APPARATUS FOR RECORDING STILL IMAGE WITH RANDOM NOISE MINIMIZED

Abstract: Apparatus for recording a still image includes an input unit (12, 18, 24) for receiving repeatedly video signals representative of a still image, a memory (26, 260, 261) capable of storing video signal data of at least one picture frame of the received video signals, a control unit (60, 64, 58, 20, 50, 82, 84, 80) for controlling the writing into and reading out of the memory (26, 260, 261), and a recorder (32, 54) for recording the video signal data read out of the memory (26, 260, 261) on a picture recording medium (56) in the form of a visible image. The control unit (60, 64, 58, 20, 50, 82, 84, 80) performs a plural number of times cyclic operations of storing in the memory (26, 260, 261) the video signals received by the input unit (12, 18, 24) in timed with the operation of the input unit (12, 18, 24), and of reading out the stored video signal data in timed with the operation of the recorder (32, 54), in such a manner that the same still image is superimposedly recorded on the picture recording medium (56) by the operation of the recorder (32, 54).

Description: The present invention relates to an apparatus according to the features of the precharacterizing part of claim 1. Such an apparatus is known from EP-A-2 706 77. In this document a video printing apparatus is disclosed in which a desired frame of a video signal source is separated and several correction operations are carried out on this separated frame in order to improve the quality thereof. After the correction operations, the frame is supplied to a scanner unit or a photographic unit. Thereby it is possible to record a selective frame or still image from the video source onto a recording medium. One of the several correction operations is a noise reduction operation. The noise reduction is achieved by mixing two successive frames within a recursive filter. The noise reduction is based on the fact that the video signal has an extremely high autocorrelation characteristic between successive frames, however, the noise components included in the video signal do not show high autocorrelation between successive frames. Therefore, by mixing the successive frames within the recursive filter, the noise components are averaged which results in a better signal-to- noise ratio. However, by use of this technique, a significant noise reduction can only be achieved if successive frames are sufficiently autocorrelated which is not the case if the image represented by the successive frames has a fast movement. In this case in order to avoid afterimage-effects no noise reduction is carried out. In view of this prior art it is the object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for processing still images which has a significantly improved noise reduction. In accordance with the invention this object is solved by the features of the characterizing part of claim 1. The objects and features of the present invention will become more apparent from the consideration of the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing an embodiment of a still image recording apparatus according to the present invention; FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram, similar to FIG. 1, showing an alternative embodiment of the present invention; and FIGS. 3 and 4 are explanatory charts useful for understanding the operations of the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Reference is now made to the accompanying drawings illustrating specific preferred embodiments of the present invention. Referring first to FIG. 1, there is shown an embodiment wherein the present invention is applied to a still image recording device adapted for reproducing picture signals from a video floppy disk. In the present embodiment, there is provided a magnetic disk reader 12 adapted for reading video signals recorded on a magnetic disk or a video floppy disk 10 as a picture signal recording medium. According to the present embodiment, a type of disk 10 may advantageously be used in which recording can be made on fifty tracks and in which one frame of picture is recorded on a pair of tracks in the form of two component fields so that the picture recording capacity of the disk 10 is 25 frames at the maximum. A magnetic disk reader 12 in the present embodiment has a servo system adapted for receiving an output 52 of a reference generator 50, which is, as indicated with connection mark A, capable of generating clocks of a stable frequency, so as to generally synchronize the magnetic disk 10 in rotation with these clocks. By virtue of this servo system, the reader 12 is able to sense video signals from the tracks of the magnetic disk 10 for producing the sensed signals at port 16. In place of the reader 12, any other input devices such as a video tape playback unit or a receiver for receiving video signals from broadcast waves or communication channels, may be used advantageously within the scope of the present invention. Those video signals will ultimately be recorded in the form of visible image from a recorder 54 on a picture recording medium 56 such as photographic paper. The recorder 54 according to the present embodiment may advantageously be of the type in which a picture displayed on a CRT is focused on photographic paper through an optical system. The video signals at the output 16 are supplied to a sync separator 18, which in turn separates therefrom sync signals including vertical sync signals contained in the sensed video signals to be produced on its one output port 19. The sync signals thus separated will ultimately be supplied to a general control 20. Sync separator 18 also produces the sensed video signals on its another output port 22 in the form of analog signals that are then converted into video signal data in the digital form by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 24. In the present embodiment, these video signal data are supplied to an input 28 of a memory 26 having the function of time base correction. The memory 26 is comprised of a RAM capable of temporarily storing video signals for one frame. The operation of writing to and reading out of the RAM is controlled by the general control 20. The control 20 is capable of not only generating control signals such as read or write commands for the memory 26 at a control output 26 but also controlling the general operations of the instant recording apparatus. A variety of control signals for the memory 26, such as addresses, clocks or read/write timing signals, are supplied through a switching part 58 from an output 62 of an input sync control 60 or an output 66 of an output sync control 64. The switching part 58 is a selecting circuit which is operative in response to switching signals received from the control 20 on a control line 68 and accordingly selects alternatively the control signals from the sync control 60 and 64. In the video signals developed at port 16 from the reader 12, jitters may be contained on account of mechanical driving of the recording medium 10. Thus, each time the memory 26 stores the video signal data DIN on line 28 in synchronism with pixel clocks timed to horizontal sync signals separated at the sync separator circuit 18 it produces those video signal data during the effective horizontal scanning period at an output 30 at the pixel clock rate timed to stable reference clocks 52, accomplishing thereby time axis correction to stabilize the output rate of the video signal data DOUT at the output 30. For realizing the time axis corrective function, the control 20 sets the switching part 58 to a position shown for the case of reading video signals from the magnetic disk 10 to the memory part 26. As a result, the writing operation at the memory 26 is placed under the control of the input sync control 60. More specifically, the sync signals contained in the video signals read from the magnetic disk 10 are separated by the sync separator 18. In response thereto, the input sync control 60 produces control signals such as addresses, clocks or write timing signals from the output 62 to control the writing operation on the memory 26. When reading out the video signal data from the memory 26 for reproducing on the recording medium 56, the control 20 sets the switching part 58 to the position opposite to that shown in the figure, such that the reading operation from the memory 26 now becomes controlled from the output sync control 64. Thus, in timed with the clocks of the stabilized frequency supplied from a reference generator 50, the output sync control 64 produces control signals such as addresses, clocks or read timing signals on lead 66 to control the reading operation of the memory 26. The disk reader 12 reads video signals from the tracks of the magnetic disk 10 with a magnetic playback head. Because of instabilities in contact of the head with a track, random noises are likely to be included in the reproduced video signals. According to the present embodiment, those random noises are removed from an image, which is ultimately to be recorded on a recording medium 56, by making use of the memory 26 as the time axis corrector. The output video signal data DOUT are fed to a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 32 where they are converted into corresponding analog signals that are then supplied to a recorder 54 in the form of TV rate video signals, for example. The operation of the various parts of the present recording device is controlled by the control 20. To the control 20 is connected an operation and display 38 adapted to input necessary commands such as those for instructing the recording of the video signals sensed from the magnetic disk 10 on the recording medium 56, and also to display the system statuses, for example. The operation of the above described recording device is explained by referring also to FIG. 3. When recording a picture on the recording medium 56 by the recorder 54, video signals of the same frame are repeatedly read from the magnetic disk 10 by the reader 12, and repeatedly written in addition over the same frame of the recording medium 56 by the recorder 54. More specifically, the reading operation of the reader 12 is generally synchronized with the sync signals generated by the reference generator 50. In timing with the vertical sync signals from the input sync control 60, the control 20 connects the switch 58 to the position shown in the vertical blanking period, so that writing to the memory 26 becomes controlled from the input sync control 60. In timing with the sync signals separated by the sync separator 18 from the video signals read from the magnetic disk 10, the input sync control 60 produces control signals such as addresses, clocks or write timing signals from the output 62 to the memory 26 through the switch 58. The video signals supplied from the output 22 of the sync separator 18 are converted by convertor 24 into digital signals, which are in turn sequentially written into the memory 26. In this manner, the video signal data for one frame (1V) are written into the memory 26. In FIG. 3, this is indicated by the length of arrow. During this writing period, the output sync control 64 controls the recorder 54 for blanking its output on the CRT screen. In the next vertical blanking period, the control 20 controls the switch 58 to revert to the state opposite to that shown in FIG. 1. This causes the reading from the memory 26 to be controlled by the output sync control 64. In timing with the clocks of a stabilized frequency generated by the reference generator 50, the output sync control 64 develops control signals including addresses, clocks or read timing signals from the output to the memory 26 through the switch 58. From the memory 26, the video signal data are read out in a raster scanning fashion and then converted by convertor 32 into analog signals, which are in turn supplied to the recorder 54. Those are displayed on the CRT screen of the recorder 54, of which an exposure is then made on the recording medium 56 through an optical system, not shown. In this manner, the video signals data for one frame are sequentially read from the memory 26 over one frame period since the time of the vertical blanking signal so as to ultimately cause the frame to be exposed on the recording medium. During this reading period, the input sync control 60 controls the memory 26 to inhibit video signal data from being written thereinto. This reading operation is repeated for three frame periods, for example, for exposing the same picture of three frames on the same portion of the recording medium. The control 20 then resets the switch 58 to the position shown during the next vertical blanking period in order to cause the video signals of the same frame to be sensed from the magnetic disk 10 to the memory 26. After termination of the reading, the control circuit 20 resets the switch 58 to the position opposite to that shown during the next vertical blanking period for reading the video signal data from the memory 26 to record the read data on the recording medium 56 in the form of a visual image. The control 20 repeatedly performs this recording for three consecutive frame periods in the illustrative embodiment. The control 20 executes a plurality of cyclic operations each consisting of reading from the magnetic disk 10 and recording on the recording medium 56 for a time period of one second, for example, so as to perform a plurality of exposures of the same frame on the same portion of the recording medium 56. In this manner, the scanning lines constituting an image are repeatedly recorded on the recording medium 56 over and over by use of the video signals obtained from different reading operations of the same frame. This follows that the random noises produced by one reading from the disk 10 are written over by the signals obtained from another reading such that the picture with the reduced random noises is ultimately formed on the recording medium 56. For example, when reproducing a color picture, such overwriting or superimposed writing is made for each of the three fundamental colors on the medium 56, which is then developed to reproduce ultimately a color picture with the random noises minimized. The noise reducing system for still images according to the present embodiment may be classified under what is called a non-recursive scheme wherein the random noises are averaged by integrating in time the image to be exposed on the photosensitive material of the recording medium 56. An alternative embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 2, wherein the parts or portions like those shown in FIG. 1 are indicated with the same reference numerals. In the present embodiment, the memory 26 is duplicated and comprised of a memory unit #0, 260, and another memory unit #1, 261, each having the storage capacity of one frame of video signal data. A data input 28 is connected to the memory units #0 and #1 through a switch 82, while a data output 30 is connected to the memory units #0 and #1 through another switch 84. The switches 82 and 84 are selecting circuits controlled by the control 20 as to switching in such a manner that the switches may selectively and alternately assume either one of the positions shown and opposite to those shown with either one of the memory units in its write state while the other unit in its read state and vice versa. A control output 62 of an input sync control 60 and a control output 66 of an output sync control 64 are connected to the memory 26 through a switch 80. The switch 80 is a selecting circuit similarly controlled by the control 20 for selectively assuming a connection indicated with the solid lines and a connection depicted with the dotted lines for supplying control signals from the input sync control 60 to the memory unit #0 or #1 in the write state, or from the output sync control 64 to the memory unit #1 or #0 in the read state. In the alternative embodiment, during the time the one-frame video signal data are consecutively read twice from the memory unit #0, for example, so as to be recorded on the recording medium 56, the video signals for the same frame are newly written from the magnetic disk 10 into the other memory unit #1. By repeating the above operations for the alternate memory units, video signals of the same frame can be read out and overwritten into the alternate units a number of times. It should be noted that the number of times of recording, m , on the recording medium 56 for the number of times of reading, n , from the magnetic disk 10 and the number of times of overwriting, N, by the repetition of the reading and recording operations, are not limited to those used in the above illustrative, preferred embodiments. The number of times, m , of recording depends on the sensitivity of the photosensitive material used on the recording medium 56 and the output brightness of the CRT involved in the recorder 54, and may typically be unity (m=1). The number of times of overwriting N (≠1) is so set that the sufficient effect of noise reduction will be achieved. The number of times n of reading need not be equal to unity. Although the foregoing description has been made on the case of handling of frame signals, it is to be noted that the present invention can also be applied to a reproducing system handling frame signals. It should also be noted that the present invention is applied not only to video signals supplied from a video signal recording medium, but also to video signals received from broadcasting or communication networks, for example. From the foregoing, it is seen that the present invention provides an arrangement in which one frame of video signals obtained from the reading of the same portion of a video signal recording medium are written a number of times over the same rectangular frame portion of a picture recording medium so that random noises contained in one reading of the video signals are overwritten with another reading of the same signals, with the result that a still image with random noises reduced may ultimately be formed on the picture recording medium.

Claims: Apparatus for recording a still image comprising; input means (12, 18, 24) for reading a single still image corresponding to a single frame of video signals, from a video source, and receiving video signals representative of the said still image; memory means (26, 260, 261) for storing therein video signal data of at least one picture frame of the received video signals; and recording means (32, 54) for recording the video signal data read out from said memory means (26, 260, 261) on a picture recording medium (56) in the form of a visible image; control means (60, 64, 58, 20, 50, 82, 84, 80) for controlling said memory means (26, 260, 261) in writing and reading; CHARACTERIZED IN THAT said control means (60, 64, 58, 20, 50, 82, 84, 80) performing a plural number of times a series of operations including, storing the video signals received by said input means (12, 18, 24) in said memory means (26, 260, 261) in synchronism with said input means (12, 18, 24), and reading out the stored video signal data in synchronism with said recording means (32, 54), thereby causing said input means (12, 18, 24) to cyclically carrying out N times, where N > 1, the following operation: Reading, from the said video source, said still image a certain number of times n, where n ≧ 1, and causing the recording means (32, 54) to record said still image a certain number of times m, where m ≧ 1, on the same part of the picture recording medium (56). Apparatus in accordance with claim 1, CHARACTERIZED IN THAT said memory means (26) is provided in single; said control means (60, 64, 58, 20, 50) comprising: write control means (60, 20) for causing the video signal data received by said input means (12, 18, 24) to be stored in said memory means (26) in synchronism with said input means (12, 18, 24); read control means (64, 50, 20) for causing the video signal data stored in said memory means (26) to be read out at a predetermined rate from said memory means (26); and selector means (58, 20) for selectively connecting said memory means (26) to either of said write control means (60) and read control means (64, 50); said control means (60, 64, 58, 20, 50) switching alternately said selector means (58, 20) so as to alternately cause the video signal data to be written into and read out of said memory means (26) thereby carrying out a time base correction of the video signals to be recorded by said recording means (32, 54). Apparatus in accordance with claim 1, CHARACTERIZED IN THAT said memory means (26) is provided in pair (260, 261); said control means (60, 64, 58, 20, 50, 82, 84, 80) comprising; write control means (60, 20) for causing the video signal data received by said input means (12, 18, 24) to be stored in either one of said pair of memory means (260, 261) in synchronism with said input means (12, 18, 24); read control means (64, 50, 20) for causing the video signal data stored in either one of said pair of memory means (260, 261) to be read out at a predetermined rate from said one memory means; and selector means (82, 84, 80) for selectively connecting either one of said pair of memory means (260, 261) to said input means (12, 18, 24) and write control means (60), and the other of said pair of memory means (260, 261) to said recording means (32, 54) and read control means (64, 50); said control means (60, 64, 58, 20, 50, 82, 84, 80) switching alternately said selector means (82, 84, 80) so that either one of said pair of memory means (260, 261) is connected to said input means (12, 18, 24) and write control means while the other of said pair of memory means (260, 261) is connected to said recording means (32, 54) and read control means (64, 50), thereby carrying out a time base correction of the video signals to be recorded by said recording means (32, 54).

Inventors: URABE, HITOSHI FUJI PHOTO FILM CO., LTD
Applicants: FUJI PHOTO FILM CO., LTD.
Application year: 1986
Main classification: H04N1
IPC codes: H04N1, H04N5