1. An apparatus for measuring phase retardation, comprising a monochromatic light source, being capable of radiating a pulsed light beam;
a photodetector, deposed on a side of said monochromatic light source;
a polarizer, deposed between said monochromatic light source and said photodetector; and
a beam splitting apparatus, deposed between said polarizer and said photodetector.
2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said monochromatic light source is selected from the group consisting of a pulsed laser beam and a light chopping apparatus.
3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said light chopping apparatus comprises a continuous monochromatic light source and a chopper.
4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said polarizer is selected from the group consisting of a linear polarizer, a circular polarizer and an elliptical polarizer.
5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said beam splitting apparatus is a polarizing beam splitter.
6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said beam splitting apparatus further comprises a beam splitter and at least two polarizers that receive the light split from said beam splitter.
7. A method for measuring phase retardation, comprising the following steps:
providing an apparatus of measuring phase retardation comprising a monochromatic light source being capable of radiating a pulsed light beam; a photodetector deposed on a side of said monochromatic light source; a polarizer deposed between said monochromatic light source and said photodetector; and a beam splitting apparatus, deposed between said polarizer and said photodetector;
interposing an object between said polarizer and said beam splitting apparatus;
generating a polarized light beam by transmitting said pulsed light beam through said polarizer;
generating a phase retarded light beam by transmitting said polarized light beam through said object;
dividing said phase retarded light beam into a first polarized ray and a second polarized ray by transmitting said phase retarded light beam into said beam splitting apparatus;
detecting a time difference between pulse peak of said first polarized ray and pulse peak of said second polarized ray; and
calculating a phase retardation value according to said time difference.
8. The method according to claim 7, wherein said object is substantially a liquid crystal material.
9. The method according to claim 7, wherein said monochromatic light source is selected from the group consisting of a pulsed laser beam and a light chopping apparatus.
10. The method according to claim 9, wherein said light chopping apparatus comprises a continuous monochromatic light source and a chopper.
11. The method according to claim 7, wherein said polarizer is selected from the group consisting of a linear polarizer, a circular polarizer and an elliptical polarizer.
12. The method according to claim 7, wherein said beam splitting apparatus is substantially a polarizing beam splitter.
13. The method according to claim 7, wherein said beam splitting apparatus further comprises a beam splitter and at least two polarizers that receive the light split from said beam splitter.
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 process comprising
receiving a first representation of a video stream that includes video frames, the representation expressing the video frames at a relatively high pixel resolution,
detecting that at least one of the video frames includes a region of interest,
providing to a video playing device a second representation of the video stream that expresses the video frames at a relatively low pixel resolution, and
including with the second representation, additional information that represents at least a portion of the region of interest at a resolution level that is higher than the relatively low pixel resolution.
2. The process of claim 1 in which the region of interest contains text.
3. The process of claim 1 in which the region of interest is expressed by the additional information at the same relatively high pixel resolution as the first representation.
4. The process of claim 1 in which the additional information includes information about characteristics of the region of interest relative to the video frames.
5. The process of claim 1 in which the characteristics include location in the frame.
6. The process of claim 1 in which the characteristics include size of the region of interest.
7. The process of claim 1 in which the characteristics include duration of appearance of the region of interest.
8. The process of claim 1 in which the video playing device comprises a cellular telephone.
9. The process of claim 1 in which the video playing device comprises a PDA.
10. The process of claim 1 in which the video playing device comprises a wristwatch.
11. The process of claim 1 in which the video playing device comprises a portable video game console.
12. The process of claim 1 in which the video playing device comprises a portable media player.
13. The process of claim 1 in which the additional information is provided to the video playing device as part of the video stream.
14. A process comprising
including with a video stream to be provided to a video playing device, a stored image, information that describes a location of the image within a frame of the video stream and enables a display of the stored image to be synchronized with the frame.
15. The process of claim 14 in which the image contains text.
16. The process of claim 14 in which the image is expressed at a higher pixel resolution than the frame.
17. The process of claim 14 in which the information includes size of the image.
18. The process of claim 14 in which the video playing device comprises at least one of a cellular telephone, a PDA, a wristwatch, a portable video game console, and a portable media player.
19. A computer-readable medium containing data representing a video stream, the data including representations of a portion of a frame of the video stream at two different resolutions.
20. The medium of claim 19 in which the one of the representations of a portion of the frame is as part of a representation of the entire frame at a lower resolution, and another of the representations of a portion of the frame is of less than the entire frame and is at a higher resolution.
21. A process comprising
receiving a video stream that includes frames and additional data that includes (a) images of one or more regions of interest in the frames and (b) information that synchronizes the images with the frames,
displaying the video stream, and
based on the synchronization information, providing an indication to a viewer that the images of the one or more regions of interest exist.
22. The process of claim 21 in which the indication to the viewer comprises a graphical element displayed with the frames.
23. The process of claim 22 in which the indication is provided in the vicinity of the one or more regions of interest.
24. The process of claim 21 also including
enabling the viewer to select one or more of the regions for display in a higher resolution.
25. A process comprising
displaying a video stream to a viewer,
indicating to the viewer that an additional image of a portion of at least one of the frames of the stream exists, and
in response to an request of the viewer, displaying the image.
26. The process of claim 25 in which the image comprises a higher resolution version of a portion of at least one of the frames.
27. The process of claim 25 in which the image is displayed as an overlay on the frame.
28. The process of claim 25 in which the image is displayed in place of the frame.
29. The process of claim 25 in which the image is displayed at the same time as but not overlaid on the frame.
30. The process of claim 29 in which the image is displayed side by side or above and below with respect to the frames.
31. The process of claim 25 in which the image is displayed continuously in synchronism with the frames of which it is a portion.
32. The process of claim 25 in which the image comprises text.
33. A process comprising
displaying a video stream comprising frames at a first resolution, in response to a viewer request, displaying a portion of a frame of the video stream as an image at a second, different resolution.
34. A process comprising
receiving at a cell phone or other handheld device, a video stream of frames, at least one image of a region of interest that contains text and is part of at least some of the frames of the stream, and information about the location of the region of interest in the frame and the timing of the frames of which the region of interest is a part,
the image having a higher resolution than the frames
while the video stream is being displayed, highlighting the region of interest within the frames to which the region of interest belongs, and
in response to an action by the viewer, displaying the image at the higher resolution.