Patents Examined by Erick Rekstad
  • Patent number: 7239661
    Abstract: A media data processing apparatus includes an input unit that inputs media data and intellectual property management data for managing intellectual property of the media data, a first encoding unit that encodes the media data, a second encoding unit that encodes the intellectual property management data, and a transmission unit that transmitted in packets the encoded media data, first timing information that controls decoding timings for the media data, the encoded intellectual property management data, second timing information that controls decoding timings of the encoded intellectual property management data, and synchronizing information for synchronizing the intellectual property management data and the media data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2007
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Tsutomu Ando
  • Patent number: 7239339
    Abstract: A position detection apparatus that is able to easily detect self-position during autonomous movement by a humanoid robot that moves by the use of legs or automobile.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2001
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2007
    Assignee: Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takaaki Nagai, Shinichi Matsunaga, Yoshiaki Sakagami
  • Patent number: 7236525
    Abstract: A circuit generally comprising a multiport memory, a direct memory access engine and a programmable gate array is disclosed. The direct memory access engine may be configured to transfer a first program to the multiport memory. The programmable gate array may be configured to (i) load the first program directly from the multiported memory to program a codec function and (ii) generate a video output signal by performing the codec function on a video input signal using video data exchanged with the multiport memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2007
    Assignee: LSI Corporation
    Inventor: Eric C. Pearson
  • Patent number: 7215708
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for downscaling video images to a lower resolution (e.g. from HDTV to SDTV) is presented. The method comprising the steps of frequency domain anti-aliasing filtering and downscaling the first video signal in a first direction corresponding with a line direction in the first video signal to obtain a downscaled video signal, and spatial domain downscaling the downscaled video signal in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction to obtain the second video signal. The method and apparatus of the invention are suitable for efficient and high quality decoding both progressive and any-type encoded interlaced signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 2002
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2007
    Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
    Inventors: Konstantin Y. Gagarin, Kees Van Zon
  • Patent number: 7197073
    Abstract: In an MPEG data processing circuit, inputted MPEG system stream is divided into a data block to be processed (for example, video elementary data portion) and a data block to be not processed (for example, non-video elementary data portion). The data to be processed are stored one by one in a primary storing section (a barrel shifter) while the numbers of data stored in the primary storing section or the data to be not processed are stored one by one in a secondary storing section (a FIFO buffer), responsive to kinds of blocks, in a predetermined storing form to be managed. After necessary data processing is conducted on the data of the block to be processed, both the data block to be processed and the data block to be not processed are finally combined to each other to be outputted as an MPEG system stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 2001
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2007
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Yuji Furuta
  • Patent number: 7197077
    Abstract: A single compression engine determines a plurality of discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients based on a discrete cosine transform of a plurality of blocks of data. The single compression engine provides first and second DCT-encoded signals. The first DCT-encoded signal uses at most t coefficient bits to represent each of the DCT coefficients. The second DCT-encoded signal uses at most u coefficient bits, where u is less than t, to represent each of the DCT coefficients.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2001
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2007
    Assignee: SBC Technologies Resources, Inc.
    Inventors: Brad Allen Medford, Ahmad Ansari, Pierre Costa, John Robert Erickson
  • Patent number: 7173648
    Abstract: The present invention relates to visually monitoring an interior portion of a processing chamber in a semiconductor processing system. An image collector collects images of the interior of the chamber and provides an image signal indicative of a visual representation of the interior of the chamber. A viewing station receives the image signal and displays a visual representation of the interior of the chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2007
    Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    Inventors: Khoi Phan, Bharath Rangarajan, Bhanwar Singh, Bryan Choo
  • Patent number: 7167197
    Abstract: An apparatus to evaluate an illuminated panel comprises a camera to acquire a real-time digital color image of the illuminated panel and a stored digital color image of a standard illuminated panel. A monitor is provided to alternately display the real-time image and the stored image to detect any differences in the illuminated panel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2002
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2007
    Assignee: BAE Systems Controls, Inc.
    Inventors: Richard Duane Hill, Stephen P. Cook, Thomas J. Lipko, Robert Burns
  • Patent number: 7154950
    Abstract: Plural sum of absolute difference devices are used to calculate distortions between specified parts of specified images in a video stream. The video can be from a video camera, or other device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2003
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2006
    Assignees: Intel Corporation, Analog Devices, Inc.
    Inventors: Bradley C. Aldrich, Jose Fridman
  • Patent number: 7151800
    Abstract: A decoder for decoding a plurality of digital video data is described. In an embodiment, the decoder comprises a DV video decoder for decoding digital video data which is formatted according to the DV standard. The DV video decoder has a Very-Long Instruction Word (VLIW) processor and a variable length decoding unit. The VLIW processor includes a preparser unit for recovering a decoding order of the digital video data so that the variable length decoding unit can process the digital video data. The variable length decoding unit decodes a variable length coding format of the digital video data which has been preparsed by the VLIW processor. Furthermore, the VLIW processor includes a decompression unit for decompressing the digital video data which has been decoded by the variable length decoding unit. In an embodiment, the VLIW processor and the variable length decoding unit are formed on the same semiconductor device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2000
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2006
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Electronics, Inc.
    Inventors: Amelia C. Luna, Jason (Naxin) Wang
  • Patent number: 7136091
    Abstract: A vehicle imaging apparatus for generating a picture of a wide are in an inexpensive manner without affecting the aesthetic appeal of the vehicle. The vehicle imaging apparatus generates a picture of a predetermined area outside a vehicle having a rearview mirror. The vehicle imaging apparatus includes a reflection mirror arranged in the rearview mirror and having a curved surface. An imaging device is arranged in the rearview mirror to generate a picture from an image reflected on the reflection mirror. The rearview mirror is located on the passenger side of the vehicle and has a housing. The reflection mirror is arranged in a lower portion of the rearview mirror so that an upper portion of the reflection mirror is covered by the housing and a portion excluding the upper portion is exposed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2002
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2006
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Tokai Rika Denki Seisakusho
    Inventors: Takashi Ichikawa, Terumasa Suyama
  • Patent number: 7133450
    Abstract: The present invention relates to methods and devices for compression and multi-screen process of digital video signals by multi-thread scaling. The method comprises. (a) a step to scale the resolutions of digital video signals; and (b) a step to compress or process for multi-screens the scaled digital video signals. The device comprises: multi-channel analog/digital converters, a compression FIFO; a multi-screen FIFO; a CPU which initializes each channel's analog/digital converter, and a video processor which transmits to the video memory. The processor for compression/multi-screen process may conduct the compression and multi-screen process sequentially from the compression FIFO and the multi-screen FIFO depending on the even/odd fields of the signals Thus, the method and device uses N analog/digital converters for the same N channels while providing the same function as the conventional system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2001
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2006
    Assignee: Posdata Company Ltd.
    Inventor: Cha-Gyun Jeong
  • Patent number: 7124429
    Abstract: A video decoding apparatus comprises a demultiplexer which demultiplexes multi-bit streams to extract a coded bit stream, a decoder which decodes the coded bit stream, a sync signal detector which detects the sync information from the bit stream, and informs the decoder of the sync information, an error checker which checks an error based on output information of the decoder, and an important information construction device which constructs the important information from header information output from the decoder, and informs the decoder of the important information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2006
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Takeshi Nagai, Yoshihiro Kikuchi, Tadaaki Masuda
  • Patent number: 7116351
    Abstract: An imaging device includes a plurality of plane mirrors disposed into a polygonal pyramid shape, and a plurality of cameras disposed so as to individually face to the plurality of plane mirrors, wherein each of the plurality of cameras includes a lens, and an incident angle of a light beam traveling along an optical axis of the lens of each of the plurality of cameras on the corresponding one of the plurality of plane mirrors is less than 45°. With this configuration, the sizes of the mirrors and the whole size of the imaging device are reduced, to thereby miniaturize the imaging device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2002
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2006
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Koichi Yoshikawa
  • Patent number: 7113546
    Abstract: In a specific embodiment of the present invention, a system and method is disclosed having a plurality of modes for providing and/or receiving compressed video data at a frame buffer memory. The modes include providing compressed video data directly from a system host system or through a direct memory access controller; or indirectly from a system host through a demultiplexer portion using one or more registers to receive and handle a transport stream. Another mode of operation includes receiving a transport stream containing compressed video data from a head end system. The compressed video data is subsequently processed through a demultiplexer portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2006
    Assignee: ATI Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Branko Kovacevic, Kevork Kechichian
  • Patent number: 7113542
    Abstract: An image editing apparatus which edits image data coded by an MPEG method includes an image encoder which codes the image data, an image decoder which decodes the coded image data, and an image data analyzer which determines an attribute of each GOP and a type of each image frame. The image data analyzer determines whether a head GOP of an area to be edited is a closed GOP or not. In a case where the image data analyzer determines that the head GOP is not a closed GOP, the image encoder converts a portion near the head of the area to be edited into a closed GOP.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2002
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2006
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Mitsumasa Tanaka
  • Patent number: 7099389
    Abstract: A method of rate control using a picture-based lookahead sliding window in a dual-pass transcoder/encoder compressed video architecture extracts statistics from an input video signal according to a simple compression standard, the input video signal being a compressed video signal for transcoding or an uncompressed video signal for encoding. A trans-factor is calculated for a current picture based on previous pictures in a sliding window to predict the complexity of the current picture, the trans-factor being a ratio of global complexity measures for the simple compression standard versus a sophisticated compression standard. Bits for the current picture are then allocated based on the complexity of future pictures in the sliding window. After encoding the current picture according to the sophisticated compression standard, the target bits of and the picture complexity in the sliding window, as well as the trans-factor, are updated as the window is moved by one picture.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2002
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2006
    Assignee: Tut Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Guoyao Yu, Zhi Zhou, Charles H. Van Dusen
  • Patent number: 7098940
    Abstract: Herein disclosed is a surveillance system, comprising: a camera unit for transforming an image into an image signal and outputting the image signal, and a display unit having a screen and operative to transform into an image the image signal outputted by the camera unit to display the image on the screen. The camera unit is operative to automatically chase an object as a chasing target to have the display unit display the object as the chasing target. The display unit includes marker displaying means for displaying a marker on the screen; and chasing target determining means for determining the object spaced apart from the marker at a predetermined distance as the chasing target among the images displayed on the screen.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2006
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazuya Suzuki, Toshikazu Saito, Kazuo Ota
  • Patent number: 7100190
    Abstract: A communications system incorporating a plurality of vehicle mounted web cams that collect video information and transmit the video information together with other local information via a wireless network to a server. The video streams from the web cams and associated information are available to users on a internet web page. Each camera has a specific identifier to permit users to access the video of specific individual cameras. Optimization software permits users to take virtual trips along predetermined routes. The system also permits sequential access to multiple video feeds from desired locations. Multiple alternative one way and two way video communication methods taking advantage of the network of mobile web cams are described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2006
    Assignee: Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Steven M Johnson, Kikuo Hayashi, Kevin Mark Ashcraft, Camille M Szalankiewicz
  • Patent number: 7095444
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for deconstructing video into a hierarchical structure, distributing the deconstructed video and reconstructing the deconstructed video to form a video signal having characteristics that match the capabilities of a user device. The video stream may be deconstructed using a single dimension deconstruction or a multidimensional deconstruction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2000
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2006
    Assignee: SRI International
    Inventors: Patrick D. Lincoln, David W. J. Stringer-Calvert, Steven M. Dawson