JPH02107085A - Image pickup device for television signal - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To form a wide aspect signal and an existing compatibility signal by adopting an image pickup element corresponding with wide aspect ratio for an image pickup system and making the synchronization signal system of scanning into a system same as the existing one or the system of integer multiple frequency. CONSTITUTION:The R, G and B signals of the wide aspect ratio are read out in an image pickup element 1 by the scanning, supplied to a process circuit 2 and a wide aspect ratio corresponding encoder circuit 3, and the wide aspect signal is formed. The other signal is converted into the signal form of the aspect ratio same as the existing system in a time axis extension circuit 4. The existing compatibility signal of a form same as an existing NTSC signal is formed in an existing television corresponding encoder circuit 5. Thus, since the form of the scanning is same as the existing system, the television signal compatible to the existing system together with the wide aspect signal can be constituted with a simple operation such as the time axis extension of an image signal.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an imaging device for television (TV) signals, and in particular to an imaging device for capturing television signals with different aspect ratios while maintaining compatibility with current television systems. The present invention relates to an imaging device suitable for generating.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, television signals with an aspect ratio of 4:3 have been used. However, recently, as reproduced images have become higher in definition, higher in image quality, and larger in size, there has been increasing interest in wide aspect ratios that allow for more realistic image display. For example, next generation TV
HDTVs, which are currently being developed, have an aspect ratio of 16:9. However, this HDTV also has 1125 scanning lines, which is different from current television systems. Therefore, in order to achieve compatibility with current systems, it is necessary to convert not only the aspect ratio but also the number of scanning lines.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

The above-mentioned conventional technology has a problem in that it does not give consideration to compatibility with current television systems, and requires extremely complicated signal processing in order to achieve compatibility with current systems.

An object of the present invention is to provide a television signal imaging device that is compatible with current systems and can generate both wide aspect ratio television signals and current television signals with a simple configuration. be.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, a synchronizing signal system having a frequency the same as that of the current system or an integral multiple thereof is adopted for the scanning of the imaging system.

Furthermore, in order to obtain a television signal with a 7 wide aspect ratio, the imaging system employs an image sensor compatible with the wide aspect ratio.

[Effect]

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the operating principle when the present invention is applied to a synchronization signal in which the scanning form of the imaging system is the same as that of the current system.

FIG. 6A schematically shows the scanning mode in terms of time and vertical area. The O marks in FIG. 6 correspond to scanning lines. The current system uses 525 scanning lines and 2:1 interlaced scanning, and the vertical synchronization signal f v ”
It is 60 Hz.

On the other hand, as an image sensor, for example, the aspect ratio is 16:9.
Assuming that, as shown in the same figure (b), an image signal equivalent to one scan is read out during the period of the horizontal synchronizing signal fh''-15.75 KHz.In addition, in the current system, the image signal equivalent to one scan is read out during the period of the horizontal synchronizing signal fh"-15.75 KHz. This means that the image signal of the hatched area in the same figure with an aspect ratio of 4:3 is being read out.

Now, according to the present invention, an image signal with an aspect ratio of 16:9 is read out using the same synchronization signal system as the current system. When a television signal (hereinafter abbreviated as wide aspect signal) generated from this image signal is received by a wide aspect ratio receiver, a wide aspect image can be reproduced.

On the other hand, the image signal with the same aspect ratio as the current system with hatching has a time equivalent to -fh. Therefore, the time axis is expanded by 4/3 times compared to the image signal of the area where hatching is applied. By performing these operations, it is possible to construct the same image signal as the current system. If a television signal generated from this signal (hereinafter referred to as a current compatibility signal) is received by a current receiver, images can be reproduced with the same aspect ratio as the current system.

In this example, the scanning format is the same as the current system, so
By simple operations such as time-axis expansion of the image signal, it is possible to configure a television signal that is compatible with current systems together with a wide aspect signal.

FIG. 3 shows a case where the present invention is applied to an imaging system whose scanning form is twice that of the current system.

For example, the horizontal synchronizing signal fh′ as shown in FIG.
By generating a wide aspect signal from an image signal obtained from a sequential scanning mode of =2f and transmitting this signal to a wide aspect ratio receiver, a wide aspect image can be reproduced.

On the other hand, in order to generate a current compatibility signal that is compatible with the current system, for example, by thinning out the scanning lines marked with *, as shown in FIG. The signal is expanded by 2 times the time axis,
fh"" into a signal in the same scanning form as the current fh system. As explained earlier in FIG. 2, for the signal in the hatched area in FIG. 2(c), 473
The same image signal as the current system is constructed by performing twice the time axis expansion processing. This can then be used to construct a current compatibility signal.

As described above, according to the present invention, an imaging device capable of generating wide aspect signals and current compatibility signals can be realized by simple signal processing such as time axis expansion processing and scanning line thinning processing. Example] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. This embodiment is for a case where the synchronization system of the imaging system is the same as the current system.

In the image sensor 1, for example, three primary color signals R, G, and B signals with a wide aspect ratio are read out by scanning.
Horizontal and vertical synchronization signals necessary for scanning control are supplied from the control circuit 6.

In the process circuit 2, one of the output signals, which is subjected to processing such as amplification by a process amplifier and γ compensation, is supplied to a wide aspect ratio compatible encoder circuit 3 to generate a wide aspect signal.

The other signal is converted in the time axis expansion circuit 4 into a signal form having the same aspect ratio as the current system. In the current television compatible encoder circuit 5,
For example, a current compatible signal is generated that has the same form as a current NTSC signal. Note that the lock, control signals, etc. necessary for each circuit are supplied from the control circuit 6.

Next, FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of the time axis expansion circuit 4, and FIG. control of the start point of write and read operations, and 11 write clock fsw, read clock f
The time axis is expanded by controlling the frequency of sy+.

For example, the operation when converting a signal with a wide aspect ratio of 16:9 to a signal with a current aspect ratio of 4:3 will be explained with reference to FIG.

Of the input signal a with an aspect ratio of 16:9, the effective image signal corresponding to - corresponds to the signal with the current aspect ratio.

Therefore, for the input signal a, information is written to the memory circuit 7 using the fsw clock with the starting point shown in the figure as the starting point of the write operation. The read operation is performed using the fsu clock as the starting point of the read operation. Note that since the period of one horizontal scanning line is the same for all aspect ratios, it is necessary to expand the time axis by 4/3 times in this example. Therefore, fs
A read clock with the relationship R=-fsw is used. As a result, the output signal can be converted into a signal in the same format as the current system, as shown in Figure 2.

Next, an example of a wide aspect signal is shown in FIG.
Similar to the SC signal, the frequency band of the luminance signal is increased by 4/3 times due to the wide aspect ratio. Also, the same figure (C
) is an example of a wide aspect signal that satisfies transmission line compatibility with the current system, in which components above the current transmission band are converted to lower frequency components by frequency shifting and multiplexed within the transmission band.

On the other hand, FIG. 3(d) shows a luminance signal and two color difference signals that are time-division multiplexed.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to generate either a wide aspect signal or a current compatibility signal that is compatible with the current system by simple signal processing.

Note that the image sensor shown in this embodiment can be either an image sensor tube or a solid-state image sensor. Further, in this embodiment, a three-tube (three-plate) system is described, but it can also be applied to a single-tube (single-plate) system.

Furthermore, it is also possible to implement a configuration in which the wide aspect signal and the current compatibility signal are switched using a switch or the like. In addition, wide aspect ratio compatible encoder circuit 3.
It is also clear that it is possible to configure the encoder circuit 5 in a manner that shares some of the functions of the encoder circuit 5 compatible with the current television.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG.

This embodiment corresponds to the scanning form shown in FIG. 3 above. In terms of configuration, only the scanning line thinning circuit 8 is newly added. This scanning line thinning circuit 8
As shown in FIG. 8(b), the scanning line is thinned out and the time axis is expanded twice by one time so that the scanning format is the same as that of the current system.The outline of this operation is shown in FIG. Since this processing can be easily realized by using a memory circuit or the like, a description of the configuration etc. will be omitted.

In addition, prior to this scanning line thinning process, in order to remove interlace aliasing distortion, which is a distortion in the current interlace scanning system, a bris filter (P
re-Filter) circuit 9.

It is also possible to remove these distortion components.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, both a wide aspect television signal and a current television signal can be generated through simple signal processing, so a wide aspect ratio imaging device that is compatible with current systems can be created. This can be achieved at low cost.

Note that it is clear that the signal processing of the present invention can be realized in any form of analog, digital, or a mixture of both.

In addition, the ratio of wide aspect ratio is 1 as shown in this example.
It is also clear that the present invention is applicable to any ratio without being limited to 6:9.

Furthermore, when converting to an image signal with the current aspect ratio, by changing the position of the write start control signal of the 1st time axis expansion circuit, the 2nd. It is also clear that the hatched area in FIG. 3 can be set at any desired position.

Further, the wide aspect signal is not limited to that shown in FIG. 6, and the present invention can be applied to various other signals.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the overall configuration of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram explaining the principle of the present invention, FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the time axis expansion circuit, FIG. 5 is a diagram explaining the operation of the time axis expansion circuit, and FIG. FIG. 7 is a block diagram of the overall configuration of a device according to another embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the above embodiment, and FIG. 9 is an example of the connection of a buri filter. FIG. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Image sensor, 2... Process circuit, 3... Encoder circuit compatible with wide aspect ratio, 4... Time axis expansion circuit, 5... Encoder compatible with current television,
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Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a television signal imaging device consisting of an image sensor with a wide aspect ratio different from that of the current television system, the aspect ratio is wider than the signal obtained by scanning with a synchronization signal sequence that is the same as the current television system or an integral multiple of this. 1. An imaging device for a television signal, characterized in that a current television signal is generated using a signal obtained by time-axis extension of the signal obtained by the scanning and converted to a current aspect ratio.