Wireless real time video system and method of making same

• US 5,128,755 A
• Filed: 07/25/1990
• Issued: 07/07/1992
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/1990
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Wireless Input Technology Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Wireless Input Technology Incorporated
• Inventors: Fancher, Philip D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kostak, Victor R.
• Application Number:
  US07/557,896
• Time in Patent Office: 713 Days
• Field of Search: 358/108, 358/93, 358/83, 358/210, 358/186, 358/161, 343/700 MS
• US Class Current: 348/143
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19621 Portable camera
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19634 Electrical details of the system, e.g. component blocks for carrying out specific functions
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/1966 Wireless systems, other than telephone systems, used to communicate with a camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source

Abstract

A wireless, real time video system provides a low power video transmitter wherein the base band video signal generated by the video camera directly modulates a radio frequency carrier signal to produce a very narrow band transmitter signal that is transmitted through a circularly polarized patch radiating antenna to a receiving antenna at a remote receiver site. The transmitted signal is picked up by the receiver antenna to be passed through a narrow band preselector filter to a low noise amplifier. The amplified signal is then applied to a mixer along with a fixed local oscillator frequency that is demodulated to reconstruct the original base band video signal for use in operating a video monitor or recorder connected by hard wired cable to the receiver unit. Both the transmitter and the receiver employ a phase locked loop and narrow ban filters to confine the transmitted signal and the receiver response within a very narrow frequency band to optimize the transmitter efficiency and prevent generation of and interference from extraneous signals.

Claims

1. A wireless video surveillance system, comprising:

a video camera for generating a base band video signal;

a transmitter for receiving said base band video signal from said video camera, including means for directly modulating a carrier signal at a substantially fixed carrier frequency within an assigned radio frequency transmission band to generate a narrow band frequency modulated transmission signal and a transmitter antenna means having a microstrip patch radiating antenna for transmitting said frequency modulated transmission signal;

a receiver means including a receiving antenna for receiving said frequency modulated tansmission signal radiated from said transmitting antenna means and a demodulator means for deriving said base band video signal from the frequency modulated transmission signal; and

a remote monitoring station having a video monitor or recorder connected to receive said base band video from said receiver means.

2. The wireless video surveillance system of claim 1 wherein said carrier signal is within the assigned frequency range of 902 to 928 MHz.

3. The wireless video surveillance system of claim 1 wherein said carrier signal is within the assigned frequency range of 2,400 to 2,500 MHz.

4. The wireless video surveillance system of claim 1 wherein said carrier signal is within the assigned frequency range of 5,700 to 5,900 MHz.

5. The wireless video surveillance system of claim 1 wherein the transmitter includes:

a voltage controlled oscillator for generating the frequency modulated transmission signal in response to the amplitude of an applied control signal;

a crystal oscillator for generating a precise submultiple of said fixed carrier frequency with minimal harmonic generation;

a phase lock for comparing a submultiple of the transmission signal from the voltage controlled oscillator with the submultiple of the carrier signal generated by the crystal oscillator during the blanking intervals of said base band video signal to produce a phase error output signal; and

a summer circuit for combining the amplitude of said phase error output signal with the base band video signal during non-blanking intervals to generate the control signal applied to said voltage controlled oscillator to frequency modulate the output of said voltage controlled oscillator in accordance with the base band video.

6. The video surveillance system of claim 5 wherein a narrow band pass filter receives the frequency modulated transmission signal from the voltage controlled oscillator to be applied to said transmitter antenna means for transmission to said receiver means.

7. The wireless video surveillance system of claim 6 wherein crystal oscillator includes a crystal diode operable to generate a frequency reference signal at a precise submitiple of the carrier frequency, and a frequency divider connected tp receive the transmission signal generated by the voltage controlled oscillator to produce a submultiple to be compared in phase with the frequency reference signal of said crystal oscillator, thereby minimizing side band transmission, and wherein the narrow band pass filter consists of a microstrip material to maximize harmonic reduction.

8. The wireless video surveillance system of claim 6 wherein said transmitter includes an automatic gain control circuit for maintaining the amplitude of said video signal applied to the summer circuit at a constant level of compensate for ambient light changes within the camera field of view.

9. A wireless video surveillance system comprising:

a remote video camera for generating a base and video signal;

transmitter means connected to said video camera including modulation means for directly modulating a radio frequency carrier signal with said base and video signal to generate a narrow band frequency modulated transmission signal and a transmitter antenna for radiating said transmission signal; and

a centrally located receiver means including a receiving antenna for picking up the radiated transmission signal from said transmitter means and a demodulator means for deriving said base band video signal from the transmission signal received by said receiving antenna to be applied to a video monitor or recorder.

10. The wireless video surveillance system of claim 9 wherein said transmitter antenna is circularly polarized.

11. The wireless video surveillance system of claim 10 wherein said circularly polarized transmitter antenna consists of a single microstrip patch.

12. The wireless video surveillance system of claim 11 wherein:

the single microstrip patch consists of a unitary conductive strip spaced a predetermined distance from a conductive ground plane and having a slotted portion and a single feed point spaced inwardly at predetermined locations, whereby the dimensions of the microstrip patch and the spacing of its slotted portion and feed point are predetermined to operate at the carrier frequency of the transmission signal.

13. The wireless video surveillance system of claim 10 wherein the receiving antenna is monopole antenna having vertical polarization.

14. The wireless video surveillance system of claim 9 wherein:

said modulation means includes a voltage controlled oscillator that operates only blanking intervals of the video signal from the video camera to generate said transmission signal at a substantially constant radio carrier frequency and operates outside of the blanking intervals to receive the base band video signal form said camera as a control voltage to produce narrow band frequency modulation of said radio carrier frequency.

15. The wireless video surveillance system of claim 14 wherein said transmitter means further comprises;

a crystal oscillator for generating frequency reference at a precise submultiple of said radio carrier frequency; and

a phase lock loop operative during the blanking intervals of said video signal for comparing the transmission signal from said voltage controlled oscillator with the frequency reference signal generated by the crystal oscillator to produce a phase error signal for adjusting the frequency of the transmission signal generated by said voltage controlled oscillator to the precise radio carrier frequency.

16. The wireless video surveillance system of claim 15 wherein:

said transmitter means includes a high speed frequency divider for stepping down the frequency of the transmission signal from the voltage controlled oscillator to match the frequency of the crystal oscillator so as to minimize side band transmissions due to harmonic generation.

17. The wireless video surveillance system of claim 16 wherein said narrow band pass filter consists of a microstrip element providing 40 dB harmonic reduction.

18. The wireless video surveillance system of claims 14 or 17 wherein said transmitter means includes an automatic gain control circuit for maintaining the amplitude of said base band video signal applied to said voltage controlled oscillator at a constant level to compensate for ambient light changes within the camera field or view, whereby modulation of the carrier frequency is maintained within narrow frequency band limits.

19. The wireless video surveillance system of claims 9 or 17 wherein teh receiver means includes a narrow band pre-selector filter for eliminating noise from the signal received by said receiver antenna.

20. The wireless video surveillance system of claim 9 wherein the demodulator means includes a voltage controlled oscillator for generating a mixing frequency signal offset from the fixed carrier frequency by approximately 70 MHZ to be mixed with the signal from said receiving antenna to generate an intermediate frequency output to be applied to said demodulator means for deriving said base band video signal.

22. The wireless video surveillance system of claim 18 wherein the demodulator means includes a voltage controlled oscillator for generating a mixing frequency signal offset from the fixed carrier frequency by approximaterly 70 MHZ to be mixed with the signal from said receiving antenna to generate an intermediate frequency output to be applied to said demodulator means for deriving said base band video signal.

23. The wireless video surveillance system of claim 19 wherein the demodulator means includes a voltage controlled oscillator for generating a mixing frequency signal offset from the fixed carrier frequency by approximately 70 MHZ to be mixed with the signal from said receiving antenna to generate an intermediate frequency output to be applied to said demodultor means for deriving said base band video signal.

24. The wireless video surveillance system of claim 23 wherein the receiver means includes a mixer for combining the signal from said receiving antenna with the mixing frequency signal to generate the intermediate frequency output and further including a narrow band SAW filter to minimize the bandwith of the intermediate frequency output applied to the demodulater means to derive the base band video signal.

21. The wireless video surveillance system of claim wherein the receiver means includes a mixer for combining the signal from said receiving antenna with the mixing frequency signal to generate the intermediate frequency output and further including a narrow band SAW filter to minimize the bandwidth of the intermediate frequency output applied to the demodulator means to derive the base band video signal.