Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 48
Claim 1
Independent Claim
168 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system comprising: (a) a memory unit having a plurality of independently addressable storage banks for storing a plurality of low-resolution datawords respectively representing pixels of adjacent low-resolution image lines in memory locations of respective ones of the plural storage banks, the low-resolution image lines being aligned at least hypothetically one above the next so that their respective pixels define a plurality of low-resolution columns, with each column having at least four low-resolution pixels; (b) extracting means for extracting from the memory unit, in one or more extraction cycles, a group comprised of no more than N low-resolution pixel datawords, where N is an integer greater than one but less than the number of pixels in a low-resolution image line and where the extracted group includes low-resolution pixel datawords from at least two of said plural storage banks; and (c) interpolating means for interpolating the N low-resolution pixel datawords of the extracted group and producing therefrom an interpolated signal representing at least one high-resolution pixel.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
168 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system comprising: (a) a memory unit having a plurality of independently addressable storage banks for storing a plurality of low-resolution datawords respectively representing pixels of adjacent low-resolution image lines in memory locations of respective ones of the plural storage banks, the low-resolution image lines being aligned at least hypothetically one above the next so that their respective pixels define a plurality of low-resolution columns, with each column having at least four low-resolution pixels; (b) extracting means for extracting from the memory unit, in one or more extraction cycles, a group comprised of no more than N low-resolution pixel datawords, where N is an integer greater than one but less than the number of pixels in a low-resolution image line and where the extracted group includes low-resolution pixel datawords from at least two of said plural storage banks; and (c) interpolating means for interpolating the N low-resolution pixel datawords of the extracted group and producing therefrom an interpolated signal representing at least one high-resolution pixel.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
66 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 1 further comprising: (d) high-resolution display means, operatively coupled to the interpolating means, for displaying a high-resolution image containing a plurality of high-resolution pixels, where said high-resolution pixels are derived from the interpolated signal produced by said interpolating means and said high-resolution image contains more pixels than the number of pixels represented by said plurality of low-resolution datawords.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
36 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 2 wherein said high-resolution display means displays a high-resolution image consisting only of a plurality of high-resolution pixels derived from the interpolated signal produced by said interpolating means.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
54 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 1 wherein the extracted group includes low-resolution pixel datawords from at least two of said low-resolution columns and wherein the number of pixels in a low-resolution image line is 40 or more and N is selected from the group consisting of 2, 4, 9 and 16.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
48 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 4 wherein the number of pixels in a low-resolution image line is 320, wherein N is equal to 4, and wherein the 4 low-resolution pixel datawords of the extracted group are supplied substantially simultaneously to the interpolating means for interpolation.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
68 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 4 wherein the low-resolution datawords stored in respective memory locations of the plural storage banks represent forty or more successively adjacent, low-resolution image lines and thereby define a low-resolution image comprised of said forty or more successively adjacent, low-resolution image lines and wherein the interpolating means outputs a high-resolution image corresponding to the low-resolution image at a real-time video rate.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
39 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 4 wherein said low-resolution image includes at least 240 low-resolution image lines and wherein the interpolating means outputs a high-resolution image corresponding to the low-resolution image at a real-time video rate.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
59 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 1 further comprising: image-data processing means, operatively coupled to the video memory unit, for bi-directionally accessing the video memory unit to read and modify a low-resolution image comprised of said adjacent low-resolution image lines and represented by the plurality of low-resolution datawords stored in said plurality of independently addressable storage banks.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
97 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 8 further comprising: high-resolution display means, operatively coupled to the interpolating means, for displaying a high-resolution image containing a plurality of high-resolution pixels, where said high-resolution pixels are derived from the interpolated signal produced by said interpolating means; and interactive control means, operatively coupled to the image-data processing means, for controlling the processing of said low-resolution image by the image-data processing means, where the interactive control means supplies response signals to the image-data processing means representing responses by an observer to high-resolution pixels displayed by the high-resolution display means.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
49 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 9 wherein said image-data processing means modifies the low-resolution datawords in real-time to create the appearance of an animated high-resolution image on said high-resolution display means and wherein the responses of the observer to said animated high-resolution image are real-time responses.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
120 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 1 wherein said extracting means includes relative line-of-origin designating means for designating one of the low-resolution image lines as being current and another as being previous, and for identifying one or more of the extracted datawords as belonging to the previous low-resolution image line, and for further identifying one or more others of the extracted datawords as belonging to the current low-resolution image line; and wherein the interpolated signal produced by the interpolating means varies in response to which of the first recited, one or more extracted datawords belongs to the previous low-resolution image line, and which of the other one or more extracted datawords belongs to the current low-resolution image line.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
102 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 11 wherein said extracting means further includes relative column-of-origin designating means for identifying one or more of the extracted datawords as belonging to a previous low-resolution image column, and for further identifying one or more others of the extracted datawords as belonging to a current low-resolution image column; and wherein the interpolated signal produced by the interpolating means varies in response to which of the one or more extracted datawords belongs to the previous low-resolution image column, and which of the one or more other extracted datawords belongs to the current low-resolution image column.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
78 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 12 further comprising: pipeline-injecting means, cooperatively coupled to the relative column-of-origin designating means and relative line-of-origin designating means, for injecting said N low-resolution pixel datawords of the extracted group into a pipeline bus in time-multiplexed fashion according to the current versus previous row and column identifications made by the column-of-origin and line-of-origin designating means; wherein the interpolating means is operatively coupled to receive the extracted group from the pipeline bus.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
45 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 13 further comprising: destacker means, operatively coupled to receive time-multiplexed datawords from the pipeline-injecting means, for converting the format of the received datawords from time-multiplexed to parallel-in-time and for presenting the parallel-in-time datawords to the interpolating means.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
223 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system comprising: (a) a memory unit having a plurality of independently addressable storage banks for storing a plurality of low-resolution datawords respectively representing pixels of adjacent low-resolution image lines in memory locations of respective ones of the plural storage banks, the low-resolution image lines being aligned logically one above the next so that their respective pixels define a plurality of low-resolution columns, with each column having at least four low-resolution pixels; (b) extracting means for extracting from the memory unit, in one or more extraction cycles, a group comprised of no more than N low-resolution pixel datawords, where N is an integer greater than one but less than the number of pixels in a low-resolution image line and where the extracted group includes low-resolution pixel datawords from at least two of said plural storage banks; and (c) interpolating means for interpolating the N low-resolution pixel datawords of the extracted group and producing therefrom an interpolated signal representing at least one high-resolution pixel; wherein the memory unit further stores subposition data for each low-resolution pixel and wherein the interpolating means includes subposition-sensitive means for producing a high-resolution pixel dataword that is a function of the subposition data of the corresponding N low-resolution pixel datawords in the extracted group in addition to being a function of the N low-resolution pixel datawords.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
223 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system comprising: (a) a memory unit having a plurality of independently addressable storage banks for storing a plurality of low-resolution datawords respectively representing pixels of adjacent low-resolution image lines in memory locations of respective ones of the plural storage banks, the low-resolution image lines being aligned logically one above the next so that their respective pixels define a plurality of low-resolution columns, with each column having at least four low-resolution pixels; (b) extracting means for extracting from the memory unit, in one or more extraction cycles, a group comprised of no more than N low-resolution pixel datawords, where N is an integer greater than one but less than the number of pixels in a low-resolution image line and where the extracted group includes low-resolution pixel datawords from at least two of said plural storage banks; and (c) interpolating means for interpolating the N low-resolution pixel datawords of the extracted group and producing therefrom an interpolated signal representing at least one high-resolution pixel; wherein the memory unit further stores subposition data for each low-resolution pixel and wherein the interpolating means includes subposition-sensitive means for producing a high-resolution pixel dataword that is a function of the subposition data of the corresponding N low-resolution pixel datawords in the extracted group in addition to being a function of the N low-resolution pixel datawords.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
73 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 15 wherein the subposition data represents a relative position of each of the corresponding N low-resolution pixel datawords within an interpolation window and wherein said subposition-sensitive means produces each high-resolution pixel signal from said N low-resolution pixel datawords in accordance with a distance-dependent algorithm that uses the subposition data to variably define relative distances between each to-be-produced high-resolution pixel and its corresponding N low-resolution pixels.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
99 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 15 wherein the subposition-sensitive means produces a high-resolution pixel dataword satisfying an equation of the form: ##EQU3## wherein PEN Target represents the color/shading of a high-resolution target pixel, N is an integer greater than one, d SiT represents a normalized distance from the center of a low-resolution source area S i to the center of the target high-resolution pixel, Q represents a power to which the normalized distance is to be raised, c represents a zero-offset constant and PEN Si represents the color/shading of a low-resolution source area S i .
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
80 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 15 wherein the subposition-sensitive means produces a high-resolution pixel dataword in accordance with an equation of the form: ##EQU4## wherein N is an integer greater than one, PEN Si represents the color/shading of a low-resolution source area S i , PEN Target represents the color/shading of a high-resolution target pixel, and for each value of i, source-identifier j(i) can acquire any value in the series 1, 2, . . . , N.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
18 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 17 wherein Q is greater than or equal to 2.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
79 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 17 or 18 wherein the subposition-sensitive means includes: target-configuration independent means for producing universal weighting signals for defining the color/shading of a high-resolution target pixel, PEN Target , independently of the position of said target high-resolution pixel relative to the low-resolution source areas, S i ; and forward mapping means for converting subposition data that is specific to a particular target-configuration to universal subposition data corresponding to the target-configuration independent means.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
39 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 20 wherein the subposition-sensitive means further includes: backward mapping means for converting the universal weighting signals produced by the target-configuration independent means into target-specific weighting signals corresponding to a specific target-configuration.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
49 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 15 wherein the memory unit further stores for each low-resolution pixel, a corresponding one or more bits of said subposition data, each corresponding one or more bits of subposition data being variable independently of the dataword for the corresponding low-resolution pixel.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
101 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 22 wherein the corresponding one or more bits of subposition data for each low-resolution pixel represents a relative position of the corresponding low-resolution pixel within an interpolation window when the corresponding low-resolution pixel is represented by one of the extracted N low-resolution pixel datawords and wherein said subposition-sensitive means produces each high-resolution pixel signal from said N low-resolution pixel datawords in accordance with a distance-dependent algorithm that uses the subposition data of the extracted N low-resolution pixel datawords to define relative distances between each to-be-produced high-resolution pixel and its corresponding N low-resolution pixels.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
72 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 22 wherein each low-resolution pixel has a blue color component and one or more other color components and wherein a first group of bits within the corresponding low-resolution dataword that represent the blue color component consists of fewer bits than each of one or more other groups of bits within the corresponding low-resolution dataword that respectively represent the one or more other color components.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
160 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system comprising: (a) a memory unit having a plurality of addressable storage locations storing a plurality of low-resolution datawords representing pixels of adjacent low-resolution image lines; (b) extracting means for extracting from the memory unit, a group consisting of N low-resolution pixel datawords, where N is an integer greater than one, and where the extracted group includes low-resolution pixel datawords representing pixels from at least two of said low-resolution image lines; and (c) interpolating means for interpolating the N low-resolution pixel datawords of the extracted group and producing therefrom an interpolated signal representing at least one high-resolution pixel dataword; wherein the memory unit further stores subposition data for each low-resolution pixel and wherein the interpolating means includes subposition-sensitive means for producing a high-resolution pixel dataword that is a function of the subposition data of the corresponding N low-resolution pixel datawords in the extracted group in addition to being a function of the N low-resolution pixel datawords.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
160 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system comprising: (a) a memory unit having a plurality of addressable storage locations storing a plurality of low-resolution datawords representing pixels of adjacent low-resolution image lines; (b) extracting means for extracting from the memory unit, a group consisting of N low-resolution pixel datawords, where N is an integer greater than one, and where the extracted group includes low-resolution pixel datawords representing pixels from at least two of said low-resolution image lines; and (c) interpolating means for interpolating the N low-resolution pixel datawords of the extracted group and producing therefrom an interpolated signal representing at least one high-resolution pixel dataword; wherein the memory unit further stores subposition data for each low-resolution pixel and wherein the interpolating means includes subposition-sensitive means for producing a high-resolution pixel dataword that is a function of the subposition data of the corresponding N low-resolution pixel datawords in the extracted group in addition to being a function of the N low-resolution pixel datawords.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
53 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 25 further comprising: (d) high-resolution display means, operatively coupled to the interpolating means, for displaying a high-resolution image containing a plurality of high-resolution pixels, where said high-resolution pixels are derived from the interpolated signal produced by the subposition-sensitive means in accordance with the subposition data.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim
72 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 25 wherein the subposition data represents a relative position of each of the corresponding N low-resolution pixel datawords within an interpolation window and wherein said subposition-sensitive means produces each high-resolution pixel signal from said N low-resolution pixel datawords in accordance with a distance-dependent algorithm that uses the subposition data to define relative distances between each to-be-produced high-resolution pixel and its corresponding N low-resolution pixels.
Claim 31
Dependent Claim
80 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 25 wherein the subposition-sensitive means produces a high-resolution pixel dataword in accordance with an equation of the form: ##EQU5## wherein N is an integer greater than one, PEN Si represents the color/shading of a low-resolution source area S i , PEN Target represents the color/shading of a high-resolution target pixel, and for each value of i, source-identifier j(i) can acquire any value in the series 1, 2, . . . , N.
Claim 32
Dependent Claim
77 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 28 wherein the subposition-sensitive means includes: target-configuration independent means for producing universal weighting signals for defining the color/shading of a high-resolution target pixel, PEN Target , independently of the position of said target high-resolution pixel relative to the low-resolution source areas, S i ; and forward mapping means for converting subposition data that is specific to a particular target-configuration to universal subposition data corresponding to the target-configuration independent means.
Claim 33
Dependent Claim
39 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 29 wherein the subposition-sensitive means further includes: backward mapping means for converting the universal weighting signals produced by the target-configuration independent means into target-specific weighting signals corresponding to a specific target-configuration.
Claim 34
Dependent Claim
120 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 25 wherein said extracting means includes relative line-of-origin designating means for designating one of the low-resolution image lines as being current and another as being previous, and for identifying one or more of the extracted datawords as belonging to the previous low-resolution image line, and for further identifying one or more others of the extracted datawords as belonging to the current low-resolution image line; and wherein the interpolated signal produced by the interpolating means varies in response to which of the first recited, one or more extracted datawords belongs to the previous low-resolution image line, and which of the other one or more extracted datawords belongs to the current low-resolution image line.
Claim 35
Dependent Claim
69 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 31 further comprising: pipeline-injecting means, cooperatively coupled to the relative line-of-origin designating means, for injecting said N low-resolution pixel datawords of the extracted group into a pipeline bus in time-multiplexed fashion according to the current versus previous row identifications made by the line-of-origin designating means; wherein the interpolating means is operatively coupled to receive the extracted group from the pipeline bus.
Claim 36
Dependent Claim
45 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 32 further comprising: destacker means, operatively coupled to receive time-multiplexed datawords from the pipeline-injecting means, for converting the format of the received datawords from time-multiplexed to parallel-in-time and for presenting the parallel-in-time datawords to the interpolating means.
Claim 37
Dependent Claim
51 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 25 wherein the memory unit stores with the dataword of each low-resolution pixel, a corresponding one or more bits of said subposition data, each corresponding one or more bits of subposition data being variable independently of the dataword for the corresponding low-resolution pixel.
Claim 38
Dependent Claim
101 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 34 wherein the corresponding one or more bits of subposition data for each low-resolution pixel represents a relative position of the corresponding low-resolution pixel within an interpolation window when the corresponding low-resolution pixel is represented by one of the extracted N low-resolution pixel datawords and wherein said subposition-sensitive means produces each high-resolution pixel signal from said N low-resolution pixel datawords in accordance with a distance-dependent algorithm that uses the subposition data of the extracted N low-resolution pixel datawords to define relative distances between each to-be-produced high-resolution pixel and its corresponding N low-resolution pixels.
Claim 39
Dependent Claim
72 words
An enhanced resolution imaging system according to claim 34 wherein each low-resolution pixel has a blue color component and one or more other color components and wherein a first group of bits within the corresponding low-resolution dataword that represent the blue color component consists of fewer bits than each of one or more other groups of bits within the corresponding low-resolution dataword that respectively represent the one or more other color components.
Claim 40
Independent Claim
147 words
A method for enhancing the resolution of low-resolution image-data, said method comprising the steps of: providing a memory having independently addressable storage banks; and storing the low-resolution image-data in the memory such that low-resolution image-data defining a first low-resolution row resides in a first of said storage banks and such that low-resolution image-data defining a second low-resolution row, adjacent to the first low-resolution row, resides in a second of said storage banks; extracting no more than first through Nth low-resolution pixel signals from the memory in a given extraction operation, said signals representing values of low-resolution pixels in the adjacent first and second low-resolution rows of the low-resolution image-data, where N is an integer greater than one but substantially less than the number of pixels in a low-resolution image line; and supplying the extracted first through Nth low-resolution pixel signals to an interpolating means for interpolation therein.
Claim 41
Independent Claim
147 words
A method for enhancing the resolution of low-resolution image-data, said method comprising the steps of: providing a memory having independently addressable storage banks; and storing the low-resolution image-data in the memory such that low-resolution image-data defining a first low-resolution row resides in a first of said storage banks and such that low-resolution image-data defining a second low-resolution row, adjacent to the first low-resolution row, resides in a second of said storage banks; extracting no more than first through Nth low-resolution pixel signals from the memory in a given extraction operation, said signals representing values of low-resolution pixels in the adjacent first and second low-resolution rows of the low-resolution image-data, where N is an integer greater than one but substantially less than the number of pixels in a low-resolution image line; and supplying the extracted first through Nth low-resolution pixel signals to an interpolating means for interpolation therein.
Claim 42
Dependent Claim
114 words
A resolution enhancing method according to claim 37, further comprising the step of: producing a high-resolution pixel signal in the interpolating means from the supplied first through Nth low-resolution pixel signals in accordance with an equation of the form: ##EQU6## wherein PEN Target represents the color/shading of a high-resolution target pixel, N is an integer greater than one, d SiT represents a normalized distance from the center of a low-resolution source square S i to the center of the target high-resolution pixel, Q represents a power to which the normalized distance is to be raised, c represents a zero-offset constant and PEN Si represents the color/shading of a low-resolution source area S i .
Claim 43
Dependent Claim
70 words
A resolution enhancing method according to claim 37, further comprising the step of: producing a high-resolution pixel signal in the interpolating means from the supplied first through Nth low-resolution pixel signals in accordance with a distance-weighted algorithm, said distance being defined as the distance between the center of the high-resolution pixel and centers of the N low-resolution pixels when the corresponding high-resolution image is hypothetically projected onto the low-resolution image.
Claim 44
Dependent Claim
95 words
A method according to claim 37 for enhancing the resolution of low-resolution image-data, said method further comprising the steps: interpolating each supplied group of extracted first through Nth low-resolution pixel signals in the interpolating means to produce therefrom an interpolated signal that defines a corresponding high-resolution pixel; and displaying a high-resolution image consisting of a plurality of high-resolution pixels, where said high-resolution pixels are each derived from a corresponding interpolated signal produced by said interpolating means and said high-resolution image contains more pixels than the number of pixels represented by said plurality of low-resolution datawords.
Claim 45
Independent Claim
226 words
A method for enhancing the resolution of low-resolution image-data, said method comprising the steps of: providing a memory having independently addressable storage banks; storing the low-resolution image-data in the memory such that low-resolution image-data defining a first low-resolution row resides in a first of said storage banks and such that low-resolution image-data defining a second low-resolution row, adjacent to the first low-resolution row, resides in a second of said storage banks: extracting no more than first through Nth low-resolution pixel signals from the memory in a given extraction operation, said signals representing values of low-resolution pixels in the adjacent first and second low-resolution rows of the low-resolution image-data, where N is an integer greater than one but substantially less than the number of pixels in a low-resolution image line; supplying the extracted first through Nth low-resolution pixel signals to an interpolating means for interpolation therein; and producing a high-resolution pixel signal in the interpolating means from the supplied first through Nth low-resolution pixel signals in accordance with an equation of the form: ##EQU7## wherein N is an integer greater than one, PEN Si represents the color/shading of a low-resolution source area S i , PEN Target represents the color/shading of a high-resolution target pixel, and for each value of i, j (i) can acquire any value in the series 1, 2, . . . , N.
Claim 46
Independent Claim
226 words
A method for enhancing the resolution of low-resolution image-data, said method comprising the steps of: providing a memory having independently addressable storage banks; storing the low-resolution image-data in the memory such that low-resolution image-data defining a first low-resolution row resides in a first of said storage banks and such that low-resolution image-data defining a second low-resolution row, adjacent to the first low-resolution row, resides in a second of said storage banks: extracting no more than first through Nth low-resolution pixel signals from the memory in a given extraction operation, said signals representing values of low-resolution pixels in the adjacent first and second low-resolution rows of the low-resolution image-data, where N is an integer greater than one but substantially less than the number of pixels in a low-resolution image line; supplying the extracted first through Nth low-resolution pixel signals to an interpolating means for interpolation therein; and producing a high-resolution pixel signal in the interpolating means from the supplied first through Nth low-resolution pixel signals in accordance with an equation of the form: ##EQU7## wherein N is an integer greater than one, PEN Si represents the color/shading of a low-resolution source area S i , PEN Target represents the color/shading of a high-resolution target pixel, and for each value of i, j (i) can acquire any value in the series 1, 2, . . . , N.
Claim 47
Dependent Claim
65 words
A method according to claim 41 for enhancing the resolution of low-resolution image-data, said method further comprising the step: selecting j(i) for each i so as to approximate a distance-weighted algorithm, where the distance is defined as the distance between the center of the high-resolution pixel and centers of the N low-resolution pixels when the corresponding high-resolution image is hypothetically projected onto the low-resolution image.
Claim 48
Dependent Claim
58 words
The method of claim 42 further comprising the step of: displaying a high-resolution image consisting of a plurality of high-resolution pixels, where said high-resolution pixels are each derived from a corresponding high-resolution pixel signal produced by said interpolating means and said high-resolution image contains more pixels than the number of pixels represented by said plurality of low-resolution datawords.