Television system using a marking code superimposed on the picture

• US 4,368,486 A
• Filed: 02/25/1981
• Issued: 01/11/1983
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/1980
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Etablissement Public de Diffusion DIT "Telediffusion de France", L'Etat Francais Represente PAR Le Ministre Des Postes et Telecommunications
• Original Assignee: Etablissement Public de Diffusion DIT "Telediffusion de France", L'Etat Francais Represente PAR Le Ministre Des Postes et Telecommunications
• Inventors: Degoulet, Gabriel, Gauthier, Christian, Gaucher, Gilbert
• Primary Examiner(s): Martin, John C.
• Application Number:
  US06/237,925
• Time in Patent Office: 685 Days
• Field of Search: 358/142, 358/143, 358/214, 358/146, 358/147, 358/127, 358/183, 360/33
• US Class Current: 348/598
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/272 Means for inserting a foreground image in a background image, i.e. inlay, outlay
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/08 Systems for the simultaneous or sequential transmission of more than one television signal, e.g. additional information signals, the signals occupying wholly or partially the same frequency band , e.g. by time division H04N7/007 takes precedence

Abstract

Television system using a marking code superimposed on a picture.

According to the invention, this code is constituted by a strip located in the right-hand part of the picture and formed by a periodic sequence of white and black areas constituting a clock and by a strip located in the left-hand part of the picture and formed by a sequence of white or black areas constituting the actual code. A decoder detects the presence of clock signals and compares the code received with stored codes.

Claims

1. A television system comprising a means for superimposing a marking code on one of the pictures to be televised and a decoder able to detect the presence of this code in the pictures, wherein the said marking code is formed by a first vertical strip constituted by a periodic sequence of alternately white and black areas, said strip being positioned along one of the lateral edges of the picture and by a second vertical strip constituted by a sequence of white or black areas, each extending over a height equal to the period of said sequence formed by the first strip, said second strip being located along the other lateral edge of the picture, the video signal corresponding to a picture having received such a code thus incorporating black or white signals located at the start and finish of a scanning line, and wherein the decoder comprises a circuit for detecting, in the video signal which it receives, the presence of white and black signals located at the start and finish of the line and for recognising, on the basis of the thus detected signals, the presence of said code and for transmitting a control order.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the decoder comprises means for detecting the presence of a signal corresponding to the first periodic strip and for authorising the operation of the means for the recognition of the signal corresponding to the second strip.

3. A system according to claim 1, wherein the clock signal forming the right-hand strip on the picture comprises groups of eight periods and wherein the data signal forming the left-hand strip comprises the same number of octets representing the alphanumeric characters according to the ASCII code.

4. A system according to claim 3, wherein the means for extracting the signals from the code of the video signal received comprise:

a circuit for extracting frame and line synchronization signals from the video signal received,

a vertical time base controlled by the frame synchronization signals,

a horizontal time base controlled by the line synchronization signals, said time base transmitting pulses at the start and finish of the line,

a sampling and storage circuit for the data signals controlled by the pulses of the horizontal time base,

a sampling and storage circuit of the clock signals controlled by the pulses of the horizontal time base.

5. A system according to claim 4, wherein the means for detecting the presence of a signal corresponding to the first periodic strip comprise:

a circuit controlling that the signal supplied by the second circuit drops in a window defined by the time base,

a backward counter connected to the circuit and supplying a pulse indicating the presence of a correct number of clock pulses,

an authorization circuit controlled by the vertical time base.

6. A system according to claim 5, wherein the means for recognising the presence of a signal corresponding to the second strip comprise:

a said circuit for inserting a service octet between two groups of data octets corresponding to two successive frames of the coded image,

a memory recording the two groups of data octets and the service octet,

a circuit for controlling the erasure of the memory at the end of each frame, said circuit being inhibited by the pulse from the authorization circuit,

a microprocessor connected to the memory, said microprocessor incorporating an input-output circuit, a programme register and a central processing unit, said microprocessor being able to carry out comparisons between each octet read into the memory and the predetermined octets.