Patents Examined by Sean Motsinger
  • Patent number: 10057449
    Abstract: Provided is a document analysis system including an image processing apparatus and an analysis server. The image processing apparatus is configured to extract text data from image data obtained by scanning a document, and sequentially send divided pieces of the extracted text data to the analysis server until a candidate storage location for the image data is received from the analysis server. The analysis server is configured to perform analysis based on the sent divided pieces of the text data, and return the candidate storage location to the image processing apparatus upon determination of the candidate storage location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2018
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Ken Tokita
  • Patent number: 10055669
    Abstract: Techniques and systems are provided for processing video data. For example, techniques and systems are provided for determining blob size thresholds. Blob sizes of blobs generated for a video frame can be determined. A lower boundary of a category of blob sizes can then be determined that corresponds to a minimum blob size of the video frame. The lower boundary is determined from a plurality of possible blob sizes including the blob sizes of the blobs and one or more other possible blob sizes. One of the possible blob sizes is determined as the lower boundary when one or more lower boundary conditions are met by characteristics of the possible blob size. A blob size threshold for the video frame is assigned as the minimum blob size corresponding to the lower boundary.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2018
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Ying Chen, Ning Bi, Lei Wang, Jinglun Gao
  • Patent number: 10055824
    Abstract: This invention discloses an image-correcting device that allows stable identification of a target object in a taken image even if the intensity of illumination is uneven across the areas of a space being imaged. The image-correcting device has a reference-luminance-correction-parameter computation unit and a correction unit. The reference-luminance-correction-parameter computation unit computes a reference luminance-correction parameter on the basis of the following: luminance information for the region of a reference image, which is an image taken of a reference object moving through the space being imaged, in which the reference object is displayed; and coordinate information indicating the position of the region. On the basis of the reference-luminance-correction parameter, the correction unit corrects the abovementioned taken image, which is an image taken of the aforementioned space and contains a correction target.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2018
    Assignee: NEC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Akari Sato
  • Patent number: 10057577
    Abstract: Implementations generally relate to pre-charge phase data compression. In some implementations, a method includes computing prediction values for image data, where the image data is pre-charge phase data. The method also includes computing residual data based on the prediction values. The method also includes quantizing the residual data. The method also includes entropy encoding the quantized residual data. The method also includes refining an inverse quantized residual data based on one or more of the residual data and a number of left-over bit-budget after entropy encoding.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2018
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hye-Yeon Cheong, Ali Tabatabai
  • Patent number: 10049291
    Abstract: According to the present disclosure, an image-processing apparatus identifies for each gradation value a connected component of pixels of not less than or not more than the gradation value neighboring and connected to each other in an input image, thereby generating hierarchical structure data of a hierarchical structure including the connected component, extracts based on the hierarchical structure data a connected component satisfying character likelihood as a character-like region, acquires a threshold value of binarization used exclusively for the character-like region, acquires a corrected region where the character-like region is binarized, acquires a background where a gradation value of a pixel included in a region of the input image other than the corrected region is changed to a gradation value for a background, and acquires a binary image data of a binary image composed of the corrected region and the background region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2018
    Assignee: PFU LIMITED
    Inventors: Mitsuru Nishikawa, Kiyoto Kosaka
  • Patent number: 10037476
    Abstract: The present invention concerns the recovery of fragmented files. In particular, the present invention concerns finding fragmentation points and continuation points of a fragmented JPEG image for purposes of reassembling the JPEG image. The continuation points are found by using a JPEG thumbnail image corresponding to the JPEG image to be reassembled.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2018
    Assignee: MICRO SYSTEMATION AB
    Inventor: Christopher Rossall
  • Patent number: 10037603
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for whole body bone removal and vasculature visualization in medical image data, such as computed tomography angiography (CTA) scans, is disclosed. Bone structures are segmented in the a 3D medical image, resulting in a bone mask of the 3D medical image. Vessel structures are segmented in the 3D medical image, resulting in a vessel mask of the 3D medical image. The bone mask and the vessel mask are refined by fusing information from the bone mask and the vessel mask. Bone voxels are removed from the 3D medical image using the refined bone mask, in order to generate a visualization of the vessel structures in the 3D medical image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2018
    Assignee: Siemens Healthcare GmbH
    Inventors: Nathan Lay, David Liu, Shaohua Kevin Zhou, Bernhard Geiger, Li Zhang, Vincent Ordy, Daguang Xu, Chris Schwemmer, Philipp Wolber, Noha Youssry El-Zehiry
  • Patent number: 10033981
    Abstract: In an image processing apparatus, an image acquiring unit acquires a first image and a second image that form stereoscopic images. A first sub-image extracting unit extracts first sub-images from the first image. A second sub-image extracting unit extracts second sub-images from the second image. A matching unit matches each pair of the first and second sub-images to determine a degree of similarity therebetween. A similar sub-image setting unit sets the second sub-image having a highest degree of similarity to the first sub-image to be a similar sub-image to the first sub-image. A brightness comparing unit compares in brightness each pair of the first and second sub-images. The matching unit is configured to, if a result of comparison made by the brightness comparing unit between a pair of the first and second sub-images is out of a predetermined brightness range, exclude such a pair of the first and second sub-images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2018
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Taiki Kawano, Masaki Masuda, Naoki Kawasaki, Kazuhisa Ishimaru
  • Patent number: 10026156
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide a technique related to correction processing that can be applied to a variety of pieces of information with different resolutions, specifically, related to processing to increase resolution. The present invention is an information processing apparatus including: an acquisition unit configured to acquire first subject information and second subject information for the same subject; and a correction unit configured to increase the resolution of the second subject information based on similarity between the first subject information and the second subject information, and the first subject information and the second subject information are map data representing different physical quantities or map data representing the same physical quantity acquired by different measuring methods or different measuring devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2018
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Shoei Moribe
  • Patent number: 10027968
    Abstract: Implementations generally relate to data-charge phase data compression. In one implementation, a method includes computing prediction values for image data, where the image data is data-charge phase data, where the computing of prediction values is based on inter-block prediction, and where an additional bit-budget is assigned to a first block of the image data. The method also includes computing residual data based on the prediction values. The method also includes quantizing the residual data. The method also includes entropy encoding the quantized residual data. The method also includes refining an inverse quantized residual data based on one or more of the residual data and a number of left-over bit-budget after entropy encoding.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2018
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hye-Yeon Cheong, Masaru Ikeda, Takefumi Nagumo, Ali Tabatabai
  • Patent number: 10019644
    Abstract: Technologies for multi-channel feature detection include a computing device to determine a filter response of each image channel of a multi-channel image for one or more image filters. The computing device determines a local differentiating color vector based on the filter responses, applies the filter responses to the local differentiating color vector to generate an adapted response, and determines a total response of the multi-channel image based on the adapted response.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2018
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Pavel S. Smirnov, Piotr Semenov
  • Patent number: 10007972
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus for transforming a wide-angle image into a narrow-angle image includes a deblurrer performing deblurring on the wide-angle image to generate a deblurred image; a super-resolution (SR) unit performing SR processing on the deblurred image to generate an upscaled transformed image; and a view transformer performing view transformation to obtain the narrow-angle image based on the wide-angle image and the upscaled transformed image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2018
    Assignees: HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY, KIA MOTORS CORPORATION, INHA UNIVERSITY RESEARCH AND BUSINESS FOUNDATION
    Inventors: Jin Wook Choi, Byung Cheol Song, Dong Yoon Choi, Ji Hoon Choi
  • Patent number: 9996948
    Abstract: An image downsampling apparatus and an image downsampling method are provided. The image downsampling apparatus includes a one-directional downsampling circuit, a multi-directional downsampling circuit and an output circuit. The one-directional downsampling performs one-directional downsampling by using an original image signal to obtain and output a first adjusted image signal. The multi-directional downsampling circuit performs multi-directional downsampling by using the original image signal to obtain and output a second adjusted image signal. The output circuit outputs a downsampled image signal according to the first adjusted image signal and the second adjusted image signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2018
    Assignee: Novatek Microelectronics Corp.
    Inventor: Hsin-I Lin
  • Patent number: 9978127
    Abstract: A processing device receives input representing a selection of a first area of a source image. The processing device identifies a result image that corresponds to the source image. The result image is previously created for the source image using a blur operation. The processing device aligns the selected first area of the source image with a corresponding portion in the result image. The processing device transforms, using the corresponding portion in the result image, the aligned first area in the source image to a blurred area without blurring a remaining area of the source image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2018
    Assignee: Splunk Inc.
    Inventors: Shiming Yuan, Qianjie Zhong, Ting Wang, Tianli Zhang
  • Patent number: 9972158
    Abstract: A method is described for the automatic determination of a planogram in a vending machine using image processing. Novel steps include the use of a Gaussian map in a two-dimensional color space, such as the HS plane, to create high-dimensionally color vectors for all and for selected portions of images. Multiple feature detection/extraction algorithms are run between multiple idealized reference images for a product and one image from one vending machine coil location. The large resulting candidate feature list is pruned in a series of steps using both color and gray-scale color vectors and small area image matching around features. Remaining candidate features are ranked by a RANSAC outlier removal step, with the top ranked product then being the correct product in that coil in the planogram. Steps are repeated for all coils in a vending machine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2018
    Assignee: Cantaloupe Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Igor Schtein, Lee Tanenbaum, Justin Grant, Mandeep Arora
  • Patent number: 9965695
    Abstract: A method for binarizing a grayscale document image, which first divides the document image into a plurality of sub-images and determining a type of each sub-image based on a horizontal projection profile and a density of each sub-image, the type being 1: text only, 2: graphics only, 3: photo only, 4: text and graphics, 5: text and photo, 6: graphics and photo, or 7: text and graphics and photo. Then a selected one of first to seventh binarization processes is applied to binarize each sub-image based on its type to generate a binary sub-image. All binary sub-images are then combine to generate a binary image of the grayscale document image. Of the first to seventh binarization processes respectively applied to the first to seventh types of sub-images, at least those for the first, second, third, fifth, sixth and seventh type are different from each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2018
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA LABORATORY U.S.A., INC.
    Inventor: Wei Ming
  • Patent number: 9963251
    Abstract: A parameter of an actual spacecraft can be estimated based on a spectroscopic image of an emission from an atomic or molecular product of an interaction between an atmospheric gas and an atomic or molecular species in a plume from the actual spacecraft. The actual spacecraft can be characterized by a set of values of at least N parameters. An N-dimensional lookup table can store information about a plurality of simulated emissions, each being from the atomic or molecular product of a simulated interaction between the atmospheric gas and the atomic or molecular species in a plume from a simulated spacecraft characterized by a corresponding set of values of the N parameters. A simulated emission can be selected based on comparisons between the information about the simulated emissions and the spectroscopic image. A value of at least one of the N parameters of the actual spacecraft can be estimated based on the selected simulated emission.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2018
    Assignee: The Aerospace Corporation
    Inventor: William L. Dimpfl
  • Patent number: 9953436
    Abstract: A method for compressing data is disclosed. The method may include receiving data from one or more data sources. The method may also include selectively classifying the data into one or more data streams, the one or more data streams including at least PCM-encoded data and image data. The method may further include separately compressing the PCM-encoded data and the image data into first and second compressed bit-streams. The method may also include shuffling the first and second compressed bit-streams.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2018
    Assignee: BTS Software Solutions, LLC
    Inventor: Dunling Li
  • Patent number: 9948829
    Abstract: Matching color information in an optical system can include splitting an image forming beam into a bright intensity beam and a dark intensity beam, detecting, using multiple sensors, a color value for a light component from the bright intensity beam and the dark intensity beam, determining color values for the remaining light components associated with the bright intensity beam and the dark intensity beam, and transforming the color values associated with the dark intensity beam to calibrate the color values of the dark intensity beam against the color values of the light intensity beam, the color values of the light intensity beam including color inaccuracies.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2018
    Assignee: Contrast, Inc.
    Inventors: Willie C. Kiser, Michael D. Tocci, Nora Tocci
  • Patent number: 9934578
    Abstract: A computer system executes a method that detects an edge of an object with a Canny operator. The method calculates a gradient strength of pixels of the image and applies non-maximum suppression to the image to avoid spurious responses to edge detection. The image is divided into multiple partitions based on a brightness distribution of the pixels in the image and a set of dynamic threshold values. Multiple images for the partitions are superimposed to detect an edge of the object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2018
    Assignee: Macau University of Science and Technology
    Inventors: Yi Xu, Jiaxiang Chen