Audio and video digital recording and playback system

• US 4,682,248 A
• Filed: 09/17/1985
• Issued: 07/21/1987
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/1983
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Qualex Incorporated (Eastman Kodak Company)
• Original Assignee: Compusonics Video Corporation
• Inventors: Schwartz, David M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Canney, Vincent P.
• Application Number:
  US06/776,809
• Time in Patent Office: 672 Days
• Field of Search: 381/51, 381/41, 360/32, 358/22, 340/703, 340/717, 340/747
• US Class Current: 360/32
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 1/247 Digital recording of seismic data, e.g. in acquisition units or nodes
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/1672 using sonic detecting means, e.g. a microphone operating in the audio frequency range
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/02 using spectral analysis, e.g. transform vocoders or subband vocoders
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/10 Digital recording or reproducing
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/10527 Audio or video recording; Data buffering arrangements G11B20/12 - G11B20/18 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/012 Recording on, or reproducing or erasing from, magnetic disks G11B17/00, G11B19/00 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/00 Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/91 Television signal processing therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/797 for recording the signal in a plurality of channels, the bandwidth of each channel being less than the bandwidth of the signal H04N9/804, H04N9/81, H04N9/82 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/808 involving pulse code modulation of the composite colour video-signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8087 using time division multiplex of the PCM audio and PCM video signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8216 using time division multiplex

Abstract

A microcomputer system for converting an analog signal, such as an audio or video signal representative of sound or video into a digital form for storing in digital form in a highly condensed code and for reconstructing the analog signal from the coded digital form. The system includes reductive analytic means where the original digital data stream is converted to a sequential series of spectrograms, signal amplitude histrograms and waveform code tables. Approximately 100 times less storage space than previously required for the storage of digitized signals is thereby obtained. Additive synthesis logic interprets the stored codes and recreates an output digital data stream for digital to analog conversion that is nearly identical to the original analog signal.

Claims

1. A microcomputer recording system for recording analog audio and video signals in digital data form comprising:

converting means for converting an analog audio signal into a multiplicity of digital data streams wherein at least one of said data streams is a relatively broadband reference signal representative of the amplitude of a preselected range of audio frequencies, and wherein another of said data streams is produced by filtering the analog audio signal to produce a data stream channel indicative of a plurality of discrete frequencies encompassed by the bandwidth represented by the first data stream; and

wherein another of said digital data stream is a reference signal representative of the amplitude of the audio signal for each of plurality of discrete frequencies;

sampling means for producing a sequential stream of samples in each of said digital data streams,

selection means for selecting a predetermined portion of the digital data samples produced by said sampling means in each digital data stream;

means for separately storing each of said selected data samples produced by said sampling means;

means for comparing the reference data stream containing amplitude data with the reference data stream containing frequency data to produce frequency spectrogram data representative of the frequency and energy of the original audio signal;

means for comparing said histogram data with selected waveform parameters and producing addressable data representative of the waveform of the original input data;

means for sequentially assembling and storing the frequency spectrogram data and the amplitude reference data and the addressable waveform data for subsequent use; and

converting means for converting an analog video signal into a multiplicity of digital data streams wherein the first of said digital data streams is a sequential time code representative of the beginning of each video frame, and

wherein another of said digital data streams is produced by filtering the analog time domain signal to produce a data stream channel indicative of chrominance; and

wherein another of said data streams is indicative of brightness; and

wherein another of said digital data streams is indicative of pixel spatial relationships; and

wherein another of said data streams is indicative of the temporal frame to frame relationships; and

coding means for receiving each data stream individually, said coding means including means for mathematically transforming each digital data stream into modified data streams each capable of being subsequently analyzed by comparison of the chrominance, brightness and spatial factors present respectfully in said modified data streams, and

means for selecting predetermined data bits from each of said modified data streams after comparison, in a sufficient amount to reconstruct each chrominance, brightness and spatial factors for video presentation, and

means for storing said digital data bits for retrieval.

2. A digital recording and playback system capable of recording and playing back analog audio and video analog signals from signals stored in digital form either separately or together comprising:

converting means for converting an analog audio signal into a multiplicity of digital data streams wherein at least one of said data streams is a relatively broadband reference signal representative of the amplitude of a preselected range of audio frequencies, and wherein another of said data streams is produced by filtering the analog audio signal to produce a data stream channel indicative of a plurality of discrete frequencies encompassed by the bandwidth represented by the first data stream; and

wherein another of said digital data stream is a reference signal representative of the amplitude of the audio signal for each of plurality of discrete frequencies;

sampling means for producing a sequential stream of samples in each of said digital data streams,

selection means for selecting a predetermined portion of the digital data samples produced by said sampling means in each digital data stream;

means for separately storing each of said selected data samples produced by said sampling means;

means for comparing the reference data stream containing amplitude data with the reference data stream containing frequency data to produce frequency spectrogram data representative of the frequency and energy of the original audio signal;

means for comparing said histogram data with selected waveform parameters and producing addressable data representative of the waveform of the original input data;

means for sequentially assembling and storing the frequency spectrogram data and the amplitude reference data and the addressable waveform data for subsequent use; and

converting means for converting an analog video signal into a multiplicity of digital data streams wherein the first of said digital data streams is a sequential time code representative of the beginning of each video frame, and

wherein another of said digital data streams is produced by filtering the analog time domain signal to produce a data stream channel indicative of chrominance; and

wherein another of said data streams is indicative of brightness; and

wherein another of said digital data streams is indicative of pixel spatial relationships; and

wherein another of said data streams is indicative of the temporal frame to frame relationships; and

coding means for receiving each data stream individually, said coding means including means for mathematically transforming each digital data stream into modified data streams each capable of being subsequently analyzed by comparison of the chrominance, brightness, pixel spatial relationships and temporal factors present respectfully in said modified data streams, and

means for selecting predetermined data bits from each of said modified data streams after comparison, in a sufficient amount to reconstruct each chrominance, brightness, pixel spatial relationships and temporal factors for video presentation, and

means for storing said data bits for retrieval; and

means for decoding and synthesizing the chrominance, brightness, pixel spatial relationships and temporal factors suitable for video presentation; and

means for converting the digital data to analog form.

3. An apparatus for recording incoming analog video signals in a compressed digital form comprising:

means for providing an analog signal representative of an incoming signal;

means for digitizing said analog signal to produce a digital signal; and

means for tranforming said analog signal into a plurality of discrete digital data streams; and

means for sampling said digitized data streams; and

means for analyzing said digitized data streams;

buffer means for storing said digitized data streams;

analysis means for extracting individual functional characteristics from said plurality of data streams;

means for comparing said functional characteristics within said digital data streams;

means for storing truncated portions of said data streams after comparison;

means for recording said truncated data streams in a manner to enable reproduction of a facimile of the original stream.