Patents by Inventor Chris Pal

Chris Pal has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7982738
    Abstract: A “Video Browser” provides interactive browsing of unique events occurring within an overall video recording. In particular, the Video Browser processes the video to generate a set of video sprites representing unique events occurring within the overall period of the video. These unique events include, for example, motion events, security events, or other predefined event types, occurring within all or part of the total period covered by the video. Once the video has been processed to identify the sprites, the sprites are then arranged over a background image extracted from the video to create an interactive static video montage. The interactive video montage illustrates all events occurring within the video in a single static frame. User selection of sprites within the montage causes either playback of a portion of the video in which the selected sprites were identified, or concurrent playback of the selected sprites within a dynamic video montage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2011
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Nebojsa Jojic, Chris Pal
  • Patent number: 7460730
    Abstract: A “Keyframe Stitcher” provides an efficient technique for building mosaic panoramic images by registering or aligning video frames to construct a mosaic panoramic representation. Matching of image pairs is performed by extracting feature points from every image frame and matching those points between image pairs. Further, the Keyframe Stitcher preserves accuracy of image stitching when matching image pairs by utilizing ordering information inherent in the video. The cost of searching for matches between image frames is reduced by identifying “keyframes” based on computed image-to-image overlap. Keyframes are then matched to all other keyframes, but intermediate image frames are only matched to temporally neighboring keyframes and neighboring intermediate frames to construct a “match structure.” Image orientations are then estimated from this match structure and used to construct the mosaic.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2008
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Chris Pal, Drew Steedly, Richard Szeliski
  • Patent number: 7424218
    Abstract: A “Panoramic Viewfinder” provides an intuitive interactive viewfinder display which operates on a digital camera display screen. This interactive viewfinder provides real-time assistance in capturing images for constructing panoramic image mosaics. The Panoramic Viewfinder “brushes” a panorama from images captured in any order, while providing visual feedback to the user for ensuring that desired scene elements will appear in the final panorama. This visual feedback presents real-time stitched previews of the panorama while capturing images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2008
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Patrick Baudisch, Chris Pal, Eric Rudolph, Drew Steedly, Richard Szeliski, Desney Tan, Matthew Uyttendaele
  • Publication number: 20070031062
    Abstract: A “Keyframe Stitcher” provides an efficient technique for building mosaic panoramic images by registering or aligning video frames to construct a mosaic panoramic representation. Matching of image pairs is performed by extracting feature points from every image frame and matching those points between image pairs. Further, the Keyframe Stitcher preserves accuracy of image stitching when matching image pairs by utilizing ordering information inherent in the video. The cost of searching for matches between image frames is reduced by identifying “keyframes” based on computed image-to-image overlap. Keyframes are then matched to all other keyframes, but intermediate image frames are only matched to temporally neighboring keyframes and neighboring intermediate frames to construct a “match structure.” Image orientations are then estimated from this match structure and used to construct the mosaic.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 4, 2005
    Publication date: February 8, 2007
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Chris Pal, Drew Steedly, Richard Szeliski
  • Publication number: 20070025723
    Abstract: A “Panoramic Viewfinder” provides an intuitive interactive viewfinder display which operates on a digital camera display screen. This interactive viewfinder provides real-time assistance in capturing images for constructing panoramic image mosaics. The Panoramic Viewfinder “brushes” a panorama from images captured in any order, while providing visual feedback to the user for ensuring that desired scene elements will appear in the final panorama. This visual feedback presents real-time stitched previews of the panorama while capturing images.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 28, 2005
    Publication date: February 1, 2007
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Patrick Baudisch, Chris Pal, Eric Rudolph, Drew Steedly, Richard Szeliski, Desney Tan, Matthew Uyttendaele
  • Publication number: 20060117356
    Abstract: A “Video Browser” provides interactive browsing of unique events occurring within an overall video recording. In particular, the Video Browser processes the video to generate a set of video sprites representing unique events occurring within the overall period of the video. These unique events include, for example, motion events, security events, or other predefined event types, occurring within all or part of the total period covered by the video. Once the video has been processed to identify the sprites, the sprites are then arranged over a background image extracted from the video to create an interactive static video montage. The interactive video montage illustrates all events occurring within the video in a single static frame. User selection of sprites within the montage causes either playback of a portion of the video in which the selected sprites were identified, or concurrent playback of the selected sprites within a dynamic video montage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 1, 2004
    Publication date: June 1, 2006
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Nebojsa Jojic, Chris Pal