Patents Assigned to Ricoh Co., Ltd.
  • Patent number: 9286581
    Abstract: A user interface for a portable computing device provides two modes of operation. In a first mode, an inbox of all documents accessible by the portable computing device are presented. Each of the items in the inbox is selectable, and if selected, the user interface transitions to a second document presentation mode. In the document presentation mode, the user may annotate the document and upon providing a single input (selecting a submit button), the system automatically forwards the document (including the annotations) to the next state in the workflow. If the user transitions back to the inbox mode from the document presentation mode, no action is taken on the document but the strokes are stored with the document on the portable computing device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: Ricoh Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kurt W. Piersol, Kanae Amemiya, Bradley J. Rhodes
  • Publication number: 20160071163
    Abstract: The disclosure includes a system and method for identifying advertising content and providing a user of a mobile device with a channel related to the advertising content. A recognition application receives advertising content comprising a series of frames, identifies images corresponding to the frames within the advertising content, identifies a first set of feature points from a first image of the advertising content, determines whether the first set of feature points matches a second set of feature points stored in a database, and in response to determining that the first set of feature points fails to match the second set of feature points, identifies the first image as being unique, indexes the first image and the first set of feature points and associates the first image with a channel.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 15, 2015
    Publication date: March 10, 2016
    Applicant: RICOH CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Ashootosh Chand, Bharathi Shekar
  • Patent number: 9250131
    Abstract: A multi-imaging device includes a multiplexed optical system and a filter fixture. The multiplexed optical system forms multiple optical images of an object. These multiple optical images are interleaved at the sensor plane. The filter fixture is configured to allow a user to change filter assemblies. The filter assemblies can include different filter regions, which apply different filtering to the optical images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2016
    Assignee: Ricoh Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kathrin Berkner, Keith Bennett
  • Patent number: 9244149
    Abstract: The present invention provides systems and methods for self-labeling access points with their geographic location from received beacon frames. In particular, the present invention transmits beacon frames including temporary location information from mobile devices. The beacon frames are received by an access point, filtered by the access point and then used to determine a location. Once the location has been determined, the access point uses the determined location to self-label itself by converting the location information to a geographic code and inserting it as part of the SSID of the access point's beacon signal. The present invention also includes a number of methods using geographic codes including a method for generating and transmitting geographic codes for mobile devices, a method for determining a location of an access point, a method for self-labeling an access point, and a method for filtering beacon frames.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2016
    Assignee: Ricoh Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kurt W. Piersol, John W. Barrus, Stephen R. Savitzky, Sergey Chemishkian
  • Patent number: 9245158
    Abstract: A method, system and tag for low power radio frequency communication are described. In one embodiment, the RF tag comprises: a radio, an energy harvesting unit operable to convert incident RF energy to direct current (DC), a storage unit to store recovered DC power, one or more sensors for sensing and logging data, and a microcontroller coupled to the energy harvesting and storage units, the one or more sensors and the radio, the microcontroller operable to wake up from a sleep state and cause the radio to communicate, sensed data from at least one of the one or more sensors while powered by energy previously harvested and stored by the energy harvesting and storage unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2016
    Assignees: RICOH CO., LTD., DUKE UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Ken Gudan, Sergey Chemishkian, Jonathan J. Hull, Matthew S. Reynolds
  • Patent number: 9245159
    Abstract: A method, system and tag for low power radio frequency communication is described. In one embodiment, the RF tag comprises: an access point comprising: a first antenna; a first radio coupled to the first antenna; a central processing unit coupled to the first radio; a backscatter adapter coupled to the access point via a wired communication interface, the backscatter adapter comprising a backscatter radio and a second antenna coupled to the backscatter radio for use in communicating with an RF tag in the network via backscatter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2016
    Assignees: RICOH CO., LTD., DUKE UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Ken Gudan, Sergey Chemishkian, Jonathan J. Hull, Matthew S. Reynolds
  • Patent number: 9245445
    Abstract: An optically-based target detection system includes a holographic detection filter designed to produce a concentrated spot when a target is present.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2016
    Assignee: Ricoh Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Sri Rama Prasanna Pavani, Jonathan J. Hull, Sergey Chemishkain, Kathrin Berkner
  • Publication number: 20150379043
    Abstract: A Mixed Media Reality (MMR) system and associated techniques are disclosed. The MMR system provides mechanisms for forming a media document that includes media of at least two types (e.g., printed paper as a first medium and digital content and/or web link as a second medium). The MMR system provides mechanisms for forming a media document that includes media of at least two types, such as printed paper as a first medium and a digital photograph, digital movie, digital audio file, or web link as a second medium. Furthermore, the MMR system facilitates business methods that take advantage of the combination of a portable electronic device, such as a cellular camera phone, and a paper document.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2015
    Publication date: December 31, 2015
    Applicant: RICOH CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Jonathan J. Hull, Berna Erol, Jamey Graham, Peter E. Hart, Dar-Shyang Lee, Kurt Piersol
  • Patent number: 9223784
    Abstract: Method and apparatus for archiving media using a log are described. In one embodiment, the method comprises accepting an original media; updating a first log to include an indication that specifies a date of when the original media was received; converting the original media into a bitmap, the bitmap being in a format different than that of the media; updating a second log with an entry that specifies a relationship between the original media and the bitmap indicating that they are related, wherein the entry includes an identifier corresponding to the entry and an identifier corresponding to the media.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2015
    Assignee: RICOH, CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Michael Gormish, Peter E. Hart
  • Publication number: 20150373316
    Abstract: This invention presents an approach to first estimate a depth/disparity map using spectrally coded plenoptic camera, and then based on the disparity map the parallax between different spectral channels is rectified. Based on our new technique, we can reconstruct not only multispectral images but also a depth/disparity map. Moreover, the quality of reconstructed spectral images is significantly improved using our parallax rectification.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 23, 2014
    Publication date: December 24, 2015
    Applicant: Ricoh Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Lingfei Meng, Kathrin Berkner
  • Patent number: 9219866
    Abstract: An adjustable multimode lightfield imaging system. A non-homogeneous filter module is positioned at the pupil plane of the lightfield imaging system and provides the multimode capability. The filter module can be moved relative to the imaging system with the exposure conditions adjusted accordingly, thus allowing adjustment of the multimode capability.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 22, 2015
    Assignee: Ricoh Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Sapna A. Shroff, Kathrin Berkner
  • Publication number: 20150350151
    Abstract: A system and method for generating a conversation in a social network based on visual search results. A mixed media reality (MMR) engine indexes source materials as MMR objects, receives images from a user device and identifies matching MMR objects. A content management engine generates metadata corresponding to the MMR objects. A social network application generates conversations corresponding to the MMR object. The conversation includes multiple discussion threads. If a conversation already exists, the social network application provides the user with access to the conversation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 8, 2015
    Publication date: December 3, 2015
    Applicant: RICOH CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Jamey Graham, Timothee Bailloeul, Dani Essindi Behrendt
  • Publication number: 20150327766
    Abstract: Embodiments segment received image data. The received image data may include pixels that have multiple channels of intensity values. The image data is decomposed into albedo and shading components. This may be accomplished using a minimization that enforces a relationship between albedo, shading, and intensity values. The minimization may also include an albedo regularizer to infer albedo in part based on chromaticity and albedo of surrounding pixels. Superpixels are generated based on contiguous regions of pixels having similar image data across channels. These superpixels are then merged based in part on the determined albedo and shading components as well as based on the image data. The channels of image data may include infrared image data used to modify visible channels of the image to create pseudo-image data, which may be used in place of image data for albedo-shading decomposition, superpixel generation, or superpixel merging.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 19, 2014
    Publication date: November 19, 2015
    Applicant: RICOH CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Mithun Das Gupta, Srinidhi Srinivasa
  • Patent number: 9191612
    Abstract: A portable computing device for automatic attachment of a captured image to a document being displayed triggered by the act of capturing the image is disclosed. A new page is added to the current document being reviewed and displayed on the portable computing device, and then the image and metadata are attached in that new page. In other variations, the document includes metadata having a location at which images may be stored and upon capture the image, the captured image is stored at the metadata location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2015
    Assignee: Ricoh Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kurt W. Piersol, Kanae Amemiya, Sergey Chemishkian
  • Publication number: 20150324848
    Abstract: A context-aware targeted information delivery system comprises a mobile device, an MMR matching unit, a plurality of databases for user profiles, user context and advertising information, a plurality of comparison engines and a plurality of weight adjusters. The mobile device is coupled to deliver an image patch to the MMR matching unit which in turn performs recognition to produce recognize text. The recognized text is provided to a first and second comparison engines to produce relevant topics and relevant ads. The relevant topics and relevant ads are adjusted with information from a user context database including information such as location, date, time, and other information from a user profile. The third comparison engine compares the relevant topics and relevant ads to produce a set of final ads that are most related to the topics of interest for the user and delivered for display on to the mobile device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 20, 2015
    Publication date: November 12, 2015
    Applicant: RICOH CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Jamey Graham, Jonathan J. Hull
  • Patent number: 9182705
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus, a process cartridge, and a developing unit includes a developer carrying member to carry developer, first and second rotary members arranged in parallel to each other and configured to rotate to agitate and convey the developer, and an enclosure having an inside space to contain the developer, the inside space being divided by a partition with communication openings formed therein at opposite ends thereof into a first chamber configured to maintain the developer above a first level and to hold the first rotary member therein which supplies the developer to the developer carrying member while agitating and conveying the developer, and a second chamber configured to communicate with the first chamber through the communication openings, to maintain the developer at a second level lower than the first level, and to hold the second rotary member therein which circulates the developer with the first chamber through the communication openings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2015
    Assignee: RICOH CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Hosokawa, Kenichirou Nagai
  • Patent number: 9176984
    Abstract: An MMR system for publishing comprises a plurality of mobile devices, an MMR gateway, an MMR matching unit and an MMR publisher integrated into a network with an advertiser, an ad broker, and an MMR service bureau. The MMR matching unit receives an image query from the MMR gateway and sends it to one or more of the recognition units to identify a result including a document, the page and the location on the page. The MMR service bureau uses the result to retrieve advertising or other links associated with the location on the page. The list of results and links are sent back to the MMR gateway for presentation on the mobile device. The present invention also includes a number of novel methods including a differentially weighting links associated with an MMR document.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2015
    Assignee: Ricoh Co., Ltd
    Inventors: Jonathan J. Hull, Berna Erol, Jorge Moraleda
  • Patent number: 9171202
    Abstract: A Mixed Media Reality (MMR) system and associated techniques are disclosed. The MMR system provides mechanisms for forming a mixed media document that includes media of at least two types (e.g., printed paper as a first medium and digital content and/or web link as a second medium). In one particular embodiment, the MMR system includes a content-based retrieval database configured with an index table to represent two-dimensional geometric relationships between objects extracted from a printed document in a way that allows look-up using a text-based index. A ranked set of document, page and location hypotheses can be computed given data from the index table. The techniques effectively transform features detected in an image patch into textual terms (or other searchable features) that represent both the features themselves and the geometric relationship between them. A storage facility can be used to store additional characteristics about each document image patch.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2015
    Assignee: Ricoh Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Jonathan J. Hull, Dar-Shyang Lee, Kurt W. Piersol
  • Publication number: 20150296180
    Abstract: A smart display detection system is disclosed. The smart display system is configured to allow mobile users to connect with display screens through mobile device cameras. The system can detect the display screens within images captured by the mobile device camera in real time by matching the camera query image with screen images dynamically updated from the display devices. A synchronized time-stamped matching strategy is applied to achieve high performance in detecting the screens playing motion intensive video contents and an aggressive feature selection method is applied to minimize the system uploading bandwidth. The system can accurately find display screens playing either static or dynamic content within an image captured on a mobile device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 18, 2014
    Publication date: October 15, 2015
    Applicant: RICOH CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Shu Shi, John Barrus
  • Patent number: 9158949
    Abstract: A method, system and tag for low power radio frequency communication is described. In one embodiment, the RF tag comprises: an access point comprising: a first antenna; a first radio coupled to the first antenna; a central processing unit coupled to the first radio; a backscatter adapter coupled to the access point via a wired communication interface, the backscatter adapter comprising a backscatter radio and a second antenna coupled to the backscatter radio for use in communicating with an RF tag in the network via backscatter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2015
    Assignees: RICOH CO., LTD., DUKE UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Ken Gudan, Sergey Chemishkian, Jonathan J. Hull, Matthew S. Reynolds