Higher definition video signals from lower definition sources

• US 5,689,302 A
• Filed: 09/30/1996
• Issued: 11/18/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: British Broadcasting Corporation
• Original Assignee: British Broadcasting Corporation
• Inventors: Jones, Arthur Howard
• Primary Examiner(s): Kostak, Victor R.
• Application Number:
  US08/721,755
• Time in Patent Office: 414 Days
• Field of Search: 348/714-716, 348/36-39, 348/218, 348/383, 348/441, 348/700, 348/699, 348/135, 348/143, 348/153, 348/159, 348/452
• US Class Current: 348/218.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/144 Movement detection for video coding H04N19/503; analysis of motion in general G06T7/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2624 for obtaining an image which is composed of whole input images, e.g. splitscreen

Abstract

A conventional definition camera acquires video data relating to a portion of an image to be televised and stores the data in a higher definition capacity store. The camera is panned and tilted to acquire data relating to other parts of the image. A motion detector determines the degree of movement of the camera and controls the writing of data to the store. A spatio-temporal interpolator interpolates the video data to correct for spatial or sensitivity incompatibilities. The output from the store may again be spatio-temporally interpolated by an interpolator under control of the motion detector to compensate for movement within the image to be televised. In a further embodiment image data is acquired by a plurality of overlapping lower definition sources.

Claims

1. A method of generating a video signal of a scene at a first, higher, definition from a video source sampling the scene at a second, lower, definition comprising steps of:

acquiring with the source, video data at the second lower definition relating to a first portion of an image of the scene to be televised,

storing the acquired video data in a higher definition store at locations appropriate to the position of the first image portion in the image of the scene to be televised,

acquiring video data relating to further portions of the image of the scene at the lower definition by moving the video signal source,

determining the relative positions in the image of further image portions acquired and acquired video data held in the store by deriving movement information from the video data,

storing the further video data in the higher definition store at storage locations related to the storage locations of the video data representing the first image portion in accordance with the relative positions in the image to be televised of the first portion and the further portions, and

reading from the store video data representing the image of the scene to be televised at the higher definition.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the first image portion includes the center of the image to be televised.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the video signal source is a camera.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the acquisition of video data relating to the further image portions comprises spatially interpolating video data from the source under the control of the derived movement information.

5. A method according to claim 1, comprising temporally interpolating image data acquired from each image portion prior to storage in the storage means.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein the movement of the video signal source is controlled to follow a predetermined sequence and the output of the higher definition store is spatially and temporally interpolated under the control of the derived movement information.

7. A method according to claim 1, comprising writing a video signal representing black into each location of the store, whereby the storage of video data relating to image portions overwrites the black signal stored at the respective storage locations, and displaying the contents of the store as image data is acquired.

8. A method according to claim 1, comprising displaying an indication of portions of the image to be acquired from which video data has not been acquired.

9. Apparatus for generating a video signal of a scene at a first, higher, definition from a video signal source sampling the scene at a second, lower, definition comprising:

a video signal source for acquiring video data at the second, lower, definition relating to a portion of an image of the scene to be televised at the higher definition,

storage means for storing the acquired video data,

means for addressing the storage means to store the video data at storage locations appropriate to the position of the image of the scene in the image to be televised,

means for moving the video source to acquire video data from further portions of the image of the scene,

means for deriving movement information from the video data, the video data being stored in the storage means under the control of the addressing means and the means for deriving movement information from the video data, and

means for reading video data from the storage means at the first, higher definition when the video source has been moved to acquire video data from all portions of the image of the scene.

10. A method of generating a video signal of a scene at a first, higher, definition from a video signal source sampling the scene at a second, lower definition comprising steps of:

acquiring simultaneously video data from a plurality of portions of an image of the scene to be televised with a plurality of lower definition video signal sources, wherein the portion of the image of the scene from which video data is acquired by each source partially overlaps the portion of the image of the scene from which at least one other source acquires data,

storing the data acquired by each source at locations in a store appropriate to the position within the image of the scene from which the video data was acquired, and

interpolating between the signals acquired by the video signal sources under the control of interpolation coefficients derived from movement signals indicative of movement within the image of the scene.

11. Apparatus for generating a video signal of a scene at a first, higher, definition from a video signal source sampling the scene at a second, lower, definition, comprising:

a plurality of video signal sources, each arranged to acquire data at the second, lower, definition from a respective portion of an image of the scene to be televised, the portions of the image of the scene from which any one of the sources acquires video data partially overlapping the portion of the image of the scene from at which at least one of the remaining sources acquires video data,

storage means configured to store the video data acquired by each source at storage locations appropriate to the position within the image of the scene from which the video data was acquired,

means for determining movement in the scene to be televised and for producing interpolation coefficients in accordance with the determined movement, and

means for interpolating the video data acquired by each of the plurality of sources under the control of the interpolation coefficients to produce the higher definition video signal of the scene.