Television – Basic receiver with additional function – For display of additional information
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-17
2001-10-23
Eisenzopf, Reinhard J. (Department: 2614)
Television
Basic receiver with additional function
For display of additional information
C348S365000, C348S368000, C348S363000, C348S364000, C348S367000, C358S461000, C358S461000, C358S461000, C358S003050, C345S213000, C345S111000, C345S111000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06307597
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to a picture-in-picture system using quincunx sampling to improve horizontal resolution.
Present image display systems include the ability to display a small auxiliary image in addition ot a larger main image. This smaller image may be displayed within the boundaries of the larger main picture, in which case, such a system is termed a picture-in-picture (PIP) system, or the smaller image may be located outside (e.g. to the left or right side of the main image, in which case the system is termed a picture-outside-picture (POP) system. The main and auxiliary images may be derived from the same image source, such as a freeze frame PIP image of the main image, or may be derived from an independent source, such as a system in which one tuner tunes to one video signal which is displayed as the main image, and a second tuner tunes a second video signal, independent of the first tuner, which is displayed as the PIP image.
A PIP or POP system operates by storing compressed image data representing the auxiliary image as it occurs in the auxiliary video signal, and then substituting this compressed image data for the main image signal at the portion of the main image which is designated to display the auxiliary image. The system must supply an amount of memory sufficient to store the auxiliary image data from the time it occurs in its video signal to the time it is displayed in the main image. Known systems provide sufficient memory to hold either a frame or a field of auxiliary video data. Because memory is relatively expensive, it is desirable to minimize the amount of memory required. To decrease the amount of memory required, known PIP and POP systems subsample the auxiliary video signal, and store only a single field of subsampled auxiliary video data. A display method, complementary to the subsampling method, is used to generate the display image signal for the inset PIP or POP image.
Known subsampling techniques, however, consist of straightforward ‘take one sample, discard N samples’ repeated for each line in the auxiliary video signal. This undesirably decreases the horizontal resolution of the PIP or POP image. This, in turn, decreases the perceived quality of the displayed PIP or POP image. A subsampling method which can increase the horizontal resolution of a PIP or POP image, without increasing the amount of memory necessary to store the PIP or POP image data for later display with the main image is desirable.
In accordance with principles of the present invention, apparatus for displaying a combined image of an auxiliary image and a main image includes a source of a main image signal and a source of samples representing an auxiliary image signal. A quincunx subsampler is coupled to the auxiliary image sample source. A signal combiner is coupled to the main image signal source and the quincunx subsampler. The sampler combiner combines the main image signal and a signal representing the quincunx subsampled samples to generate a signal representing a combined image of the main and auxiliary images.
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Patton Steven Wayne
Rumreich Mark Francis
Willis Donald Henry
Eisenzopf Reinhard J.
Natnael Paulos
Shedd Robert D.
Thomson Licensing S.A.
Tripoli Joseph S.
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