Video signal noise reducing circuits

Abstract: A noise reducing circuit for removing noise from an incoming video signal comprises a first circuit (1, 2) including a high-pass filter (1) for extracting a high band signal component of the incoming video signal and a limiter (2) for amplitude-limiting an output signal of the high-pass filter (1), a second circuit (4, 5) for detecting a correlation in the vertical direction of the video signal, a weighting circuit (6) for weighting an output signal of the second circuit (4, 5) in response to the output signal of the high-pass filter (1), a first calculating circuit (7) for adding an output signal of the first circuit (1, 2) and an output signal of the second circuit (4, 5), and a second calculating circuit (3) for subtracting an output signal of the first calculating circuit (7) and the video signal from each other.

Description: This invention relates to video signal noise reducing circuits. In a known video tape recorder (VTR), as shown in Figure 1A, a recording signal S R is emphasized in the high band frequency range of a video signal by an emphasizing circuit formed of a high-pass filter 11 having a transfer function S₁, a limiter circuit 12 and an adder 13, and is then recorded on a video tape (not shown) or the like. On the reproducing side, as shown in Figure 1B, a reproduced signal P B is de-emphasized to have the waveform of the recording video signal by a de-emphasizing circuit formed of a high-pass filter 14 having the same transfer function S₁, a limiter circuit 15 and a subtractor 16. In this way, noise in the video signal is reduced. The waveform of an output signal S REN from the emphasizing circuit supplied with the recording signal S R is as shown in the waveform diagram of Figure 2A, wherein a signal, which results from amplitude-limiting a differentiated waveform, is added to the edge portion of the video signal where it is rapidly changed in the horizontal direction. In the de-emphasizing circuit, a signal S PF , which is provided by extracting the high band signal component of the reproduced signal, is subtracted from the reproduced signal S P to provide a waveform S PDE similar to that of the recording signal as shown in Figure 2B. This de-emphasizing circuit also removes a small level noise signal formed of a high band signal component. However, if the noise removing effect is made greater by increasing the emphasis, then the amplitude-limitation of the differentiated waveform of the high-pass filter output is increased so that, when the differentiated waveform portion is limited and subtracted from the video signal by the de-emphasizing circuit, as shown in Figure 2B, a certain noise en is left on the edge portions of the video signal. This edge noise en will be described more fully below. When the de-emphasizing circuit is formed of a linear phase feed-forward circuit as shown in Figure 3A, the noise en remains in the undershoot portion and peak portion as shown in Figure 3B. Then, if the amplitude-limitation of the differentiated waveform is decreased so as to reduce this edge noise en , there is then the substantial disadvantage that resolution of a video image will be deteriorated. Such emphasizing and de-emphasizing circuits are used in GB-A-2 206 012 and in EP-A-0 254 512. According to the present invention there is provided a noise reducing circuit for removing noise from an incoming video signal, the circuit comprising: a high-pass filter for extracting a high band signal component of said incoming video signal; a limiter for amplitude-limiting an output signal of said high-pass filter; a first circuit including said high-pass filter and said limiter; characterized by a second circuit for detecting a correlation in the vertical direction of said video signal; weighting means for weighting an output signal of said second circuit in response to the output signal of said high-pass filter; first calculating means for adding an output signal of said first circuit and an output signal of said weighting means; and second calculating means for subtracting an output signal of said first calculating means and said video signal from each other. According to the present invention there is also provided a noise reducing circuit for removing noise from an incoming video signal, the circuit comprising: a high-pass filter for extracting a high band signal component of said incoming video signal; a limiter for amplitude-limiting an output signal of said high-pass filter; a first circuit including said high-pass filter and said limiter; characterized by a second circuit for detecting a correlation in the vertical direction of said video signal; weighting means for weighting an output signal of said second circuit in response to the output signal of said high-pass filter; first calculating means for adding an output signal of said first circuit and an output signal of said weighting means; and second calculating means for adding an output signal of said first calculating means and said video signal. According to the present invention there is also provided a noise reducing apparatus for removing noise from an incoming video signal, the apparatus comprising: an emphasizing circuit; and a de-emphasizing circuit; said emphasizing circuit comprising: a first high-pass filter for extracting a high band signal component of said incoming video signal; a first limiter for amplitude-limiting an output signal of said first high-pass filter; a first circuit including said first high-pass filter and said first limiter; a second circuit for detecting a correlation in the vertical direction of said incoming video signal; first weighting means for weighting an output signal of said second circuit in response to the output signal of said first high-pass filter; first calculating means for adding the output signal of said first circuit and the output signal of said first weighting means; and second calculating means for adding an output signal of said first calculating means and said video signal; and said de-emphasizing circuit comprising: a second high-pass filter for extracting a high band signal component of the video signal processed by said emphasizing circuit; a second limiter for amplitude-limiting an output signal of said second high-pass filter; a third circuit including said second high-pass filter and said second limiter; a fourth circuit for detecting a correlation in the vertical direction of said video signal; second weighting means for weighting an output signal of said fourth circuit in response to the output signal of said second high-pass filter; third calculating means for adding an output signal of said third circuit and an output signal of said second weighting means; and fourth calculating means for subtracting an output signal of said third calculating means from said video signal. The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, throughout which like parts are referred to by like references, and in which: Figure 1A is a schematic diagram showing an example of a known emphasizing circuit; Figure 1B is a schematic diagram showing an example of a known de-emphasizing circuit; Figures 2A and 2B are waveform diagrams of signals in the circuits of Figures 1A and 1B, respectively; Figure 3A is a schematic diagram showing another example of a known de-emphasizing circuit; Figure 3B is a waveform diagram of a signal in the circuit of Figure 3A; Figure 4 is a block diagram of an embodiment of noise reducing circuit according to the present invention; Figure 5 is a block diagram showing a practical example of a transversal filter used in Figure 4; Figure 6 is a waveform diagram of signals in the circuit of Figure 4; and Figure 7 is a block diagram showing an equivalent circuit of an emphasizing circuit corresponding to the noise reducing circuit of Figure 4. In the embodiment of noise reducing circuit shown in Figure 4, a high-pass filter 1 has a transfer function S H1 , and a first limiter circuit 2 has a coefficient K H1 . The first limiter circuit 2 might be a limiting circuit having a non-linear characteristic. Preferably, the high-pass filter 1 and the first limiter circuit 2 have a transfer function and coefficient corresponding to the emphasis of the incoming video signal, as will be described more fully later. A subtractor 3 is provided, and the high-pass filter 1, the first limiter circuit 2 and the subtractor 3 form a known noise reducing circuit. Although this circuit arrangement is utilized as the de-emphasizing circuit without modification, because it has the high-pass filter characteristic corresponding to the de-emphasis of the incoming video signal, this circuit arrangement will be referred to hereinafter as the noise reducing circuit for simplicity. As shown in Figure 4, there is provided a transversal filter 4 which includes a 1H (H represents one horizontal scanning period) delay circuit and has a high-pass filter characteristic to extract a high band signal component in the vertical direction of the incoming video signal as will be described later. An output signal of the transversal filter 4 is amplitude-limited to have a predetermined level by a second limiter circuit 5 of the next stage. A weighting circuit 6 is provided, in which an input signal is multiplied with coefficients zero to one which change in response to the output from the high-pass filter 1. The output of the weighting circuit 6 is supplied to an adder 7. In this embodiment, the output of the high-pass filter 1 is supplied through an absolute value generating circuit 8 to the weighting circuit 6. Figure 5 shows more in detail an example of the transversal filter 4 which comprises coefficient generators 4A' and 4D', a 1H delay circuit 4B′, an adder 4C' and a subtractor 4E'. The circuit of Figure 5 represents one portion of a vertical de-emphasizing circuit, wherein a high band signal component provided when the video signal is changed in the vertical direction on the picture screen is extracted in the output of the subtractor 4E′. This high band signal component is supplied through the second limiter circuit 5 and the weighting circuit 6 to the adder 7, and is further fed to the subtractor 3, thereby removing the edge noise that cannot be perfectly removed by the high-pass filter 1 and the first limiter circuit 2 which form a horizontal de-emphasizing circuit. The operation of the noise reducing circuit of Figure 4 will be described with reference to the waveform diagram of Figure 6. When the video signal in which the high band frequency component is emphasized is reproduced to provide the video signal S P , and this video signal S P is supplied to the noise reducing circuit, the high band signal S PF of low level is extracted by the high-pass filter 1 and the first limiter circuit 2 as known. This high band signal component S PF is supplied through the adder 7 to the subtractor 3, whereby the high band signal component is removed from the reproduced signal S P . Thus, when the de-emphasis is performed, the noise can be removed simultaneously. When the output from the high-pass filter 1 is small, or when the video signal has no edge portion in which the level is changed rapidly, the coefficient of the weighting circuit 6 is near zero, so that the circuit system of the transversal filter 4 is disabled. When the output from the high-pass filter 1 is large, or during the period T in which the video signal has an edge portion in which the level is changed rapidly, as represented by the waveform S H in Figure 6, the noise en remains in the output of the subtractor 3 in that edge portion. However, with the present noise reducing circuit, the coefficient of the weighting circuit 6 becomes close to one at that edge portion, so that the signal of high band frequency detected by the transversal filter 4 and indicating the level change in the vertical direction, that is, the noise component is supplied through the adder 7 to the subtractor 3 as shown in Figure 4. Then, in the portion which rapidly changes in the horizontal direction, there remains a noise similar to the extracted noise as shown by S V in Figure 6. The extracted noise S V is supplied to the subtractor 3, in which these noises cancel each other out to remove the noise en remaining in the video signal. In other words, this noise reducing circuit is also operated as the vertical de-emphasizing circuit at the edge portion in which the level of the video signal is rapidly changed in the horizontal direction, thereby removing the noise in the horizontal edge portion of the video signal. As set out above, in this noise reducing circuit, when the level change of the video signal is small, the horizontal de-emphasizing circuit formed of the high-pass filter 1 and the first limiter circuit 2 is operated, and the noise is reduced by this circuit system. If the level of the video signal is rapidly changed in the horizontal direction, then the output of the high-pass filter 1 is increased and the vertical de-emphasizing circuit formed of the transversal filter 4 and the second limiter circuit 5 is actuated, whereby such noise is removed by the comb-filter characteristic of this de-emphasizing circuit, so the reproduced signal S PDE with the noise reduced is always obtained in the output of the subtractor 3. Figure 7 shows an emphasizing circuit which emphasizes beforehand the high band signal component of the recording video signal, because the noise reducing circuit of Figure 4 is operated as the de-emphasizing circuit. In the emphasizing circuit of Figure 7, the portions performing the same functions as those of the portions of the circuit of Figure 4 are marked with the same references having reference letters A attached thereto, and the subtractor 3 in Figure 4 is replaced with an adder 9 in Figure 7. A transfer function S H2 of a high-pass filter 1A and a coefficient K H2 of a first limiter circuit 2A are determined so as to satisfy the following equation in response to the transfer function S H1 of the high-pass filter 1 and the coefficient KH1 of the first limiter circuit 2 of Figure 4: (1 + S H1 · K H1 ) (1 - S H2 · K H2 )≒ 1 where the coefficient k of the weighting circuit 6 is zero. In like manner, a transfer function S V2 of a transversal filter 4A and a coefficient K V2 of a second limiter circuit 5A are determined so as to satisfy the following equation in response to the transfer function S V1 of the transversal filter 4 and the coefficient K V1 of the second limiter circuit 5 as: (1 + S V1 · K V1 ) (1 - S V2 · K V2 ) ≒ 1 If the transfer functions are determined as described above, then the circuits of Figures 7 and 4 function as the frequency compensating circuits in the recording and reproducing systems of the video tape recorder, and can also reduce the noise of the recording signal simultaneously. Alternatively, a transversal filter of other circuit arrangement is used, and an amplitude limiter having a non-linear characteristic is utilized as the limiter circuit, whereby the de-emphasizing circuit may be modified into a non-linear de-emphasizing circuit. As set forth above, the noise reducing circuit comprises the first circuit for detecting the horizontal high band signal component of small amplitude and the second circuit for extracting the vertical high band frequency of the video signal to perform the horizontal de-emphasizing function and the vertical de-emphasizing function so that, when the edge portion is detected in the horizontal direction of the video signal, the vertical de-emphasizing circuit is operated. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the high band edge noise which tends to occur when the video signal is emphasized.

Claims: A noise reducing circuit for removing noise from an incoming video signal, the circuit comprising: a high-pass filter (1) for extracting a high band signal component of said incoming video signal; a limiter (2) for amplitude-limiting an output signal of said high-pass filter (1); a first circuit (1, 2) including said high-pass filter (1) and said limiter (2); characterized by: a second circuit (4, 5) for detecting a correlation in the vertical direction of said video signal; weighting means (6) for weighting an output signal of said second circuit (4, 5) in response to the output signal of said high-pass filter (1); first calculating means (7) for adding an output signal of said first circuit (1, 2) and an output signal of said weighting means (6); and second calculating means (3) for subtracting an output signal of said first calculating means (7) and said video signal from each other. A circuit according to claim 1 wherein said second circuit (4, 5) includes a transversal filter (4) for extracting a high band component of said video signal and second limiter (5) for amplitude-limiting an output signal of said transversal filter (4). A circuit according to claim 1 wherein said first circuit (1, 2) processes a horizontal signal component of said video signal. A circuit according to claim 1 further comprising an absolute value generating circuit (8) which supplies said weighting circuit (6) with the output signal from said high-pass filter (1). A circuit according to any one of the preceeding claims utilized as a de-emphasizing circuit. A circuit according to any one of the preceeding claims wherein said limiter (2) has a non-linear characteristic. A noise reducing circuit for removing noise from an incoming video signal, the circuit comprising: a high-pass filter (1A) for extracting a high band signal component of said incoming video signal; a limiter (2A) for amplitude-limiting an output signal of said high-pass filter (1A); a first circuit (1A, 2A) including said high-pass filter (1A) and said limiter (2A); characterized by: a second circuit (4A, 5A) for detecting a correlation in the vertical direction of said video signal; weighting means (6A) for weighting an output signal of said second circuit (4A, 5A) in response to the output signal of said high-pass filter (1A); first calculating means (7A) for adding an output signal of said first circuit (1A, 2A) and an output signal of said weighting means (6A); and second calculating means (9) for adding an output signal of said first calculating means (7A) and said video signal. A circuit according to claim 7 wherein said second circuit (4A, 5A) includes a transversal filter (4A) for extracting a high band component of said video signal, and a second limiter (5A) for amplitude-limiting an output of said transversal filter (4A). A circuit according to claim 7 wherein said first circuit (1A, 2A) processes a horizontal signal component of said video signal. A circuit according to claim 7 further comprising an absolute value generating circuit (8A) which supplies said weighting means (6A) with the output signal of said high-pass filter (1A). A circuit according to any one of claims 7 to 10 utilized as an emphasizing circuit. A circuit according to any one of claims 7 to 10 wherein said limiter (2A) has a non-linear characteristic. A noise reducing apparatus for removing noise from an incoming video signal, the apparatus comprising: an emphasizing circuit (Figure 7); and a de-emphasizing circuit (Figure 4); said emphasizing circuit comprising: a first high-pass filter (1A) for extracting a high band signal component of said incoming video signal; a first limiter (2A) for amplitude-limiting an output signal of said first high-pass filter (1A); a first circuit (1A, 2A) including said first high-pass filter (1A) and said first limiter (2A); a second circuit (4A, 5A) for detecting a correlation in the vertical direction of said incoming video signal; first weighting means (6A) for weighting an output signal of said second circuit (4A, 5A) in response to the output signal of said first high-pass filter (1A); first calculating means (7A) for adding the output signal of said first circuit (1A, 2A) and the output signal of said first weighting means (6A); and second calculating means (9) for adding an output signal of said first calculating means (7A) and said video signal; and said de-emphasizing circuit comprising: a second high-pass filter (1) for extracting a high band signal component of the video signal processed by said emphasizing circuit; a second limiter (2) for amplitude-limiting an output signal of said second high-pass filter (1); a third circuit (1, 2) including said second high-pass filter (1) and said second limiter (2); a fourth circuit (4, 5) for detecting a correlation in the vertical direction of said video signal; second weighting means (6) for weighting an output signal of said fourth circuit (4, 5) in response to the output signal of said second high-pass filter (1); third calculating means (7) for adding an output signal of said third circuit (1, 2) and an output signal of said second weighting means (6); and fourth calculating means (3) for subtracting an output signal of said third calculating means (7) from said video signal. An apparatus according to claim 13 wherein said emphasizing circuit is utilized in a recording system of a video tape recorder and said de-emphasizing circuit is utilized in a reproducing system of said video tape recorder.

Inventors: SAKAMOTO ETSUROU C O PATENTS D, SAKAMOTO, ETSUROU, C/O PATENTS DIVISION
Applicants: SONY CORP, SONY CORPORATION
Application year: 1990
Main classification: H04N5
IPC codes: H04N9, H04N5, G11B20