Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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STE~/J~r.
04-01-77
"A system for recording, storing and reproducing television
pictures".
The present invention relates to a system for
recording, storing and reproducing television pictures, comprising
a television camera and a video tape recorder for connection to a
television receiver.
Recoding of pictures with a television camera
connected to a video tape recorder is being used to an increasing
extent and is an alternative to a ~ilm camera. For amateur use
as well as for many professional uses the alternative television
camera/video tape recorder is attractive, partly because repro-
duction may take place directly without intermediate development,
partly because the presentation on a television picture screen
is simple and easy to carry out and gives a good result from a
reproduction point of view. Furthermore it is possible in the
case of video tape recorders to get a comparatively long showing
time, one hour or more, which gives a poss_bility to a long un-
interrupted showing.
The pre-requisites for using the combination
television camera/video tape recorder have increased as tele-
vision cameras have grown smaller, lighter and cheaper. Also
more compact video tape recorders appear on the market, but the
tape reels as well as required driving means for driving the
tape and the magnets heads as well as the rotating system of
which they form part puts a limit of a possible reduction of
the weight and volume of the set, and the necessity to carry
along so a bulky apparatus at picture takings is a rather ssvere
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01-01-77
hindrance for the alternative television camera~video tape re-
corder for a more mobile use such as amateur us~ and the like.
The development of the micro-components has
reached very far and makes steadily progress. Electronic memories
for storing information, such as shift-registers, have now an
enormous packing density so that a memory unit consisting of
such micro-components may store extremely great amounts of in-
formation.
The pr-esent invention is based on the under-
standlng that the method commonly prevailing for picture taking
to record short scenes separately, which, possibly after editing,
are displayed in succession, creates together with the progress
on the field of micro-components a possibility to a material
improvement of the system television camera/video tape recorder,
implying a substantially increased usefulness of such a system.
The system according to the invention is char-
acterized in that the television camera is provided with a re-
placeable memory unit detachably attached to the camera, which
memory unit is connected to the output of the camera and adapted
to store at picture recording the video signal delivered by the
camera representing a picture sequence, which is only a minor
part of the total picture series storable on a video tape in the
video tape recorder, which memory unit after having been detached
~rom the camera is easily connectable to the video tape recorder
for transferring its video signal contents to ths video tape
recorder.
Due to the fact that the memory unit attachsd
11;~1~04 ZPl~ 70
to the camera permits a picture recording, although of a compar-
ably short duration, e.g. 3-10 minutes, there is no need for
maintaining connection with the video tape recorder and the
equipment will be easy to move in the same way as a conventional
film camera. It is easy to carry with oneself a number of such
memory units which are successively replaced as they become
filled up with picture information.
The invention will be more fully described with
reference to the attached drawing, in which figure 1 shows a
television camera with an attached cassette-shaped memory unit
and figure 2 shows a simple block diagram of such a memory unit.
In figure 1 a television camera is designated 1
and an attached cassette-shaped memory unit is designated 2.
3 is a digit-display for indicating how much picture information
there is stored at any moment in the memory unit 2 and it may
for instance show corresponding showing-time. T~e digit-display 3
may be zeroed by means of a button 4r
The electrical connection of the memory unit 2
with the camera 1 (designated 5 in figure 2) may simply be
effected by means of pin- and sleeve connectors or some other
kind of connecting device, which becomes operative by the memory
unit 2 being put in its p~ace. The connecting device 5 may then
be carried out so as to also be fixing members for the memory
unit 2.
A video tape recorder 6 is suitably provided~
with a corresponding connecting device 7 for connecting the
memory unit 2 to it at transfer to video tape.
In the shown embodiment of figure 2 the memory
~nit 2 has as its memory member a f`.i. digital shift register with
a very high packing density of f.i. solid-state type such as a
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04-01~77
so-called bubble memory or a CCD-memory (charge coupled device).
The shift register is designated 8 in figure 2.
In an analog/digital converter 9 the signal
coming from the camera 1 is in a manner known per se sampled for
converting the same to a sufficiently representative digital
signal whicl-l is supplied to the input of the shift register 8.
At the transfer to the video tape recorder 6 the digital signa1
from the shift register 8 is re-converted into an analog signal
in a digital/analog converter 10. A clock pulse generator 11 is
arranged to control the analog/digital converter 9, the digital/
analog converter 10 and the shift register 8, so that the digital
bit combinations are continuously advanced in the shift
register 8 at an incoming video-signal f`rom the television camera 1
for storing these combinations and at the information transfer
from the shift register ~ to the video tape recorder 6.
The signal processing is well known ~ se.
The clock pulse generator 11 may, as indicated
in figure 2, be supplied with video signals from the camera 1
in order to be synchronized with the synchronization pulses of
the video signal.
At the information transfer, when the memory
unit 2 is connected to the video tape recorder 6, the clock
pulse generator 11 may be synch onized from the tape recorder 6.
The signal contents in each stage of the shift
register 8 corresponds to a picture element at recording as well
as display, which is sufficiently small to give a good resolution.
It is of course important to be able to de-
ter~ine at any moment to which extent the capacity of the memory
unit 2 has been occupied. For this purpose there is a counter 12
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0l-~-01-77
connected with the clock pulse generator 11, whicll counter
after restoration to Y.erO at the beginning of the recording
counts the number of clock pulses in a suitable pace, so that
a digit display 13 shows on a proper scale the degree of oc-
cupation of the shift register 8.
~ he clock pulse counter 12 is in figure 2
shown to be connected on one side to the input and on the other
side to the output of the memory unit 2. This ai.ms at indica-t-
ing that the counter 12 may be controlled in dependance of the
connection to either the camera 1 or to the video tape recorder
6 so that it at recoding with the camera 1 is advanced in the
forward direction, while it at transfer to the video tape re-
corder 6 is stepped in backward direction, so that zero indic-
ation on the digit display 13 indicates that the entire inform-
ation contents of the memory unit 2 has been transferred to the
"t;Jco
W vifc~ tape recorder 6.
It is preferable that the clock pulse counter 12automatically interrupts the information advancement in the shift
register 8 when it reaches a position corresponding to full or
nearly full condition cf the shift register 8. This is i.ndicated
in figure 2 with ~e conductor 14.
As a rule the entire capacity of the memory
unit 2 is not utilized and the shift register 8 is thus mostly
filled to a varying extent only. It is of course desirable that
the transfer of the contents of the memory unit 2 into the tape
recorder 6 starts immediately or in any case nearly immediately
when the memory unit 2 is connected to the video tape recorder 6.
This implies that the shift register 8 prefer-
ably should be advances so far that its information beginning is
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iIl or close to the end position Or the shift register 8, pos-
sibly with an increasecl clock f~equency, which takes place
either just before the disconnection of the memory unit 2 from
the television camera 1 or immediately before the start of the
video tape recorder 6 when the memory unit 2 is connected to it.
In order tl-at the digit display 13 shall keep
its position at such an extra stepping of the shift register 8
there is preferably an additional counter 15, which is advanced
during the recording together with the counter 12, or to which
the end position of the counter 12 is transferred in connection
with the disconnection of the memory unit 8 from the television
camera 1 or the connection to the video tape recorder 6 respec-
tively. At said disconnection or conllection the counter 12 is
disconnected and keeps its position independent of the additional
advancement of the shift register 8 while the counter 15 is ad-
vanced to the desired end position, where it brings about dis-
connection of the clock pulse generator 11.
It is of course also possible to disconnect the
pulse generator 11 and connect a particular stepping generator
(not shown), possibly having a higher frequency, for th~ addi-
tional stepping in the shift register 8.
As has been mentioned already the counter l2
may be arranged to step backwards in pace with the clock pu~ses
at the transfer of the information contents of the memory unit 2
to the video tape recorder 6. When this counter 12 reaches its
zero position accordingly all information stored in the memory
unit 2 has been transferred. The counter 12 may then be used to
cause in its zero position a suitable disconnection of the video
tape record~r 6.
~PIiN.8570
0~-01-77
The memory unit 2 may of course be carried ou-t
in many different ways without depar-ture from the basic inven-
tive concept.
So for instance the signal processing may take
pla e entirely analogously with the aid of shift registers 8
adapted hereto such as Bucket-Brigade-memories, CCD-memories.
Furthermore steps may be taken in the signal processing for
reducing the required storing capacity of the memory unit 2. So
for instance the signal processing may in a manner known ~ se
comprise deltamodulation with associate decoding of the signals
advanced through the memory unit 2. In this case there is ac-
cordingly a deltamodulator and a decoder either in the memory
unit 2 or in the television camera 1 or video tape recorder 6
respectively. Also other forms of signal processing may be used,
in which the required amount of information is reduced by sub-
stantially only indicating changes of the picture contents. It
is obvious that the signal stored in the memory unit 2 and
transferred to the video tape recorder 6 may comprise audio- and
colour signal components.
