US4918523A — Digital video formatting and transmission system …

Claim 1

Independent Claim 124 words

A method for transmitting a compressed digital video signal, each frame of said signal comprising a plurality of coded regions, each said region being represented by a region descriptive code and a region fill code, said region descriptive codes conveying the size and locations of said regions within said frame, said region fill codes conveying pixel amplitude indications for said regions, said method comprising: forming a group of said region descriptive codes; forming a group of said region fill codes; forming a data stream having a segment containing said grouped region specific codes and a separate data segment containing said grouped region fill codes; separately variable length coding said groups of codes in accordance with their respective statistical distributions; and transmitting said data stream.

Claim 2

Independent Claim 124 words

A method for transmitting a compressed digital video signal, each frame of said signal comprising a plurality of coded regions, each said region being represented by a region descriptive code and a region fill code, said region descriptive codes conveying the size and locations of said regions within said frame, said region fill codes conveying pixel amplitude indications for said regions, said method comprising: forming a group of said region descriptive codes; forming a group of said region fill codes; forming a data stream having a segment containing said grouped region specific codes and a separate data segment containing said grouped region fill codes; separately variable length coding said groups of codes in accordance with their respective statistical distributions; and transmitting said data stream.

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 60 words

A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising the steps of: generating a code set descriptive of the statistical distributions of said variable length coded region descriptive codes and a further code set descriptive of the statistical distribution of said variable length coded region fill codes; and adding a further segment to said data stream including said code sets.

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 22 words

A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising the step of variable length coding said further segment of said data stream.

Claim 5

Dependent Claim 35 words

A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said segments of said data stream are ordered such that the segment containing said region descriptive codes is followed by the segment containing said region fill codes.

Claim 6

Independent Claim 128 words

A method for transmitting a compressed digital video signal, each frame of said signal comprising a plurality of coded regions, each said region being represented by a region descriptive code and a region fill code, said region descriptive codes conveying the size and location of said regions within said frame, said region fill codes conveying pixel amplitude indications for said regions, said method comprising: forming a group of said region descriptive codes; forming a group of said region fill codes; forming a data stream having a segment containing said grouped region descriptive codes and a separate data segment containing said grouped region fill codes; and transmitting said data stream by recording said stream on media selected from the group comprising magnetic type, magnetic disc, and optical disc media.

Claim 7

Independent Claim 128 words

A method for transmitting a compressed digital video signal, each frame of said signal comprising a plurality of coded regions, each said region being represented by a region descriptive code and a region fill code, said region descriptive codes conveying the size and location of said regions within said frame, said region fill codes conveying pixel amplitude indications for said regions, said method comprising: forming a group of said region descriptive codes; forming a group of said region fill codes; forming a data stream having a segment containing said grouped region descriptive codes and a separate data segment containing said grouped region fill codes; and transmitting said data stream by recording said stream on media selected from the group comprising magnetic type, magnetic disc, and optical disc media.

Claim 8

Independent Claim 145 words

A method for transmitting a compressed digital video signal, each frame of said signal comprising a plurality of coded regions, each said region being represented by a region descriptive code and a region fill code, said region descriptive codes conveying the size and location of said regions within said frame, said region fill codes conveying pixel amplitude indications for said regions, said method comprising: forming a group of said region descriptive codes; forming a group of said region fill codes; forming a data stream having a segment containing said grouped region descriptive codes and a separate data segment containing said grouped region fill codes, wherein said data stream comprises a number of bytes of digital data, said bytes varying from frame-to-frame; adding further data to selected frames in reverse order from the last frame of a sequence to the first; and transmitting said data stream.

Claim 9

Independent Claim 145 words

A method for transmitting a compressed digital video signal, each frame of said signal comprising a plurality of coded regions, each said region being represented by a region descriptive code and a region fill code, said region descriptive codes conveying the size and location of said regions within said frame, said region fill codes conveying pixel amplitude indications for said regions, said method comprising: forming a group of said region descriptive codes; forming a group of said region fill codes; forming a data stream having a segment containing said grouped region descriptive codes and a separate data segment containing said grouped region fill codes, wherein said data stream comprises a number of bytes of digital data, said bytes varying from frame-to-frame; adding further data to selected frames in reverse order from the last frame of a sequence to the first; and transmitting said data stream.

Claim 10

Dependent Claim 40 words

A method as recited in claim 6 wherein said further data is added in amounts sufficient to provide an average number of bytes per frame by dithering the total number of bytes per frame between first and second integer values.

Claim 11

Dependent Claim 106 words

Transmission apparatus for reformatting a digital motion video signal of a type in which each frame thereof is compressed and represented by a number of bytes which may vary from frame-to-frame, comprising: means for counting the number of bytes for each frame; means responsive to said count for dithering the number of bytes per frame to provide a output signal having solely integer numbers of bytes per frame and in which the average number of bytes per frame over a sequence of frames equals a predetermined average value having both integer and fractional number of bytes per frame, and means for transmitting said dithered output signal.

Claim 12

Dependent Claim 106 words

Transmission apparatus for reformatting a digital motion video signal of a type in which each frame thereof is compressed and represented by a number of bytes which may vary from frame-to-frame, comprising: means for counting the number of bytes for each frame; means responsive to said count for dithering the number of bytes per frame to provide a output signal having solely integer numbers of bytes per frame and in which the average number of bytes per frame over a sequence of frames equals a predetermined average value having both integer and fractional number of bytes per frame, and means for transmitting said dithered output signal.

Claim 13

Independent Claim 52 words

A method for transmitting a sequence of compressed digital video frames representative of a motion video sequence of said frames comprising: storing said frames in the order they are compressed; recovering the stored frames in reverse order; modifying a parameter of the recovered reverse frames; and, transmitting said recovered and modified frames.

Claim 14

Independent Claim 52 words

A method for transmitting a sequence of compressed digital video frames representative of a motion video sequence of said frames comprising: storing said frames in the order they are compressed; recovering the stored frames in reverse order; modifying a parameter of the recovered reverse frames; and, transmitting said recovered and modified frames.

Claim 15

Dependent Claim 22 words

A method as recited in claim 9 wherein said transmitting step comprises recording said recovered and modified frames on a storage media.

Claim 16

Dependent Claim 132 words

Apparatus for transmitting a region specific coded compressed frame of video data, said data comprising header data, variable length coded absolute fill data, variable length coded DPCM fill data, variable length coded region descriptive data and variable length code data associated with said region fill data and region descriptive data; said apparatus comprising: means for generating a data stream having a first block of data including said header data, a second block of data including said variable length code data, a third block of data including said region descriptive data generated for an entire frame, a fourth block of data including said absolute fill data generated for an entire frame, and a fifth block of data including said DPCM fill data generated for an entire frame; and means for transmitting said data.

Claim 17

Dependent Claim 132 words

Apparatus for transmitting a region specific coded compressed frame of video data, said data comprising header data, variable length coded absolute fill data, variable length coded DPCM fill data, variable length coded region descriptive data and variable length code data associated with said region fill data and region descriptive data; said apparatus comprising: means for generating a data stream having a first block of data including said header data, a second block of data including said variable length code data, a third block of data including said region descriptive data generated for an entire frame, a fourth block of data including said absolute fill data generated for an entire frame, and a fifth block of data including said DPCM fill data generated for an entire frame; and means for transmitting said data.

Claim 18

Dependent Claim 26 words

Apparatus as recited in claim 11 wherein said generating means provides said blocks of data in a sequence according to the ordinal numbering of said blocks.

Claim 19

Dependent Claim 24 words

The apparatus as recited in claim 11 wherein said means for transmitting said data includes means for recording said data on a compact disc.

Claim 20

Independent Claim 77 words

A method for transmitting a compressed digital video signal having a variable number of bytes per frame, comprising: adding further digital data to selected frames of said compressed digital video signal; varying the amount of said further data added to said selected frames to provide an average frame rate having integer and fractional parts and in which the number of bytes per frame is dithered between first and second integer numbers of bytes; and transmitting said frames.

Claim 21

Independent Claim 77 words

A method for transmitting a compressed digital video signal having a variable number of bytes per frame, comprising: adding further digital data to selected frames of said compressed digital video signal; varying the amount of said further data added to said selected frames to provide an average frame rate having integer and fractional parts and in which the number of bytes per frame is dithered between first and second integer numbers of bytes; and transmitting said frames.

Claim 22

Dependent Claim 39 words

A method as recited in claim 14 wherein said further data is added to said selected frames in reverse order from the last to the first and said frames are transmitted in an original order from first to last.

Claim 23

Independent Claim 193 words

A method of transmitting color video data comprising: separating said color video data into a luminance Y, and two chrominance, I.Q. components: independently region specific encoding said Y, I and Q components on a frame-by-frame basis to generate subframes of encoded Y, I and Q data; independently variable length encoding each of said Y, I and Q subframes; appending data descriptive of variable length codes to the corresponding subframes, said data descriptive of variable length codes defining respective code sets implemented in said variable length encoding; concatenating said variable length encoded and appended subframes to form an encoded video frame, F1; appending digital audio data to said encoded video frame F1, to form a frame, F2; appending header data, including byte counts of the encoded subframes data and appended digital audio data, to said frame F2 to form a frame F3; appending auxiliary data or padding to said frame F3, to form a logical frame having a predetermined number of bytes; concatenating logical frames to form a comprehended video data stream; appending a header to said data stream, said header including data identifying ones of said logical frames; and transmitting said data stream.

Claim 24

Independent Claim 193 words

A method of transmitting color video data comprising: separating said color video data into a luminance Y, and two chrominance, I.Q. components: independently region specific encoding said Y, I and Q components on a frame-by-frame basis to generate subframes of encoded Y, I and Q data; independently variable length encoding each of said Y, I and Q subframes; appending data descriptive of variable length codes to the corresponding subframes, said data descriptive of variable length codes defining respective code sets implemented in said variable length encoding; concatenating said variable length encoded and appended subframes to form an encoded video frame, F1; appending digital audio data to said encoded video frame F1, to form a frame, F2; appending header data, including byte counts of the encoded subframes data and appended digital audio data, to said frame F2 to form a frame F3; appending auxiliary data or padding to said frame F3, to form a logical frame having a predetermined number of bytes; concatenating logical frames to form a comprehended video data stream; appending a header to said data stream, said header including data identifying ones of said logical frames; and transmitting said data stream.

Annuity Stage	Window Opens	Payment Deadline	Surcharge Period Until	Estimated Fee	Status
3.5 Years (Year 4)	1993-04-16	1993-10-16	1994-04-17	$2000.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8)	1997-04-16	1997-10-16	1998-04-17	$3760.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12)	2001-04-16	2001-10-16	2002-04-17	$7700.00	Window Closed / Lapsed

Digital video formatting and transmission system and method

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