Abstract: A wireless device or camera phone device that is adapted to create in the device a larger, panoramic image of two photographic images provided the two images have a common overlapping region. The panoramic image can be created even if the two images are at different rotations or perspectives. The device corrects for any rotational differences prior to creating the panoramic image.

Abstract: Scissoring for any number of scissoring regions is performed in a sequential order by drawing one scissoring region at a time on a drawing surface and updating scissor values for pixels within each scissoring region. A scissor value for a pixel may indicate the number of scissoring regions covering the pixel and may be incremented for each scissoring region covering the pixel. A scissor value for a pixel may also be a bitmap, and a bit for a scissoring region may be set to one if the pixel is within the scissoring region. Pixels within a region of interest are passed and rendered, and pixels outside of the region are discarded. This region may be defined by a reference value, which may be set to (a) one for the union of all scissoring regions, for a scissoring UNION operation, or (b) larger than one for the intersection of multiple (e.g., all) scissoring regions, for a scissoring AND operation.

Abstract: An integrated circuit distributed radio frequency oscillator comprises a semiconductor chip which includes a differential input transmission line, a differential output transmission line and, coupled in parallel between these transmission lines at spaced apart portions, a number of differential amplifier cells with adjustable delay. The output end of the output transmission line is coupled back to the input end of the input transmission line by a feedback link with a pair of on-chip capacitors. The delay introduced by the amplifier cells is variable in response to a tuning voltage applied to a differential tuning input, making the oscillator suitable for use as a distributed VCO in, e.g. a phase-locked loop circuit. The layout of the oscillator on a semiconductor chip includes the series-connected arrangement of the differential transmission lines in a rectilinear spiral path.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for adaptive green channel odd-even mismatch removal to effectuate the disappearance of artifacts caused by the odd-even mismatch in a demosaic processed image. In one example, a calibrated GR channel gain for red rows and a calibrated GB channel gain for blue rows are determined and are a function of valid pixels only in each respective region. After the calibration, in a correction process, the green pixels in red rows of a region are multiplied by the calibrated GR channel gain, and the green pixels in blue rows are multiplied by the calibrated GB channel gain.

Abstract: Techniques for implementing blending equations for various blending modes with a base set of operations are described. Each blending equation may be decomposed into a sequence of operations. In one design, a device includes a processing unit that implements a set of operations for multiple blending modes and a storage unit that stores operands and results. The processing unit receives a sequence of instructions for a sequence of operations for a blending mode selected from the plurality of blending modes and executes each instruction in the sequence to perform blending in accordance with the selected blending mode. The processing unit may include (a) an ALU that performs at least one operation in the base set, e.g., a dot product, (b) a pre-formatting unit that performs gamma correction and alpha scaling of inbound color values, and (c) a post-formatting unit that performs gamma compression and alpha scaling of outbound color values.

Abstract: Techniques for power control that avoids outer loop wind-up are disclosed. In one aspect, wind-up of a target power level is detected, and the target power level is modified in response. In another aspect, unwinding of the target power level is detected, after which the target power level is determined without considering wind-up. Various other aspects are also presented, including wind-up and unwinding detection procedures, and target power level modification procedures. These aspects have the benefit of reducing the time that transmit power exceeds that which is necessary, thus increasing system capacity and performance, and mitigating misallocation of system resources.

Abstract: Techniques to efficiently handle relative addressing are described. In one design, a processor includes an address generator and a storage unit. The address generator receives a relative address comprised of a base address and an offset, obtains a base value for the base address, sums the base value with the offset, and provides an absolute address corresponding to the relative address. The storage unit receives the base address and provides the base value to the address generator. The storage unit also receives the absolute address and provides data at this address. The address generator may derive the absolute address in a first clock cycle of a memory access. The storage unit may provide the data in a second clock cycle of the memory access. The storage unit may have multiple (e.g., two) read ports to support concurrent address generation and data retrieval.

Abstract: This disclosure describes an apparatus, such as a wireless communication device, that applies a direct evaluation technique to render triangles for the 3D graphical environment. The apparatus includes a rendering engine that defines a rectangular area of pixels, referred to as a bounding box, that bounds the area to be rendered. The rendering engine evaluates coordinates associated with the pixels of the rectangular area to selectively render those pixels that fall within the triangular area. The direct evaluation triangle rendering algorithm may require fewer complex operations than the more computationally intensive interpolation process employed by other systems. As a result, the apparatus may present a 3D graphical environment while preserving as much as possible the available power.

Abstract: This disclosure describes an apparatus, such as a wireless communication device, that applies a direct evaluation technique to render triangles for the 3D graphical environment. The apparatus includes a rendering engine that defines a rectangular area of pixels, referred to as a bounding box, that bounds the area to be rendered. The rendering engine evaluates coordinates associated with the pixels of the rectangular area to selectively render those pixels that fall within the triangular area. The direct evaluation triangle rendering algorithm may require fewer complex operations than the more computationally intensive interpolation process employed by other systems. As a result, the apparatus may present a 3D graphical environment while preserving as much as possible the available power.

Abstract: A programmable pattern-matching device is provided that may perform bad pixel correction and image sharpening and smoothing (noise removal). Soft edges of an image are identified and adaptively sharpened. Soft edges are identified by subtracting adjacent pixel values along a diagonal, row and/or column, generating a pixel string pattern based on the pixel value differences, and comparing the pixel string pattern to predefined string patterns indicative of a soft edge. Similarly, hard edges are identified by comparing the pixel string pattern to predefined string patterns indicative of a hard edge, which are then excluded from a low pass filter applied to smooth the image in order to reduce image noise. Bad photosensors of an image sensor are detected by subtracting a pixel value for a first photosensor from its surrounding photosensors to obtain a pixel string pattern that is then compared to predefined string patterns indicative of a bad pixel.

Abstract: Techniques for efficient searching in asynchronous systems, such as W-CDMA, as well as multi-mode searching, are disclosed. In one aspect, step one and step three search are performed in a single search engine. In another aspect, a search engine is configurable to search the offsets of a slot in step one search, producing sequential hypothesis energies, and peak detecting and sorting those energies. In yet another aspect, the peak detector and sorter are configurable to perform step one searching or step three/multimode searching. Various other aspects of the invention are also presented. These aspects have the benefit of circuit area and search-time efficiency which translate into reduced costs, increased standby time, increased acquisition speed, higher quality signal transmission, increased data throughput, decreased power, and improved overall system capacity.

Abstract: A power management technique for a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM), makes use of a voting process to determine when to power-up and power-down the SIM. In particular, the voting process determines whether software modules running on a wireless communication device (WCD) require current or imminent access to the SIM. The voting process is designed to make more efficient use of the SIM without sacrificing performance. A modified security authorization process can be added, in which the WCD caches a user access code in memory for authenticating the user to the SIM to gain access to the secure features of the SIM. The security verification process avoids the need for the user to enter the access code each time the SIM is powered up in the course of the power management routine, reducing user inconvenience and maintaining performance.

Abstract: The imaging system converts raw data for an image to formatted data concurrently with compressing the formatted data for the image. The exemplary imaging system includes an image processor for generating blocks of formatted data from raw image data. The exemplary imaging system also includes an image compressor for compressing the blocks of formatted data. The compressor compresses one or more of the blocks while the image processor generates one or more blocks of formatted data.

Abstract: To improve the color performance, disclosed herein are advanced methods for improving chroma accuracy, by reducing the color difference between reproduced colors and human perceptual responses, as well as enhancing preferred colors. Chroma enhancement may be performed by selecting one of a plurality of chroma enhancement matrices (CEM), and converting a received color by multiplying it with the chroma enhancement matrix (or a matrix comprising the CEM). The matrix may be selected by mapping a received color value into a region and selecting the corresponding chroma enhancement matrix (or alternately, the corresponding parameters, from which color conversion may be performed). Additionally, enhancement may be adjusted for a variety of environments or preferences. For example, one of a plurality of sets of matrices may be selected in accordance with a desired mode. Optimization techniques for determining the desired chroma enhancement matrices for one or more modes are disclosed.

Abstract: This disclosure describes image processing techniques that facilitate the determination of the lighting condition associated with an image. Once the lighting condition is determined, white balance can be performed on the image such as by applying white balance gains defined for the lighting condition. According to the techniques of this disclosure, gray point lines are defined and plotted for the different lighting conditions, and cylindrical bounding volumes are defined around the gray point lines, e.g., in a three-dimensional color space. The image is then analyzed with respect to each of the cylindrical bounding volumes to determine how many pixels of the image fall within the respective cylindrical bounding volumes formed around the gray point lines for the different lighting conditions. Based on this analysis, the actual lighting condition can be determined.

Abstract: Techniques to quickly adjust an SIR target toward a final value needed to achieve a specified target BLER for a data transmission. The outer loop may be implemented with multiple modes. The SIR target may be maintained fixed in a hold mode, adjusted in large down steps to speed up convergence in an acquisition mode, and adjusted by a small down step and a large up step for good and erased blocks, respectively, in a tracking mode. Various schemes may be used to adjust the SIR target by larger down steps in the acquisition mode. These schemes may be used even if data is transmitted intermittently, the target BLER is set to a low value, and/or one or multiple transport channels are used for data transmission. The SIR target may be boosted by a particular amount upon transitioning from the acquisition mode to the tracking mode.

Abstract: A digital image system identifies defective pixels of a digital image sensor based on sensor values of pixels positioned in at least two dimensions on the digital image sensor. The exemplary imaging system includes a buffer for receiving sensor values that are each associated with a pixel in the digital image sensor and electronics for comparing the sensor value associated with a test pixel to the sensor values of pixels positioned in at least two dimensions on the digital image sensor. The electronics determines whether the test pixel is a defective pixel based on the comparison.

Abstract: Techniques are provided to control the transmit power for data transmission on multiple transport channels having different signal quality (SIR) targets. A single SIR target is maintained for all transport channels, and this SIR target is adjusted based only on active transport channels. For each update interval, a data processor processes at least one data block received in the current update interval on at least one of the transport channels and provides the status of each received data block. A controller increases the SIR target based on an up step if any received data block is erased and decreases the SIR target based on a down step if all received data blocks are good. If any received data block is erased, the down step used to adjust the SIR target may be set to the smallest down step size required by all transport channels with erased data blocks.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed for compensating for second-order distortion in a wireless communication device. In a zero-intermediate frequency (IF) or low-IF architecture, IM2 distortion generated by the mixer (20) results in undesirable distortion levels in the baseband output signal. A compensation circuit (104) provides a measure of the IM2 distortion current independent of the radio frequency (RF) pathway to generate an IM2 calibration current. The IM2 calibration current is combined with the baseband output signal to thereby eliminate the IM2 currents generated within the RF pathway. In one embodiment, the calibration is provided at the factory during final testing. In alternative embodiment, additional circuitry (156, 158) may be added to the wireless communication device to provide a pathway between the transmitter (150) and the receiver (146). The transmitter signal is provided to the receiver to permit automatic calibration of the unit.

Abstract: In general, the invention facilitates searching for energy peaks in spread spectrum wireless communication systems with greater precision. More particularly, various embodiments of the invention may involve reporting not only an energy peak and its associated offset, but also the energy levels corresponding to one or more offsets occurring before and after the offset at which the energy peak occurs. Interpolation or extrapolation techniques may be used to predict the actual location of an energy peak based on the apparent location of the peak and the energy levels observed at surrounding offsets.