METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ENCAPSULATING DIGITAL AERIAL SURVEILLANCE VIDEO ON ANALOG VIDEO SIGNAL

• US 20090273671A1
• Filed: 02/17/2009
• Published: 11/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: ViaSat Incorporated
• Original Assignee: ViaSat Incorporated
• Inventors: Gardner, Steven H.
• Application Number:
  US12/372,527
• Publication Number:
  US 20090273671A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/144
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast

Abstract

An aerial surveillance apparatus for processing an analog video signal is described. The aerial surveillance apparatus includes a first input configured to receive an analog video signal from a video camera, a processor coupled with the analog video signal and configured to filter and digitize the analog video signal to form a de-emphasized digital signal, an output configured to couple to an FM video transmitter and to communicate the de-emphasized digital signal to the FM video transmitter. The filtering of the processor decreases amplitudes of higher frequencies within a band of frequencies more than amplitudes of lower frequencies within the band of frequencies, and the FM video transmitter filters the de-emphasized digital signal using a pre-emphasis filter that counteracts the filtering of the de-emphasis filter. The aerial surveillance apparatus may further include a second input configured to receive a digital data signal, the processor combines the digitized video signal and the digital data signal prior to the filtering to form a combined signal, and the processor filters the combined signal to form the de-emphasized digital signal.

Claims

1. An aerial surveillance apparatus for processing an analog video signal, the aerial surveillance apparatus comprising:

a first input configured to receive an analog video signal from a video camera;

a processor coupled with the analog video signal and configured to filter and digitize the analog video signal to form a de-emphasized digital signal; and

an output configured to couple to an FM video transmitter and to communicate the de-emphasized digital signal to the FM video transmitter, wherein;

the filtering of the processor decreases amplitudes of higher frequencies within a band of frequencies more than amplitudes of lower frequencies within the band of frequencies, and

the FM video transmitter filters the de-emphasized digital signal using a pre-emphasis filter that counteracts the filtering of the de-emphasis filter.

2. The aerial surveillance apparatus for processing an analog video signal of claim 1, further comprising:

a second input configured to receive a digital data signal;

wherein

the processor combines the digitized video signal and the digital data signal prior to the filtering to form a combined signal, and the processor filters the combined signal to form the de-emphasized digital signal.

3. The aerial surveillance apparatus for processing an analog video signal of claim 2, wherein the processor is further configured to filter the combined signal using a Gaussian filter.

4. The aerial surveillance apparatus for processing an analog video signal of claim 1, wherein subsequent to the processor digitizing the analog video signal to form a digitized signal, the processor modulates the digitized signal using frequency-shift keying (FSK).

5. The aerial surveillance apparatus for processing an analog video signal of claim 4, wherein one baseband symbol of the FSK modulation represents at least one of one bit, two bits, three bits or four bits.

6. An aerial surveillance apparatus for processing a digital video signal to produce an analog video signal, the aerial surveillance apparatus comprising:

a first input coupled with a FM video receiver and configured to receive a digital video signal from the FM video receiver, wherein;

the digital video signal is demodulated from a carrier signal;

the digital video signal was filtered with a de-emphasis filter of the FM video receiver, and

the de-emphasis filter decreases amplitudes of higher frequencies within a band of frequencies more than amplitudes of lower frequencies within the band of frequencies;

a processor coupled with the first input and configured to;

filter the digital video signal, wherein the filtering counteracts the filtering of the de-emphasis filter of the FM video receiver, and

process the digital video signal to produce an analog video signal; and

a first output coupled with the processor and configured to couple to an analog video system and to communicate the analog video signal to the analog video system.

7. The aerial surveillance apparatus for processing a digital video signal to produce an analog video signal of claim 6, wherein the digital video signal is part of a combined signal received from the FM video receiver, the combined signal also including a digital data signal, the aerial surveillance apparatus further comprising:

a divider coupled with the first input and the processor and configured to separate the digital video signal from the digital data signal and to couple the digital video signal to the processor; and

a second output coupled with the divider and configured to couple the digital data signal.

8. The aerial surveillance apparatus for processing a digital video signal to produce an analog video signal of claim 6, wherein the digital video signal comprises Gaussian filtered baseband symbols representing bit values of the digital video signal.

9. The aerial surveillance apparatus for processing a digital video signal to produce an analog video signal of claim 8, wherein the baseband symbols comprise frequency-shift keying (FSK) symbols.

10. An aerial surveillance apparatus for processing an analog video signal, the aerial surveillance apparatus comprising:

a first input configured to receive the analog video signal from a video camera;

a second input configured to receive a digital data signal;

a digitizer coupled with the first input and configured to digitize the analog video signal to form a digital video signal;

a combiner coupled with the digitizer and the second input, the combiner configured to combine the digital video signal and the digital data signal to form a combined signal;

a Gaussian filter coupled with the combiner and configured to filter the combined signal to form a filtered combined signal; and

an output coupled with the Gaussian filter and configured to couple to a FM video transmitter, the output configured to communicate the filtered combined signal to the FM video transmitter.

11. The aerial surveillance apparatus for processing an analog video signal of claim 10, further comprising:

a de-emphasis filter configured to filter the combined signal to form a de-emphasized signal, wherein;

the de-emphasis filter decreases amplitudes of higher frequencies within a band of frequencies more than amplitudes of lower frequencies within the band of frequencies, and

the FM video transmitter filters the de-emphasized signal using a pre-emphasis filter that counteracts the filtering of the de-emphasis filter.

12. The aerial surveillance apparatus for processing an analog video signal of claim 10, wherein the filtered combined signal is modulated using frequency shift keying (FSK) to form a FSK modulated combined signal and the output is configured to communicate the FSK modulated combined signal to the FM video transmitter.

13. An aerial surveillance apparatus for processing a digital video signal and a digital data signal, the aerial surveillance apparatus comprising:

an input coupled with a FM video receiver and configured to receive a digital signal from the FM video receiver, the digital signal comprising Gaussian filtered baseband symbols representing bit values of the digital video signal and bit values of the digital data signal;

a processor coupled with the input and configured to process the Gaussian filtered baseband symbols to determine the bit values of the digital video signal and the digital data signal;

a divider coupled with the processor and configured to separate the digital video signal from the digital data signal;

a video processing system coupled with the divider and configured to process the digital video signal to produce an analog video signal;

a first output coupled with the video processing system and configured to couple to an analog video system and to communicate the analog video signal to the analog video system; and

a second output coupled with the divider and configured to couple the digital data signal.

14. The aerial surveillance apparatus for processing a digital video signal and a digital data signal of claim 13, wherein:

the digital video signal and the digital data signal were filtered with a de-emphasis filter of the FM video receiver,

the de-emphasis filter decreases amplitudes of higher frequencies within a band of frequencies more than amplitudes of lower frequencies within the band of frequencies, and

the processor is further configured to filter the digital video signal and the digital data signal with a pre-emphasis filter, wherein the pre-emphasis filter counteracts the filtering of the de-emphasis filter of the FM video receiver.

15. A method of processing an analog aerial surveillance video, the method comprising:

receiving a video signal from an analog video camera;

digitizing the video signal to form a digital video signal;

filtering the video signal with a de-emphasis filter to form a de-emphasized digital signal, wherein the de-emphasis filtering decreases amplitudes of higher frequencies within a band of frequencies more than amplitudes of lower frequencies within the band of frequencies; and

communicating the de-emphasized digital signal to an FM video transmitter,

wherein the FM video transmitter filters the de-emphasized digital signal using a pre-emphasis filter that counteracts the de-emphasis filtering of the de-emphasized digital signal.

16. The method of processing the analog aerial surveillance video of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving a digital data signal; and

combining the digital video signal and the digital data signal prior to the filtering to form a combined signal,

wherein the filtering comprises filtering the combined signal to form the de-emphasized digital signal.

17. The method of processing the analog aerial surveillance video of claim 16, further comprising filtering the combined signal using a Gaussian filter.

18. A method of processing an analog aerial surveillance video, the method comprising:

receiving an analog video signal from a video camera;

receiving a digital data signal;

digitizing the analog video signal to form a digital video signal;

combining the digital video signal and the digital data signal to form a combined signal;

filtering the combined signal with a Gaussian filter to form a filtered combined signal; and

communicating the filtered combined signal to an FM video transmitter.

19. The method of processing the analog aerial surveillance video of claim 18, further comprising filtering the video signal with a de-emphasis filter to form a de-emphasized digital signal, wherein the de-emphasis filtering decreases amplitudes of higher frequencies within a band of frequencies more than amplitudes of lower frequencies within the band of frequencies, wherein:

the communicating comprises communicating the de-emphasized digital signal to the FM video transmitter, and

the FM video transmitter filters the de-emphasized digital signal using a pre-emphasis filter that counteracts the de-emphasis filtering of the de-emphasized digital signal.

20. A method of processing a digital video signal to produce an analog video signal, the method comprising:

receiving a digital video signal from a FM video receiver, wherein;

the digital video signal is demodulated from a carrier signal;

the digital video signal was filtered with a de-emphasis filter of the FM video receiver, and

the de-emphasis filter decreases amplitudes of higher frequencies within a band of frequencies more than amplitudes of lower frequencies within the band of frequencies;

filtering the digital video signal, wherein the filtering counteracts the filtering of the de-emphasis filter of the FM video receiver;

processing the digital video signal to produce an analog video signal; and

communicating the analog video signal to an analog video system.

21. The method of processing a digital video signal to produce an analog video signal of claim 20, further comprising:

receiving a combined signal from the FM video receiver, the combined signal including the digital video signal and a digital data signal, the combined signal comprising Gaussian filtered baseband symbols representing bit values of the digital video signal and bit values of the digital data signal;

determining the bit values of the digital video signal and the data signal;

separating the digital video signal from the digital data signal; and

coupling the digital data signal to an output.