Abstract: A high efficiency prism is provided that directs one or more color components (e.g., red, green and blue) of light through one or more different light paths to generate a color image. One or more different embodiments of the prism are shown including several in-line embodiments, several right-angle embodiments, a high light output embodiment, an air gap embodiment and several liquid filled embodiments.

Abstract: In one aspect the plasma lamp according to the present invention comprises a gas envelope that is constructed from ceramic material and a sapphire window rather than quartz. According to another aspect of the present invention, a plasma lamp comprises an RF structure for the radio wave radiation and an envelope for housing the excitation gas that are formed so as to constitute a single, integrated ceramic structure. According to yet another aspect of the present invention, the plasma lamp comprises a waveguide structure having solid material such as ceramic rather than air for the dielectric and a gas housing made of a combination of solid ceramic and a sapphire window. In this way, the separate quartz gas envelope and air-filled waveguide structure employed in the prior art are replaced by a single, integrated structure.

Abstract: An optical storage system achieves high density, sufficiently high to permit both video and audio to be stored on a compact disc, or to store other data at very high density. Pits are encoded on the disc storage medium with respect to timed electronic reference signals (not simultaneously optically encoded on the disc) which divide each revolution of the disc into a multiplicity of equal spaces or references. The pits have leading edges on the leading side of a reference signal and trailing edges on a trailing side of the reference signal, so that each pit staddles a reference signal. The length of the pit leading up to the reference signal represents one sample of information, while the length of the pit from the reference signal to the pit's trailing edge represents another sample of information.

Abstract: An auto chroma filter averages the value of successive color burst amplitudes on a line-by-line basis over many video frames, by fetching a burst value from memory and loading it into an up/down counter, and also into a D/A converter which provides the chroma filter output signal. A comparator compares an incoming new burst value with the output signal, whereby the counter increments or decrements the value toward the incoming new burst value in response to the comparator. The updated value then is loaded back into memory in the same location from which it was fetched, and the cycle continues for each video line and successive frames.