System for recording and playing back individual frames of video and related audio signals

• US 3,938,189 A
• Filed: 10/13/1972
• Issued: 02/10/1976
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/1972
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Goldmark Communications Corporation
• Original Assignee: Goldmark Communications Corporation
• Inventors: Goldmark, Peter C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cardillo, Jr., Raymond F.
• Application Number:
  US05/297,180
• Time in Patent Office: 1,215 Days
• Field of Search: 178/6.6 A, 178/6.6 FS, 178/6.6 DD, 178/5.6, 178/5.8, 178/DIG. 35, 179/100.2 S, 179/100.2 MD, 179/100.2 CA, 179/100.1 S, 179/15.55 R, 360/8, 360/9, 360/10, 360/35, 360/78, 360/106, 360/73
• US Class Current: 360/8
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00098 via a television channel, e.g. for a series of still pictures with or without sound
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2104 for one or a few pictures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3264 of sound signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/775 between a recording apparatus and a television receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/802 involving processing of the sound signal H04N9/806, H04N9/835 take precedence

Abstract

An apparatus is described for recording and playing back video frames with associated audio signals for use with a conventional television display. A magnetic loop is employed to store video frames for display with associated audio information being placed on a separate frame on another magnetic medium. A full program of video and audio frames may be received and selected from a remote transmitter and appropriately located on a magnetic medium for sequential display on the television display. A first embodiment uses a cassette tape with a video loop for storage and playback of a program. A second embodiment uses a pair of multiple track belts for program storage and playback. Pilot signals are employed to precisely store the video frames on the video loop and to automatically sequence the display and sound projection of the multiple video and associated audio frames.

Claims

1. An apparatus for recording and playing back video and associated audio signals for display and sound projection on a television display comprising

means including a magnetic storage medium for recording and playback audio signals;

means for moving the magnetic storage medium at a first high operating speed to record audio signals and at a second low operating speed for playback of the audio signal;

a magnetic video frame storage loop having a length selected to produce video frame signals for frame display on a conventional television receiver upon continuous rotation of the loop;

means for sensing signals which identify a video frame and producing video start and video end signals respectively indicative of the beginning and end of a video frame;

means actuated by the video start and end signals to store a video frame on said loop;

means for sensing audio pilot signals recorded on the magnetic medium along with the audio signals to identify an audio frame and producing an audio end signal indicative of the end of the audio frame;

means responsive to the audio end signal for initiating the playback of another viewo frame and the playback of audio signals associated with said other video frame.

2. The apparatus for recording and playing back video and associated audio signals as claimed in claim 1 and further including

means for receiving an input signal carrying a program formed of a plurality of video frames and associated audio frames and a program identifying code;

means responsive to the input signal for identifying a desired program code and producing a gate signal indicative thereof; and

means actuated by the gate signal for passing the desired program of video and audio frames for recording.

3. The apparatus for recording and playing back video and associated audio signals as claimed in claim 2 wherein the gate signal producing means further includes means for identifying an end code in the input signal and producing a signal indicative thereof to terminate the recording of video and audio frames.

4. The apparatus for recording and playing back video and associated audio signals as claimed in claim 1 wherein said magnetic recording medium is in the form of a magnetic audio storage loop.

5. The apparatus for recording and playing back video and associated audio signals as claimed in claim 4 wherein both said audio and video storage loops are provided with a plurality of parallel spaced tracks, with the length of the tracks on both said loops being selected to each accommodate a frame signal.

6. The apparatus for recording and playing back video and associated audio signals as claimed in claim 5 wherein the video frame storing means further includes means for driving said video storage loops into rotation;

and

means for mechanically coupling said audio storage and video storage loops to each other during the recording of video and audio frame signals.

7. A method for displaying on a television display a television program formed of still video frames with accompanying explanatory audio formed into frames associated with the video frames comprising the steps of

recording the audio frames on an audio magnetic medium,

recording a video frame on at least one track on a video recording medium for repetetive playback and display on a television display,

playing back the video frame recording on said track,

moving the audio magnetic medium for the normal audio playback and projection on the television display of an audio frame associated with the video frame on said track,

sensing an audio end signal at the end of the audio frame being played back to replace the video frame on said track with a successive video frame,

playing back another audio frame associated with the successive video frame and

continuing the video frame replacing and audio frame playing back steps until the entire television program has been displayed on the television display.

8. A method for displaying on a television display a television program formed of still video frames with accompanying explanatory audio formed into frames associated with the video frames comprising the steps of

forming a composite signal wherein a plurality of individual still video frames are time separated by associated audio frame signals which are compressed in time at an elevated carrier frequency,

moving an audio magnetic medium at an elevated speed to record the frames of audio at the elevated carrier frequency,

recording a video frame from the composite signal on at least one track on a recording medium for repetetive playback and display on a television display.

playing back the video frame recorded on said track,

moving the audio magnetic medium at a reduced speed for the normal audio playback and projection on the television display of an audio frame associated with the video frame on said track,

sensing an audio end signal at the end of the audio frame being played back to replace the video frame on said track with a successive video frame,

playing back another audio frame associated with the successive video frame and

continuing the video frame replacing and audio frame playing back steps until the entire composite signal representative of the television program has been displayed on the television display.

9. An apparatus for recording and playing back video and associated audio frame signals for display and sound projection on a conventional television display comprising

an audio tape belt and a video tape belt, each of said belts having sufficient width to accommodate a plurality of tracks;

means for recording video and associated audio frame signals on respective tracks of the audio and video belts, said audio frame signals including detectable signals respectively identifying the start and end of an audio frame;

means driving the audio belt at a low playback speed, and a higher search speed;

means for playing back the video and associated audio frame signals, means for detecting the start and end signals of the played back audio frame signals;

means actuated by the audio end signal for advancing the video and audio playback means to successive associated tracks; and

means controlled by the audio start and end signals to energize the search speed of the driving means at the end of the playback of an audio frame and terminate the search speed at the start of the audio frame on the successive track.

10. An apparatus for playing back video and associated audio signals for display and sound projection on a television set comprising

storing means including a magnetic video frame storing loop, having at least one video frame signal bearing track, for storing a plurality of video frames for projection on the television set;

a magnetic audio frame storing medium for storing a plurality of audio frame signals, with an audio frame being associated with a video frame recorded on the video frame storing loop to form a composite playback signal for display and sound projection on the television set;

means for playing back a video frame from the video frame storing loop for display on the television set;

means for playing back audio frames from the magnetic audio frame storing medium for sound projection on the television set during the visual video display of an associated video frame played back from the video frame storing loop;

means responsive to a played back audio frame signal for detecting an audio end signal indicative of the end of the played back audio frame; and

means responsive to the audio end signal for playing back another video frame signal on the magnetic video frame storing loop for display with an associated audio frame signal.

11. The playback apparatus as claimed in claim 10 wherein the storing means further includes a magnetic video storage loop carrying a plurality of parallel spaced video frame storing tracks, with said means responsive to the audio end signal being effective to advance the video playback means to another video frame storing track for playback of another video frame signal.

12. An apparatus for recording and playing back video and associated audio signals for display and sound projection on a conventional television display comprising

a magnetic video frame storing loop having a plurality of parallel spaced tracks, means for driving the video loop into rotation and means for recording and playing back video frame signals on the tracks of the video loop;

a magnetic audio frame storing loop having a plurality of parallel spaced tracks, means for driving the audio loop into rotation and means for recording and playing back audio frame signals on the tracks of the audio loop;

said audio and video recording and playing back means being selectively placed over their respective loops to associate video frame signals on the video loop with audio frame signals on the audio loop;

means for receiving an input signal formed of video frame signals and associated audio frame signals;

means responsive to video input signals for producing video start and video end signals respectively indicative of the beginning and end of a video frame;

means responsive to audio input signals for producing audio start and audio end signals respectively indicative of the beginning and end of an audio frame;

means for driving said audio and video loops at an input recording speed;

means controlled by the video start and end signals for passing the input video frame signals to the video recording and playback means and means responsive to the video end signal for advancing the video recording and playback means to a successive track;

means controlled by the audio start and end signals for passing the input audio signals to the audio recording and playback means, and means responsive to the input audio end signal for advancing the audio recording and playback means to a successive track;

means producing a signal to the audio drive means for driving said audio loop at an audio playback speed;

means for detecting an audio end signal from the audio loop during audio playback and producing an advance signal indicative thereof, said advance signal being applied to the audio and video recording and playback means for advance to a successive track.

13. The recording and playback apparatus as claimed in claim 12 and further including

means actuated by the advance signal for increasing the rotational drive of the audio loop;

and

means responsive to an audio start signal for terminating the increased rotational drive at the beginning of the audio frame on the successive track.

14. The recording and playback apparatus as claimed in claim 13 and further including

means for producing an actual track signal indicative of the track location of audio and video recording and playback means;

means producing a desired track signal representative of a desired track to be played back; and

means responsive to the desired and actual track signals to produce positioning signals to the audio and video advancing means for an audio and video playback of frames recorded on the desired track.

15. An apparatus for playing back video and associated audio signals for display and sound projection on a conventional television display comprising

a magnetic video frame storing loop having a plurality of parallel spaced video frame signal bearing tracks;

a magnetic audio frame storing loop having a plurality of parallel spaced audio frame signal bearing tracks, said audio and video frame bearing tracks being selectively located on their respective loops with an audio frame being associated with a video frame to form a composite playback signal for display and sound projection on the conventional television receiver;

means mounted for movement over both said audio and video loops from track to track to play back respective associated audio and video frame signals;

means responsive to the played back audio frame signal for detecting an audio end signal indicative of the end of an audio frame;

means responsive to the audio end signal for advancing said playback means to a successive track for the playback of a successive composite playback signal.

16. The playback apparatus as claimed in claim 15 and further including

means for driving said audio loop into rotation at an audio playback speed;

means for detecting an audio start signal from the audio pilot signals;

means actuated by the audio end signal and effectively rendered inactive by the audio start signal for increasing the rotation of the audio loop during track changes.

17. The playback apparatus as claimed in claim 16 and further including

means for producing an actual track signal indicative of the track over which said playback means is located;

means for producing a desired track signal indicative of the desired track to be played back; and

means responsive to the actual track signal and the desired track signal for delivering position signals to the advancing means to position the playback means over the desired track.

18. The playback apparatus as claimed in claim 17 wherein said advancing means includes

an audio track drive and a video track drive respectively operative on the playback means for the audio and video loops;

both said track drives having forward and reversing inputs to position the playback means over any drsired track;

a plurality of OR gates respectively coupled to drive the forward and reversing inputs of the track drives;

a first AND gate coupled to the forward coupled OR gates and enabled with the audio end signal and disabled during track changes for advancing the playback means to successively located tracks;

and wherein said position signal producing means further includes

a comparator circuit coupled to the actual and desired track signals, a threshold network coupled to the comparator output to produce a matching signal when the comparator output indicates a match between the actual and desired track signals, a pulse generator and means responsive to the pulses from the pulse generator and the match signal for delivering pulses to the OR gates until said actual and desired track signals match.

19. An apparatus for recording and playing back associated input video and audio signals which are being transmitted on a reduced time scale at elevated carrier frequencies comprising

a video magnetic recording medium and an audio magnetic recording medium;

means including separate heads for respectively recording the input video and audio signals onto the video and audio magnetic medium and playback means using said separate heads for playing back signals from the magnetic media;

means for moving the audio recording medium relative to the recording means and playback means at a first audio recording speed and a second slower audio playback speed;

means for sensing individual frames of the input video and audio signals to be recorded;

means activated by the frame sensing means for moving the recording means to correspondingly different tracks of the recording medium and record the input video and audio signals as frames on separate tracks; and

means responsive to signals from the playback means for playing back video signal frames recorded on separate tracks in correspondence with associated audio signals frames.

20. The recording and playback apparatus as claimed in claim 19 wherein playback means includes a low speed audio playback head and wherein the recording means includes a high speed audio recording head.

21. The recording and playback apparatus as claimed in claim 20 wherein the recording and playback means includes a video recording and playback head mounted in synchronized relationship with the audio recording and playback heads.

22. The recording and playback apparatus as claimed in claim 19 wherein the means for playing back video signal frames with associated audio signal frames further includes

means for sensing individual frames of playback audio signals;

and

means actuated by the audio playback frame sensing means for moving the playback means to different tracks of the magnetic recording media at the end of the playback of an audio frame.

23. The recording and playback apparatus as claimed in claim 22 and further including

means for detecting a predetermined set of frames in the input video and audio signals;

and

means actuated by the detecting means for recording the predetermined set of frames on the recording media.

24. The recording and playback apparatus as claimed in claim 22 wherein the means for sensing individual frames of playback audio signals produces audio frame defining signals representative of the start and end of an audio frame.

25. The recording and playback apparatus as claimed in claim 24 wherein said magnetic recording media includes a pair of magnetic belts for respectively storing the video and audio frames.

26. The recording and playback apparatus as claimed in claim 25 wherein the circumferential length of the video belt is selected commensurate with the length needed to record a video frame or whole multiple thereof.