Patents Examined by Totam Le
  • Patent number: 8606030
    Abstract: An image correction device includes a test chart, an image capturing module, an image separating module, a processing module, a first calculating module, a second calculating module, and a correction module. The image capturing module includes an image sensor for capturing an image of the test chart. The image includes two second circular black spots. The image separating module separates the image, thus obtaining a channel image. The processing module is for binarizing the channel image, thus obtaining a binary image of the channel image. The first calculating module calculates coordinates of the centers of the two second spots of the binary image. The second calculating module calculates a rotated angle of the image. The correction module inputs the rotated angle into the image sensor so that the image sensor corrects the image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2013
    Assignee: Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Wen-Min Ning
  • Patent number: 8588520
    Abstract: A gradation distribution of an image character is analyzed, the character color of the image character is analyzed, a gradation ratio between a turning point of a character stroke and the character stroke other than the turning point is analyzed, contrast at an edge of the character stroke is analyzed, the vertical size and center position of the image character are analyzed, the character size of the image character and pitch are analyzed, the first to sixth scores that quantify the respective analysis results are aggregated to discriminate whether the image character is handwritten or printed, and the recognition target item is checked to determine whether it includes both handwritten and printed characters. This makes it possible to enhance accuracy of handwritten-printed character discrimination, which leads to reducing a processing time for character recognition and enhancing accuracy of the character recognition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2013
    Assignee: Fujitsu Frontech Limited
    Inventors: Yasuyuki Kudoh, Shohei Hasegawa, Shinichi Eguchi
  • Patent number: 8571321
    Abstract: A character recognition device which recognizes an operation for writing a character performed by a housing including an acceleration sensor 7 while being moved in a spatial plane based on a measurement result from the acceleration sensor, a control section 1 acquires acceleration data of each component acquired during the period from the start of writing to the end of the writing of one character determined based on acceleration data of a component associated with each axis of the acceleration sensor, as a series of acceleration data that are temporally continuous from the first stroke to the last stroke of the character including acceleration between strokes. The control section identifies feature points for each component that exist in a series of acceleration data, generates feature point data for each component which includes the plurality of feature points as inputted character data, and collates it with basic character data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2013
    Assignee: Casio Computer Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Morio Yamanouchi
  • Patent number: 8553957
    Abstract: A method of processing an image so as to correctly and better extract an image of a lung region, the method including operations of extracting a trachea region_image by using pixel values in a predetermined region of a radiographic image, adjusting pixel values corresponding to the trachea region in the radiographic image, extracting the lung region image from the radiographic image in which the pixel values of the trachea region image have been adjusted, and smoothing outer boundaries of the lung region image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2013
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Ki-won Sohn, Hae-kyung Jung, Young-yoon Lee
  • Patent number: 8553985
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus which performs boundary line extraction for raster image data, comprises: a detection unit configured to detect a color region formed from a plurality of pixels having an 8-neighbor connection in the image data; a determination unit configured to determine whether the 8-neighbor connection in the color region detected by the detection unit is to be modified to a 4-neighbor connection, in accordance with a connection state of pixels connected by the 8-neighbor connection and pixels surrounding the pixels connected by the 8-neighbor connection; a modification unit configured to modify the 8-neighbor connection in the color region, a modification of which is determined by the determination unit, by converting a pixel value of a pixel neighboring the pixels connected by the 8-neighbor connection; and an extraction unit configured to extract a boundary line from image data modified by the modification unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2013
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Yuuichi Tsunematsu
  • Patent number: 8548212
    Abstract: The present invention provides a fingerprint recognition apparatus and a fingerprint recognition method adapted for the apparatus. The method includes steps of: performing an image processing function for fingerprints of a user and generating an image formed by a number of ridges; scanning the image according to a scanning frequency and selecting a number of scanning lines; acquiring a cross point formed between each ridge of fingerprint and each scanning line; acquiring a tangent line; generating a graph between each cross point and each corresponding slope value; determining whether the graph is similar to one of the stored at least one graph to obtain a determination result; and outputting a recognition result of the fingerprints of the user associated with the determination result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2013
    Assignees: Fu Tai Hua Industry (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Qiang You
  • Patent number: 8542898
    Abstract: Techniques for inferring particle dynamics from certain data include determining multiple models for motion of particles in a biological sample. Each model includes a corresponding set of one or more parameters. Measured data is obtained based on measurements at one or more voxels of an imaging system sensitive to motion of particles in the biological sample; and, determining noise correlation of the measured data. Based at least in part on the noise correlation, a marginal likelihood is determined of the measured data given each model of the multiple models. A relative probability for each model is determined based on the marginal likelihood. Based at least in part on the relative probability for each model, a value is determined for at least one parameter of the set of one or more parameters corresponding to a selected model of the multiple models.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2013
    Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Mark Bathe, Jun He, Syuan-Ming Guo, Nilah Monnier
  • Patent number: 8538156
    Abstract: A character recognition device which recognizes an operation for writing a character performed by a housing including an acceleration sensor while being moved in a spatial plane based on a measurement result from the acceleration sensor, a control section acquires acceleration data of each component acquired during the period from the start of writing to the end of the writing of one character determined based on acceleration data of a component associated with each axis of the acceleration sensor, as a series of acceleration data that are temporally continuous from the first stroke to the last stroke of the character including acceleration between strokes. The control section identifies feature points for each component that exist in a series of acceleration data, generates feature point data for each component which includes the plurality of feature points as inputted character data, and collates it with basic character data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2013
    Assignee: Casio Computer Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Morio Yamanouchi
  • Patent number: 8526713
    Abstract: Apparatus and methods disclosed herein provide for a set of reference images obtained from a camera and a reference image obtained from a viewpoint to capture an entire concave region of an object; a silhouette processing module for obtaining a silhouette image of the concave region of the object; and a virtual-image synthesis module connected to the silhouette processing module for synthesizing a virtual inside-out image of the concave region from the computed silhouette images and for generating a visual hull of the object having the concave region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2013
    Assignee: Peking University
    Inventors: Bingfeng Zhou, Jie Feng, Bencong Song
  • Patent number: 8526672
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a discrimination unit configured to sequentially perform discrimination of whether each of a plurality of image data includes a predetermined object using a parameter stored in a storage unit, an update unit configured to update the parameter stored in the storage unit, and a control unit configured to, when the discrimination unit discriminates that the predetermined object is included, control the update unit to update the parameter and the discrimination unit to perform the discrimination on current image data using the updated parameter, and when the discrimination unit discriminates that the predetermined object is not included, control the update unit to maintain the parameter stored in the storage unit and the discrimination unit to perform the discrimination on next image data using the maintained parameter. By using this image processing apparatus, the processing can be speeded up without increasing a size of a circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2013
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Akiyoshi Momoi
  • Patent number: 8509543
    Abstract: A subject tracking device includes: an input unit that sequentially inputs input images; an arithmetic operation unit that calculates a first similarity level between an initial template image and a target image and a second similarity level between an update template image and the target image; a position determining unit that determines a subject position based upon at least one of the first and the second similarity level; a decision-making unit that decides whether or not to update the update template image based upon the first and the second similarity level; and an update unit that generates a new update template image based upon the initial template image multiplied by a first weighting coefficient and the target image multiplied by a second weighting coefficient, and updates the update template image with the newly generated update template image, if the update template image is decided to be updated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2013
    Assignee: Nikon Corporation
    Inventor: Yuichi Ito
  • Patent number: 8503768
    Abstract: A method and apparatus is described here that categorizes images by extracting a subscene and describing the subscene with a top level feature vector and a division feature vector, which are descriptions of edge gradient classifications within rectangular bounding boxes. By filtering subscene feature vectors in images with a Gaussian mixture based model pool (obtained in a subscene modeling phase), the images may be categorized (in an subscene recognition phase) with probabilities relating to each subscene. Higher probabilities are likelier correlations. The device may be a single or multiple core CPU, or parallelized vector processor for characterizing many images. The images may be photographs, videos, or video stills, without restriction. When used real-time, the method may be used for visual searching or sorting.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Ximin Zhang, Ming-Chang Liu
  • Patent number: 8503801
    Abstract: A blur classification module may compute the probability that a given pixel in a digital image was blurred using a given two-dimensional blur kernel, and may store the computed probability in a blur classification probability matrix that stores probability values for all combinations of image pixels and the blur kernels in a set of likely blur kernels. Computing these probabilities may include computing a frequency power spectrum for windows into the digital image and/or for the likely blur kernels. The blur classification module may generate a coherent mapping between pixels of the digital image and respective blur states, or may perform a segmentation of the image into blurry and sharp regions, dependent on values stored in the matrix. Input image data may be pre-processed. Blur classification results may be employed in image editing operations to automatically target image subjects or background regions, or to estimate the depth of image elements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2013
    Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated
    Inventors: Stephen N. Schiller, Scott D. Cohen, Jingnan Wang
  • Patent number: 8503762
    Abstract: Methods and systems for projecting a location based elements over a heads up display. One method includes: generating a three dimensional (3D) model of a scene, based on a source of digital mapping of the scene; associating a position of at least one selected LAE contained within the scene, with a respective position in the 3D model; superimposing the projecting onto a specified position on a transparent screen facing a viewer and associated with the vehicle, at least one graphic indicator associated with the at least one LAE, wherein the specified position is calculated based on: the respective position of the LAE in the 3D model, the screen's geometrical and optical properties, the viewer's viewing angle, the viewer's distance from the screen, the vehicle's position and angle within the scene, such that the viewer, the graphic indicator, and the LAE are substantially on a common line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2013
    Inventor: Jacob Ben Tzvi
  • Patent number: 8494254
    Abstract: A set of features in a pair of images is associated to selected cells within a set of cells using a base mesh. Each image of the pair of images is divided using the base mesh to generate the set of cells. The set of features is defined in terms of the selected cells. A stereo image pair is generated by transforming the set of cells with a mesh-based transformation function. A transformation of the set of cells is computed by applying an energy minimization function to the set of cells. A selected transformed mesh and another transformed mesh are generated by applying the transformation of the set of cells to the base mesh. The mesh-based transformation function preserves selected properties of the set of features in the pair of images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2013
    Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated
    Inventors: Hailin Jin, Jialue Fan
  • Patent number: 8462990
    Abstract: The IR camera (10) takes an IR thermal image of a surface of the structure (40). In the IR thermal image, temperature gradient is superposed besides temperature difference between non-defective and defective regions of the structure. The image processing unit (21) of the analysis unit (20) produces an image indicating distribution of a temperature variation other than a temperature gradient by extracting the distribution of the temperature variation from the IR thermal image. The image display unit (30) displays the image produced by the image processing unit (21). Since the distribution of the temperature variation other than the temperature gradient is extracted from the IR thermal image, a temperature difference between defective and non-defective regions in the structure (40) can be clearly displayed. Therefore, even if there exists a temperature gradient on the structure surface, the defect location in the structure can be easily determined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 11, 2013
    Assignee: West Nippon Expressway Engineering Shikoku Company Limited
    Inventors: Yukio Akashi, Kazuaki Hashimoto, Shogo Hayashi
  • Patent number: 8452097
    Abstract: Disclosed are an apparatus and a method for extracting circumscribed rectangles of one or more characters in a transplantable electronic document. The apparatus comprises a command and resource extraction device for extracting text-segment-related commands and original font resources; a division device for dividing the original font resources into fonts; a font replacement device for seeking fonts, and obtaining font resources after font replacement; a measurement information extraction device for extracting character shape measurement information of the characters; and a calculation device for calculating the circumscribed rectangles of the characters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2013
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Wenhui Xu, Cheng Du, Fumihiro Hasegawa, Koichi Inoue
  • Patent number: 8452099
    Abstract: An image of a known text sample having a text type is generated. The image of the known text sample is input into each OCR engine of a number of OCR engines. Output text corresponding to the image of the known text sample is received from each OCR engine. For each OCR engine, the output text received from the OCR engine is compared with the known text sample, to determine a confidence value of the OCR engine for the text type of the known text sample.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2013
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventor: Prakash Reddy
  • Patent number: 8447117
    Abstract: A block-edge detecting method, for processing an image including a plurality of pixels, includes performing a difference calculation on the plurality of pixels of the image; generating statistic data according to a difference calculation result with an accumulation approach; determining a block width according to the statistic data; and obtaining a plurality of block-edge positions corresponding to the image according to the block width.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2013
    Assignee: MStar Semiconductor, Inc.
    Inventors: Cheng-Yu Liao, Ren-Kuan Liang
  • Patent number: 8447098
    Abstract: Model-based stereo matching from a stereo pair of images of a given object, such as a human face, may result in a high quality depth map. Integrated modeling may combine coarse stereo matching of an object with details from a known 3D model of a different object to create a smooth, high quality depth map that captures the characteristics of the object. A semi-automated process may align the features of the object and the 3D model. A fusion technique may employ a stereo matching confidence measure to assist in combining the stereo results and the roughly aligned 3D model. A normal map and a light direction may be computed. In one embodiment, the normal values and light direction may be used to iteratively perform the fusion technique. A shape-from-shading technique may be employed to refine the normals implied by the fusion output depth map and to bring out fine details. The normals may be used to re-light the object from different light positions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2013
    Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated
    Inventors: Scott D. Cohen, Qingxiong Yang