Television receiver

• US 4,298,891 A
• Filed: 06/18/1979
• Issued: 11/03/1981
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/1978
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Baba, Takaaki, Kitani, Teruo, Sasaki, Reiichi, Sagishima, Takayuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Murray, Richard
• Application Number:
  US06/049,637
• Time in Patent Office: 869 Days
• Field of Search: 358/183, 358/142
• US Class Current: 348/568
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/45 Picture in picture , e.g. displaying simultaneously another television channel in a region of the screen

Abstract

A television receiver including: television signal receiving means for simultaneously receiving two different television signals to produce two different image signals, a first and a second image signal corresponding to the television signals; synchronous signal producing means for producing vertical synchronous signals and horizontal synchronous signals from the two image signals; memory means for sampling and storing the second image signal; driving pulse producing means for producing driving pulses to drive the memory means in accordance with the synchronous signals supplied to the driving pulse producing means from the synchronous signal producing means; mixing means for producing a mixed image signal by inserting, into the first image signal under the control of the driving pulses, the second image signal read out from the memory means by the driving pulses; and display means for displaying the output of the mixing means; wherein the second image signal of each horizontal synchronous period is sampled by the memory means into N_H sampled signals, and n sampled signals which are sampled from n adjacent horizontal lines of the second image signal, respectively, and which correspond to each other in vertical direction on a TV screen are summed and integrated into one sampled image signal element whereby N_H sampled image signal elements for one horizontal synchronous period upon read-out are formed from n×N_H sampled signals of n adjacent horizontal lines and stored by the memory means.

Since the information of all of the n adjacent horizontal lines is utilized for the displayed image, the displayed image can be of high quality.

Claims

1. A television receiver comprising:

television signal receiving means for simultaneously receiving two television signals to produce a first image signal and a second image signal corresponding to said television signals, respectively, each of which contains vertical synchronous signals and horizontal synchronous signals;

synchronous signal producing means operatively coupled to said television signal receiving means for producing the vertical synchronous signals and the horizontal synchronous signals from said first and second image signals;

memory means operatively coupled to said television signal receiving means for sampling and storing said second image signal;

driving pulse producing means operatively coupled to said synchronous signal producing means and to said memory means for producing driving pulses to drive said memory means in accordance with said vertical synchronous signals and said horizontal synchronous signals applied thereto;

mixing means operatively coupled to said television signal producing means and to said memory means for producing a mixed image signal composed of said first image signal having a portion of which replaced, under the control of said driving pulses, by said second signal read out from said memory means by said driving pulses; and

display means operatively coupled to said mixing means for displaying said mixed image signal on a television screen, wherein;

each horizontal synchronous period of said second image signal is sampled by said memory means into N_H sampled signals, N_H geing an integer;

M horizontal synchronous periods of said second image signal are sequentially grouped into M/n sequential groups, each group consisting of n horizontal synchronous periods, M and n being integers, and M>

n; and

n sampled signals which are sampled by said memory means from each of said group of n adjacent horizontal synchronous periods of said second image signal, respectively, and which correspond to each other in the vertical direction on the television screen are summed and integrated into one sampled image signal element, whereby N_H such sampled image signal elements for each horizontal synchronous period of the second image signal in said mixed image signal are formed from n×

N_H sampled signals of each of said group of n adjacent horizontal synchronous periods of said second image signal and stored by said memory means.

2. A television receiver according to claim 1, in which said memory means comprises a first set of N_H charge transfer devices, a third set of N_H ×

N_v charge transfer devices, a fourth set of N_H charge transfer devices, a fifth set of N_H charge transfer devices and a sixth set of N_H ×

N_v charge transfer devices, N_v being equal to M/(2n) and which equals the number of horizontal synchronous periods of one field of said second image signal in said mixed image signal, wherein;

for a first field of one frame of said second image signal from said television signal receiving means, each horizontal synchronous period of said second image signal is sampled by said first set of charge transfer devices into said N_H sampled signal;

the n sampled signals which are sampled by said first set of devices from each of said group of n adjacent horizontal synchronous periods of said second image signals, respectively, and which correspond to each other in said vertical direction are summed and integrated into said one sampled image signal element by each corresponding one of said N_H charge transfer devices of said second set of devices; and

said N_H such sampled image signal elements are stored in corresponding N_H charge transfer devices of said third set of devices, and wherein;

for a second field of said one frame of said second image signal from said television signal receiving means, the sampling operation, the summing-integrating operation and the storing operation are the same as those performed by said first set, second set and third set of devices for said first field, respectively, and are performed by said fourth set, fifth set and sixth set of devices, respectively.

3. A television receiver according to claim 2, wherein each of said charge transfer devices is a charge coupled device.