Video system, method and apparatus
First Claim
1. Apparatus for forming multi-program composite video display signals from the video display signals from at least three sources of displayable programs, the apparatus comprising:
- switch means having an output and having inputs coupled to receive the video display signals from said at least three sources for displaying successive fields of the individual displayable programs, said switch means being operable in at least three operating states for selecting in each operating state a video display signal for displaying a field of the displayable program from one of said at least three sources;
control means coupled to control the operating state of the switch means for altering the operating state thereof to couple said output in selectable sequence to receive at a selected input the video display signal for displaying one field of a displayable program from the one of said at least three sources that is coupled to such selected input for producing at said output a composite video display signal which includes an arbitrary sequence of interleaved video display signals from separate ones of said at least three sources, each such video display signal for displaying one field of one displayable program.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An improved system, apparatus and method are disclosed for interleaving selected video fields of multiple displayable programs to facilitate viewer selection of which programs to display. Selected video fields are stored and continuously displayed until a new, successive video field is selected to update the currently stored video field. In this manner, a sequence of rapidly updated, fixed or frozen video fields provides the appearance of continuous movement of displayed images. Audio signals are included in the video fields of displayable programs to provide audio signals in synchronism with selected video fields. The sequence of interleaved video fields may be assembled in real time or stored as a video tape recording, and the information need to re-assemble correlated video fields of a selector displayable program from the sequence of interleaved video fields is included in the horizontal scans or traces of each video field in the sequence.
102 Citations
11 Claims
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1. Apparatus for forming multi-program composite video display signals from the video display signals from at least three sources of displayable programs, the apparatus comprising:
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switch means having an output and having inputs coupled to receive the video display signals from said at least three sources for displaying successive fields of the individual displayable programs, said switch means being operable in at least three operating states for selecting in each operating state a video display signal for displaying a field of the displayable program from one of said at least three sources; control means coupled to control the operating state of the switch means for altering the operating state thereof to couple said output in selectable sequence to receive at a selected input the video display signal for displaying one field of a displayable program from the one of said at least three sources that is coupled to such selected input for producing at said output a composite video display signal which includes an arbitrary sequence of interleaved video display signals from separate ones of said at least three sources, each such video display signal for displaying one field of one displayable program. - View Dependent Claims (2, 11)
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3. Apparatus for producing a composite video signal for displaying selectable successive video fields of a plurality of displayable programs, the apparatus comprising:
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means producing a plurality of horizontal traces of video field information for displaying selected video fields of each of the displayable programs; and coder means coupled to said means for including on selected horizontal traces of the video field information for each video field of each selectable displayable program non-displayable coded signals representative of the selectable program and the successive field thereof for designating the entire field of a selected program for display in response to detection of said coded signals in the video field information of said designated field.
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4. Apparatus
for producing a composite video signal for displaying selectable successive video fields of a plurality of displayable program, the apparatus comprising: -
means producing a plurality of horizontal traces of video field information for displaying selected video fields of each of the displayable programs; and coder means coupled to said means for including on selected horizontal traces of the video field information for each video field of each selectable displayable program non-displayable coded signals representative of the selectable program and the successive field thereof for designating the entire field of a selected program for display in response to detection of said coded signals in the video field information of said designated field; and said coded signals representative of program and field designations being included on selected ones of the tenth through twentieth horizontal traces of a video field.
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5. Apparatus for producing a composite video signal for selectively displaying successive video fields of a displayable program, the apparatus comprising:
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means for producing a plurality of horizontal traces of video field information for displaying successive video fields of the displayable program; and circuit means coupled to said means for interposing on selected horizontal traces of said video field information for successive video fields of the displayable program a compressed selection of audio signal information over an interval longer than the interval of the selected horizontal traces. - View Dependent Claims (6)
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7. A method of producing composite video signals for selectively displaying successive video fields in vertical synchronizing intervals of a displayable program, the method comprising the steps of:
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producing a plurality of horizontal traces of video field information for displaying successive video fields of the displayable program; interposing on selected horizontal traces of said video field information for successive video fields of the displayable program a compressed selection of audio information over an interval longer than the interval of the selected horizontal traces. - View Dependent Claims (8)
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9. A method of reproducing compressed audio information on selected horizontal traces of composite video signals for displaying successive video fields in vertical synchronizing intervals of a displayable program, the method comprising the steps of:
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10. detecting the selected horizontal trace and retrieving audio information from the selected horizontal trace within the interval thereof;
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reproducing the retrieved audio information over a substantially longer interval.
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Specification