Patents Examined by Jamie Atala
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Patent number: 9571796Abstract: A solution including a noncontact electronic measurement device is provided. The measurement device includes one or more imaging devices configured to acquire image data of a surface of an object located in a measurement region relative to the measurement device and one or more projected pattern generators configured to generate divergent pattern(s) of structured light, which impact the surface of the object within a field of view of the imaging device when the object is located in the measurement region. Using image data acquired by the imaging device(s), a computer system can measure a set of attributes of the surface of the object and/or automatically determine whether the measurement device is within the measurement region. An embodiment is configured to be held by a human user during operation.Type: GrantFiled: March 19, 2014Date of Patent: February 14, 2017Assignee: International Electronic Machines Corp.Inventors: Zahid F. Mian, Ryk E. Spoor, Ronald W. Gamache
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Patent number: 9565399Abstract: In an oxygen saturation level measurement mode, a color image sensor images an internal body portion alternately irradiated with measurement light and normal light. A normal image is produced from image data obtained under irradiation with the normal light. An oxygen saturation level is calculated from image data obtained under irradiation with the measurement light. Based on the oxygen saturation level, a hyperoxic region and a hypoxic region are determined in the normal image. A color balance process and a color enhancement process are applied to the hyperoxic region to improve visibility of depressions and projections of internal body tissue and a blood vessel pattern. A gain process is applied to the hypoxic region to make distinct color variations according to the degree of the oxygen saturation level.Type: GrantFiled: August 29, 2013Date of Patent: February 7, 2017Assignee: FUJIFILM CorporationInventor: Masahiro Kubo
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Patent number: 9564175Abstract: A method for clustering images includes acquiring initial image data including a scene of interest. A 3D model is constructed of the scene of interest based on the acquired initial image data. Additional image data including the scene of interest is acquired. The additional image data is fitted to the 3D model. A line-of-sight of the additional image data is estimated based on the fitting to the 3D model. The additional image data is clustered according to the estimated line-of-sight.Type: GrantFiled: April 2, 2013Date of Patent: February 7, 2017Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATIONInventors: Arup Acharya, Kirk A. Beaty, Puneet Jain, Justin G. Manweiler
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Patent number: 9557553Abstract: Methods and apparatus for automatically expanding the eyebox of an optical imaging device by tracking the movement of an operator's eye, and automatically repositioning the exit pupil of the optical imaging device to follow the movement of the eye.Type: GrantFiled: October 10, 2013Date of Patent: January 31, 2017Assignee: RAYTHEON CANADA LIMITEDInventor: Stanislaw Szapiel
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Patent number: 9554144Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for inducing a merge candidate block and a device using same. An image decoding method involves decoding motion estimation region (MER) related information; determining whether or not a predicted target block and a spatial merge candidate block are included in the same MER; and determining the spatial merge candidate block to be an unavailable merge candidate block when the predicted target block and the spatial merge candidate block are included in the same MER. Accordingly, by parallely performing the method for inducing a merge candidate, parallel processing is enabled and the computation amount and implementation complexity are reduced.Type: GrantFiled: December 16, 2015Date of Patent: January 24, 2017Assignee: KT CORPORATIONInventors: Bae Keun Lee, Jae Cheol Kwon, Joo Young Kim
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Patent number: 9549189Abstract: A method for media rate control in a video encoding system disclosed. In one embodiment, an optimal remaining one of the three parameter sets (Sk) is computed based on the provided user configuration inputs of two parameters sets (Si, Sj), wherein the user configuration inputs comprise two parameter sets (Si and Sj) out of three parameter sets (Si, Sj, and Sk), wherein the three parameter sets are latency parameter set, channel bandwidth parameter set, and video quality parameter set. The video encoding system is then configured based on the provided two parameter sets (Si, Sj) and the computed parameter set (Sk) to obtain a desired media rate control having optimal performance.Type: GrantFiled: November 6, 2012Date of Patent: January 17, 2017Assignee: ITTIAM SYSTEMS (P) LTD.Inventors: Chaitanya Kumar Matcha, Durga Venkatanarayanababu Laveti, Puneet Gupta, Swapan Kumar Kundu, Bhavani Gopalakrishna Rao
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Patent number: 9530310Abstract: Methods and systems for detecting a vehicle of interest utilizing one or more traffic image-capturing units and a centralized server. A request from an authority to detect a vehicle of interest with respect to an incident can be verified based on particular criteria. One or more of the image-capturing units can be selected along with location information stored in a database in order to enable a search. A notification can be sent to the authority upon identification of the vehicle of interest by the image-capturing unit(s). An area or radius of search can be calculated to alert one or more other image-capturing units for use in tracking the vehicle of interest. Data regarding the vehicle of interest can then be transmitted to an incident management module to dynamically update details regarding detection of the vehicle of interest.Type: GrantFiled: November 1, 2013Date of Patent: December 27, 2016Assignee: Xerox CorporationInventors: Eugene Evanitsky, Joseph Martin St. Germaine
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Patent number: 9530209Abstract: A combination probe is positioned at a location in a stationary portion of a turbo machine that defines a gas flow path and is configured to detect a moving portion of the turbo machine within the gas flow path. The combination probe includes a tip timing sensor configured to sense when the moving portion is located proximate to the location of the probe, and an optical component configured to have a field of view that includes the moving portion when the moving portion is located proximate to the location of the probe. There is also an image capture device coupled to the optical component to capture an image of the field of view. The image can be used to determine the particular blade tip location within the field of view which is also the blade tip location sensed by the tip timing sensor.Type: GrantFiled: January 15, 2014Date of Patent: December 27, 2016Assignee: SIEMENS ENERGY, INC.Inventors: Clifford Hatcher, Jr., Joseph M. Brindisi
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Patent number: 9510019Abstract: Encoding and decoding a video image having a plurality of frames using a two-step quantization and coding process are disclosed. A block of a frame are encoded by identifying pixels having certain spatial characteristics, forming a second block from the block while replacing the identified pixels with a single pixel value, such as an average of the remaining original pixels. The second block is encoded, such as by transformation and quantization, and placed into a bitstream. The second block is decoded and subtracted from the original block to generate a difference block. The difference block is encoded, such as by quantization, and is placed in the bitstream. At a decoder, both blocks are decoded and combined to reconstruct the original block.Type: GrantFiled: August 9, 2012Date of Patent: November 29, 2016Assignee: GOOGLE INC.Inventors: Qunshan Gu, Yaowu Xu
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Patent number: 9509920Abstract: A method of automatically tracking and photographing celestial objects which captures a still image of a celestial object(s) where each celestial object appears stationary simply by making an exposure with a camera directed toward an arbitrary-selected celestial object and fixed with respect to the ground and without using an equatorial, and also a camera that employs this method.Type: GrantFiled: April 27, 2011Date of Patent: November 29, 2016Assignee: RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD.Inventor: Makoto Ohta
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Patent number: 9491465Abstract: An image coding method including: binarizing last position information to generate (i) a binary signal which includes a first signal having a length smaller than or equal to a predetermined maximum length and does not include a second signal or (ii) a binary signal which includes the first signal having the predetermined maximum length and the second signal; first coding for arithmetically coding each of binary symbols included in the first signal using a context switched among a plurality of contexts according to a bit position of the binary symbol; and second coding for arithmetically coding the second signal using a fixed probability when the binary signal includes the second signal, wherein in the first coding, a binary symbol at a last bit position of the first signal is arithmetically coded using a context exclusive to the last bit position, when the first signal has the predetermined maximum length.Type: GrantFiled: November 27, 2013Date of Patent: November 8, 2016Assignee: TAGIVAN II LLCInventors: Hisao Sasai, Takahiro Nishi, Youji Shibahara, Toshiyasu Sugio, Kyoko Tanikawa, Toru Matsunobu, Kengo Terada
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Patent number: 9485515Abstract: Techniques are described to use a reference motion vector to reduce the amount of bits needed to encode motion vectors for inter prediction. One method includes identifying a candidate motion vector used to inter predict each of a plurality of previously coded blocks to define a plurality of candidate motion vectors, identifying a set of reconstructed pixel values corresponding to a set of previously coded pixels for the current block, and generating, using each candidate motion vector, a corresponding set of predicted values for the set of previously coded pixel values within each reference frame of a plurality of reference frames. A respective error value based on a difference between the set of reconstructed pixel values and each set of predicted values is used to select a reference motion vector from the candidate motion vectors that is used to encode the motion vector for the current block.Type: GrantFiled: August 23, 2013Date of Patent: November 1, 2016Assignee: GOOGLE INC.Inventors: Yaowu Xu, Paul Gordon Wilkins, Adrian William Grange, Ronald Sebastiaan Bultje
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Patent number: 9473170Abstract: An entropy decoder is configured to, for horizontal and vertical components of motion vector differences, derive a truncated unary code from the data stream using context-adaptive binary entropy decoding with exactly one context per bin position of the truncated unary code, which is common for horizontal and vertical components of the motion vector differences, and an Exp-Golomb code using a constant equi-probability bypass mode to obtain the binarizations of the motion vector differences. A desymbolizer is configured to debinarize the binarizations of the motion vector difference syntax elements to obtain integer values of the horizontal and vertical components of the motion vector differences; A reconstructor is configured to reconstruct a video based on the integer values of the horizontal and vertical components of the motion vector differences.Type: GrantFiled: December 16, 2013Date of Patent: October 18, 2016Assignee: GE VIDEO COMPRESSION, LLCInventors: Valeri George, Benjamin Bross, Heiner Kirchhoffer, Detlev Marpe, Tung Nguyen, Matthias Preiss, Mischa Siekmann, Jan Stegemann, Thomas Wiegand
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Patent number: 9472094Abstract: A display device includes a display portion for displaying a video, a generator for generating a synchronization signal including a command signal synchronized with display of frame images of the video and a transmitter for transmitting the synchronization signal. The command signal including a predetermined member of pulse signals has a leading pulse signal for notifying a start of the command signal, a terminal pulse signal for notifying an end of the command signal and a control pulse signal for notifying a content of synchronization control synchronized with the display of the frame images.Type: GrantFiled: February 16, 2012Date of Patent: October 18, 2016Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANGEMENT CO., LTD.Inventors: Kazuhiro Mihara, Hiroshi Mitani, Shuji Inoue, Masanobu Inoe, Katsuo Saigo, Seiji Nakazawa
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Patent number: 9466011Abstract: Method and system for coordinating between separate image sensors imaging a mutual area of interest at different imaging perspectives. A target point is designated on a first image acquired by a first image sensor. Feature points are defined and characterized on the first image and transmitted over a data communication link to a second image sensor. The target point is identified in a second image acquired by the second image sensor using an iterative convergence operation. The first iteration involves locating feature points in the second image corresponding to the defined first image feature points. Subsequent iterations involve locating feature points in a subregion of the second image corresponding to decreasing subsets of first image feature points, the subregion defined by the feature point cluster located in the previous iteration. When a termination condition is reached, the remaining cluster of located feature points is established to represent the target point.Type: GrantFiled: May 28, 2014Date of Patent: October 11, 2016Assignee: Elbit Systems Land and C4l Ltd.Inventors: Benny Goldman, Ido Bergman
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Patent number: 9462270Abstract: Systems, apparatus and methods can operate to generate frame aligned digital video streams encoded at different bitrates from a common digital video stream. To provide uninterrupted playback of video content when a device switches from one stream encoded at one bit rate to the same digital video stream encoded at another bitrate, the video frames of the digital video streams can be aligned. To provide for proper frame alignment between fragments representing the same frame of a digital video stream encoded at different bitrates, video encoding device(s) can mark decoded digital pictures for subsequent encoding at different bit rates when the division of a program reference clock value by the fragment period approaches an integer value.Type: GrantFiled: December 10, 2012Date of Patent: October 4, 2016Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises, Inc.Inventors: John Lan, Santhana Chari
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Patent number: 9462254Abstract: An image sensor 2 includes: a photoelectric conversion layer 1d including a plurality of photosensitive cells; a reflective layer 1c that reflects light that has been transmitted through the photoelectric conversion layer 1d; a micro lens layer 1a that includes a plurality of micro lenses that are arranged between the photoelectric conversion layer 1d and the reflective layer 1c; and a transmitted light controlling layer 1b that is arranged between the photoelectric conversion layer 1d and the reflective layer 1c and that is able to change optical transmittance in accordance with an instruction given by a controller. The micro lens layer 1a is arranged so that light that has been transmitted through one of the photosensitive cells and then reflected from the reflective layer 1c is incident on the same photosensitive cell again.Type: GrantFiled: January 16, 2013Date of Patent: October 4, 2016Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.Inventors: Masao Hiramoto, Yasunori Ishii, Yusuke Monobe
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Patent number: 9453500Abstract: A method and apparatus for ground or unmanned aerial vehicle based wind turbine blade inspection consisting of a thermal imaging camera configured to detect the presence of defects by acquiring thermal imaging data from a rotating wind turbine blade when it is not exposed to solar radiation heating and analyzing the thermal imaging data with a processor to identify thermal effects associated with latent defects or damage caused by internal friction due to cyclic gravitational stresses and wind loads during normal turbine operation or aerodynamic cooling of the area around a breach in the blade shell by escaping air, or blockage of residual heat flow or thermoelectric emissions from the rotating blade by the presence of delamination or crushing damage to the blade shell. The system permits latent defects to be identified using a ground-based in situ inspection before they become easily visually apparent, which allowing repairs to be made economically while the blade is in place.Type: GrantFiled: August 26, 2014Date of Patent: September 27, 2016Assignee: Digital Wind Systems, Inc.Inventor: John W. Newman
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Patent number: 9451274Abstract: To allow improved high dynamic range image encoding, we describe an image encoding unit (551) arranged to encode a high dynamic range image (IM_HDR-in) comprising: a first receiver (901) for receiving a lower dynamic range (SELR); a first code mapping unit (904) arranged to encode in a first image (Im_1) all pixels of the high dynamic range image (IM_HDR-in) with luminances within the lower dynamic range (SELR); a second receiver (902) for receiving a maximal redundancy (MAXRED), which specifies to which amount luminances already encoded in the first image (Im_1) need to be redundantly encoded again; an image processing unit (903) arranged to determine, based upon the maximal redundancy (MAXRED), which pixels of the high dynamic range image (IM_HDR-in) need to be encoded in a second image (Im_2); a second code mapping unit (905) arranged to encode in the second image (Im_2) luminances of the pixels of the high dynamic range image (IM_HDR-in) which need to be encoded in the second image (Im_2); and a formatterType: GrantFiled: April 20, 2012Date of Patent: September 20, 2016Assignee: KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.Inventor: Mark Jozef Willem Mertens
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Patent number: 9451262Abstract: The present disclosure provides a method and apparatus for intra prediction encoding/decoding. The method includes: selecting an intra prediction mode of each block to be encoded; encoding a residual block generated through an intra prediction of the block according to the selected intra prediction mode to generate a coefficient bit; encoding a mode identifier for indicating the intra prediction mode according to the predetermined mode determination method to generate a mode bit; generating a bitstream including a mode bit field including a mode bit for one or more blocks and a coefficient bit field including a coefficient bit for the block; and including a mode bit field pointer for identifying the mode bit field in the bitstream. The present disclosure simplifies the process of selecting a prediction mode in a video compression to improve a compression speed and decreases a size of compressed data to improve the compression efficiency.Type: GrantFiled: August 21, 2010Date of Patent: September 20, 2016Assignee: SK TELECOM CO., LTD.Inventors: Sunyeon Kim, Yunglyul Lee, Joohee Moon, Haekwang Kim, Byeungwoo Jeon, Daeyeon Kim, Jeongyeon Lim