Patents by Inventor Dirk Steckhan

Dirk Steckhan 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: 9253449
    Abstract: A stability and, thus, also a quality of mosaic generation is improved by exploiting the advantages of global optimization while giving up performing the optimization fully on the basis of mutual alignment of the image information alone, i.e. on the basis of the result of a search for similarities, but when, additionally, information about error statistics of the capturing device, which took over portion-by-portion capturing of the object plane, is instead also taken into account in the positioning of the subimages in that a secondary constraint (secondary constraint) is set up for the capturing position variables in the optimization problem.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2016
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Dirk Steckhan, Thorsten Zerfass, Thomas Wittenberg, Matthias Elter, Dietrich Paulus
  • Patent number: 9196036
    Abstract: A device for determining objects in a color recording has an identifier, a feature extractor and a classifier. The identifier is implemented to identify the connected regions whose size or shape correspond to a predetermined condition from a plurality of connected regions existing in a binary image derived from a color recording based on a size or a shape of these connected regions. The feature extractor is implemented, for each of the identified connected regions, to extract a feature set from the color recording. The classifier is implemented to classify the identified connected regions into at least two disjunct groups based on the extracted feature sets for the identified connected regions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2015
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Matthias Elter, Thorsten Zerfass, Dirk Steckhan, Thomas Wittenberg, Christian Muenzenmayer, Timo Schlarb
  • Publication number: 20130279789
    Abstract: A device for determining objects in a color recording has an identifier, a feature extractor and a classifier. The identifier is implemented to identify the connected regions whose size or shape correspond to a predetermined condition from a plurality of connected regions existing in a binary image derived from a color recording based on a size or a shape of these connected regions. The feature extractor is implemented, for each of the identified connected regions, to extract a feature set from the color recording. The classifier is implemented to classify the identified connected regions into at least two disjunct groups based on the extracted feature sets for the identified connected regions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 20, 2013
    Publication date: October 24, 2013
    Inventors: Matthias ELTER, Thorsten ZERFASS, Dirk STECKHAN, Thomas WITTENBERG, Christian MUENZENMAYER, Timo SCHLARB
  • Patent number: 8532950
    Abstract: In a method for calibrating a stage-camera system, a travel distance of a stage is determined in a first coordinate system and an object displacement distance of at least one object is determined in a second coordinate system. A calibration measure for calibrating the coordinate systems is computed from the travel distance and the object displacement distance. The object displacement distance is determined by registering a calibration image with a reference image based on the at least one object. The method enables an automatic and accurate calibration of the stage-camera system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2013
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellchaft zur Forderung der Angewandten Forschung E.V.
    Inventors: Dirk Steckhan, Matthias Elter, Thorsten Zerfass
  • Patent number: 8331642
    Abstract: A method for determining a contour of an object in a digital image includes determining a preliminary object center and determining contour candidate image points. The contour candidate image points are determined as image points on a plurality of paths leading away from a preliminary object center by detecting a change from a first section to a second section on a feature space based on the image point value range of the digital image or by detecting the exceeding of a predetermined strength of a feature change in the feature space, wherein the contour candidate image points have a distance to the preliminary or to an improved object center and are ordered according to a polar angle. Further, the method includes determining zones of neighboring contour candidate image points within which a change of the distance of the contour candidate image points lies above a threshold value and an elimination of contour candidate image points which lie between the zones of neighboring contour candidate image points.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2012
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Thorsten Zerfass, Tobias Bergen, Dirk Steckhan
  • Publication number: 20110123090
    Abstract: A method for determining a contour of an object in a digital image includes determining a preliminary object center and determining contour candidate image points. The contour candidate image points are determined as image points on a plurality of paths leading away from a preliminary object center by detecting a change from a first section to a second section on a feature space based on the image point value range of the digital image or by detecting the exceeding of a predetermined strength of a feature change in the feature space, wherein the contour candidate image points have a distance to the preliminary or to an improved object center and are ordered according to a polar angle. Further, the method includes determining zones of neighboring contour candidate image points within which a change of the distance of the contour candidate image points lies above a threshold value and an elimination of contour candidate image points which lie between the zones of neighboring contour candidate image points.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 29, 2010
    Publication date: May 26, 2011
    Applicant: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Thorsten ZERFASS, Tobias BERGEN, Dirk STECKHAN
  • Publication number: 20100284586
    Abstract: Apparatus for segmenting microcalcifications in a mammographic image having a bandpass filter for bandpass filtering the mammographic image obtaining the filtered mammographic image, a marker and a processor for individual processing. The marker marks image points in the filtered mammographic image as potential regions of microcalcifications when a they exceed or fall below a predetermined threshold. The processor for individual processing processes one of the regions of adjacent marked image points for changing an extension of the one region for illustrating a segmentation of microcalcifications.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 3, 2008
    Publication date: November 11, 2010
    Applicant: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Matthias Elter, Dirk Steckhan, Stephan Rupp, Timo Schlarb
  • Publication number: 20100066838
    Abstract: In a method for calibrating a stage-camera system, a travel distance of a stage is determined in a first coordinate system and an object displacement distance of at least one object is determined in a second coordinate system. A calibration measure for calibrating the coordinate systems is computed from the travel distance and the object displacement distance. The object displacement distance is determined by registering a calibration image with a reference image based on the at least one object. The method enables an automatic and accurate calibration of the stage-camera system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 12, 2009
    Publication date: March 18, 2010
    Applicant: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Forderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Dirk Steckhan, Matthias Elter, Thorsten Zerfass