Image reception system

• US 4,896,354 A
• Filed: 10/11/1985
• Issued: 01/23/1990
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/1984
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Aoki, Haruo, Inagaki, Isamu
• Primary Examiner(s): Buczinski, Stephen C.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wallace, Linda J.
• Application Number:
  US06/786,802
• Time in Patent Office: 1,565 Days
• Field of Search: 358/114, 358/86, 358/122, 358/123, 358/349, 380/7, 380/10, 380/20
• US Class Current: 380/207
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/59 for emergency or urgency
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/76 Wired systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/15 on receiving information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/16 on playing information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4221 Dedicated function buttons, e.g. for the control of an EPG, subtitles, aspect ratio, picture-in-picture or teletext
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4318 by altering the content in the rendering process, e.g. blanking, blurring or masking an image region image enhancement or restoration in general G06T5/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4542 Blocking scenes or portions of the received content, e.g. censoring scenes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4753 for user identification, e.g. by entering a PIN or password cryptographic authentication protocols H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/445 for displaying additional information H04N5/50 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/162 Authorising the user terminal, e.g. by paying; Registering the use of a subscription channel, e.g. billing

Abstract

An image reception system is disclosed, which includes a tuner for selecting one of broadcast channels of CATV, a video detector connected to the tuner for deriving output signals having video signals and command data of the selected channel, a data fetch circuit for extracting the command data and character data out of the output signals derived from the video detector, a display controller for controling video outputs to be displayed on a display screen, and a key pad for supplying the control command to the display controller. In this case, the display controller includes a character generator for generating character signals to be displayed on the display and masking circuit for superimposing masking signals on the video signal on request.

Claims

1. An image reception system comprising:

tuner means for selecting one of a plurality of broadcast channels;

video detector means connected to said tuner means for deriving output signals corresponding to video signals and command data of the selected channel;

data fetch means connected to said video detector means for producing signals representative of command data and character data for on-screen display in response to said video output signals from sand video detector means;

command analyzing and display control means connected to said data fetch means for controlling video outputs to be displayed on a display screen;

key pad means for supplying a control command to said display control means;

said display control means including character generator means for generating character signals to be displayed on said display screen,

masking means connected to said video detector means and to said command analyzing and display control means for selectively superimposing masking signals on said video signals for blanking said video signals, in accordance with command data, and

character generator means connected to said command analyzing and display control means for generating character signals indicating types of reception blocking operations in accordance with said command data, said character signals being superimposed on said masked video signals.

2. An image reception system as recited in claim 1, wherein said display control means includes a microcomputer which selects said character information based on said command data or said control command.

3. An image reception system as recited in claim 1, wherein said masking means is controlled by said control command from said key pad means.

4. An image reception system as recited in claim 3 including means, wherein the control of said masking means requires the user to input a predetermined ID code.