Transmitting data with video

• US 5,327,237 A
• Filed: 06/14/1991
• Issued: 07/05/1994
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/1991
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: WAVO Corporation
• Original Assignee: WavePhore, Inc.
• Inventors: Montgomery, Gerald, Gerdes, Richard C., Jungo, Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Powell, Mark R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Harvey, David E.
• Application Number:
  US07/715,920
• Time in Patent Office: 1,117 Days
• Field of Search: 358/141, 358/142, 358/12, 358/15
• US Class Current: 348/476
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00098 via a television channel, e.g. for a series of still pictures with or without sound
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/445 for displaying additional information H04N5/50 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/0803 using frequency interleaving, e.g. with precision offset
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/081 the additional information signals being transmitted by means of a subcarrier
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/10 Adaptations for transmission by electrical cable H04N7/12 takes precedence

Abstract

Signal processors for permitting the transparent, simultaneous transmission and reception of a secondary data signal with a video signal in the video band is disclosed. The signal processor in the transmitter rasterizes the data at the horizontal scanning rate and modulates the data with a data carrier at a non-integral multiple of the horizontal scanning rate to obtain frequency interleaving. The data is transmitted during the active video portion of each video line.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting data in the same communications channel as a video signal being transmitted in a given frequency band, the video signal having a video bandwidth with an upper frequency limit and active and blanking intervals with a sync frequency, and the video signal and the data being uncorrelated with respect to each other, the method comprising:

detecting the active video intervals; and

transmitting the data at frequencies within the band and primarily near the upper frequency limit of the band substantially centered around quarter non-integral multiples of the sync frequency during at least some of the active video intervals.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method for detecting the active video intervals comprises detecting the blanking intervals of the video signal.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the intervals are defined by sync pulses, and wherein the video spectrum envelope has gaps and transmitting the data comprises:

generating a data carrier at a frequency that is a quarter non-integral multiple of the sync frequency for modulating the data based upon at least some of the intervals between sync pulses; and

modulating the data carrier with a data signal corresponding to the secondary data whereby the modulated data carrier falls within the gaps of the video signal when modulated by the data carrier, whereby frequency interleaving is obtained.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of transmitting the data further includes blanking the data signal other than during the active video period whereby the data signal is rasterized.

5. A system for combining a data signal with a color frequency interleaved video signal having a color carrier, audio information in a frequency band above frequency bands of luminance and chrominance information, horizontal sync pulses at a predetermined rate and gaps in the video frequency bands with the spectral energy of the luminance and chrominance information separated by about half the rate of the horizontal sync pulses, the system comprising:

a timing circuit responsive to the sync pulses, the timing circuit producing a data carrier at a frequency that is a non-integral multiple of the rate and a timing signal indicating the time periods of the blanking interval;

a combiner having at least two inputs;

a video portion providing the video signal to one input of the combiner;

a data portion providing a second input to the combiner; and

the data portion including;

a data buffer receiving the data and providing rasterized data at an output based upon the blanking signal and the secondary data;

a modulator for providing a modulated data signal responsive to the data carrier and the output of the data buffer, the modulated data signal being coupled to the second input of the combiner such that the spectra of the modulated data signal lies substantially within the gaps of the video spectra and is primarily above the color carrier.

6. The system of claim 5, the data portion further including a scrambler coupling the rastorized data to the modulator, wherein the rastorized data received by the modulator is scrambled.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the data signal includes a clock that controls the rate at which data is stored in the buffer.

8. The signal processor of claim 5, wherein the signal processor section further includes an encoder for limiting the bandwidth of the rasterized data.

9. The signal processor of claim 5, wherein the video signal is an NTSC signal.

10. The signal processor of claim 5, wherein the secondary data signal is a compressed video signal.

11. The signal processor of claim 5, wherein the buffer is an elastic buffer.

12. The signal processor of claim 5, wherein the signal processor further includes a filter receiving the video signal and producing as an output a signal that attenuates a reduced portion of the spectra of the video signal containing the video information.

13. The signal processor of claim 5, wherein the signal processor further includes means for detecting at least one of luminance and chrominance transitions in the video signal above a predetermined limit and for inhibiting data transmission such that no modulated data is provided to the combiner while the portion of the primary video signal containing those transitions reaches the combiner.

14. The signal processor of claim 5, wherein the signal processor further includes means for detecting at least one of luminance and chrominance transitions in the video signal above a predetermined limit and for inserting a unique code in the modulated data to inform a receiver that transmission of secondary data will be halted temporarily.

15. A signal processor for separating a data signal from a rasterized video signal having horizontal and vertical blanking intervals at predetermined intervals and frequencies and having chrominance and luminance information frequency interleaved through use of a color carrier having a frequency in a bandwidth and clustered at a frequencies separated from each other by about half the horizontal frequency and the data information being contained substantially in at least one unused portion of the same bandwidth, the processor comprising:

a timing circuit generating a timing signal at a predetermined frequency based upon the rate of the horizontal intervals;

a band pass filter having a lower cutoff frequency of about the frequency of the color carrier and passing as an output the frequencies for the data signal; and

a data separator responsive to the timing signal and the output of the filter for outputting the data signal at a data rate above about 100 kilobits per second.

16. The signal processor of claim 15, wherein transmission of the data signal has been inhibited during intervals when the video signal represents relatively sharp transitions between pixels and the processor comprises a video processor for detecting information in the signal representing sharp transitions, and the separator further includes a data synchronizer responsive to the video processor.

17. The processor of claim 16, wherein the timing circuit outputs a pulse representing the blanking intervals and the separator uses the pulse to recognize the blanking intervals in the transmitted data signal.

18. The processor of claim 15, further including a phase compensator for compensating the data signal for any phase distortion of the filter, and the data separator further includes a synchronous data detector for detecting data in the phase compensated data signal.

19. A system for adding a secondary data signal to a primary color video signal of a format according to a predetermined standard having blanking intervals defined by sync pulses and a frequency band, the frequency band of the primary video signal including both chrominance and luminance energy frequency interleaved with each other by modulation with a chrominance subcarrier, the chrominance energy lying within the upper portion of the video band, the data signal being uncorrelated to the video signal, the system comprising:

means for detecting at least some of the sync pulses in the video signal;

means for modulating a data carrier having a frequency above the chrominance carrier but substantially within the band of the primary video signal with the data to provide a modulated data signal having a frequency band near the modulated data carrier and at least partially overlapping the video band of the video signal between the data and chrominance carriers; and

means for combining the modulated data signal with the video signal such that the data signal is transparent to a receiver designed to receive the video signal.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the data signal synchronously modulates a data carrier.

21. A process for removing data information combined with color video information in a combined, rasterized signal generated by a chrominance subcarrier positioned in the upper portion of the video bandwidth and having a blanking interval, and a bandwidth of greater than 3.5 megahertz, the processor comprising:

means for receiving the combined signal;

means for generating a data subcarrier based upon the frequency of at least the blanking interval at a frequency above the frequency of the chrominance subcarrier but within the bandwidth;

means responsive to the detecting means for demodulating the data with the data subcarrier; and

means for derasterizing the data.

22. The processor of claim 21 further including a means for attenuating the spectral energy of the combined signal below the chrominance subcarrier before demodulating.

23. A method for transmitting a data signal with a rasterized color video signal of a standard format having a luminance subcarrier, a chrominance subcarrier, the chrominance subcarrier being at an odd half multiple of a rasterization frequency in the upper half of the spectra of the video signal, and a bandwidth, the luminance information and the chrominance information in the video signal being frequency interleaved, the method comprising:

rasterizing the data signal;

generating a data subcarrier at a frequency above the chrominance subcarrier to generate a modulated data signal having a spectra;

modulating the rasterized data signal with the data subcarrier, whereby the spectra of the modulated rasterized data signal lies at least in part between the chrominance and data subcarriers; and

combining the modulated rasterized data signal with the video signal.

24. The method of claim 23, the method further comprising attenuating the spectral energy of the video signal above the chrominance subcarrier frequency before combining the signals.

25. A processor for transmitting a data signal component with a rasterized color video signal component having active video intervals separated by video blanking intervals, the bandwidth of the video signal being greater than 3.0 megahertz and the color information being frequency interleaved in the upper portion of the bandwidth of the video signal by a color carrier located within the frequency band, the processor comprising:

means for generating a first rasterized data signal component having a data rate of at least about 100 kilobits per second so that the data signal has data blanking intervals separating active data intervals; and

means for combining the rasterized data signal component with the video signal component within the portion of the bandwidth between the color carrier of the video signal and the upper end of the bandwidth such that at least some of the video blanking intervals in the data signal substantially coincide with the active video blanking intervals and substantially without interference between the components of the combined signal.

26. The processor of claim 25, the processor further comprising:

a means for attenuating the spectral energy of the video signal at least some frequencies above 3.0 Megahertz before combining the video and the data signals.

27. The processor of claim 25, the processor comprising:

means for modulating the rasterized data signal with a data subcarrier above 3.0 megahertz and providing the modulated rasterized data signal to be combined with the video signal.

28. The processor of claim 27, the processor comprising:

means for generating the data subcarrier at a quarter non-integral multiple of the video signal for modulating the rasterized data signal.

29. A processor for extracting data information having data blanking intervals coinciding with at least part of a blanking interval of a video signal, the data information having been modulated with a subcarrier at a quarter non-integral multiple of the blanking interval frequency, the video signal including a luminance information a chrominance information that has been modulated by a chrominance subcarrier above 3.0 megahertz, wherein the video signal has scanning frequency, the processor comprising:

means for generating a demodulation subcarrier at about quarter non-integral submultiple of the scanning frequency above the chrominance subcarrier;

means for attenuating a least a portion of the portion of the video signal below the chrominance subcarrier;

means for demodulating the data information from the attenuated video signal with the demodulating subcarrier; and

means for eliminating the blanking intervals in the data signal.

30. A process for extracting data information intermixed with video information in a rasterized video signal having blanking intervals according to one of a predetermined format, the video information including luminance information modulated with a luminance subcarrier, chrominance information modulated with a chrominance subcarrier, the spectral energy of the data information being contained primarily in the frequencies above the chrominance subcarrier, the process comprising:

generating a subcarrier at a frequency above the chrominance subcarrier from the video signal;

extracting the data information by demodulating the video signal with the generated subcarrier; and

removing the blanking intervals from the extracted data information.

31. A method for transmitting a data signal having a data rate of greater than about 100 kilobits per second with a frequency interleaved, rasterized color video signal having blanking intervals, a bandwidth and unused portion of spectra within that bandwidth, and the color information having been modulated by a color carrier in the upper half of the video bandwidth, the method comprising:

rasterizing the data signal to have blanking intervals and active data intervals at a frequency greater than 100 kilobits per second;

generating a data carrier based upon the rasterized video signal having blanking intervals at the upper edge of the bandwidth;

modulating the data subcarrier with the rasterized data signal such that the modulated, rasterized data signal lies substantially within at least one of the unused portions of the spectra; and

combining the modulated, rasterized data signal with the video signal.

32. The method of claim 31, chrominance information in the video signal having been modulated by a subcarrier, the method further comprising generating the subcarrier at a frequency substantially a quarter non-integral multiple of some of the blanking intervals and the frequency being above the frequency of the chrominance subcarrier.

33. A method for transmitting a data signal within the bandwidth of a part of a color video signal at baseband, the video signal being one of a group comprised of NTSC, PAL and SECAM format with a color signal interleaved with a luminance signal by modulating the color information with a carrier at an odd multiple of a half horizontal line frequency, the method comprising:

filtering at least part of the video signal above the video signal containing the color information;

rasterizing the data signal;

modulating the data signal with a carrier above the frequency of the color signal and within the baseband bandwidth of the video signal; and

injecting the modulating data signal into the video signal.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

generating the carrier at a quarter, odd multiple of the horizontal line frequency.

35. The method of claim 33, comprising:

generating the carrier at about the upper end of the video bandwidth.

36. An apparatus for injecting a data signal having a data rate into a frequency interleaved, rasterized, color video signal having blanking intervals at a frequency, a bandwidth with an upper limit, a color carrier, the method comprising:

a rasterizer responsive to the data signal to provide a rasterized data signal have blanking intervals separating active data intervals;

a data carrier generator generating a data carrier at a frequency near the upper limit of the video bandwidth;

a modulator responsive to the data carrier and the rasterized data signal to produce a modulated, rasterized data signal; and

a combiner responsive to inject the modulated, rasterized data signal into the video signal at an injection level and such that the blanking intervals in the two signals substantially coincide.

37. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein the data carrier is at a frequency that is at about a one quarter non-integral of the blanking interval frequency.

38. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein the injection level is such that the video signal is not perceptible to a viewer at a television receiver receiving the combined signals.

39. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein the portion of the bandwidth of the video signal where the data signal is injected is filtered.