Patents Assigned to Pixelworks, Inc.
  • Patent number: 9769493
    Abstract: A system comprises a phase plane correlation (PPC) processing module configured to receive video data from a video source and generate a motion vector (MV) candidate, and a three-dimensional (3D) recursive processing module configured to receive the MV candidate from the PPC processing module, perform 3D recursive processing on a number of MV candidates including the MV candidate received from the PPC processing module, and select one of the MV candidates based on the 3D recursive processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2017
    Assignee: Pixelworks, Inc.
    Inventors: Minghui Yang, Guodong Liu, Neil Woodall, Bob Zhang, Qiang Li, Junhua Chen
  • Patent number: 9734559
    Abstract: A method of compensating for match errors while generating a super-resolution image, includes receiving, at a processor, an input image having a first resolution forming a low resolution layer, identifying a patch in a unknown high resolution image layer, identifying a corresponding low resolution patch in the low resolution layer, finding at least one matched patch in a match layer having a resolution lower than the first resolution, identifying at least one copy patch in a copy layer having a resolution lower than the high resolution layer, the copy patch to be copied to the high resolution layer, determining an match error between the at least one matched patch and a corresponding low resolution patch, selecting a matrix to transform the match error to provide compensation for the high resolution patch as match error compensation, and modifying the high resolution patch using the match error compensation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2017
    Assignee: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Guodong Liu, Junhua Chen, Neil Woodall, Yue Ma, Bob Zhang
  • Patent number: 9736456
    Abstract: A method of converting two-dimensional image data to three-dimensional image data includes dividing the image data into blocks, performing motion estimation on the blocks to produce block-based motion vectors, applying a global motion analysis and a local motion analysis to the block-based motion vectors to generate motion-based depth, applying a global image model and a local image model to the block-based motion vectors to generate image-based depth, and generating a three-dimensional view by fusing the motion-based depth and the image-based depth. Other conversion methods are also included.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2017
    Assignee: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Tao Chen, Bob Zhang, Junhua Chen, Ji Zhao, Neil D. Woodall, James Zhou
  • Patent number: 9691133
    Abstract: A method of generating super resolution image data includes receiving original image data of a low resolution at an image processing device, performing motion compensation on the original image data using a current frame of image data and at least one previous frame of image data and at least one future frame of image data as reference frames, generating motion vectors, applying noise reduction to the current frame of image data and the reference frames to produce noise reduced, current frame image data, and generating a current frame of super resolution image data using the noise reduced, current frame image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2017
    Assignee: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Guodong Liu, Junhua Chen
  • Patent number: 9648347
    Abstract: A method of generating new views for a multi-view display system includes receiving a block-based disparity estimate between left image data and right image data for a frame of image data at a processor, upscaling the block-based disparity estimate to a pixel-based disparity for each pixel in the image date, performing motion vector based disparity interpolation and image interpolation simultaneously to produce left and right side interpolated data, and generating at least one new view using left and right side interpolated data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2017
    Assignee: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Guohua Cheng, Neil D. Woodall, James Zhou, Yue Ma
  • Patent number: 9600858
    Abstract: A method of producing a high resolution image includes generating high resolution image data for a high resolution image using a processor, wherein the high resolution image has a resolution higher than a resolution of an original image, determining image content of the high resolution image data, and selectively adding dither noise to the high resolution image data based upon the image content of the high resolution image data to produce final image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2017
    Assignee: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Guodong Liu, Bob Zhang, Yue Ma, Junhua Chen
  • Patent number: 9602763
    Abstract: An apparatus has a neighbor motion vector module arranged to receive motion vector data for blocks that neighbor a current pixel and select a predetermined number of block motion vectors, at least two pixel motion vector modules arranged to receive the block motion vector data and to produce interpolated pixel motion vector data, a weighting module configured to produce a weighting for the interpolated pixel motion vector data from the motion vector modules, and a blending module to blend the interpolated pixel motion vector data according to the weighting and to produce pixel output data for the current pixel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2017
    Assignee: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Guohua Cheng, Yanxin Li, Neil D. Woodall, Bob Zhang
  • Patent number: 9589324
    Abstract: A method of processing video data includes upscaling an input low resolution image to a high resolution image using a processor, detecting monotonicity in a direction normal to an edge in a low resolution neighborhood in the input low resolution image, and correcting pixels in a high resolution neighborhood of the high resolution image corresponding to the low resolution neighborhood to preserve at least some of the monotonicity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2017
    Assignee: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Guodong Liu, Bob Zhang, Neil Woodall, Junhua Chen, Yue Ma
  • Patent number: 9552623
    Abstract: A method of determining an output frame rate includes receiving an input sequence of frames of image data at an input frame rate, performing motion vector calculations on the frames of image data to produce motion vectors and motion statistics, determining a motion level in the frames using the motion statistics, and interpolating frames of image data at the output frame rate, wherein the output frame rate is based upon the motion level.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2017
    Assignee: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Guohua Cheng, Minghui Yang, Yue Ma, Bob Zhang, Neil Woodall
  • Patent number: 9554086
    Abstract: A method of generating motion vectors for image data includes identifying boundaries of at least one object in original frames of image data, performing object motion analysis based upon the boundaries, performing pixel-level motion layer generation, using the object motion analysis and the pixel-level motion layers to generate motion for blocks in the image data, and producing block level motion information and layer information for the original frames of image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2017
    Assignee: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Xiaojie Sheng, Neil Woodall, Bob Zhang, Guohua Cheng, Yue Ma
  • Patent number: 9524008
    Abstract: An apparatus includes a display device having a pixel and vector storage, and a by-pass mode and an interpolation mode, wherein the interpolation mode converts input data from an input frame rate to a display refresh rate based on pixel and vector data stored in the storage. A method includes determining a selected interpolation mode to be employed by a frame interpolator, retrieving pixel data and vector data received from a host system from a storage, and generating interpolated frames of display data according to the selected interpolation mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2016
    Assignee: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Neil D. Woodall, James Zhou, Bob Zhang, Richard Miller
  • Patent number: 9516389
    Abstract: An on-screen display (OSD) processing system can include video data fetch modules to receive video data from a video source, edge detection modules to detect an edge of a region within a scene represented by the video data, edge processing modules to process results from the edge detection modules, and an OSD confidence level adjustment module to adjust an OSD confidence level corresponding to the region within the scene.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2016
    Assignee: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Guohua Cheng, Bob Zhang, Neil Woodall, Jian (James) Zhou
  • Patent number: 9491398
    Abstract: A method and system for detecting and processing a series of video frames includes receiving the series of video frames, determining whether the video frames are associated with a recognized non-video source, and depending on the determination, processing the video frames using a variety of techniques. A system may detect whether each video frame is a repeat frame or a new original frame, keep the new original frames, discard the repeat frames, and then adjust one or more timestamps associated with the new original frames so as to conform to an intermediate frame rate. The frame indexes and timestamps associated with the new original frames are stored in a FIFO or buffer. The system can interpolate video frames using the stored timestamps, and output a series of video frames. The output video stream is delivered at any frame rate and can include original video frames and interpolated video frames.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2016
    Assignee: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Yongmin Hou, Yanxin Li, Jian Zhou, Miao Sima, Neil D. Woodall, Bob Zhang
  • Patent number: 9483840
    Abstract: A method of generating a super-resolution image from a single frame of image data includes using a processor to retrieve query patches of image data from a memory, determining a search range for each patch, and generating super-resolution image data corresponding to each patch based upon the search range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2016
    Assignee: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Guodong Liu, Junhua Chen, Jiehua Shen, Lihang Zhang, Bob Zhang, Yue Ma
  • Patent number: 9449371
    Abstract: To denoise video data, a temporal IIR filter is applied to video data. The temporally filtered frame is used as a guide to spatially filter the video data without introducing temporal artifacts. The spatially filtered frame can then be temporally filtered again using a temporal IIR filter. The results of the second temporal filtering can then be used as a guide to eliminate noise that the spatial filter did not eliminate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
    Assignee: Pixelworks, Inc.
    Inventors: Xiaojie Sheng, Guohua Cheng, Neil Woodall, Bob Zhang
  • Patent number: 9438908
    Abstract: A method to produce a frame of video data includes receiving original frame true motion information, original frame object boundary information, and original frame layer information for at least two original frames of video data, and generating interpolation phase block-level motion and interpolation phase pixel-level layer information from the original frame block-level true motion information, original frame pixel-level object boundary information, and original frame pixel-level layer information for the original frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2016
    Assignee: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Xiaojie Sheng, Neil Woodall, Bob Zhang, Guohua Cheng, Yue Ma
  • Patent number: 9357105
    Abstract: To determine if a pixel exhibits artifacts, statistics are generated for the pixel and its neighbors. These statistics are compared with thresholds. If the comparison of the statistics and the thresholds suggests that the pixel exhibits a pixel artifact, then recourse can be taken, either to adjust the pixel value in some way, or to reject the angle of interpolation used in computing the value for the target pixel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2016
    Assignee: Pixelworks, Inc.
    Inventors: Yue Ma, Hongmin Zhang
  • Patent number: 9357161
    Abstract: A method of performing motion compensation includes identifying a set of candidate motion vectors for a block in an intermediate frame from a set of motion vectors from a previous and current frames, performing block-level analysis for each candidate motion vector, selecting an interpolation motion vector, and using the interpolation motion vector to interpolate the intermediate frame between the previous and current frames, wherein the number of intermediate frames depends upon a conversion to a faster frame rate. A method of determining background and foreground motion vectors for a block in an interpolated frame includes comparing a first motion vector that points to a previous frame to a second motion vector that points to a next frame to produce a difference, and designating one of the first and second motion vectors as a background motion vector and the other as a foreground motion vector depending upon the difference.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2016
    Assignee: Pixelworks, Inc.
    Inventors: Guohua Cheng, Neil D. Woodall, Bob Zhang, Xiaojie Sheng
  • Patent number: 9338455
    Abstract: A method of reducing artifacts in video image data includes determining pixels in a block of image data that are mosquito pixels, estimating a level of mosquito noise in the block, and filtering out the mosquito noise to produce noise-filtered data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2016
    Assignee: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Xiaojie Sheng, Neil Woodall, Bob Zhang, Guohua Cheng
  • Patent number: 9317903
    Abstract: A method of generating a super-resolution image from a single frame includes receiving, at a processor, first image data having a first resolution as a query image layer, acquiring, by the processor, second image data as a copy image layer, generating, by the processor, at least one additional image layer as a retrieval layer, the at least one additional image layer having a resolution lower than the first resolution, wherein the lower resolution corresponds to the first resolution divided by a scaling factor, generating high resolution image data for a high resolution layer having a resolution higher than the first resolution, the generating including copying image data from the copy layer when a match is found and upscaling the query layer when a match is not found.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2016
    Assignee: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Guodong Liu, Junhua Chen, Bob Zhang, Yue Ma