Digital color TV for personal computers

• US 5,502,503 A
• Filed: 08/19/1994
• Issued: 03/26/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/1990
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mark C. Koz
• Original Assignee: Mark C. Koz
• Inventors: Koz, Mark C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Groody, James J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): GRANT, CHRISTOPHER C
• Application Number:
  US08/292,831
• Time in Patent Office: 585 Days
• Field of Search: 348/571, 348/552, 348/554, 348/578, 348/844
• US Class Current: 348/552
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 1/16 the pattern of rectangular co-ordinates extending over the whole area of the screen, i.e. television type raster
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 1/165 Details of a display terminal using a CRT, the details relating to the control arrangement of the display terminal and to the interfaces thereto details suitable for both CRT and flat panel G09G5/003; specific for a flat panel G09G3/2092
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/02 characterised by the way in which colour is displayed details of colour display specific for CRTs G09G1/28; specific for flat matrix panels other than liquid crystal displays G09G3/2003; specific for liquid crystal displays G09G3/3607
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4113 PC
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4143 embedded in a Personal Computer [PC]

Abstract

An apparatus for displaying on a monitor screen of a computer either a color television picture or a black and white television picture at a frame repetition rate sufficient to show smooth motion in the displayed television picture. The apparatus digitizes an analog television signal to assemble an entire frame of digital video words in a video frame memory. After assembling the frame of digital video words, the apparatus communicates that fact to the computer, and then, responsive to a signal from the computer, transfers the entire frame of the digital video words from the video frame memory to the computer over the computer'"'"'s processing bus.

Claims

1. An apparatus for displaying on a monitor screen of a computer a color television picture at a frame repetition rate sufficient to show smooth motion in the displayed color television picture while the computer processes other computer programs, said apparatus comprising:

a connector for receiving an analog video signal;

video signal processing means adapted for separating the analog video signal into color component signals;

analog-to-digital conversion means for continuously converting the color component signals into digital color component signals;

digital buffer means to assemble digital video words from the digital color component signals, each digital video word representing one color pixel;

video frame memory of capacity sufficient to store a television picture frame made up of said digital video words;

video data transfer means adapted for transferring a plurality of said digital video words from said video frame memory to a processing bus included in the computer through a plurality of data buffers adapted to substantially simultaneously transfer in parallel the plurality of said digital video words to the processing bus of the computer; and

control means for data transfer adapted to communicate to the computer when a television picture frame is ready for transfer to the processing bus included in the computer, to control transfer of digital video words from said video frame memory to the data buffers of said video data transfer means responsive to a signal from the computer, loading each data buffer with a digital video word, then directing substantially simultaneous transfer of all digital video words in parallel from said data buffers to the processing bus of the computer as one computer word.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said analog-to-digital conversion means includes a picture control and enhancement circuit providing picture value controls, and additionally providing an enhancement of color values by an induced random variation of the digital color component signals so that displayed color shades vary in an unpredictable manner to produce many more discernible color shades than are provided by a standard computer color palette.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 further comprising audio signal processing and output means for receiving and processing an analog audio signal.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said video data transfer means includes such data buffers as are required for assembling and for substantially simultaneously transferring in parallel digital video words correctly to a computer that uses computer data words of length other than thirty-two data bits.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the television picture frame constitutes 128 by 128 pixels of color picture information.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the television picture frame constitutes 256 by 256 pixels of color picture information.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising audio signal processing and output means for receiving and processing an analog audio signal.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 further comprising a television tuner for receiving a standard TV broadcast signal and for demodulating the received TV broadcast signal to obtain:

a) the analog video signal which said video signal processing means separates into the color component signals; and

b) the analog audio signal which said audio signal processing and output means receives and processes.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a television tuner for receiving a standard TV broadcast signal and for demodulating the received TV broadcast signal to obtain the analog video signal which said video signal processing means separates into the color component signals.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the digital video words have a length of eight data bits and said data buffers in said video data transfer means comprise four eight-bit buffers adapted to substantially simultaneously transfer in parallel thirty-two data bits for use in a computer which uses computer data words of thirty-two bits.

11. An apparatus for displaying on a monitor screen of a computer a black and white television picture at a frame repetition rate sufficient to show smooth motion in the displayed black and white television picture while said computer processes other computer programs, said apparatus comprising:

a connector for receiving an analog video signal;

a video signal conditioning circuit for stripping the analog video signal of any signal components other than a luminance signal;

analog-to-digital conversion means for continuously converting the luminance signal to digitized black and white video signals formatted as digital video words each digital video word representing one black and white pixel that is limited to a gray scale portion of an image displayed on the monitor screen;

video frame memory of capacity sufficient to store a television picture frame made up of said digital video words;

video data transfer means adapted for transferring a plurality of said digital video words from said video frame memory to a processing bus included in the computer through a plurality of data buffers adapted to substantially simultaneously transfer in parallel the plurality of said digital video words to the processing bus of the computer;

control means for data transfer adapted to communicate to the computer when a television picture frame is ready for transferring to the processing bus included in the computer, to control transfer of digital video words from said video frame memory to said data buffers of said video data transfer means responsive to a signal from the computer, loading each data buffer with a digital video word, then directing substantially simultaneous transfer of all digital video words in parallel from said data buffers to the processing bus of the computer as one computer word.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the digital video words have a length of eight data bits and said data buffers in said video data transfer means comprise four eight-bit buffers adapted to substantially simultaneously transfer in parallel thirty-two data bits for use in a computer which uses computer data words of thirty-two bits.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein said video data transfer means includes such data buffers as are required for assembling and for substantially simultaneously transferring in parallel digital video words correctly to a computer that uses computer data words of length other than thirty-two data bits.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the television picture frame constitutes 128 by 128 pixels of black and white picture information.

15. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the television picture frame constitutes 256 by 256 pixels of black and white picture information.

16. The apparatus of claim 11 further comprising audio signal processing and output means for receiving and processing an analog audio signal.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 further comprising a television tuner for receiving a standard TV broadcast signal and for demodulating the received TV broadcast signal to obtain:

a) the analog video signal from which said video signal conditioning circuit strips the luminance signal; and

b) the analog audio signal which said audio signal processing and output means receives and processes.

18. The apparatus of claim 11 further comprising a television tuner for receiving a standard TV broadcast signal and for demodulating the received TV broadcast signal to obtain the analog video signal from which said video signal conditioning circuit strips the luminance signal.

19. An apparatus for displaying on a monitor screen of a computer a color television picture at a frame repetition rate sufficient to show motion in the displayed color television picture while the computer processes other computer programs, said apparatus comprising:

a connector for receiving an analog video signal;

video signal processing means adapted for separating the analog video signal into color component signals;

analog-to-digital converters for converting the color component signals into digital color component signals;

digital buffer means to assemble from the digital color component signals digital video words representing color pixels;

video memory for storing the digital video words;

video data transfer means adapted for transferring the digital video words from said video memory through data buffers to a processing bus included in the computer; and

control means for data transfer adapted to communicate to the computer when digital video words are ready for transfer to the processing bus included in the computer, to control transfer of digital video words from said video memory to the data buffers of said video data transfer means responsive to a signal from the computer, loading the data buffers with a digital video word, then directing a transfer of the digital video word from said data buffers to the processing bus of the computer in one computer word, whereby the computer may present the color television picture on the monitor screen in real-time.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein said analog-to-digital conversion means includes a picture control and enhancement circuit providing picture value controls, and additionally providing an enhancement of color values by an induced random variation of the digital color component signals so that displayed color shades vary in an unpredictable manner to produce many more discernible color shades than are provided by a standard computer color palette.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 further comprising audio signal processing and output means for receiving and processing an analog audio signal.

22. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the digital video words have a length of eight data bits and said data buffers in said video data transfer means comprise four eight-bit buffers adapted to transfer in parallel thirty-two data bits for use in a computer which uses computer data words of thirty-two bits.

23. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein said video data transfer means includes such data buffers as are required for assembling and for transferring in parallel digital video words to a computer that uses computer data words of length other than thirty-two data bits.

24. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the television picture frame constitutes 128 by 128 pixels of color picture information.

25. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the television picture frame constitutes 256 by 256 pixels of color picture information.

26. The apparatus of claim 19 further comprising audio signal processing and output means for receiving and processing an analog audio signal.

27. The apparatus of claim 26 further comprising a television tuner for receiving a standard TV broadcast signal and for demodulating the received TV broadcast signal to obtain:

a) the analog video signal which said video signal processing means separates into the color component signals; and

b) the analog audio signal which said audio signal processing and output means receives and processes.

28. The apparatus of claim 19 further comprising a television tuner for receiving a standard TV broadcast signal and for demodulating the received TV broadcast signal to obtain the analog video signal which said video signal processing means separates into the color component signals.