Patents by Inventor Vasudev Bhaskaran

Vasudev Bhaskaran 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: 20070140338
    Abstract: An inter mode for encoding a video macroblock is selected. An initial analysis on the macroblock homogeneity is performed to quickly reduce the number of inter modes for which motion estimation and rate distortion calculation are to be performed. An inter mode is selected based on these calculations and sub-pixel motion estimation, at various sub-pixel interpolation granularities, is performed only on the selected inter mode. Sub-pixel motion estimation may be skipped for macroblocks that exhibit relatively low distortion at the integer pixel level.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 19, 2005
    Publication date: June 21, 2007
    Inventors: Vasudev Bhaskaran, Norihisa Hagiwara, William Chen, Changick Kim
  • Publication number: 20070140352
    Abstract: The temporal and/or spatial characteristics of a macroblock are analyzed in order to reduce the number of modes for which motion estimation and rate distortion efficiency calculations are to be performed. In one embodiment, macroblock mean and variance characteristics are analyzed to merge sub-blocks together within the macroblock. These merged sub-blocks may be used to identify both inter and intra modes for the macroblock.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 19, 2005
    Publication date: June 21, 2007
    Inventors: Vasudev Bhaskaran, William Chen
  • Publication number: 20070121729
    Abstract: A method for reducing the memory requirements for decoding a bit stream is provided. The method initiates with receiving a video bit stream. Then, a frame of the bit stream is decoded into a discrete cosine transform (DCT) domain representation. Next, non-zero coefficients of the DCT domain representation are identified. Then, a hybrid data structure is assembled. The hybrid data structure includes a fixed size array and a variable size overflow vector. Next, the non-zero coefficients of the DCT domain representation are inserted into the hybrid data structure. A computer readable media, a printed circuit board and a device configured to decode video data are also provided.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 18, 2007
    Publication date: May 31, 2007
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: William Chen, Vasudev Bhaskaran
  • Publication number: 20070098086
    Abstract: A three-dimensional filter that addresses various types of noise is described. This filter uses both spatial and temporal characteristics of the video signal in the filtering process. Additionally, the filter is able to maintain edge fidelity within in images in the video signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 28, 2005
    Publication date: May 3, 2007
    Inventor: Vasudev Bhaskaran
  • Patent number: 7212571
    Abstract: A method for encoding video data to reduce blocking artifacts is provided. The method initiates with identifying a macro-block as being associated with a blocking artifact. For example the macro-block may be identified as a low activity macro-block or a high activity macro-block. Then, blocking artifacts introduced through a compression operation are mitigated by adjusting both a quantization parameter and an amount of bits generated from the quantization parameter. A video encoder and a system for processing image data associated with block based compression are provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2007
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Vasudev Bhaskaran, Changick Kim
  • Patent number: 7190724
    Abstract: A method for reducing the memory requirements for decoding a bit stream is provided. The method initiates with receiving a video bit stream. Then, a frame of the bit stream is decoded into a transform domain representation. Next, non-zero coefficients of the transform domain representation are identified. Then, a hybrid data structure is assembled. The hybrid data structure includes a fixed size array and a variable size overflow vector. Next, the non-zero coefficients of the transform domain representation are inserted into the hybrid data structure. A computer readable media, a printed circuit board and a device configured to decode video data are also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2002
    Date of Patent: March 13, 2007
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: William Chen, Vasudev Bhaskaran
  • Publication number: 20070047842
    Abstract: An interactive photo system that provides an interesting and entertaining way to link photos from the digital and analog domains. The system enables easy conversion of a paper-based photo into digital form. The conversion process generally involves a user holding up a paper-based photo image in front of a camera of the system, such that the captured image is rendered in a specific location on a display screen. The system adjusts the captured image for orientation and illumination irregularities in creating a digital version of the paper-based photo. The system further includes a database of digital images and a content retrieval engine to which content from the just-converted digital image can be used as a search query to search the database for other similar digital photos.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 29, 2005
    Publication date: March 1, 2007
    Inventors: Vasudev Bhaskaran, William Chen
  • Publication number: 20070041633
    Abstract: A method having a corresponding apparatus and computer program comprises receiving a mosaic image comprising a plurality of pixels; separating the mosaic image into a plurality of color channels each comprising only the pixels having a corresponding one of a plurality of colors; and processing each color channel of the image data separately, wherein the processing of each of the color channels comprises at least one of compressing the pixels in the color channel, and color processing the pixels in the color channel.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 9, 2005
    Publication date: February 22, 2007
    Inventors: Vasudev Bhaskaran, Joseph Shu
  • Publication number: 20060285594
    Abstract: An inter-mode for encoding a video macroblock is selected based on a comparison of at least two rate-distortion values associated with inter-modes. The number of potential inter-modes for encoding the video macroblock is initially reduced based on the rate-distortion calculation of the SKIP mode between the current macroblock and the collocated macroblock (corresponding to a 0,0 motion vector). Motion estimation is performed on the remaining inter-modes to identify reference blocks and motion vectors. The number of calculations performed in identifying the reference blocks and motion vectors is potentially reduced because associations between inter-modes are recognized and leveraged.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 21, 2005
    Publication date: December 21, 2006
    Inventors: Changick Kim, William Chen, Vasudev Bhaskaran
  • Publication number: 20060206775
    Abstract: Improved error resiliency of an encoding device, such as a video codec or encoder, operating in a compressed data transmission system, is achieved by enabling the encoding device to “shadow” or mimic the error conditions of a decoding device that receives and decodes compressed data sent by the encoding device. The encoding device is made aware of the specific error concealment scheme that the decoding device employs to reconstruct video frame data from a bit stream that contains bit or packet errors, and is also made aware of the location(s) in the frame to which the erroneous data corresponds and the particular manner in which the erroneous data was handled. The error-concealed data then can be used not only for the present encoding, but for subsequent encodings as well, to achieve synchronization between the encoder and decoder. Advantageously, the present invention improves on, but can work with, conventional error concealment schemes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 10, 2005
    Publication date: September 14, 2006
    Inventor: Vasudev Bhaskaran
  • Publication number: 20060165170
    Abstract: A prediction mode for encoding data is selected using a reduced number of rate-distortion cost computations. This reduction in rate-distortion cost computations is caused by filtering the number of potential intra prediction modes based on two criteria. First, the number of potential prediction modes is reduced based on at least one characteristic of a quantization procedure performed during the encoding procedure. Second, the number of potential prediction modes is reduced based on an error value calculated for each of the potential prediction modes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 21, 2005
    Publication date: July 27, 2006
    Inventors: Changick Kim, William Chen, Vasudev Bhaskaran
  • Patent number: 7050656
    Abstract: An efficient compressed-domain-based algorithm that works by combining the IDCT and pixel-domain averaging into a single compressed domain operation, where a part of the cost of even this simplified operation can be absorbed into the de-quantization process. The original image need not be decompressed fully, only to the point of extracting the transform coefficients. Compressed-domain scaling for all scales k/8 for 1?k?8, including ?, ?, ¾, ?, is provided. By chaining multiple operations, any scale factors of the form k1k2 . . . kl/8l for integers ki's in the range [1,7] can be achieved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2002
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2006
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Vasudev Bhaskaran, Viresh Ratnakar
  • Publication number: 20060095398
    Abstract: Automatic defocusing of displayed multimedia information (e.g., video) on a client in a client-server system by monitoring dynamic display properties of the client provides more efficient use of resources in the system. In one embodiment, bandwidth is conserved by configuring the server with the capability of defocus select data being sent to the client based on the client's dynamic display properties. The defocused data can be sent at a lower bit-rate. In another embodiment, the client's decoder is configured to receive and process the monitoring information and make adjustments on the client side. In this situation, only viewable data is decoded accurately; other, obstructed data can be decoded at a lower accuracy.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 4, 2004
    Publication date: May 4, 2006
    Inventor: Vasudev Bhaskaran
  • Publication number: 20060077415
    Abstract: Smart printing/copying techniques for controlling the printing/copying and editing of a document based on document-descriptive and control information embedded in the printed output. These “smart” printing/copying techniques and controls allow a document user to control printing/copying costs by making tradeoffs with respect to quality and speed based on the embedded data. Such costs may be controlled, for example, by initially printing low cost (low quality, high speed) pages for distribution, while giving subsequent recipients of the document the option of making high quality (higher cost, possibly slower) copies of any or all of the pages in the document, if desired. With these features, a user is able to obtain high quality copies from low quality originals. The techniques of the present invention also allow a recipient to edit page content prior to reprinting, without loss of print output quality.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 2, 2004
    Publication date: April 13, 2006
    Inventors: Anoop Bhattacharjya, Vasudev Bhaskaran
  • Publication number: 20050265459
    Abstract: A codec that compresses video data by tiling a digital representation or frame into blocks and encoding the difference between each pixel value in an image block that is not subject to special treatment and the block minimum value using an adaptive dispersed dither. Higher output quality can be obtained by changing the dither matrix from frame to frame. Certain blocks are encoded differently to further conserve bits. Constant blocks, which are blocks in which the difference between the maximum and minimum pixel values in that block is less than a predefined threshold, are encoded differently. Blocks in which all pixels are within a predetermined distance of either the maximum or minimum block value, referred to as binary-like blocks, are encoded using a single bit. The overall coding scheme can be modified even further to accommodate a fixed bit budget for the compressed output. Other features can also be supported including contrast and brightness adjustment and accessing/decoding random blocks.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 1, 2004
    Publication date: December 1, 2005
    Inventors: Anoop Bhattacharjya, Vasudev Bhaskaran
  • Patent number: 6950473
    Abstract: A power-scalable hybrid technique to reduce blocking and ringing artifacts in low bit-rate block-based video coding is employed in connection with a modified decoder structure. Fast inverse motion compensation is applied directly in the compressed domain, so that the transform (e.g., DCT) coefficients of the current frame can be reconstructed from those of the previous frame. The spatial characteristics of each block is calculated from the DCT coefficients, and each block is classified as either low-activity or high-activity. For each low-activity block, its DC coefficient value and the DC coefficient values of the surrounding eight neighbor blocks are exploited to predict low frequency AC coefficients which reflect the original coefficients before quantization in the encoding stage. The predicted AC coefficients are inserted into the low activity blocks where blocking artifacts are most noticeable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2002
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2005
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Changick Kim, William Chen, Vasudev Bhaskaran
  • Publication number: 20050167505
    Abstract: A 3-D dot code is embedded in a printed medium using an embedder that embeds data directly into the halftone dots of a selected file that is ready for printing. An extractor extracts the embedded bits by scanning the printed medium and then interprets the embedded data. A bleed-through elimination module in the extractor is able to eliminate adverse affects on the scanned input of the embedded data caused by bleed-through from the print on the opposite side of the page. The extractor may also include a module that compensates for a misaligned scanned input by automatically detecting the rotation and translation, and then registering the image so that the upper-left corner is located in a certain position. This operation expedites subsequent data retrieval, in which data is read by block matching.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 1, 2004
    Publication date: August 4, 2005
    Inventors: Changick Kim, Vasudev Bhaskaran, Joseph Shu
  • Publication number: 20050094899
    Abstract: A method for upscaling image data is provided. The method initiates with identifying a gradient value associated with a pixel location of the image data. Then, it is determined whether a direction associated with the pixel location is either a horizontal direction or a vertical direction. Next, a weighted interpolation scheme is applied to the pixel location when the direction is either a horizontal direction or a vertical direction. A method for applying an interpolation scheme where inter-frame redundancies are exploited is included. A computer readable media, a system for processing block based image data and an integrated circuit for scaling image data are also provided.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 29, 2003
    Publication date: May 5, 2005
    Inventors: Changick Kim, Jincheng Huang, Vasudev Bhaskaran
  • Publication number: 20050063475
    Abstract: A method for adaptively filtering a video signal prior to encoding is provided. The method initiates with calculating a local gradient indicative of a region type. Then, a weight factor is determined based upon the local gradient. Next, the weight factor is applied to a difference signal according to the region type. A computer readable media, an integrated circuit and a system for processing an image data signal are also provided.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 19, 2003
    Publication date: March 24, 2005
    Inventor: Vasudev Bhaskaran
  • Publication number: 20050024387
    Abstract: A layered presentation system (LAPE) includes a server that performs compressed-domain image processing on image data received from multiple clients including a master client and other clients to generate a composite image that incorporates imagery from the other clients with a master image from the master client for viewing on a shared display. The system's clients can add imagery in the form of questions, comments, and graphics to a currently displayed image. The added imagery is processed along with the master image to generate the composite image that then appears on the shared display and perhaps also on each client's individual display. The processing includes scaling the master image/added imagery, as required, and blending and/or overlaying the added imagery onto the master image so as to augment but not obscure it. A network protocol is included for sending image data in the compressed domain back and forth between the server and each of the clients.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 31, 2003
    Publication date: February 3, 2005
    Inventors: Viresh Ratnakar, Vasudev Bhaskaran