Did You Know...
...that one person who claimed to be the inventor of the television is Russian emigre Vladimir Zworykin? In 1929 David Sarnoff, founder of RCA, asked Zworykin what it would take to develop TV for commercial use. He said: a year and a half and $100,000. In reality, it took 20 years and $50 million! Before his death in 1982 at the age of 92, Zworykin said of his invention: "The technique is wonderful. It is beyond my expectations. But the programs! I would never let my children even come close to this thing."
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7609327 | Polarization difference matting using a screen configured to reflect polarized light A method for extracting an alpha matte from images of a scene illuminated by unpolarized light is presented. A first pair of images is acquired with a foreground object placed in front of a background producing polarized light. One image of the first pair of images ... | 10/27/2009 |
| 7268832 | Special effect device, key signal control device and key signal control method A key signal control unit for controlling the level of a key signal corresponding to an arbitrary position within a frame area to a level corresponding to a minimum distance from an inner edge of the frame area on the basis of the level of a key signal on the inner ... | 09/11/2007 |
| 7233366 | Method and apparatus for sending and receiving and for encoding and decoding a telop image To allow a telop image to be displayed appropriately even when color information and transparency information for the telop image are transmitted over a network, the present invention provides a telop image sending/receiving system comprising a telop image sending a... | 06/19/2007 |
| 7230633 | Method and apparatus for image blending Methods and apparatuses for blending two images using vector table look up operations. In one aspect of the invention, a method to blend two images includes: loading a vector of keys into a vector register; converting the vector of keys into a first vector of blendi... | 06/12/2007 |
| 7154540 | System for enhancing video Pan, tilt and zoom sensors are coupled to a broadcast camera in order to determine the field of view of the broadcast camera and to make a rough estimate of a target's location in the broadcast camera's field of view. Pattern recognition techniques can be used to de... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7116342 | System and method for inserting content into an image sequence A real-time system and method for inserting perspective correct content into an image sequence are presented. The invention inserts the content with the location, size, orientation, shape and occlusion properties that are appropriate for the camera view represented ... | 10/03/2006 |
| 7075556 | Telestrator system A telestrator system is disclosed that allows a broadcaster to annotate video during or after an event. For example, while televising a sporting event, an announcer (or other user) can use the present invention to draw over the video of the event to highlight one or... | 07/11/2006 |
| 7062048 | Apparatus and method for single encryption with multiple authorization of distributed content data A content data distribution system uses a single key and multiple program authorization to transmit a plurality of programs in multiplexed data packets such as those used in Digital Video Broadcasting. A receiver has a memory, a descrambler and a processor. Authoriz... | 06/13/2006 |
| 7034849 | Method and apparatus for image blending Methods and apparatuses for blending two images using vector table look up operations. In one aspect of the invention, a method to blend two images includes: loading a vector of keys into a vector register; converting the vector of keys into a first vector of blendi... | 04/25/2006 |
| 6950130 | Method of image background replacement A method for background replacement. The method takes an input image of one or more frames of video, or a still image, and performs an initial classification of the pixels (14) as foreground or background pixels. The classification is refined (16) usin... | 09/27/2005 |
| 6947060 | Image forming apparatus, electron beam apparatus, modulation circuit, and image-forming apparatus driving method An image forming apparatus which performs pulsewidth modulation with a pulsewidth set by counting a clock. Especially, for grayscale level correction by setting the frequency of the clock, the periodic clock is counted, and an output pattern is changed in accordance... | 09/20/2005 |
| 6931511 | Parallel vector table look-up with replicated index element vector Methods and apparatuses for looking up vectors in parallel using vector table look up operations. In one aspect of the invention, a method to look up a plurality of data items indexed by a vector of indices includes: generating a second vector of indices in a vector... | 08/16/2005 |
| 6927803 | Video mixing apparatus and method of mixing video A video mixing apparatus carries out a chromakey process producing less degradation of picture quality by generating a key signal which separates a foreground object component from a screen component by using luminance information. In a three-dimensional color space... | 08/09/2005 |
| 6909451 | Method for generating video programs, variants, and system for realizing this method The invention relates to television, interactive television, user interfaces, video conferences and may be used in the creation of video programs with interactive interaction between participants of video programs and objects generated by a computer program. The tec... | 06/21/2005 |
| 6909438 | Video compositor A system is disclosed for blending two image that makes use of a color map which indicates colors in a foreground can be mixed with the background and how much of each source to mix. One embodiment of the invention restricts the use of the color map to only pixels i... | 06/21/2005 |
| 6888577 | Image compositing device, recording medium, and program An image compositing apparatus of the present invention composites a video image and a plurality of graphical images together into a final composite image. The image compositing apparatus includes a first obtaining unit, a first compositing unit, a calculating unit,... | 05/03/2005 |
| 6833874 | Ticker tape picture-in-picture system A ticker tape PiP system that provides for viewing the ticker tape image portion from one image signal (e.g., a ticker tape image portion of a television image signal), while viewing at least a portion of an image from a different image signal (i.e., a standard tele... | 12/21/2004 |
| 6807296 | Color conversion method and apparatus for chromakey processing Upon chromakey processing, 4×4 transformation matrix is provided through which a backing color selected is transformed to the original point and monochrome color is transformed to vertically distribute at a spot away from the original point along an axis. Matrix mu... | 10/19/2004 |
| 6803968 | System and method for synthesizing images An image synthesizing system is provided that can prevent image deterioration resulting from synthesis applied to a predictive image to be used for the next frame. The image synthesizing system decodes and synthesizes a main frame and a sub-image compressed in diffe... | 10/12/2004 |
| 6771879 | Video processor for producing stored video key signals to be used for superimposing text or the like on background images A video processor produces video and key signals to be processed by a television production switcher for superimposing text or the like on a background image. The video processor has a key generator for receiving an input video signal and an input key signal and sel... | 08/03/2004 |
| 6766054 | Segmentation of an object from a background in digital photography The present invention provides methods and apparatus to distinguish and/or separate an object from a background. The methods use backgrounds of known and/or advantageous texture. In an embodiment, a measure of image texture, namely the spatial frequency is used to d... | 07/20/2004 |
| 6714257 | Color key preservation during sample rate conversion The color-keyed regions of a color-keyed image are extracted from the color-keyed image, and the color-keyed regions and the non-color-keyed regions are independently scaled. The independently scaled regions are subsequently merged to form a scaled color-key image w... | 03/30/2004 |
| 6674485 | Apparatus and method for image compositing The present invention provides an image compositing apparatus capable of producing a natural composite image, with a simple structure and a less occupying space. The present invention also provides a method for compositing an image by providing shadow-fre... | 01/06/2004 |
| 6646687 | Automatic background scene defocusing for image compositing The present invention is a method and apparatus for automatically defocusing a background scene as the background scene is being composited with a foreground subject during the photography of the subject, where the background scene becomes increasingly de... | 11/11/2003 |
| 6621499 | Video processor with multiple overlay generators and/or flexible bidirectional video data port A video processing device and method receives data from a common data source, such as a frame buffer and outputs first overlay information in a first color space from a first port and outputs second overlay information in a second color from a second port... | 09/16/2003 |
| 6597406 | System for enhancing a video presentation of a live event A three-dimensional model is created to represent an environment to be captured on video. A camera is fitted with pan, tilt and/or zoom sensors. An operator selects a location in the environment. The three-dimensional model is used to determine the three-... | 07/22/2003 |
| 6452643 | Linking keyers to background source selections Linking keyers to background source selections is achieved by defining a key link association table between background sources and keyers for an M/E of a production switcher. Key Add and Key Drop modifiers are provided so that the effects of the key link ... | 09/17/2002 |
| 6441864 | Video signal processing device and method employing transformation matrix to generate composite image A video signal processing device includes an address generator to calculate a transformation matrix for three-dimensionally transforming an image to a "blue board" area. The transformation is based on corner positions of the blue board area of a video sig... | 08/27/2002 |
| 6348953 | Device and process for producing a composite picture Apparatus for producing a composite image from a foreground image (FG), showing an object or a scene with a substantially monochrome background, and background image (BG) comprising a first processing unit (R4) for producing a control signal (SEP) for eac... | 02/19/2002 |
| 6327004 | Picture replacement system and method of the same A reference picture being as a reference of the replacement area, the reference position of the replacement area and the size of the replacement area has been memorized. Moreover, a replacing LOGO picture has also been memorized. A two dimensional movemen... | 12/04/2001 |
| 6295096 | Edge key generating method and edge key generating apparatus To enable interlacing edge-generating means to be used for a progressive image signal that is separated into lines as two sequences of signals, the present invention comprises a pre-edge processing circuit (11) that executes appropriate pre-edge processin... | 09/25/2001 |
| 6281941 | Mix-effect bank with multiple programmable outputs A mix-effect bank architecture for a production video switcher has multiple programmable outputs, the outputs being determined by a selected operational mode including split, programmable clean feed and mix minus modes. Four keyers with video and key sign... | 08/28/2001 |
| 6266100 | System for enhancing a video presentation of a live event A three-dimensional model is created to represent an environment to be captured on video. A camera is fitted with pan, tilt and/or zoom sensors. An operator selects a location in the environment. The three-dimensional model is used to determine the three-... | 07/24/2001 |
| 6259488 | Concealing temporal shift when using a digital video effect system with a video switcher A method of concealing temporal shifts when a digital video effects system is used with a video switcher adds a mixer to the digital video effects system to mix the input to and output from the digital video effects system if the image to be transformed i... | 07/10/2001 |
| 6252632 | System for enhancing a video presentation A system for enhancing the television presentation of an object that can highlight the object without obscuring the image of the object. The system receives a first video image, matches a second video image to a portion of the first video image correspond... | 06/26/2001 |
| 6226048 | Image signal processing apparatus having a signal level corrector circuit An image signal processing apparatus is provided and includes a YC separator circuit for extracting a chrominance signal from an image signal, a signal level detector circuit for outputting a signal level detecting signal by detecting a signal level of th... | 05/01/2001 |
| 6201579 | Virtual studio position sensing system A position detecting device for an object with virtual set comprises providing the object with an emitting device and using the device in conjunction with a plain or patterned chroma-key background to provide the exact position of a TV camera or alone to ... | 03/13/2001 |
| 6172717 | Apparatus and methods for synthesizing foreground and background images An image processing unit is provided to solve the problem of an aliasing usually occurred when a foreground image and a background image are synthesized by using a key signal; this image processing unit comprises: an image filter circuit that applies to t... | 01/09/2001 |
| 6151009 | Method and apparatus for merging real and synthetic images A method for merging real and synthetic images in real time is comprised of the steps of providing a first signal containing depth and image information per pixel about a real image. A second signal containing depth and image information per pixel about a... | 11/21/2000 |
| 6147716 | Picture generator and picture generation method The present invention relates to a picture generator and a picture generation method. In detail the picture generator provides a mobile photograph device acquires first video data by photographing a performer in front of a predetermined background, a came... | 11/14/2000 |
