Patents by Inventor Ralf Ostermann

Ralf Ostermann 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: 20230018520
    Abstract: An axially resilient press-in contact pin includes a metal body and an electrically conductive, elastic element. The metal body includes a pin-shaped section and a press-in spring. The press-in spring is on a first end of the pin-shaped section. The elastic element surrounds at least portions of the pin-shaped section and extends beyond a second end (i.e., free end region) of the pin-shaped section.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 14, 2022
    Publication date: January 19, 2023
    Applicant: KOSTAL Automobil Elektrik GmbH & Co. KG
    Inventors: Norbert Andresen, Ralf Ostermann, Heike Skutta, Frank Kunert, Matthias Seifert, Edward Ziebko
  • Patent number: 10791314
    Abstract: A particular implementation accesses a disparity value for a particular location in a picture, the disparity value indicating disparity with respect to a particular resolution. The particular implementation modifies the accessed disparity value based on multiple resolutions to produce a modified disparity value. Another implementation accesses a disparity value for a particular location in a picture, the picture having a particular resolution, and the disparity value indicating disparity with respect to another resolution that is different from the particular resolution and that is based on multiple resolutions. A further implementation modifies the accessed disparity value to produce a modified disparity value indicating disparity with respect to the particular resolution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 29, 2020
    Assignee: InterDigital CE Patent Holdings, SAS
    Inventors: Thierry Borel, Ralf Ostermann, Wolfram Putzke-Roeming
  • Patent number: 10353547
    Abstract: Optical storage media often contain data structures for a menu suitable for selection of a title, a chapter, a parameter or others. Such menus usually comprise a number of buttons to be displayed, with each button having a state. Possible states of buttons are “unselected”, “selected” or “activated”. According to the invention, the representation of a menu button may vary, depending on its state. An image or an image sequence, e.g. cartoon, may be associated to a buttons state, providing user animation. Further, a sound or sound sequence, e.g. melody or click, may be associated to a buttons state, and may be played back when the button enters this state. A data structure is disclosed which allows storage of such menu data e.g. on a Blu-ray disc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2019
    Assignee: INTERDIGITAL CE PATENT HOLDINGS
    Inventors: Jobst Hoerentrup, Dirk Gandolph, Ralf Ostermann, Harald Schiller, Hui Li
  • Publication number: 20170324925
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention include a subtitling format encompassing elements of enhanced syntax and semantic to provide improved animation capabilities. The disclosed elements improve subtitle performance without stressing the available subtitle bitrate. This will become essential for authoring content of high-end HDTV subtitles in pre-recorded format, which can be broadcast or stored on high capacity optical media, e.g. the Blue-ray Disc. Embodiments of the invention include abilities for improved authoring possibilities for the content production to animate subtitles. For subtitles that are separate from AV material, a method includes using one or more superimposed subtitle layers, and displaying only a selected part of the transferred subtitles at a time. Further, colors of a selected part of the displayed subtitles may be modified, e.g. highlighted.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 25, 2017
    Publication date: November 9, 2017
    Inventors: Dirk GANDOLPH, Jobst HOERENTRUP, Ralf OSTERMANN, Hartmut PETERS, Harald SCHILLER
  • Patent number: 9792719
    Abstract: A method and an apparatus for removing outliers from a main view of a scene during 3D reconstruction of a scene from multiple views of the scene. A 3D projection unit projects a 3D point of a pixel of the main view into neighboring views. A comparator then compares the distance of each of the projected 3D points in the neighboring views to the 3D point of the main view with a defined distance threshold. Based on the comparison a flagging unit assigns flags to the pixel in the main view. Finally, depending on values of the flags a rejecting unit rejects the pixel in the main view as an outlier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2017
    Assignee: THOMSON LICENSING
    Inventors: Philipp Hyllus, Xavier Good, Markus Schlosser, Joern Jachalsky, Ralf Ostermann
  • Patent number: 9749576
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention include a subtitling format encompassing elements of enhanced syntax and semantic to provide improved animation capabilities. The disclosed elements improve subtitle performance without stressing the available subtitle bitrate. This will become essential for authoring content of high-end HDTV subtitles in pre-recorded format, which can be broadcast or stored on high capacity optical media, e.g. the Blue-ray Disc. Embodiments of the invention include abilities for improved authoring possibilities for the content production to animate subtitles. For subtitles that are separate from AV material, a method includes using one or more superimposed subtitle layers, and displaying only a selected part of the transferred subtitles at a time. Further, colors of a selected part of the displayed subtitles may be modified, e.g. highlighted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2017
    Assignee: THOMSON LICENSING
    Inventors: Dirk Gandolph, Jobst Hoerentrup, Ralf Ostermann, Hartmut Peters, Harald Schiller
  • Publication number: 20170195618
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention include a subtitling format encompassing elements of enhanced syntax and semantic to provide improved animation capabilities. The disclosed elements improve subtitle performance without stressing the available subtitle bitrate. This will become essential for authoring content of high-end HDTV subtitles in pre-recorded format, which can be broadcast or stored on high capacity optical media, e.g. the Blue-ray Disc. Embodiments of the invention include abilities for improved authoring possibilities for the content production to animate subtitles. For subtitles that are separate from AV material, a method includes using one or more superimposed subtitle layers, and displaying only a selected part of the transferred subtitles at a time. Further, colors of a selected part of the displayed subtitles may be modified, e.g. highlighted.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 25, 2014
    Publication date: July 6, 2017
    Inventors: Dirk GANDOLPH, Jobst HOERENTRUP, Ralf OSTERMANN, Hartmut PETERS, Harald SCHILLER
  • Publication number: 20170118440
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention include a subtitling format encompassing elements of enhanced syntax and semantic to provide improved animation capabilities. The disclosed elements improve subtitle performance without stressing the available subtitle bitrate. This will become essential for authoring content of high-end HDTV subtitles in pre-recorded format, which can be broadcast or stored on high capacity optical media, e.g. the Blue-ray Disc. Embodiments of the invention include abilities for improved authoring possibilities for the content production to animate subtitles. For subtitles that are separate from AV material, a method includes using one or more superimposed subtitle layers, and displaying only a selected part of the transferred subtitles at a time. Further, colors of a selected part of the displayed subtitles may be modified, e.g. highlighted.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 21, 2014
    Publication date: April 27, 2017
    Inventors: Dirk Gandolph, Jobst Hoerentrup, Ralf Ostermann, Hartmut Peters, Harald Schiller
  • Patent number: 9635306
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention include a subtitling format encompassing elements of enhanced syntax and semantic to provide improved animation capabilities. The disclosed elements improve subtitle performance without stressing the available subtitle bitrate. This will become essential for authoring content of high-end HDTV subtitles in pre-recorded format, which can be broadcast or stored on high capacity optical media, e.g. the Blue-ray Disc. Embodiments of the invention include abilities for improved authoring possibilities for the content production to animate subtitles. For subtitles that are separate from AV material, a method includes using one or more superimposed subtitle layers, and displaying only a selected part of the transferred subtitles at a time. Further, colors of a selected part of the displayed subtitles may be modified, e.g. highlighted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2017
    Assignee: Thomson Licensing
    Inventors: Dirk Gandolph, Jobst Hoerentrup, Ralf Ostermann, Hartmut Peters, Harald Schiller
  • Patent number: 9595293
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention include a subtitling format encompassing elements of enhanced syntax and semantic to provide improved animation capabilities. The disclosed elements improve subtitle performance without stressing the available subtitle bitrate. This will become essential for authoring content of high-end HDTV subtitles in pre-recorded format, which can be broadcast or stored on high capacity optical media, e.g. the Blue-ray Disc. Embodiments of the invention include abilities for improved authoring possibilities for the content production to animate subtitles. For subtitles that are separate from AV material, a method includes using one or more superimposed subtitle layers, and displaying only a selected part of the transferred subtitles at a time. Further, colors of a selected part of the displayed subtitles may be modified, e.g. highlighted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 14, 2017
    Assignee: Thomson Licensing
    Inventors: Dirk Gandolph, Jobst Hoerentrop, Ralf Ostermann, Hartmut Peters, Harald Schiller
  • Patent number: 9591281
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for determining a disparity value for an object located in or to be placed into a stereoscopic image pair having an associated disparity map. First an area to be analyzed in one of the stereoscopic images is determined Then a histogram is built from disparity estimates of the associated disparity map that fall within the determined area. Subsequently a contiguous range of bins is searched in the histogram that also contains a sufficient number of pixels. Finally, a disparity estimate for the determined area is selected from the contiguous range of histogram bins.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2017
    Assignee: THOMSON LICENSING
    Inventors: Markus Schlosser, Jorn Jachalsky, Ralf Ostermann
  • Patent number: 9557888
    Abstract: Optical storage media often contain data structures for a menu suitable for selection of a title, a chapter, a parameter or others. Such menus usually comprise a number of buttons to be displayed, with each button having a state. Possible states of buttons are “unselected”, “selected” or “activated”. According to the invention, the representation of a menu button may vary, depending on its state. An image or an image sequence, e.g. cartoon, may be associated to a buttons state, providing user animation. Further, a sound or sound sequence, e.g. melody or click, may be associated to a buttons state, and may be played back when the button enters this state. A data structure is disclosed which allows storage of such menu data e.g. on a Blu-ray disc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2017
    Assignee: Thomson Licensing
    Inventors: Jobst Horentrup, Dirk Adolph, Ralf Ostermann, Harald Schiller, Hui Li
  • Patent number: 9529501
    Abstract: A method for generating an on-screen menu comprising menu buttons and other menu items, e.g. help text, is characterized in that one or more groups of menu buttons or menu items are defined, wherein a group comprises one or more menu buttons or menu items and has associated a defined area on the screen. A state is assigned to a button, the state being “enabled” or “disabled”, wherein only an enabled button or item may be displayed, and wherein within a group not more than one button or item may be enabled. The state of a button can be changed by commands associated with other buttons.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: Thomson Licensing
    Inventors: Jobst Hoerentrup, Dirk Gandolph, Carsten Herpel, Ralf Ostermann, Hartmut Peters
  • Patent number: 9509969
    Abstract: Consumer electronic devices, such as e.g. high-definition movie players for removable storage media such as optical discs, may provide possibilities for advanced interactivity for the user, implemented as software applications. A question arising generally with such software applications is what the life cycle of such an application is, and who may control it. The invention provides a method for executing software applications within a playback device for audio-video data, wherein data from a first removable storage medium are read for a software application to be executed within said playback device, and the data comprise an indication defining a termination condition for the application. Based on said termination code and depending on how the medium holding the application is ejected, the application is terminated or may survive.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2016
    Assignee: THOMSON LICENSING
    Inventors: Dirk Gandolph, Carsten Herpel, Jobst Hoerentrup, Uwe Janssen, Ralf Ostermann, Hartmut Peters, Andrej Schewzow, Marco Winter
  • Patent number: 9503678
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention include an apparatus including a processor for retrieving subtitle layer data, wherein the subtitle layer data contains a graphic subtitle elements. The processor extracts from retrieved subtitle layer data, subtitle display region information for defining a subtitle display region, a cropping flag, and subtitle display region cropping information, for cropping the display region, the subtitle display region cropping information including a parameter for horizontal position of the cropped subtitle display region, a parameter for vertical position of the crossed subtitle display region, a parameter for width of the cropped subtitle display region, and a parameter for height of the cropped subtitle display region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2016
    Assignee: Thomson Licensing
    Inventors: Dirk Gandolph, Jobst Hoerentrop, Ralf Ostermann, Hartmut Peters, Harald Schiller
  • Publication number: 20160323538
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention include a subtitling format encompassing elements of enhanced syntax and semantic to provide improved animation capabilities. The disclosed elements improve subtitle performance without stressing the available subtitle bitrate. This will become essential for authoring content of high-end HDTV subtitles in pre-recorded format, which can be broadcast or stored on high capacity optical media, e.g. the Blue-ray Disc. Embodiments of the invention include abilities for improved authoring possibilities for the content production to animate subtitles. For subtitles that are separate from AV material, a method includes using one or more superimposed subtitle layers, and displaying only a selected part of the transferred subtitles at a time. Further, colors of a selected part of the displayed subtitles may be modified, e.g. highlighted.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 29, 2014
    Publication date: November 3, 2016
    Applicant: THOMSON LICENSING
    Inventors: Dirk GANDOLPH, Jobst Hoerentrup, Ralf Ostermann, Hartmut Peters, Harald Schiller
  • Publication number: 20160291818
    Abstract: A method for generating an on-screen menu comprising menu buttons and other menu items, e.g. help text, is characterized in that one or more groups of menu buttons or menu items are defined, wherein a group comprises one or more menu buttons or menu items and has associated a defined area on the screen. A state is assigned to a button, the state being “enabled” or “disabled”, wherein only an enabled button or item may be displayed, and wherein within a group not more than one button or item may be enabled. The state of a button can be changed by commands associated with other buttons.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 15, 2016
    Publication date: October 6, 2016
    Inventors: Jobst HOERENTROP, Dirk GANDOLPH, Carsten HERPEL, Ralf OSTERMANN, Hartmut PETERS
  • Patent number: 9462221
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention include a subtitling format encompassing elements of enhanced syntax and semantic to provide improved animation capabilities. The disclosed elements improve subtitle performance without stressing the available subtitle bitrate. This will become essential for authoring content of high-end HDTV subtitles in pre-recorded format, which can be broadcast or stored on high capacity optical media, e.g. the Blue-ray Disc. Embodiments of the invention include abilities for improved authoring possibilities for the content production to animate subtitles. For subtitles that are separate from AV material, a method includes using one or more superimposed subtitle layers, and displaying only a selected part of the transferred subtitles at a time. Further, colors of a selected part of the displayed subtitles may be modified, e.g. highlighted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
    Assignee: THOMSON LICENSING
    Inventors: Dirk Gandolph, Jobst Hoerentrop, Ralf Ostermann, Hartmut Peters, Harald Schiller
  • Publication number: 20160266744
    Abstract: Optical storage media often contain data structures for a menu suitable for selection of a title, a chapter, a parameter or others. Such menus usually comprise a number of buttons to be displayed, with each button having a state. Possible states of buttons are; e.g., “unselected”, “selected” or “activated”. According to the invention, the menu may contain buttons that can be selected through the keys on the remote control, but that don't have any images or text associated. This allows creating “invisible buttons” that automatically execute commands upon selection. Further, a sound or sound sequence; e.g., melody or click, may be associated to a buttons state, and may be played back when the button enters this state. Such menu data may be stored; e.g., on a Blu-ray disc.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 19, 2016
    Publication date: September 15, 2016
    Inventors: Jobst HOERENTRUP, Ralf OSTERMANN, Harald SCHILLER, Dirk GANDOLPH
  • Patent number: 9445042
    Abstract: Several data streams contain video, audio and/or other data. Some of the data streams are pre-recorded in a multiplex on a storage medium while other data streams are located out of the data stream multiplex on the storage medium. The data streams are synchronized using a navigation file (List_of_PlayItems), which comprises descriptors (PlayItems, SubPlayItems) pointing to parts of said data streams, wherein said descriptors define the arrangement in time for said data streams by means of data sub stream paths.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2016
    Assignee: Thomson Licensing
    Inventors: Dirk Gandolph, Harald Schiller, Jobst Hoerentrup, Ralf Ostermann, Hartmut Peters