An interactive television program guide system is provided. An interactive television program guide provides users with an opportunity to select programs for recording on a remote media server. Programs may also be recorded on a local media server. The program guide provides users with VCR-like control over programs that are played back from the media servers and over real-time cached copies of the programs. The program guide also provides users with an opportunity to designate gift recipients for whom programs may be recorded.

Client-server based interactive television program guide system with remote server recording

A watermark system includes an embedder, detector, and reader. The watermark embedder encodes a watermark signal in a host signal to create a combined signal. The detector looks for the watermark signal in a potentially corrupted version of the combined signal, and computes its orientation. Finally, a reader extracts a message in the watermark signal from the combined signal using the orientation to approximate the original state of the combined signal. While adapted for images, video and audio, the watermark system applies to other electronic and physical media. For example, it can be applied to mark graphical models, blank paper, film and other substrates, texturing objects for ID purposes, etc.

Watermark embedder and reader

Various improvements to steganographic systems, and applications therefore, are disclosed. The improvements include facilitating scale and rotation registration for steganographic decoding by use of rotationally symmetric steganographically embedded patterns and subliminal digital graticules; improved techniques for decoding without access to unencoded originals; improving robustness of steganographic coding in motion pictures and/or in the presence of lossy compression/decompression; and representing data by patterned bit cells whose energy in the spatial domain facilitates decoding registration. Applications include enhanced-security financial transactions, counterfeit resistant identification cards, fraud deterrent systems for cellular telephony, covert modem channels in video transmissions, photo duplication kiosks with automatic copyright detection, and hotlinked image objects (e.g. with embedded URLs) for use on the internet.

Computer system linked by using information in data objects

A subscriber unit for use in a television system including a television network and transmitting apparatus for transmitting program schedule information, the subscriber unit including a receiving unit for receiving the program schedule information from said television network, an icon-based guide generator for producing a program guide including an icon-based hierarchical program guide including the program schedule information, and display apparatus for displaying the program guide, the icon-based hierarchical program guide including a plurality of hierarchically-arranged screens each including at least one icon. Related apparatus and methods are also disclosed.

Intelligent electronic program guide

A method for decoding auxiliary data from media signals in multimedia content decodes watermarks from different media signals and uses the watermarks to control processing of the multimedia content. A copy control method decodes a watermark from one of the media signals in multimedia content, and uses the watermark to control processing of the multimedia content. Another method uses a watermark decoded from a first media signal to decode a second media signal. Yet another method uses a watermark decoded from a media signal to decode metadata associated with the media signal. Finally, another method forms a key for decoding data from at least first and second watermarks extracted from first and second media signals.

Integrating digital watermarks in multimedia content

A picture signal recording system comprises a high-definition broadcasting station 1, an artificial satellite 2, a television receiver 3 and a video signal recording apparatus 5. A pilot signal P is superimposed on a luminance signal Y at the broadcasting station 1. This pilot signal P does not give any adverse influence to an image reproduced on a TV monitor and is detectable from the luminance signal Y. A frequency of this pilot signal is selected to be smaller than the frequency of the luminance signal Y, a superimposing timing thereof is set to a head position of the luminance signal Y, and an amplitude thereof is varied with respect to a grey level as a variation center. The pilot signal P superimposed on the luminance signal Y is detected by a pilot signal detecting circuit 53 within a video signal recording apparatus 5. The picture signal is recorded on a video tape 11 and rerecording prohibit information is recorded in a reserved area by a picture signal recording process circuit 51. When the video tape 11 on which this rerecording prohibit information has been recorded is reproduced, the reproduced picture signal is prohibited to be rerecorded.

Video signal recording apparatus with rerecording inhibit circuit

A spurious signal SSP whose frequency spectrum is located at frequencies [(N + (1/2)).fh] is multiplexed with a luminance signal Y so as to keep an interleaved relation between the spurious signal SSP and the luminance signal Y and the resultant signal is transmitted. When the spurious signal SSP is detected, the recording operation is inhibited. The spurious signal SSP is multiplexed with the luminance signal Y at a level such as not to exert an influence on the picture quality when the video signal is reproduced and seen by a monitor screen.

Circuit for including a copy-inhibit signal with a video signal

In step S1, the capacity of the area (remaining quantity) of a disk in which information can be recorded is read, and the remaining quantity is displayed in step S2. After a user input the recording time of information to be recorded and the recording capacity w for the recording, an average transmission rate R₁ is calculated from expression R₁ = w/t - α in step S4. The rate α is the transmission rate for transmitting signals other than a video signal, such as an audio signal, attached to the video signal. Data obtained by applying a DCT treatment to the video data is quantized with a quantization width corresponding to the average transmission rate R₁ and this data is intermittently recorded on the disk.

Apparatus and method for recording digital data

In a recording/reproduction apparatus, when a rotational-speed-mode setting instruction is received from an I/F unit, a CPU reads out a control procedure from a storage device, controlling other components in accordance with the procedure. As a result, a node switch driving circuit controls field windings of a pulse motor to a switching sequence, driving the pulse motor to rotation at a predetermined rotational speed. Since the control is feedback control, the pulse motor rotates at the predetermined rotational speed specified by an instruction setting a rotational-speed mode with a high degree of reliability. Data can thus be recorded into and reproduced from a magnetic disk at a variable speed.

Recording/reproducing method and recording/reproducing apparatus

A motion estimation processor LSI has been developed using a simple and efficient algorithm while maintaining the accuracy of full search block matching. Only a single chip is required for performing field and frame real-time motion estimation at half-pel precision. This chip is capable of processing ITU-R601 video sequence for MPEG2 encoding with a 27 MHz clock. >

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel1/30/9850/00468021.pdf

Keitaro Yamashita

Papers

Video signal recording apparatus with rerecording inhibit circuit

Circuit for including a copy-inhibit signal with a video signal

Apparatus and method for recording digital data

Recording/reproducing method and recording/reproducing apparatus

A cost effective motion estimation processor LSI using a simple and efficient algorithm