provided by processing apparatus, for conversion of mesh information, disposed so as to convert a white mesh point present between two black mesh points to a black mesh point during one scanning period for scanning said character pattern information in one direction. The directions of openings of the white regions are determined based on the converted character pattern information obtained by the processing apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 1985
    Date of Patent: December 24, 1985
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventors: Masumi Yoshida, Takeshi Masui
  • Patent number: 4559560
    Abstract: A ghost reduction circuit for a television receiver incorporating a transversal filter comprises a memory for storing tap gains of tap gain amplifiers constituting part of the filter, a detector for detecting a ghost component as an error signal by comparing a vertical sync signal of the video signal passed through the filter with a reference sync signal, a circuit for converting a differentiated signal derived through differentiation of the error signal into a 3-state digital signal, and a subtractor for correcting the tap gain data stored in the memory in accordance with the digital signal, wherein the ghost component is substantially eliminated from the video signal inputted to the filter by controlling the gains of the tap gain amplifiers in accordance with the corrected memory data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 1983
    Date of Patent: December 17, 1985
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Toshinori Murata, Yuji Ito, Masafumi Kazumi
  • Patent number: 4559559
    Abstract: A noise reducing circuit, including a circuit to reduce noises contained in a low frequency band with a clamping circuit, having a first circuit with an attenuating characteristic near a first frequency which is the upper frequency limit of a noise that can be reduced by the clamping circuit and a second circuit with a characteristic of the first circuit. The first circuit is provided in front of the clamping circuit and the second circuit following the clamping circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 1982
    Date of Patent: December 17, 1985
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Seiji Hashimoto, Nobuyoshi Tanaka
  • Patent number: 4558355
    Abstract: In a color TV receiver incorporating automatic kinescope bias (AKB) control circuits, a first train of monolevel pulses with timing suitable for retrace blanking purposes and a second train of monolevel pulses with "backporch" timing appropriate for burst gating purposes are applied to a circuit serving to generate at a first terminal a train of bilevel pulses exhibiting a first voltage level during periods of overlapping of the pulses of the first and second trains, and exhibiting a second, lesser voltage level during the remaining, non-overlapping portions of the pulses of the first train. A resistor interconnects the first terminal with a second terminal. A keyed voltage source, responsive to a third train of monolevel pulses timed to indicate recurring kinescope bias control intervals, develops a voltage of a third level, intermediate the first and second voltage levels, at the second terminal during the recurring control intervals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 1983
    Date of Patent: December 10, 1985
    Assignee: RCA Corporation
    Inventor: James Hettiger
  • Patent number: 4556915
    Abstract: This invention provides an image reproduction device having a horizontal coordinate memory, a vertical coordinate memory and a domain code memory which comprise respectively a RAM, horizontal and vertical counters, horizontal and vertical coordinate comparators, an addressable latch for the horizontal coordinate comparator and an addressable latch for the vertical coordinate comparator, gate circuits and an A/D converter. The image reproduction device prevents recording in black of a portion surrounding the original when the size of a recording medium is larger than that of the original, thus preventing poor appearance of the image reproduced on recording medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 1984
    Date of Patent: December 3, 1985
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takehiko Shibata, Yoshikazu Yokomizo
  • Patent number: 4556904
    Abstract: Special prompt character identifying control codes are inserted in teletext data for transmission to a teletext equipped receiver. The prompt character identifying codes are detected in the receiver and applied to a symbol converter which alters the prompt characters displayed on the receiver CRT to assure that all prompt characters displayed conform to character symbols actually available on the users teletext keyboard thereby avoiding user confusion as to the particular key-strokes required to access material identified in the teletext menu.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 1983
    Date of Patent: December 3, 1985
    Assignee: RCA Corporation
    Inventor: Robert A. Monat