Patents by Inventor Dennis L. Venable

Dennis L. Venable 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).

  • Publication number: 20180107968
    Abstract: A system to detect and maintain retail store promotional price tags (PPTs) includes a heuristic PPT description extractor module, a heuristic rule deriver module, a store shelf image acquisition system, a barcode locator and recognizer module, and a heuristic PPT classifier module. The heuristic PPT description extractor module extracts heuristic descriptions of PPTs. The heuristic rule deriver module derives a set of heuristic parameters for the PPTs. The barcode locator and recognizer module analyzes images acquired by the store shelf image acquisition system to localize and recognize barcodes. The heuristic PPT description classifier module extracts heuristic attributes from the images acquired by the store shelf image acquisition system using the set of PPT parameters supplied by the heuristic rule deriver module.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 17, 2016
    Publication date: April 19, 2018
    Applicant: Conduent Business Services, LLC
    Inventors: Wencheng Wu, Dennis L. Venable, Charles D. Rizzolo, Thomas F. Wade, Daniel S. Hann, Ethan Shen, Lee Anne Williams
  • Publication number: 20180108120
    Abstract: A store profile generation system includes a mobile base and an image capture assembly mounted on the base. The assembly includes at least one image capture device for acquiring images of product display units in a retail environment. A control unit acquires the images captured by the at least one image capture device at a sequence of locations of the mobile base in the retail environment. The control unit extracts product-related data from the acquired images and generates a store profile indicating locations of products and their associated tags throughout the retail environment, based on the extracted product-related data. The store profile can be used for generating new product labels for a sale in an appropriate order for a person to match to the appropriate locations in a single pass through the store.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 17, 2016
    Publication date: April 19, 2018
    Applicant: Conduent Business Services, LLC
    Inventors: Dennis L. Venable, Wencheng Wu, Thomas F. Wade, Ethan Shen, Charles D. Rizzolo
  • Publication number: 20180108134
    Abstract: This disclosure provides a retail environment robotic system including a vertically oriented/scanning LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) unit mounted to a mobile base which travels along the aisles of a retail environment such as a store. According to an exemplary embodiment, the LIDAR unit vertically scans product display units along the aisles to generate a depth map associated with detected objects which is further processed to detect missing products, product/shelving tags, shelves, etc.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 17, 2016
    Publication date: April 19, 2018
    Applicant: Conduent Business Services, LLC
    Inventors: Dennis L. Venable, Wencheng Wu, Charles D. Rizzolo, Thomas F. Wade, Ethan Shen, Graham Pennington, Lee Anne Williams, Daniel S. Hann
  • Patent number: 9928438
    Abstract: A method for profiling a location of an image capture device in a region of interest. The method comprises acquiring an image captured by an image capture device. The method comprises acquiring a reported position and pose of the image capture device. The method comprises processing the captured image to detect an object in the captured image. The method comprises identifying a set of interest points characterizing the captured object. The method comprises generating a relative position and pose of the interest points based on dimensional information associated with the captured object. The method comprises computing an estimated position and pose of the image capture device to the object using the reported position and pose of the image capture device and the relative position of the interest points. The method comprises computing the estimated position and pose of the mobile imaging device based on the estimated distance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2018
    Assignee: Conduent Business Services, LLC
    Inventors: Wencheng Wu, Charles D. Rizzolo, Dennis L. Venable, Thomas F. Wade
  • Publication number: 20180032832
    Abstract: A system for acquiring multi-angle images of a product includes a workstation having a working surface for placing a product, a camera supporting member having a vertical axis, and an image capturing device movably attached to the camera supporting member so that it may move along the vertical axis of the camera supporting member. The system captures and analyzes a digital image of a product to detect the vertical center of the product, and adjusts the position of the image capturing device along the vertical axis so that the vertical center of the product is proximate to the vertical center of the image. The system may also have a turntable and additionally rotate the turntable at multiple capturing angles and capture one or more additional digital images of the product at various capturing angles and store the one or more additional images in a product database.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 29, 2016
    Publication date: February 1, 2018
    Inventors: Yi-Ting Shen, Riyad Twahir, Wencheng Wu, Dennis L. Venable, Charles D. Rizzolo, Thomas F. Wade, Daniel S. Hann, Adrien P. Cote
  • Publication number: 20170344820
    Abstract: A system of identifying one or more fillable fields of an electronic form may include an electronic device, and a computer-readable storage medium that includes one or more programming instructions. The programming instructions are configured to instruct the electronic device to receive an electronic form, identify fillable field candidates of the electronic form, and determine, for each fillable field candidate, whether the fillable field candidate is a fillable field. The system updates metadata associated with the electronic form by applying a sequencing framework to only the fillable fields by obtaining position information for each fillable field that indicates a position of the fillable field on the document, sorting the fillable fields based on the position information to form a sequence of fillable fields, determining a designator to each fillable field that indicates a position of a corresponding fillable field in the sequence, and storing the designator.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 25, 2016
    Publication date: November 30, 2017
    Inventors: Safwan R. Wshah, Martin S. Maltz, Dennis L. Venable, Saurabh Prabhat
  • Patent number: 9824604
    Abstract: A method, a system, and a computer program product for creating an assessment model are disclosed. Marked regions in an electronic document are identified. Thereafter, mark-ups within the marked regions are identified. Based on the identified marked regions and mark-ups the assessment model is created.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2017
    Assignee: Conduent Business Services, LLC
    Inventor: Dennis L Venable
  • Publication number: 20170262724
    Abstract: A method for profiling a location of an image capture device in a region of interest. The method comprises acquiring an image captured by an image capture device. The method comprises acquiring a reported position and pose of the image capture device. The method comprises processing the captured image to detect an object in the captured image. The method comprises identifying a set of interest points characterizing the captured object. The method comprises generating a relative position and pose of the interest points based on dimensional information associated with the captured object. The method comprises computing an estimated position and pose of the image capture device to the object using the reported position and pose of the image capture device and the relative position of the interest points. The method comprises computing the estimated position and pose of the mobile imaging device based on the estimated distance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 10, 2016
    Publication date: September 14, 2017
    Applicant: Conduent Business Services, LLC
    Inventors: Wencheng Wu, Charles D. Rizzolo, Dennis L. Venable, Thomas F. Wade
  • Publication number: 20170261993
    Abstract: Direction and speed of robotic data acquisition systems engaged in acquiring data in mapped or route-planned environments, and/or environments having reference features (e.g., shelves, walls, curbs or other structure) enabling additional guidance and control, are disclosed. A mobile base can include wheels adapted to navigate an environment. At least one sensor (e.g., imaging camera, acoustic, passive infrared, etc.) can be mounted on the mobile base and acquires data (e.g., images) of items associated with or located along fixed structures defining the pathways within the environment. A computer can control mobile base movement and orientation with respect to the at least one structure utilizing range sensors and PID controllers, track mobile base location, and organize acquired data. Range sensors under the control of the at least one computer can be adapted to control mobile base movement in a straight line and at a constant speed with respect to a fixed structure.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 10, 2016
    Publication date: September 14, 2017
    Inventors: Dennis L. Venable, Wencheng Wu, Thomas F. Wade, Ethan Shen, Charles D. Rizzolo
  • Patent number: 9659204
    Abstract: This disclosure provides an image processing method and system for recognizing barcodes and/or product labels. According to an exemplary embodiment, the method uses a multifaceted detection process that includes both image enhancement of a candidate barcode region and other product label information associated with a candidate barcode region to identify a product label, where the candidate barcode region includes a nonreadable barcode. According to one exemplary application, a store profile is generated based on the identifications of the product labels which are associated with a location of a product within a store.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2017
    Assignee: Conduent Business Services, LLC
    Inventors: Wencheng Wu, Dennis L. Venable, Steven R. Moore, Thomas F. Wade, Peter Paul, Adrien P. Côté
  • Patent number: 9619686
    Abstract: Eliminate or reduce the impact of glare in printed information tag recognition applications using single- and multi-pose external illumination coupled with intelligent processing. A shelf imager can acquire shelf images for printed information tag localization and recognition. An external illuminator can provide at least one illumination condition/pose for shelf image acquisition in addition to lighting associated with the enclosed environment. A glare region of interest (ROI) detector can analyze all or a portion of the acquired shelf images for glare to determine whether additional images need to be acquired using different illumination conditions provided by the single- or multi-pose external illuminator or whether full or portion of acquired images need to be analyzed by a printed information tag locator and recognizer. A printed information tag locator and recognizer can analyze all or a portion of the acquired images to localize and recognize data printed on the printed information tags.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2017
    Assignee: Conduent Business Services, LLC
    Inventors: Wencheng Wu, Robert P. Loce, Raja Bala, Peter Paul, Thomas F. Wade, Dennis L. Venable, Steven R. Moore, Peter J. Knausdorf
  • Publication number: 20170061809
    Abstract: This disclosure provides a method and system to create an educational assessment using an image processing system. According to an exemplary method, a preexisting printed assessment is scanned to produce an image file and the image processing system generates and executes a search query based on a user selected preexisting question. The executed search queries a Data Warehouse/Repository (DW/R) based on the search query to retrieve one or more predefined questions and associated metadata. The retrieved question and metadata are used to create the educational assessment.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 26, 2015
    Publication date: March 2, 2017
    Applicant: XEROX CORPORATION
    Inventors: Robert J. St. Jacques, JR., Dennis L. Venable
  • Publication number: 20170032311
    Abstract: A store profile generation system includes a mobile base and an image capture assembly mounted on the base. The assembly includes at least one image capture device for acquiring images of product display units in a retail environment. A control unit acquires the images captured by the at least one image capture device at a sequence of locations of the mobile base in the retail environment. The control unit extracts product-related data from the acquired images and generates a store profile indicating locations of products and their associated tags throughout the retail environment, based on the extracted product-related data. The store profile can be used for generating new product labels for a sale in an appropriate order for a person to match to the appropriate locations in a single pass through the store.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 17, 2016
    Publication date: February 2, 2017
    Applicant: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Charles D. Rizzolo, Dennis L. Venable, Wencheng Wu, Thomas F. Wade, Peter Paul, Ethan Shen, Lee Anne S. Williams, Daniel S. Hann
  • Patent number: 9542746
    Abstract: A configuration system generates a calibration target to be printed, the target including a set of machine-readable and visually-identifiable landmarks and associated location-encoding marks which encode known locations of the landmarks. A plurality of test images of the printed calibration target is acquired by the system from an image capture assembly. Positions of the landmarks in the acquired test images and the location-encoding marks in the acquired test images are detected by the system. The system decodes the locations of the landmarks from the detected location-encoding marks and spatially characterizes the image capture assembly, based on the detected positions of the landmarks in the acquired test images and their decoded known locations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2017
    Assignee: XEROX CORPORATION
    Inventors: Wencheng Wu, Steven R. Moore, Thomas F. Wade, Dennis L. Venable
  • Patent number: 9524486
    Abstract: A system to detect and maintain retail store promotional price tags (PPTs) includes a heuristic PPT description extractor module, a heuristic rule deriver module, a store shelf image acquisition system, a barcode locator and recognizer module, and a heuristic PPT classifier module. The heuristic PPT description extractor module extracts heuristic descriptions of PPTs. The heuristic rule deriver module derives a set of heuristic parameters for the PPTs. The barcode locator and recognizer module analyzes images acquired by the store shelf image acquisition system to localize and recognize barcodes. The heuristic PPT description classifier module extracts heuristic attributes from the images acquired by the store shelf image acquisition system using the set of PPT parameters supplied by the heuristic rule deriver module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2016
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Wencheng Wu, Dennis L. Venable, Thomas F. Wade, Peter Paul, Adrien P. Cote
  • Patent number: 9460369
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for use in a retail store. An example system includes a mobile base, a printer, an image capture subsystem on the mobile base and coupled to the printer, the image capture system including at least one image capture device and at least one image processor, the image capture device configured to obtain images of items in the retail store, the image processor configured to derive item identification data from the images of items, and a control subsystem coupled to the printer and to the image capture subsystem, where the control subsystem is configured to receive information identifying items requiring signage, acquire item identification data from the image capture subsystem, determine, based on the information identifying items requiring signage and on the item identification data, items requiring signage, and to direct the printer to print signage for the items requiring signage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
    Assignee: XEROX CORPORATION
    Inventors: Steven R. Moore, Wencheng Wu, Dennis L. Venable, Thomas F. Wade, Peter Paul
  • Publication number: 20160267304
    Abstract: Eliminate or reduce the impact of glare in printed information tag recognition applications using single- and multi-pose external illumination coupled with intelligent processing. A shelf imager can acquire shelf images for printed information tag localization and recognition. An external illuminator can provide at least one illumination condition/pose for shelf image acquisition in addition to lighting associated with the enclosed environment. A glare region of interest (ROI) detector can analyze all or a portion of the acquired shelf images for glare to determine whether additional images need to be acquired using different illumination conditions provided by the single- or multi-pose external illuminator or whether full or portion of acquired images need to be analyzed by a printed information tag locator and recognizer. A printed information tag locator and recognizer can analyze all or a portion of the acquired images to localize and recognize data printed on the printed information tags.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 10, 2015
    Publication date: September 15, 2016
    Inventors: Wencheng Wu, Robert P. Loce, Raja Bala, Peter Paul, Thomas F. Wade, Dennis L. Venable, Steven R. Moore, Peter J. Knausdorf
  • Publication number: 20160260051
    Abstract: A system to detect and maintain retail store promotional price tags (PPTs) includes a heuristic PPT description extractor module, a heuristic rule deriver module, a store shelf image acquisition system, a barcode locator and recognizer module, and a heuristic PPT classifier module. The heuristic PPT description extractor module extracts heuristic descriptions of PPTs. The heuristic rule deriver module derives a set of heuristic parameters for the PPTs. The barcode locator and recognizer module analyzes images acquired by the store shelf image acquisition system to localize and recognize barcodes. The heuristic PPT description classifier module extracts heuristic attributes from the images acquired by the store shelf image acquisition system using the set of PPT parameters supplied by the heuristic rule deriver module.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 4, 2015
    Publication date: September 8, 2016
    Inventors: Wencheng Wu, Dennis L. Venable, Thomas F. Wade, Peter Paul, Adrien P. Cote
  • Publication number: 20160224516
    Abstract: This disclosure provides a method and system to convert a first digital representation of a document including a first format to a second digital representation of the document including a second format. According to an exemplary method, a preexisting printed assessment is scanned to produce an image file and an educational assessment analysis system captures an image area associated with a question, processes the captured image area to automatically assign metadata associated with an independent assessment creation process to the captured image area, which is subsequently processed to generate an assessment based on the assigned metadata which conforms with a format consistent with the independent assessment creation process.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 30, 2015
    Publication date: August 4, 2016
    Inventors: Megan Clar, Eric Michael Gross, Eric Harte, Dennis L. Venable, Eric S. Hamby
  • Publication number: 20160171334
    Abstract: Methods, devices, and systems replace solid lines of user-fillable areas of a print job with patterned lines and then print the print job with the patterned lines to print user-fillable pre-printed forms, using a printing device. These methods, devices, and systems also scan at least one of the user-fillable pre-printed forms having user markings to produce a scan, using an optical scanner. Further, such methods, devices, and systems produce an altered scan by removing only the patterned lines from the scan to leave the user markings in the altered scan using the image processor. Then, these methods, devices, and systems can identify user-supplied characters by performing automated character recognition on the user markings in the altered scan using the image processor and output such user-supplied characters from the image processor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 16, 2014
    Publication date: June 16, 2016
    Inventors: RICHARD L. HOWE, ERIC M. GROSS, DENNIS L. VENABLE