Patent GB-852294-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to television systems
IPC: H04N11/00
Filed: 1957-11-25
Abstract: 852,294. Colour television. RUDATIS, D. Nov. 25, 1957 [April 29, 1957], No. 36615/57. Drawings to Specification. Class 40(3) [Also in Group XL(a)]  A colour television system employs two tricolour processes, each of which is sufficient to reproduce the hues encountered, the primary colours of one process being spectrally opposite, i.e. complementary, to the colour of the other. Transmission of signals is effected according to a line sequence in a manner compatible with conventional black-and-white transmission and the two processes are co-ordinated and alternated at frame rate so that in successive scans of the same line opposite colours from the two processes are employed. Conventional interlacing of two fields to form a frame is employed and the operation proceeds such that the first field (odd lines) employs the first process, the second field (even lines) employs the second process, the third field (odd lines) employs the second process, the fourth field (even lines) employs the first process, and so on, a picture being completely reproduced in four fields. The pattern of coloured lines is static, thus eliminating the crawl effects of conventional line-sequential colour systems, but since the production of a single primary colour by one process is accompanied by the production of the two spectrally adjacent primaries in the other process intermediate lines are filled in and the line structure is obscured. The use of opposite or complementary colours in successive scans of a line confers advantages in the production of picture detail and also renders reception capatible with black-and-white. At the transmitter, Fig. 1 (not shown), a three-colour camera generates simultaneously signals according to a first tricolour process (i.e. red, green and blue) and these signals are then employed to produce a further set of signals according to a second tricolour process complementary to the first (i.e. cyan, magenta and yellow). As an alternative, the two sets of signals may be derived directly from a camera operating with six colours. The two sets of signals are selected by respective commutators operating at line rate and the outputs from the commutators are selected for transmission by a further commutator operating at frame rate. The receiver, Fig. 2 (not shown), operates in a complementary manner to distribute the six signals into separate channels. Dependent on the form of reproducer employed certain of the receiver commutators may be dispensed with. The reproducer may comprise a conventional three-colour, shadow mask, cathode-ray tube having either three guns, one for each colour, Fig. 10 (not shown), or a single gun together with means to effect an initial beam deflection to select the colour, Fig. 11 (not shown). The tube phosphors are selected for the red, green and blue colour process, the colour of the other process being produced by appropriate energization of pairs of phospors. This is effected by a network connected to the tube guns in the case of a three-gun tube and arranged so that the signals modulate two guns, or, in the case of single-gun tube, means to predeflect the beam so that it impinges two phospors. Phosphors arranged in a repeating sequence of vertical lines are preferred, Figs. 12-14 (not shown). Six-colour cathode-ray tubes may be employed (see Group XL(a)) with the colour phospors for one process interleaved with phosphors for the other process so that a phosphor of any colour is located between phosphors of spectrally adjacent colours. The phosphors may be disposed in a line sequence, Figs. 19 and 20 (not shown) or a dot pattern, Figs. 21, 22, 23 and 29 (not shown). The individual phosphors are of sub-elemental size. Colour selection is effected by selection of gun, where more than one is provided, pre-deflection of the beam from a single gun, or a combination of these methods.