Video data capture and formatting in intelligent video information management system

Claim 1

Apparatus for storing video signals, comprising: a plurality of video cameras, including at least four video cameras; first, second and third video decoding circuits each for receiving a field of a video signal generated by a respective one of said video cameras currently connected to the video decoding circuit and for extracting luminance, chrominance and reference signal components from the received video signal; means for selectively connecting each of said video decoding circuits to every one of said plurality of video cameras; first and second signal conversion circuits, each for converting into digital form the luminance and chrominance signal components extracted by a respective one of said video decoding circuits currently connected to the signal conversion circuit; means for selectively connecting each of said signal conversion circuits to every one of said first, second and third video decoding circuits; first storage means connected to said first signal conversion circuit for sequentially storing fields of said luminance and chrominance signal components converted into digital form by said first conversion circuit; and second storage means connected to said second signal conversion circuit for sequentially storing fields of said luminance and chrominance signal components converted into digital form by said second conversion circuit.

Claim 11

A method of updating a display buffer, said display buffer for storing image data to be supplied to a display device to cause the display device to display an image corresponding to the image data, said display device displaying said image in the form of a plurality of rows of picture elements, said rows of picture elements consisting of a first set of rows that are alternate ones of said rows of picture elements and a second set of rows that are all of the rows of picture elements not included in said first set of rows, said display buffer including a first set of memory locations corresponding to said first set of rows and a second set of memory locations corresponding to said second set of rows, the method comprising the steps of: first updating the image data stored in said first set of memory locations; upon completion of said first updating step, second updating the image data stored in said second set of memory locations; and sequentially repeating said first and second updating steps.

Claim 12

A method of updating a display buffer, said display buffer for storing image data to be supplied to a display device to cause the display device to display an image corresponding to the image data, said display device displaying said image in the form of a plurality of rows of picture elements, said rows of picture elements consisting of a first set of rows that are alternate ones of said rows of picture elements and a second set of rows that are all of the rows of picture elements not included in said first set of rows, said display buffer including a first set of memory locations corresponding to said first set of rows and a second set of memory locations corresponding to said second set of rows, the method comprising the steps of: first updating the image data stored in said first set of memory locations; upon completion of said first updating step, second updating the image data stored in said second set of memory locations; and sequentially repeating said first and second updating steps.

Claim 20

A method of formatting an image plane represented as a two-dimensional array of pixel locations according to a 4:1:1 digital color video format, the method comprising the steps of: dividing said image plane into n rectangular regions having a vertical dimension of m pixels and a horizontal dimension of 4 m pixels, n being an integer greater than 1, m being an even integer greater than 1; forming with respect to each of said n rectangular regions four m×m luminance-value pixel blocks arranged in a horizontal sequence in the rectangular region; and forming exactly two m×m chrominance-value blocks with respect to each of said n rectangular regions, a first one of said two chrominance-value blocks corresponding to a first chrominance signal, and each value of said first chrominance-value block representing an area corresponding to four horizontally-sequential pixels of the respective rectangular regions, the second one of said two chrominance-value blocks corresponding to a second chrominance signal different from said first chrominance signal, each value of said second chrominance-value block representing an area corresponding to four horizontally-sequential pixels of the respective rectangular region.

Claim 21

A method of formatting an image plane represented as a two-dimensional array of pixel locations according to a 4:1:1 digital color video format, the method comprising the steps of: dividing said image plane into n rectangular regions having a vertical dimension of m pixels and a horizontal dimension of 4 m pixels, n being an integer greater than 1, m being an even integer greater than 1; forming with respect to each of said n rectangular regions four m×m luminance-value pixel blocks arranged in a horizontal sequence in the rectangular region; and forming exactly two m×m chrominance-value blocks with respect to each of said n rectangular regions, a first one of said two chrominance-value blocks corresponding to a first chrominance signal, and each value of said first chrominance-value block representing an area corresponding to four horizontally-sequential pixels of the respective rectangular regions, the second one of said two chrominance-value blocks corresponding to a second chrominance signal different from said first chrominance signal, each value of said second chrominance-value block representing an area corresponding to four horizontally-sequential pixels of the respective rectangular region.

Claim 26

A method of transmitting a field of video data on a multi-bit parallel data bus, said field of video data corresponding to an image, the method comprising the steps of: dividing said field of video data into first video data portions each corresponding to at least one and no more than m raster-scan lines of said field, m being a positive integer that is less than a number of raster-scan lines making up said field of video data; transmitting each of said first video data portions in a respective one of a first sequence of discrete time intervals; formatting said field of video data into a plurality of n×p data blocks, each of said data blocks corresponding to a respective rectangular portion of said image that overlaps at least two raster-scan lines, n and p both being positive integers greater than one; dividing said block-formatted video data into second data portions each consisting of a plurality of said n×p data blocks; and transmitting each of said second data portions in a respective one of a second sequence of discrete time intervals, said second sequence of discrete time intervals being interleaved with said first sequence of discrete time intervals.

Claim 27

A method of transmitting a field of video data on a multi-bit parallel data bus, said field of video data corresponding to an image, the method comprising the steps of: dividing said field of video data into first video data portions each corresponding to at least one and no more than m raster-scan lines of said field, m being a positive integer that is less than a number of raster-scan lines making up said field of video data; transmitting each of said first video data portions in a respective one of a first sequence of discrete time intervals; formatting said field of video data into a plurality of n×p data blocks, each of said data blocks corresponding to a respective rectangular portion of said image that overlaps at least two raster-scan lines, n and p both being positive integers greater than one; dividing said block-formatted video data into second data portions each consisting of a plurality of said n×p data blocks; and transmitting each of said second data portions in a respective one of a second sequence of discrete time intervals, said second sequence of discrete time intervals being interleaved with said first sequence of discrete time intervals.

Claim 53

A method of updating a display buffer, said display buffer for storing image data to be supplied to a display device to cause the display device to display an image corresponding to the image data, said display device displaying said image in the form of a two-dimensional array of picture elements, said array of picture elements defining an image plane, the method comprising the steps of: dividing the image plane into a plurality of rectangular regions; generating a present field of video data representative of an image formed in the image plane; and for each respective one of the rectangular regions of the image plane: detecting a characteristic of a portion of the present field of video data, said portion corresponding to the respective one of the rectangular regions; comparing the detected characteristic with a reference characteristic; and selectively storing the portion of the present field of video data in the display buffer, in dependence upon a result of said comparing step.

Claim 54

A method of updating a display buffer, said display buffer for storing image data to be supplied to a display device to cause the display device to display an image corresponding to the image data, said display device displaying said image in the form of a two-dimensional array of picture elements, said array of picture elements defining an image plane, the method comprising the steps of: dividing the image plane into a plurality of rectangular regions; generating a present field of video data representative of an image formed in the image plane; and for each respective one of the rectangular regions of the image plane: detecting a characteristic of a portion of the present field of video data, said portion corresponding to the respective one of the rectangular regions; comparing the detected characteristic with a reference characteristic; and selectively storing the portion of the present field of video data in the display buffer, in dependence upon a result of said comparing step.