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US 5,633,686 AGranted
Adaptive digital video system
OwnerScott T. Bodeninventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In an adaptive digital video system, a decoder at a receiving station for a digitally encoded video signal is able to automatically adapt to varying formats and operating modes. All digital video parameters and system operational commands are encoded inband with the digital video serial data stream. The video data is transmitted in successive blocks (e.g., typically an entire image frame or portions thereof) along with system data bytes and control bytes. The data bytes represent the parameters and commands required by the receiver decoder to adapt to the transmitter encoder settings. The control bytes identify the particular parameters and commands represented by respective data bytes. The method is independent of the particular video format or encoding scheme employed, and functions with any transmission medium and bandwidth.
Claims17
A method of transmitting and receiving digital video image signals comprising the steps of:
- (a) transmitting from at least one transmitting station video images, each image comprising a series of successively transmitted blocks of digitized information encoded in a predetermined format based on parameters of said images, wherein transmission of each block includes the steps of:
- (a.1) transmitting a start code identifying the start of the transmitted block;
- (a.2) transmitting a stop code spaced in time from the transmitted start code and identifying the end of the transmitted block;
- (a.3) transmitting a plurality of successive video data words constituting digitally coded video information in an image signal;
- (a.4) transmitting system data signals representing parameters of the video data words and system commands required at the receiving station to decode the encoded video data words, wherein the system data signal in successively transmitted blocks represent different video data parameters or system commands;
- and
- (a.5) transmitting system control information signals identifying, in each transmitted block, the parameter or command represented by system data signals in that transmitted block;
- wherein steps (a.3), (a.4) and (a.5) are positioned in time intermediate steps (a.1) and (a.2);
- (b) receiving the transmitted blocks at a location remote from said transmitting station;
- and
- (c) decoding the encoded video data words in the received blocks to reproduce said video images in an original state prior to said encoding in accordance with the parameters and commands represented by the system data signals in said received blocks and identified by the system control information in said received blocks;
- wherein step (a) is characterized by said predetermined format and said parameters being selectively alterable to vary said encoding;
- and
- step (c) is characterized by automatically adjusting said decoding in response to altering said format and parameters to accommodate the varied encoding of said video images.
11 more elements
The method of transmitting and receiving digitized video signals comprising the steps of:
- (a) deriving a video image with known parameters;
- (b) encoding said video image in a predetermined digital format based on said parameters of said image;
- (c) transmitting the encoded video image as multiple successively transmitted digital signal blocks, each block including a respective portion of the video image;
- (d) inserting into each of said transmitted signal blocks a start code identifying the start of the block, a stop code identifying the end of the block, digitally coded system information indicative of said predetermined format and known parameters, and digital video data words representing said respective portions of the video image;
- (e) receiving the transmitted signal blocks;
- and
- (f) decoding the encoded video image from the received signal blocks to reproduce the video image in an original state prior to said encoding as a function of the digitally coded system information in the received signal blocks;
- wherein steps (a) and (d) are characterized by said predetermined format and said parameters being selectively alterable to vary said encoding;
- and
- step (c) is characterized by automatically adjusting said decoding in response to altering said format and parameters to accommodate the varied encoding of said video images.
7 more elements
The method of transmitting and receiving digitized video signals comprising the steps of:
- (a) deriving a plurality of video image signals with known parameters at a respective plurality of spaced transmitting stations, wherein the known parameters of at least some of said plurality of signals differ from the known parameters of others of said signals;
- (b) encoding said video image signals in a predetermined digital format at each transmitting station, wherein the formats of at least some of the video images differ from the formats of others of said video images;
- (c) transmitting the encoded video image signals as multiple successively transmitted digital signal blocks from each transmitting station, each block including a respective video image;
- (d) inserting into each of said transmitted signal blocks a start code identifying the start of the block, a stop code identifying the end of the block, digitally coded system information indicative of said predetermined format and known parameters, and digital video data words representing said respective portions of the transmitted video image;
- (e) receiving at a common receiver the transmitted signal blocks from said transmitting stations selectively;
- and
- (f) decoding at a common decoder the encoded video image from the received signal blocks to reproduce the video image in an original state prior to said encoding as a function of the digitally coded system information in the received signal blocks;
- whereby encoded video images of different known parameters and formats are received and automatically decoded without requiring manual adjustment of decoding equipment.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.