A short segment recording and replay system which includes a receiver for receiving and displaying audiovisual information and an endless memory for storage of continuous short segments of the audiovisual information concurrent with display thereof by the receiver. A controller is responsive to a predetermined condition to freeze the contents of the endless memory therein. The endless memory is preferably a addressable random access memory which can be in a plug-in module. The system includes a switching element responsive to the controller for transmitting the contents of the endless memory to the receiver for display. Special effects can be added to the audiovisual information prior to storage thereof in the endless memory or prior to transmitting the contents of the endless memory to the receiver for display.
A audio stream may include portions that are stored while other portions are being displayed. In one embodiment, a portion of the audio stream may be stored in digital storage media at one instance while in the next instance another portion of the stream is being read out of the storage media.
A radio or television apparatus has tuning circuitry for selecting a channel from an input spectrum, an output for presenting a presentation from a selected channel, a recording apparatus having a memory with capacity for recording a fixed time duration T of the selected presentation, and adapted to make an audio record sequentially in a circular fashion, such that when the memory capacity is filled, the device continues to record, overwriting the oldest recorded information, providing thereby, at any point in time, a stored copy of time duration T immediately preceding the point in time. This innovation provides limited rewind capability for real-time data streams. In alternative embodiments add-on devices are provided for existing radios and TVs.
A live camera whose image pickup direction is remote-controlled is utilized, and a plurality of frames picked up in different pickup directions are composed so as to generate a composite image, and this is stored in a memory. Upon request from the user for altering the pickup direction, in the composite image within the memory, an extraction area is shifted in the horizontal direction and vertical direction in response to the request for alteration in a manner so as to correspond to a pickup image in the live camera, and the image within the extracted area is transmitted to the user. This arrangement eliminates the necessity of altering the pickup direction of the live camera mechanically, and independent of the mechanical alteration, only the electrical image processing of the composite image is carried out, with the result that the user is allowed to feel as if he or she were actually operating the live camera. In other words, even if a plurality of users request to alter the pickup direction, one live camera can deal with these requests; therefore, it is possible to effectively utilize the live camera, and consequently to construct a remote control camera system at low costs.
