Exponential storage system and method

• US 6,950,600 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2001
• Issued: 09/27/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc. (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Dietz, Paul H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chevalier, Robert
• Application Number:
  US09/840,334
• Publication Number:
  US 20020197054A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,618 Days
• Field of Search: 386/46, 386/40, 386/45, 386/52, 386/92, 386/55, 386/64, 386/107, 386/117, 386/124, 386/125, 386/1, 348/143
• US Class Current: 386/326
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera

Abstract

A system records a sequence of frames of a video in circular buffers. Each buffer is configured to store the frames in a sequential order. Disjoint sets of frames are selected from the video. There is one set of frames for each buffer such that a first set selects a first fraction of the frames, each subsequent set of frames is a smaller fraction then a previous set of frames, and a last set of selected frames includes remaining frames. The sets of frames are stored sequentially in the corresponding buffers.

Claims

1. A system for recording a sequence of frames of a video, comprising:

a plurality of circular buffers, each buffer configured to store the frames in a sequential order;

means for selecting a plurality of disjoint sets of frames from the video, there being one set of frames selected for each buffer such that a first set selects a first fraction of the frames, each subsequent set of frames being a smaller fraction then a previous set of frames, and a last set of selected frames including remaining frames; and

means for sequentially storing each set of frames in a corresponding buffer.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the circular buffers are disk buffers.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein a most recent one of the frames overwrites an oldest one of the frames in a particular buffer when the particular buffer is full.

4. The system of claim 2 further comprising:

a cache buffer associated with each disk buffer, and wherein the frames are first stored to a corresponding cache buffer, and the cache buffer is written to the associated disk buffer when the corresponding cache buffer is full.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein each fraction is an integer power of two.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the video is a time-lapse sequence of frames.

7. A method for recording a sequence of frames of a video, comprising the steps of:

selecting a plurality of disjoint sets of frames from the video, there being one set of frames selected for each buffer such that a first set selects a first fraction of the frames, each subsequent set of frames being a smaller fraction then a previous set of frames, and a last set selected frames including a remaining set of frames; and

storing, sequentially, each set of frames in a corresponding buffer.