Patents Examined by Allen Wong
  • Patent number: 9299228
    Abstract: A sales data processing apparatus which registers and processes sales data on a transaction-by-transaction basis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2016
    Assignee: CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Kazuhiro Oishi
  • Patent number: 9296982
    Abstract: A cell picking support device, a display device and a culture container that can enhance work efficiency. An adapter fixes a well plate that holds cells cultured in a cell culture observation device. A control unit reads culture observation information that includes cell information and coordinate information, from a memory card that is fitted to an external memory I/F. A display unit is provided on a placing surface side of the well plate that is fixed by the adapter, and in response to control by the control unit, displays the cell information, read from the memory card, at display positions corresponding to positions on the bottom face of the well plate, as specified by the coordinate information. Embodiments can be used, for instance, as a cell picking support device that supports a picking operation that is performed in a clean bench.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2016
    Assignee: NIKON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Yasujiro Kiyota
  • Patent number: 9294780
    Abstract: An apparatus for decoding a video by parsing asymmetric partition information indicating whether partition types include asymmetric partition types, from a bitstream of an encoded image, determining at least one coding unit included in a maximum coding unit by using split information parsed from the received bitstream, determining at least one prediction unit of a coding unit among the at least one coding unit, by using the asymmetric partition information and information about a partition type of the coding unit parsed from the received bitstream, and performing motion compensation using the prediction units for the coding unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2016
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Sun-il Lee, Min-su Cheon, Woo-jin Han
  • Patent number: 9294776
    Abstract: In one example, a device for coding video data includes a video coder configured to code, for a tile of an enhancement layer picture, data indicating a number of tiles in a base layer picture that need to be coded before the tile of the enhancement layer picture can be coded, code tiles of the base layer picture corresponding to the number of tiles, and, after coding the tiles of the base layer picture, code the tile of the enhancement layer picture substantially in parallel with at least one other tile in the base layer picture.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2016
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Krishnakanth Rapaka, Xiang Li, Jianle Chen, Ye-Kui Wang, Wei Pu
  • Patent number: 9294737
    Abstract: Internal components of power generation machinery, including for example gas or steam industrial turbines as well as generators, are inspected a camera inspection system that is inserted and positioned within the machinery by an elongated cable carrier that has restricted cable flexure along a two-dimensional carrier cable flexure motion plane. A camera head that retains the camera is coupled to a distal end of the cable carrier. Embodiments also include a connector block coupled between the cable carrier distal end and the camera head. The connector block has a pivot axis coupled to the camera head for swinging the camera head along a camera head range of motion path that intersects the cable carrier flexure motion plane. Embodiments include a camera head swing motion drive system for selectively positioning the camera head along the camera head range of motion path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2016
    Assignee: Siemens Energy, Inc.
    Inventors: Clifford Hatcher, Jr., Richard Hatley
  • Patent number: 9288293
    Abstract: In one aspect, the present disclosure relates to a method for a method for hiding a camera preview feed of a mobile device application. The method may proceed by the mobile device application enabling an imaging sensor of the mobile device, where the software of the mobile device requires the mobile device application to display the camera preview feed when the imaging sensor is enabled. The method may continue by creating a camera preview surface for displaying the camera preview feed. The method may further continue by modifying the camera preview surface to be hidden from the mobile device user. The method may end by setting the camera preview feed to be displayed on the camera preview surface. In another aspect, the present disclosure further relates to modifying the camera preview surface by resizing the camera preview surface to be one pixel large.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: ABL IP HOLDING LLC
    Inventors: Daniel Ryan, Aaron Ganick, Kelby Green
  • Patent number: 9287976
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided that disclose providing a positioning service for devices based on light received from one or more light sources. This light based positioning service uses light information transmitted by each light source to determine the position of the device. The positioning information can include three dimension position information in a building that can then be used to deliver services and information to a mobile device. The content delivered to a mobile device can include multimedia, text, audio, and/or pictorial information. The positioning information along with other location or positioning information can be used in providing augmented reality or location aware services. The light sources can be independent beacons that broadcast information in visible light at a rate that is undetectable by the human eye. Content can be retrieved from a server over a communications connection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: ABL IP HOLDING LLC
    Inventors: Aaron Ganick, Daniel Ryan
  • Patent number: 9282293
    Abstract: A method for measuring critical dimension (CD) includes steps of: scanning at least one area of interest of a die to obtain at least one scanned image; aligning the scanned image to at least one designed layout pattern to identify a plurality of borders within the scanned image; and averaging distances each measured from the border or the plurality of borders of a pattern associated with a specific type of CD corresponding to the designed layout pattern to obtain a value of CD of the die. The value of critical dimensions of dies can be obtained from the scanned image with lower resolution which is obtained by relatively higher scanning speed, so the above-mentioned method can obtain value of CD for every die within entire wafer to monitor the uniformity of the semiconductor manufacturing process within an acceptable inspection time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2016
    Assignee: Hermes Microvision Inc.
    Inventors: Wei Fang, Jack Jau, Hong Xiao
  • Patent number: 9271630
    Abstract: A system for wirelessly powering various devices positioned on an endoscope, including, for example, a light source, various electronics including an imager and/or a memory device. The endoscope is coupled to a camera where the endoscope may be rotated relative to the camera when coupled thereto. The system is further provided such that video signal processing parameters are automatically set for an endoscopic video camera system based upon characteristics of an attached endoscope, with reduced EMI and improved inventory tracking, maintenance and quality assurance, and reducing the necessity for adjustment and alignment of the endoscope and camera to achieve the data transfer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2016
    Assignee: Karl Storz Imaging, Inc.
    Inventors: Marc R. Amling, Hans David Hoeg, David Chatenever, Charles E. Ankner
  • Patent number: 9273473
    Abstract: An audio-video (AV) system in one embodiment includes a mounting apparatus for mounting the system to a wall support located behind a wall surface and within an in-wall space. The mounting apparatus includes a support member for supporting at least one component in a support space within the in-wall space, a display mounting member 30 for mounting a display device, and a removable wall opening cover for concealing at least a portion of the in-wall space that would otherwise be visible through a wall opening to a viewer. Various multimedia-supportive devices, including loudspeakers and a subwoofer, may be concealed behind the cover in the in-wall space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2016
    Assignee: Millson Custom Solutions Inc.
    Inventors: Richard Blair Millson, Alan Toyonobu Ima
  • Patent number: 9227576
    Abstract: A peripheral viewing system for a vehicle includes a pair of digital cameras, each positioned on the exterior of the vehicle proximately positioned where a side view mirror would typically be mounted. An additional digital camera is mounted on the vehicle roof immediately adjacent the top edge of the rear window. A plurality of LCD's each discretely associated with a corresponding camera are mounted within the vehicle passenger compartment at a location that is readily observable by the vehicle driver. The driver can panoramically view trailing traffic by observing the LCD's in the passenger compartment. One or more infrared phototransistor receivers are positioned at the rear of the vehicle for detecting oncoming vehicles. If the driver attempts to change lanes and activates a turn signal, a warning message will be emitted within the passenger compartment if any of the transistors detect an approaching vehicle within a predetermined range of the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2016
    Inventors: Brian KwangShik Hong, Ran Soo Hong
  • Patent number: 9228921
    Abstract: An aberration estimating method using a steepest descent method is configured to estimate, as an aberration of a test optical system, an aberration when a predetermined evaluation function becomes less than or equal to a permissible value. The aberration estimating method comprising the step of updating the aberration with a sum of a current aberration and a first derivative of the evaluation function by the aberration when the evaluation function is larger than the permissible value. The aberration is an aberration of an entire pupil plane of the test optical system. The updating step includes calculating the first derivative by Fourier-transforming the difference instead of an integration at coordinates of respective points on an image plane of the test optical system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2016
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Kenji Yamazoe
  • Patent number: 9232230
    Abstract: A scaled motion search section can be used in a video processing device that processes a video input signal that includes a plurality of pictures. The scaled motion search section includes a downscaling module that downscales the plurality of pictures to generate a plurality of downscaled pictures, wherein the downscaling module includes a horizontal downscaling filter and a vertical downscaling filter, and wherein the vertical downscaling filter generates downscaled pixels for a macroblock pair using only pixels from the macroblock pair. A transfer function that models the scaled motion vectors is determined and used to identify a final set of motion vector candidates used in a larger scale motion search.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2016
    Assignee: VIXS SYSTEMS, INC.
    Inventors: Ying Li, Xu Gang Zhao
  • Patent number: 9222897
    Abstract: A mask inspection microscope is provided for characterizing a mask having a feature. The mask inspection microscope is configured to generate an aerial image of at least one segment of the feature of the mask, acquire a spatially resolved intensity distribution of the aerial image, and determine a total intensity from the intensities of at least one region of the aerial image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2015
    Assignee: Carl Zeiss SMT GmbH
    Inventor: Holger Seitz
  • Patent number: 9225985
    Abstract: A method and device form a prediction value. A prediction direction is locally described by nonlinear trajectories. The prediction direction can be used in forming a prediction value to achieve a more accurate prediction determination. The method and device can be used in image compression or image-sequence compression.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2015
    Assignee: SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
    Inventor: Peter Amon
  • Patent number: 9216319
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for determining a target situation in an athletic event. Positional information including the relative positions of a group of selected participants is initially received from a tracking system, and the aggregate motion of the selected participants is detected in real-time using the positional information. The target situation may be determined to have occurred when a change in the aggregate motion occurs in accordance with a predetermined characteristic during an initial time interval.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 22, 2015
    Assignee: Isolynx, LLC
    Inventors: Douglas J. DeAngelis, Kirk M. Sigel, Edward G. Evansen
  • Patent number: 9204788
    Abstract: An autofocus method for an intra-oral camera modulates the focus of a liquid lens in a cycle that has at least first, second, and third focus positions and obtains an image at each focus position, measuring focus of the obtained image. The position of the liquid lens is adjusted according to the measured focus. Steps of modulating the focus of the liquid lens in the cycle with at least first, second, and third focus positions, and obtaining the image at each focus position and measuring focus of the obtained image are repeated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2015
    Assignee: Carestream Health, Inc.
    Inventors: Zaiguang Yu, Guijian Wang, Zhaohua Liu
  • Patent number: 9210384
    Abstract: A system and method for real time registration of images is disclosed. The system measures the angle rate of change and approximates attitude difference between the two cameras to provide an estimate of the relative rate of change between the two cameras. Approximating attitude difference between the two cameras reduce the time needed for initial image registration. Real time registration of images reduces the processing load and improves tracking.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2015
    Assignee: NAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc.
    Inventor: Paul D. Zemany
  • Patent number: 9210442
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a prediction unit (PU) for a coding unit (CU) of the video content. The method analyzes the prediction unit to determine a size of prediction unit. A size of a transform unit is determined based on the size of the prediction unit based on a set of rules. The set of rules specify the size of the transform unit is linked to the size of prediction unit and not a size of the coding unit. The method then outputs the size of the transform unit for use in a transform operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2015
    Assignee: GOOGLE TECHNOLOGY HOLDINGS LLC
    Inventors: Krit Panusopone, Xue Fang, Limin Wang
  • Patent number: 9210396
    Abstract: A 3D parallax value detection unit detects a parallax value between a left-eye image signal and a right-eye image signal in a stereoscopic video signal. A stereoscopic degree determination unit determines a stereoscopic degree of the stereoscopic video signal based on the parallax value. In response to the stereoscopic degree, an image signal conversion unit obtains an amount of pixel shift, by which a pixel of the left-eye image signal or the right-eye image signal is to be shifted, and shifts the pixel by the amount of pixel shift. In such a way, a parallax of the left-eye image signal or the right-eye image signal is adjusted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2015
    Assignee: JVC KENWOOD CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hiroshi Noguchi