1. In a video decoder, a system for acquiring program guide information conveyed on one of a plurality of broadcast channels, comprising the steps of:
selecting a program guide type from a plurality of different types of program guide;
associating a program guide of said selected program guide type with a broadcast channel by updating a database in said video decoder; and
acquiring a program guide of said selected program guide type.
2. A system according to claim 1, including the step of
capturing packetized program information comprising a program conveyed on said broadcast channel using said acquired program guide.
3. A system according to claim 1, including the step of
displaying a list of available programs and broadcast display times using information derived from said acquired program guide.
4. A system according to claim 1, wherein
said different types of program guide comprise at least one of (a) program specific information, and (b) information contained in a vertical blanking interval of an analog type video signal.
5. A system according to claim 4, wherein
said program specific information includes at least one of (i) information in ATSC compatible program specific information protocol (PSIP) format and (ii)information in MPEG compatible program specific information (PSI) format.
6. A system according to claim 4, wherein
said program specific information includes at least one of (a) program map information including data for identifying individual packetized datastreams that constitute a program, (b) program association information for associating a program with data for identifying packets comprising associated program map information, (c) network information for defining network parameters, (d) channel map information associating channel identification numbers with one or more of, a carrier frequency, transport stream identifier, service type and program number and (e) conditional access information for use in accessing programs that are dependent upon user entitlement.
7. A system according to claim 1, wherein
said broadcast channel comprises a physical transmission channel (PTC).
8. A system according to claim 1, wherein said acquired program guide,
links a transmission channel to a broadcast channel identification number associated with an information provider and a group of sub-channels, and
links a sub-channel from among said group of sub-channels with a second identification number.
9. A system according to claim 8, wherein
said associating step associates said selected program guide with a transmission channel;
said acquiring step acquires a program guide for use in capturing a program conveyed on a broadcast sub-channel; and
said capturing step captures packetized program information comprising a program conveyed on said broadcast sub-channel.
10. A system according to claim 1, including the step of
automatically scanning through received broadcast channels and identifying and acquiring an available program guide for individual channels.
11. A system according to claim 1, including the step of
automatically scanning through received channels and identifying and acquiring a plurality of program guides for an individual channel, wherein data from at least one program guide of said plurality of acquired program guides is used to update said acquired program guide of the selected program guide type.
12. In a video decoder, a system for acquiring program guide information on one of a plurality of broadcast channels, comprising the steps of:
determining from a decoder database if a program guide is associated with an individual broadcast channel, in response to a user channel change command;
examining data received on said individual broadcast channel to determine program guide availability in response to an absence of a program guide being associated with said individual broadcast channel; and
acquiring an available program guide.
13. A system according to claim 12, including the step of
capturing packetized program information comprising a program conveyed on said individual broadcast channel using said acquired program guide.
14. A system according to claim 12, including the step of examining data received on said individual broadcast channel to identify program guide type.
15. A system according to claim 12, wherein said step of
determining from a decoder database if a program guide is associated with an individual broadcast channel is performed in response to a user request to add a broadcast channel to a set of viewable channels.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A digital camera for capturing an image comprising:
an image sensor;
a capture trigger;
a capture buffer configured as a first memory location comprising a plurality of buffer locations, each of which is available for storing auxiliary image frames;
a second memory location separate from the capture buffer, the second memory location configured to store image frames, wherein each image frame corresponds to an associated auxiliary image frame;
a processing system configured to continuously receive and process the auxiliary image frames during auxiliary mode of the digital camera and before the capture trigger is activated, to store the auxiliary frames in the first memory location, to detect activation of the capture trigger and receive a corresponding image frame from the image sensor, to store the corresponding image frame in the second memory location, to perform blur correction on the corresponding image frame using at least one auxiliary image frame, to designate as unavailable for image storage the buffer locations in which the corresponding image frame and the at least one auxiliary image frame are stored until the blur correction is complete and to copy one or more auxiliary image frames to the second memory location for performing image processing on the image frames and the copied corresponding auxiliary image frames in the second memory location.
2. The digital camera of claim 1 wherein the processing system further is configured to perform blur correction on the corresponding image frame using a plurality of auxiliary image frames and to designate the buffer locations in which the plurality of auxiliary image frames are stored as unavailable for image storage until the blur correction is complete, wherein the second memory location is a fixed section of memory configured to be used for image processing and automatic functions and wherein the image frames are video image frames.
3. The digital camera of claim 2 wherein the plurality of auxiliary image frames comprise at least one auxiliary image frame before the corresponding image frame and one auxiliary image frame after the corresponding image frame.
4. The digital camera of claim 2 wherein the plurality of auxiliary image frames comprise a plurality of auxiliary image frames before the corresponding image frame.
5. The digital camera of claim 1 wherein the processing system further is configured to perform the blur correction by:
determining a blur component from the at least one auxiliary image frame; and
removing the blur component from the corresponding image frame to determine a blur corrected image frame.
6. The digital camera of claim 5 wherein the processing system further is configured to determine the blur component by integrating a blur correction function for the at least one auxiliary image frame.
7. The digital camera of claim 5 wherein the processing system further is configured to correct for blur according to a blur correction function \u222be\u2212j2\u03c0(uxo(z)+vyo(z))dz, the blur correction function being integrated from 0 to z, with z being a selected number of buffer locations, wherein, xo represents motion in a first direction (x), Yo represents motion is a second direction (y), and (u) and (v) represent sampling integrals as a subject image moves across a field of view of the camera and the subject image is the image the user anticipates capturing.
8. The digital camera of claim 1 wherein the processing system further is configured to detect a second activation of the capture trigger and to receive a second corresponding image frame from the image sensor, to store the second corresponding image frame in a second available buffer location, to perform second blur correction on the second corresponding image frame using at least one second auxiliary image frame, and to designate the buffer locations in which the second corresponding image frame and the at least one second auxiliary image frame are stored as unavailable for image storage until the second blur correction is complete.
9. The digital camera of claim 1 wherein the processing system further is configured to compress the corresponding image frame prior to storing the corresponding image frame in the another available buffer location with at least one compression algorithm selected from a group consisting of A-law compression, \u03bc-law compression, and discard mode compression.
10. A method for capturing an image in a digital camera, the method comprising:
using a capture buffer configured as a first memory location having a plurality of buffer locations, each of which is available for storing auxiliary image frames;
using a second memory location separate from the capture buffer, the second memory location configured to store image frames, wherein each image frame corresponds to an associated auxiliary image frame;
continuously receiving and processing the auxiliary image frames during auxiliary mode of the digital camera and before a capture trigger is activated;
storing the auxiliary frames in the first memory location;
detecting activation of the capture trigger at the processing system and storing a corresponding image frame from the image sensor in another available buffer location;
performing blur correction with the processing system on the corresponding image frame using at least one auxiliary image frame, wherein the buffer locations are designated as unavailable for image storage until the blur correction is complete; and
copying one or more auxiliary image frames to the second memory location, wherein image processing is performed on the image frames and the copied corresponding auxiliary image frames in the second memory location.
11. The method of claim 10 further comprising designating the buffer locations in which the corresponding image frame and the at least one auxiliary image frame are stored as unavailable for image storage until the blur correction is complete, wherein the second memory location is a fixed section of memory configured to be used for image processing and automatic functions and wherein the image frames are video image frames.
12. The method of claim 10 further comprising performing blur correction on the corresponding image frame using a plurality of auxiliary image frames and designating the buffer locations in which the corresponding image frame and the plurality of auxiliary image frames are stored as unavailable for image storage until the blur correction is complete.
13. The method of claim 12 wherein using a plurality of auxiliary image frames comprises using at least one auxiliary image frame before the corresponding image frame and at least one auxiliary image frame after the corresponding image frame.
14. The method of claim 12 wherein using a plurality of auxiliary image frames comprises using a plurality of auxiliary image frames before the corresponding image frame.
15. The method of claim 10 wherein performing the blur processing step comprises:
determining a blur component from the at least one auxiliary image frame; and
removing the blur component from the corresponding image frame to determine a blur corrected image frame.
16. The method of claim 15 wherein the determining the blur component step comprises integrating a blur correction function for the at least one auxiliary image frame.
17. The method of claim 15 wherein removing the blur includes a blur correction function \u222be\u2212j2\u03c0(uxo(z)+vyo(z))dz, the blur correction function being integrated from 0 to z, with z being a selected number of buffer locations, wherein, xo represents motion in a first direction (x), Yo represents motion is a second direction (y), and (u) and (v) represent sampling integrals as a subject image moves across a field of view of the camera and the subject image is the image the user anticipates capturing.
18. The method of claim 10 further comprising:
detecting a second activation of the capture trigger at the processing system and storing a second corresponding image frame from the image sensor in a second another available buffer location; and
performing blur correction with the processing system on the second corresponding image frame using at least one second auxiliary image frame.
19. The method of claim 10 further comprising compressing the corresponding image frame prior to storing the corresponding image frame in the another available buffer location with at least one compression algorithm selected from a group consisting of A-law compression, \u03bc-law compression, and discard mode compression.
20. A method for capturing an image in a digital camera, the method comprising:
using a capture buffer configured as a first memory location having a plurality of buffer locations, each of which is available for storing auxiliary image frames;
using a second memory location separate from the capture buffer, the second memory location configured to store image frames, wherein each image frame corresponds to an associated auxiliary image frame;
continuously receiving and processing the auxiliary image frames during auxiliary mode of the digital camera and before a capture trigger is activated;
storing the auxiliary frames in the first memory location;
detecting activation of the capture trigger at the processing system and storing a corresponding image frame from the image sensor in the second memory location;
copying one or more auxiliary image frames to the second memory location, wherein image processing is performed on the image frames and the copied corresponding auxiliary image frames in the second memory location; and
performing blur correction with the processing system on the corresponding image frame using at least one of the plurality of auxiliary image frames in the first section of memory, wherein the buffer locations are designated as unavailable for image storage until the blur correction is complete.