Image-information storage regenerating device

• US 5,594,736 A
• Filed: 12/23/1994
• Issued: 01/14/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 12/24/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.), Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Tatsumi, Masahiro, Ito, Hiroyuki, Nakamura, Osamu, Hibi, Keiichi, Nakano, Hirotaka, Koizumi, Noritaka, Iwano, Tsuneaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Olms, Douglas W.
• Assistant Examiner(s): TON, DANG T
• Application Number:
  US08/364,891
• Time in Patent Office: 753 Days
• Field of Search: 348/466, 348/467, 348/423, 348/17, 348/670, 348/393, 348/394, 348/395, 348/419, 370/94.1, 370/97, 370/60, 370/60.1, 370/94.2, 370/112, 370/84, 370/85.6, 370/118, 370/109, 370/108, 370/110.1, 371/37.1, 371/38.1, 371/39.1, 371/30, 371/37.2, 371/37.7, 371/37.8, 371/40.2, 371/69.1, 375/206, 375/371, 375/363, 375/214, 455/18, 379/53, 379/96
• US Class Current: 370/474
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/004 by using forward error control H04L1/0618 takes precedence; coding, decoding or code conversion, for error detection or correction H03M13/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5616 Terminal equipment, e.g. codecs, synch.
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5638 Services, e.g. multimedia, GOS, QOS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/764 at the destination reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/40 using video transcoding, i.e. partial or full decoding of a coded input stream followed by re-encoding of the decoded output stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23608 Remultiplexing multiplex streams, e.g. involving modifying time stamps or remapping the packet identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2368 Multiplexing of audio and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23805 Controlling the feeding rate to the network, e.g. by controlling the video pump
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2383 Channel coding or modulation of digital bit-stream, e.g. QPSK modulation arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received by adapting the channel coding H04L1/0009; analogue front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4341 Demultiplexing of audio and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4382 Demodulation or channel decoding, e.g. QPSK demodulation analog front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/643 Communication protocols network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP], H04L65/65
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/148 Interfacing a video terminal to a particular transmission medium, e.g. ISDN
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/54 the signals being synchronous H04N21/23602, H04N21/23614, H04N21/2365, H04N21/2368, H04N21/4341, H04N21/4342, H04N21/4347, H04N21/4348 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0478 Provisions for broadband connections

Abstract

The present invention provides such a data storing format that is effective for solving problems which may arise when regenerating video data in a video data storage and communication system. A channel data demultiplexing portion splits a multiplexed input into audio/video and other components. An error correction portion corrects an error of the video data output from the channel data demultiplexing portion. A video frame extracting portion extracts a video frame output from the error correction portion. A packet assembling portion assembles a packet from the video data output from the video frame extracting portion and the audio data output from the data demultiplexing portion. A storage portion stores therein the packet output from the packet assembling portion. Consequently, video data can be stored by video frames.

Claims

1. An image-information storage regenerating device comprising:

multiplexed data transmitting and receiving means for receiving multiplexed data from a terminal and storing the received multiplexed data, said terminal multiplexing any of video data, audio data and control data to provide the multiplexed data, and for transmitting the stored multiplexed data to said terminal as regenerated data; and

storage means for storing therein the received multiplexed data received by said multiplexed data transmitting and receiving means and for outputting therefrom the stored multiplexed data to said multiplexed data transmitting and receiving means for regeneration,

said multiplexed data transmitting and receiving means separating the received multiplexed data into separated video data, audio data and control data and storing the separated video data in said storage means frame by frame as continuous video frames.

2. The image-information storage regenerating device as defined in claim 1, wherein said multiplexed data transmitting and receiving means comprises:

channel data demultiplexing means for separating the received multiplexed data into the separated video data, audio data and control data;

error correcting means for correcting errors in the separated video data output from said channel data demultiplexing means;

video frame extracting means for extracting a frame of video data from the corrected video data output from said error correcting means; and

packet assembling means for assembling a packet from the extracted frame of video data and the separated audio data,

said storage means storing therein an assembled packet output from said packet assembling means as having the separated video data arranged frame by frame as continuous video frames.

3. The image-information storage and regenerating device as defined in claim 1, wherein the stored multiplexed data is stored in said storage means in packets, said multiplexed data transmitting and receiving means comprising:

packet disassembling means for disassembling a packet output from said storage means into the separated video data, audio data and control data;

fill bit inserting means for selectively inserting fill bits into the separated video data output from said packet disassembling means;

error correction frame generating means for producing an error corrected frame of video data from an output of said fill bit inserting means; and

channel data multiplexing means for multiplexing the corrected video data output from said error correction frame generating means and the separated audio and control data output from said packet disassembling means,

said terminal means maintaining synchronization of the received regenerated data based on the error corrected frames of video data.

4. The image-information storage regenerating device as defined in claim 1, wherein the stored multiplexed data is stored in said storage means in packets, said multiplexed data transmitting and receiving means comprising:

packet disassembling means for disassembling a packet output from said storage means into the separated video data, audio data and control data;

fill bit inserting means for inserting fill bits into the separated video data output from said packet disassembling means;

data amount supervising means for monitoring an information content of the separated video data output from said packet disassembling means and controlling said fill bit inserting means;

error correction frame generating means for producing an error corrected frame of video data from an output of said fill bit inserting means; and

channel data multiplexing means for multiplexing the corrected video data output from said error correction frame generating means and the separated audio and control data output from said packet disassembling means to form the regenerated data,

said terminal means maintaining synchronization of the received regenerated data based on the error corrected frames of video data.

5. The image information storage regenerating device as defined in claim 1, wherein the stored multiplexed data is stored in said storage means in packets, said multiplexed data transmitting and receiving means comprising:

packet disassembling means for disassembling a packet output from said storage means into the separated video data, audio data add control data;

transmission speed matching means for matching a transmission rate with the separated video data output from said packet disassembling means;

fill bit inserting means for inserting fill bits into the separated video data output from said transmission speed matching means;

data amount supervising means for monitoring an information content of the separated video data output from said transmission speed matching means and controlling said fill bit inserting means;

error correction frame generating means for producing an error corrected frame of video data from an output of said fill bit inserting means; and

channel data multiplexing means for multiplexing the corrected video data output from said error correction frame generating means and the separated audio and control data output from said packet disassembling means to form the regenerated data,

said terminal means maintaining synchronization of the received regenerated-data based on the error corrected frames of video data.

6. The image-information storage regenerating device as defined in claim 1, wherein said multiplexed data transmitting and receiving means comprises:

video data decoding means for decoding the separated video data; and

intra-frame encoding means for encoding in an intra-frame mode the video data decoded by said video data decoding means so that the separated video data of an initial image to be stored in said storage means is transferred through said video data decoding means and said intra-frame video data encoding means and stored as intra-frame coded video data.

7. An image-information storage regenerating device for use in video delivery services, the image-information storage regenerating device reading coded video data from a storage memory and delivering the coded video data to a terminal, the image-information storage regenerating device comprising:

transmission frame processing means for preparing the coded video data read from said storage memory for transmission to said terminal, the coded video data being stored in said storage memory as sequences of screens of coded video data with designated screen numbers;

channel control means, coupled to said transmission frame processing means, for delivering the prepared coded video data to said terminal; and

screen-number rewriting control means, coupled to said transmission frame processing means, for controlling preparation of the coded video data so that when different sequences of coded video data are to be transmitted to said terminal, said transmission frame processing means rewrites screen numbers of the coded video data of the different sequences to be sequential.

8. The image-information storage regenerating device as defined in claim 7, further comprising:

video data reading means for reading the stored coded video data and for providing the read coded video data to said transmission frame processing means; and

screen-image reading means for reading as a screen-image a menu image to be displayed at said terminal and for providing the read screen-image to said transmission frame processing means,

said transmission frame processing means rewriting screen numbers of coded video data provided by said video data reading means and said screen-image reading means to be sequential when preparing coded video data from said video data reading means in succession to coded video data from said screen-image reading means, according to an instruction provided by said screen-number rewriting control means, to eliminate a discrepancy between the coded video data of a screen-image and the coded video data read from said storage memory and to provide continuous transmission of prepared coded video data.

9. The image-information storage regenerating device as defined in claim 7, further comprising:

terminal-capability control means for discriminating and controlling decoding capacity of the terminal to which prepared coded video data shall be transmitted so that when a decoding minimum frame interval of the terminal is larger than a frame interval of the stored coded video data, said screen-number rewriting control means rewrites screen numbers of the stored coded video data to attain prepared coded video data having a frame interval decodable by the terminal.

10. An image-information storage regenerating device for storing multiplexed data comprising any of video data, audio data and control data and for regenerating the stored multiplexed data for transmission to a terminal, the image-information storage regenerating device comprising:

multiplexed data transmitting and receiving means for eliminating a differential delay in the multiplexed data by attaching a time stamp to the multiplexed data prior to storing the multiplexed data; and

storage means for storing the multiplexed data having the attached time stamp and for outputting the stored multiplexed data to said multiplexed data transmitting and receiving means for regeneration,

said multiplexed data transmitting and receiving means attaching a time stamp to each of the video data, audio data and control data components of the multiplexed data prior to storage in said storage means and absorbing a differential delay between the data components in accordance with the attached time stamps so as to eliminate a differential delay between different data components during regeneration of the stored multiplexed data.

11. The image-information storage regenerating device as defined in claim 10, wherein said multiplexed data transmitting and receiving means comprises:

channel data demultiplexing means for splitting a received multiplexed input signal video data, audio data and control data components;

error correcting means for correcting an error in the video data output from said channel data demultiplexing means;

time stamp generating means for generating time stamp data according to an octet timing signal output from said channel data demultiplexing means;

video frame extracting means for extracting a video frame from the corrected video data output from said error correcting means and for extracting a time stamp of an image corresponding to the extracted video frame from the time stamp data output from said time stamp generating means;

packet assembling means for assembling a packet by arranging the extracted video frame, the audio data, the control data, the time stamp data output from said time stamp generating means and the extracted time stamp, the assembled packet being stored in said storage means as the multiplexed data;

packet disassembling means for receiving a stored packet output from said storage means and for disassembling the stored packet into component data including video data, audio data, control data and an attached time stamp;

data processing means for processing and outputting the component data output from said packet disassembling means;

differential delay absorbing means for absorbing a differential delay between different processed component data in accordance with corresponding time stamps output from said data processing means; and

channel data multiplexing means for multiplexing the delay absorbed data components output from said differential delay absorbing means to provide the regenerated stored multiplexed data, such that a differential delay between the data components separated from the multiplexed data is absorbed.