Patents Examined by Jill Sechser
  • Patent number: 10129490
    Abstract: A thermal imaging system includes a thermal imaging sensor configured to capture thermal images of assets in an environment, a non-thermal imaging sensor coupled to the thermal sensor and being configured to capture non-thermal images of the assets, an image alignment system, an image correction system, and a controller configured to control operation of the thermal and non-thermal imaging sensors, the image alignment system, and the image correction system. The controller is configured to determine, using the image correction system, that data representative of a reflective surface is present in a present thermal view of a particular asset, cause the thermal and non-thermal imaging sensors to capture pose-corrected images, generate pose corrected thermal and non-thermal images, with at least one having corrected thermal data corresponding to a location of the reflective surface, and associate the corrected thermal data with the at least one reflective surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2018
    Assignee: HEMA IMAGING LLC
    Inventor: Erik Beall
  • Patent number: 10116885
    Abstract: A thermal imaging system includes a thermal imaging sensor configured to capture thermal images of assets in an environment, a non-thermal imaging sensor coupled to the thermal sensor and being configured to capture non-thermal images of the assets, an image alignment system configured to adjust an orientation of a present thermal view of the particular asset and a present non-thermal view of the particular asset, a controller configured to control operation of the thermal imaging sensor, the non-thermal imaging sensor, and the image alignment system, and a remote computing device having a change detection system and being configured to receive the captured thermal and non-thermal images of the particular asset. The controller is configured to cause the sensors to capture thermal and non-thermal images. Upon receiving the captured thermal and non-thermal images, the change detection system is configured to detect a change in at least one characteristic of the asset.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2018
    Assignee: HEMA IMAGING LLC
    Inventor: Erik Beall
  • Patent number: 10116884
    Abstract: A thermal imaging system includes a thermal imaging sensor adapted to capture any number of thermal images of any number of assets in an environment, a non-thermal imaging sensor coupled to the thermal sensor and being adapted to capture any number of non-thermal images of the assets, an asset identification system adapted to identify a particular asset from the assets, an image alignment system, and a controller adapted to control operation of the thermal imaging sensor, the non-thermal imaging sensor, the asset identification system, and the image alignment system. Upon identifying the particular asset via the asset identification system, the controller is adapted to control the image alignment system to adjust an orientation of the thermal image and the non-thermal image and cause the thermal imaging sensor and the non-thermal imaging sensor to capture the image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2018
    Assignee: HEMA IMAGING LLC
    Inventors: Erik Beall, Marius Popescu
  • Patent number: 10104391
    Abstract: Methods and systems for improving coding efficiency of video. In one aspect of the disclosure, efficiency may be improved by trimming candidate motion vectors used for spatial and/or temporal prediction. In another aspect of the disclosure, efficiency may be improved by choosing selective combinations of syntax elements from video data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2018
    Assignee: Dolby International AB
    Inventors: Yeping Su, Christopher A. Segall
  • Patent number: 10038916
    Abstract: Encoding and decoding architectures for 3D video delivery are described, such as 2D compatible 3D video delivery and frame compatible 3D video delivery. The architectures include pre-processing stages to pre-process the output of a base layer video encoder and/or decoder and input the pre-processed output into an enhancement layer video encoder and/or decoder of one or more enhancement layers. Multiplexing methods of how to combine the base and enhancement layer videos are also described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2018
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Alexandros Tourapis, Peshala V. Pahalawatta, Athanasios Leontaris, Kevin J. Stec, Walter J. Husak
  • Patent number: 10037473
    Abstract: A vehicle exterior environment recognition apparatus includes a computer configured to serve as a vehicle identifier, a candidate identifier, a cover identifier, and a lamp determiner. The vehicle identifier identifies, from an image captured by an image-capturing unit, a preceding vehicle and a vehicle region occupied by the preceding vehicle. The candidate identifier identifies, as a light-emission source candidate, a candidate determinable as a light-emission source in the identified vehicle region. The cover identifier identifies a cover in the identified vehicle region. The cover covers the light-emission source. The lamp determiner determines whether the light-emission source candidate is a lighted lamp, based on a lighted-state determination threshold and one of the number of pixels and pixel area of the identified light-emission source candidate. The lighted-state determination threshold is based on one of the number of pixels and pixel area of the cover identified by the cover identifier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2018
    Assignee: SUBARU CORPORATION
    Inventor: Seisuke Kasaoki
  • Patent number: 10023341
    Abstract: A pharmaceutical filling system for a high volume pharmacy is described. The system can include a spill detection subsystem and method. The system can include a cameras to take images that a processed to determine presence of a spilled pharmaceutical. A mirror portion is provided so that the camera can take images of the entire field of the filling area. The mirror portion can be a concave mirror that increases the field of view of the camera. A light panel can illuminate the field of view to allow the camera to take high speed images. A controller can receive a series of at least two images captured by the camera and determine whether an object in the captured images is a spilled pharmaceutical.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2018
    Assignee: Express Scripts Strategic Development, Inc.
    Inventor: Jerry W. Christopher
  • Patent number: 10021368
    Abstract: A mobile terminal including a front body including a touch screen located on a front side of the mobile terminal; a rear body located at a rear side of the mobile terminal, the rear body including at least one hole; a bracket accommodated between the front body and the rear body, the bracket formed as a unibody, the bracket including third and fourth holes corresponding to the at least one hole; a first camera coupled with the bracket, the first camera positioned at the third hole of the bracket; a second camera coupled with the bracket, the second camera positioned at the fourth hole of the bracket; a camera flash positioned between the first and second cameras; a main printed circuit board (PCB) including electronic components and electronic circuits for operation of the mobile terminal; a camera PCB coupled with the first and second cameras; and a connector extended from the camera PCB and electrically connected to the main PCB.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2018
    Assignee: LG ELECTRONICS INC.
    Inventors: Ramchan Woo, Byungjoon Kim, Jinho Jang, Chiyoung Kim, Jaeyeol Kim
  • Patent number: 9992505
    Abstract: An image decoding method for decoding a bitstream including a coded signal resulting from coding slices into which an image is partitioned and each of which includes coding units, includes decoding the coded signal, wherein each of the slices is either a normal slice having, in a slice header, information used for another slice or a dependent slice which is decoded using information included in a slice header of another slice, the image includes rows each of which includes coding units, and when the normal slice starts at a position other than the beginning of the first row, the second row immediately following the first row does not start with the dependent slice.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2018
    Assignee: Velos Media, LLC
    Inventors: Semih Esenlik, Matthias Narroschke, Thomas Wedi
  • Patent number: 9967563
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for loop filter processing of boundary pixels across a block boundary aligned with a slice or tile boundary is disclosed. Embodiments according to the present invention use a parameter of a neighboring slice or tile for loop filter processing across slice or tile boundaries according to a flag indicating whether cross slice or tile loop filter processing is allowed not. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the parameter is a quantization parameter corresponding to a neighboring slice or tile, and the quantization parameter is used for filter decision in deblocking filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2018
    Assignee: HFI INNOVATION INC.
    Inventors: Chih-Wei Hsu, Chia-Yang Tsai, Yu-Wen Huang
  • Patent number: 9948942
    Abstract: An image decoding method for decoding a bitstream including a coded signal resulting from coding tiles and slices into which an image is partitioned, the method including decoding the coded signal, wherein each of the slices is either a normal slice having, in a header, information used for an other slice or a dependent slice which is decoded using information included in a slice header of another slice, and when the normal slice starts from a position other than a beginning of a first tile, a second tile coded next to the first the does not start from the dependent slice.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2018
    Assignee: SUN PATENT TRUST
    Inventors: Semih Esenlik, Matthias Narroschke, Thomas Wedi
  • Patent number: 9883145
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, an onboard camera automatic calibration apparatus includes at least a road surface point selection unit, an amount-of-rotation-around-Z-axis calculation unit and a coordinate rotation correction unit. The road surface point selection unit selects multiple points not less than three on a road surface in a predetermined image among the multiple images obtained by an onboard camera and selects multiple combinations of two points from among the multiple points. The amount-of-rotation-around-Z-axis calculation unit determines, in a camera coordinate system with an optical axis as a Z axis, an amount of rotation around the Z axis such that the road surface is parallel to an X axis, based on the multiple combinations and motion vectors. The coordinate rotation correction unit performs rotation correction around the Z axis for the images obtained by the onboard camera based on the determined amount of rotation around the Z axis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2018
    Assignee: TOSHIBA ALPINE AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kiyoyuki Kawai
  • Patent number: 9872614
    Abstract: A brightness information generation unit 13 generates brightness profiles, serving as brightness information, from each Sobel image formed by an image transformation unit. A feature point detection unit 14 extracts feature points from the generated brightness information. In this case, maximum points (hereinafter, referred to as “peaks”) in the brightness profiles generated from the Sobel image are determined and detected as feature points. A layered structure identification unit 15 identifies the kind of the boundary of each layer or that of the layer in the retina. To identify the kind of the layer or boundary, brightness values in an area between the peaks are obtained from a median image and the layered structure in the area between the peaks is determined, thus identifying the kind of the layer or boundary corresponding to each peak on the basis of information indicating the determination.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2018
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Yuta Nakano
  • Patent number: 9841293
    Abstract: An in-vehicle information apparatus includes a main unit having a display device, and a navigation unit providing a navigation function to the main unit. The navigation unit includes a navigation processing unit a sub unit providing an addition function to the navigation unit, and a navigation unit screen generating unit which generates a navigation unit screen for displaying information concerning a function which the navigation unit provides. The main unit includes an operation unit which receives an input for selecting a function from a user, a main unit screen generating unit which generates a main unit screen for displaying information concerning a function which the main unit provides, and a video selector which selects one of the navigation unit screen and the main unit screen.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2017
    Assignee: CALRION CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kiyoshi Nakayama, Masato Takahashi
  • Patent number: 9823101
    Abstract: A method for the rapid optical inspection of stents is described wherein a stent is mounted on a mandrel with optical properties suitable for machine vision inspection of the stent is conveyed to a first inspection station containing a camera and illumination light source. A driving member securely contacts the mandrel and the stent is rotated in view of the inspection camera. The stent is then transferred to a second location for further operations. A unique identification tag is associated with each mandrel and tracks the location of the stent through the inspection process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2017
    Assignee: Electro Scientific Industries, Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel Freifeld, John Roberts, John B. Burnett, George Linscott
  • Patent number: 9813691
    Abstract: A mobile terminal can include a front body including a touch screen, a rear body coupled to the front body and including first and second holes, first and second cameras corresponding to the first and second holes, a bracket including third and fourth holes corresponding to the first and second cameras, the bracket surrounding the first and second cameras, a main printed circuit board (PCB), a first camera PCB coupled to the first camera, a second camera PCB coupled to the second camera and separated from the first camera PCB, a first connector extended from the first camera PCB and electrically connected to the main PCB, and a second connector extended from the second camera PCB and electrically connected to the main PCB, in which the first camera is inserted into the third hole of the bracket and the second camera is inserted into the fourth hole of the bracket.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Assignee: LG ELECTRONICS INC.
    Inventors: Ramchan Woo, Byungjoon Kim, Jinho Jang, Chiyoung Kim, Jaeyeol Kim
  • Patent number: 9801778
    Abstract: A system and method for assisting a visually impaired user including an imaging device, a processing unit for receiving images from the imaging device and converting the images into signals for use by one or more controllers, and one or more vibro-tactile devices, wherein the one or more controllers activates one or more of the vibro-tactile devices in response to said signals received from the processing unit. The system preferably includes a lanyard to be worn around the neck of the user such that a first vibro-tactile device is arranged on the right side of the user's neck, a second vibro-tactile device on a left side of the user's neck, and a third vibro-tactile device at the back portion of the user's neck. The vibro-tactile devices are activated depending on a determined position in front of the user of an object and the distance from the user to the object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2017
    Inventor: Andrew Mahoney
  • Patent number: 9792515
    Abstract: An apparatus and a method recognizes stamped characters, detects stamped depths of characters using the same, and/or accurately recognizes characters even when an image distortion occurs at stamped portion due to different stamped depths of characters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2017
    Assignee: Hyundai Motor Company
    Inventor: Jae Hun Song
  • Patent number: 9784579
    Abstract: A measuring system comprising a fixed measurement unit (101), a data processing unit (130) and a mobile unit (120). The mobile unit comprises a planar base (111), a reflector (118), an elevation element (119) fixed to the base and the reflector, and attaching the reflector to a fixed position in respect of the base. The mobile unit comprises also mobility means (112) for moving the base along a surface (113) such that the spatial orientation of the base (114) substantially corresponds with the spatial orientation of the currently underlying part of the surface. In addition the mobile unit comprises tilt measuring means (123) for determining a deviation between the spatial orientation of the base and a plane perpendicular to the ambient gravitational force, and tilt elimination means for eliminating the effect of the determined deviation. Measurement results are thus more accurate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: KONECRANES GLOBAL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Juha Sunio, Jonna Nousiainen, Matti Pekkarinen
  • Patent number: 9774882
    Abstract: Encoding and decoding architectures for 3D video delivery are described, such as 2D compatible 3D video delivery and frame compatible 3D video delivery. The architectures include pre-processing stages to pre-process the output of a base layer video encoder and/or decoder and input the pre-processed output into an enhancement layer video encoder and/or decoder of one or more enhancement layers. Multiplexing methods of how to combine the base and enhancement layer videos are also described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2017
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Alexandros Tourapis, Peshala V. Pahalawatta, Athanasios Leontaris, Kevin J. Stec, Walter J. Husak