Teletext device with reduced page-access time

• US 4,679,083 A
• Filed: 03/01/1984
• Issued: 07/07/1987
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/1983
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: US Philips Corporation (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: US Philips Corporation (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Fekkes, Wilhelmus F., Annegarn, Marcellinus J. J. C., Schmitz, Herman J. R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Groody, James J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Parker, Michael D.
• Application Number:
  US06/585,335
• Time in Patent Office: 1,223 Days
• Field of Search: 358/142, 358/146, 358/147
• US Class Current: 348/468
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/0882 for the transmission of character code signals, e.g. for teletext circuits for the digital non-picture data signal H04N7/035

Abstract

Arrangement for receiving and processing digital signals in teletext or associated systems, comprising a picture store and a background store, the background store being arranged immediately after the source for the digital input signals such that output signals of the background store can be applied to the customary input circuit for further processing, while the picture store is arranged after this input circuit. The background store can store at least two but preferably a larger number of pages. Because of this implementation the waiting times occurring when new pages are requested are reduced to zero or substantially zero after the first request, while no additional control actions by the user are required.

Claims

1. An apparatus for generating video text data carried on a television signal during a time interval of each field, said video text data including a plurality of magazines, each magazine including a plurality of numbered pages and numbered rows of text, comprising:

a processor for deriving said text data from said television signal;

an input circuit for processing said text data;

a picture store connected to receive and store a selected page of said text data from said input circuit;

a background store connected to said processor for storing at least two pages additional to said selected page of said video text data;

a switch connected to deliver said text data from said processor, and said background store to said input circuit;

a control circuit connected to control said switch, whereby said input circuit receives either said processor text data or said background store data, and further connected to control writing of said background store; and

keyboard means connected to said control circuit from which to send a selected page number of said text data to said control circuit, whereby said control circuit identifies, in response to a single page selection, a magazine containing said pages to be written into said background memory, and said control circuit further identifies whether said processor text data or background store data is to be delivered to said picture store.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control circuit comprises a secondary store for remembering those pages which were stored in the background store during writing.

3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the background store is formed by a series-parallel converter and an addressable memory having a word length of w bits, the series-parallel converter always combining w consecutive bits of a serial input signal into a memory word and writing it at address locations chosen by the control circuit.

4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the background store is a serial store, and during periods in which the background store is not being written, the data stored in the background store always circulate at least once in the background store under the control of the control circuit, and when a new request for a page is received from said keyboard means, the input circuit is coupled to an output of the background store and recognizes the page number of said newly requested page in the circulating data and transfers the data associated with said newly requested page to the picture store.

5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein said serial background store is a store of the volatile type in which circulating the stored data also refreshes the store content, and the periods of time in which no information is stored or circulated can be shorter than the time in which the information vanishes from the background store.

6. An apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the background store is formed from two or more serial sub-memories which, during writing, are in series with each other and, during the period of time no writing is effected are coupled such that the data stored in one of said sub-memories circulate only within that sub-memory, and also comprises a selection circuit which consecutively couples said sub-memory outputs to the input of the input circuit during a period of time no writing of said background store is effected.

7. An aparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the background store is formed by two or more serial sub-stores which are in series with each other during writing and are uncoupled during the period in which no writing is effected such that the data stored in one said sub-stores circulate only within said one sub-store, and also comprises a selection circuit which, in response to the control circuit, during reading from the background store, couples the output of the sub-store which contains the requested page data to the input of the input circuit.

8. An apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the serial background store has an internal transfer rate which is the n-fold of the bit frequency of the text data, the control circuit comprising a clock signal generator circuit having said n-fold frequency, said clock signal generator circuit is synchronized during writing into the background store with the data bit frequency of the text data, and further comprises a switch which, during each n^th period of the clock signal having the n-fold frequency, couples the input of the serial background store to the text data, and during the intermediate (n-1) periods couples the input of the serial background store to an output of a time delay circuit, an input of said time delay circuit being connected to the output of the serial background store.

9. An apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein the time delay circuit produces a time delay which is equal to one clock period of the clock signal generator for the n-fold frequency.

10. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the background store is provided at its input with a magazine-selection circuit for recognizing a magazine number at the beginning of each line of the text data, and a store input switch which is controlled by the magazine selection circuit, an output of which is coupled to an input of the background store and which provides the background store with digital input signals which are associated with a selected magazine.

11. An apparatus as claimed in claim 10, in which a first part of the background store is for storing said digital input signals of said selected magazine, the background store having a second part for storing digital input signals, a time compression-input of which is coupled to a time-compression output of the store input switch whereby said second part of the background store is provided with at least a portion of digital input signals associated with magazines other than the selected magazine.

12. An apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein the background store is formed by a plurality of store modules, of which at least a first module is intended for magazine selection and at least a further module is coupled by the magazine selection circuit to the first module if the data of the selected magazine exceed the capacity of the first module, and in other cases is coupled to the second part of the background store.

13. An apparatus as claimed in claim 12, wherein the magazine selection circuit comprises at least a counting circuit for counting the number of pages of one magazine, the counting circuit generating a sum signal if the number of counted pages of a selected magazine are at least substantially equal to the page capacity of the first module, the sum signal being applied to a coupling circuit for coupling at least one other module to the first module.

14. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the background store is continuously written-in during the occurrence of the text data.

15. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the data input signals are written into the background store during a given time interval starting at the occurrence of a requested page of the text data.

16. An arrangement as claimed in claim 4, characterized in that data input signals are written into the background store during a given time interval starting at the occurrence of a requested page of the text data.

17. An arrangement as claimed in claim 10, characterized in that data input signals are written into the background store during a given time interval starting at the occurrence of a requested page of the text data.