Patents Examined by John Strege
  • Patent number: 8831302
    Abstract: A method for anatomical analysis and joint implant design. Embodiments provide users with the ability to anatomically analyze a single bone or a series of bones that exist in a database, evaluate surgical landmarks and axes, identify differences among specific characteristics of a given population, and modify existing implants or create new implant designs based on anatomical analyses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2014
    Inventor: Mohamed Rashwan Mahfouz
  • Patent number: 8818051
    Abstract: A method and system for authenticating financial transactions is disclosed wherein biometric data is acquired from a person and the probability of liveness of the person and probability of a match between the person or token and known biometric or token information are calculated, preferably according to a formula D=P(p)*(K+P(m)), wherein K is a number between 0.1 and 100, and authenticating if the value of D exceeds a predetermined value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2014
    Assignee: EyeLock, Inc.
    Inventors: Hector T. Hoyos, Keith J. Hanna
  • Patent number: 8818112
    Abstract: Example methods and apparatus to perform image classification based on pseudorandom features are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes generating first and second pseudorandom numbers, extracting a first feature of an image based on the first and second pseudorandom numbers, and determining a classification for the image based on the first extracted feature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2014
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventor: Morris Lee
  • Patent number: 8818054
    Abstract: Virtual environments are presented on displays along with multimedia programs to permit viewers to participate in a social interactive television environment. The virtual environments include avatars that are created and maintained in part using continually updated animation data that may be captured from cameras that monitor viewing areas in a plurality of sites. User input from the viewers may be processed in determining which viewers are presented in instances of the virtual environment. Continually updating the animation data results in avatars accurately depicting a viewer's facial expressions and other characteristics. Presence data may be collected and used to determine when to capture background images from a viewing area that may later be subtracted during the capture of animation data. Speech recognition technology may be employed to provide callouts within a virtual environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2014
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Brian Scott Amento, Christopher Harrison, Larry Stead
  • Patent number: 8818083
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a system (1) of remotely controlled drones (10, 12) fitted with respective cameras (14) enabling a virtual shot from an assailant drone (12) at a target drone (10) to be validated by recognizing the target drone (10) in a video image (17) supplied by the camera (14) of the assailant drone (12) while firing a virtual shot. The recognition means comprise a beacon (15, 16) arranged on the target drone (10) and covered in two first strips (18) of a first color reflecting light at a first wavelength lying in the range 590 nm to 745 nm, situated on either side of at least one second strip (19, 20) of a second color reflecting light at a second wavelength, lying in a range 445 nm to 565 nm. It is thus possible to identify very reliably drones flying in an open space whether outdoors or indoors, in spite of the very great variety of interfering details present in the background images that are likely to be picked up by the camera.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2014
    Assignee: Parrot
    Inventors: Claire Jonchery, Thomas Derbanne, Martin Lefebure
  • Patent number: 8818052
    Abstract: A method and system for authenticating financial transactions is disclosed wherein biometric data is acquired from a person and the probability of liveness of the person and probability of a match between the person or token and known biometric or token information are calculated, preferably according to a formula D=P(p)*(K+P(m)) , wherein K is a number between 0.1 and 100, and authenticating if the value of D exceeds a predetermined value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2014
    Assignee: EyeLock, Inc.
    Inventors: Hector T. Hoyos, Keith J. Hanna
  • Patent number: 8811685
    Abstract: According to one general aspect, a method of logging a user in to an apparatus may include automatically detecting, a sensor operably coupled with the apparatus, the presence of a user within a detection area. The method may also include automatically determining the identity of the user in response to detecting the presence of the user within the detection area. The method may further include automatically logging the identified user in to the apparatus based on the determined identity of the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 19, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Bowers, Kevin Tom
  • Patent number: 8798371
    Abstract: The number of pixels in an identified pixel region is counted, a feature point of the pixel region is extracted and the number of the feature points is counted when the number of the pixels counted has been determined to be equal to or higher than a first threshold value, whether the counted number of the feature points is equal to or lower than a second threshold value is determined, features is calculated based on the feature point extracted from the pixel region when the number of the feature points has been determined to be above the second threshold value, and the first threshold value is changed when the number of the feature points has been determined to be equal to or lower than the second threshold value. Image similarity determination process can be stably performed without any degradation in determination accuracy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 5, 2014
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hiroki Yoshino
  • Patent number: 8787623
    Abstract: Methods of providing a diagnosis using a digital code associated with an image are provided including collecting a multidimensional image, the multidimensional image having at least two dimensions; extracting a two dimensional subset of the multidimensional image; reducing the multidimensional image to a first code that is unique to the multidimensional image based on the extracted two dimensional image; comparing the first unique code associated with the subject to a library of reference codes, each of the reference codes in the library of reference codes being indicative of a class of objects; determining if the subject associated with the first unique code falls into at least one of the classes of objects associated with the reference codes based on a result of the comparison; and formulating a diagnostic decision based on the whether the first unique code associated with the subject falls into at least one of the classes associated with the reference code.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2014
    Assignee: Bioptigen, Inc.
    Inventors: Bradley A. Bower, Eric L. Buckland
  • Patent number: 8787630
    Abstract: A multispectral sensor is provided with an illumination source and a digital imaging system. The illumination source is disposed to provide light at multiple wavelengths to an object. The digital imaging system is disposed to receive light scattered from the object and has a digital array of light detectors and a color filter array. The color filter array has a multiple distributed filter elements, each of which is adapted to transmit light of one of a limited number of specified narrowband wavelength ranges. The color filter array is disposed to filter the light scattered from the object prior to encountering the digital array of light detectors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2014
    Assignee: Lumidigm, Inc.
    Inventor: Robert K. Rowe
  • Patent number: 8781178
    Abstract: In one aspect, the present invention is directed to a method and an apparatus for organizing digital media, particularly digital photos, using face recognition. According to a first aspect of the present invention, a computer-based method for organizing digital photos comprises: extracting objects of interest from a plurality of photographs; cropping said plurality of photographs to generate images of isolated objects of interest; applying a recognition algorithm to determine the similarity of isolated objects of interest with a reference; displaying a plurality of objects arranged as a function of the determined similarity; and receiving user input to associate said objects with a particular classification.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2014
    Assignees: FUJIFILM Corporation, Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yasuhiko Nagaoka, Sugiharto Sudiro Widjaja, Yuwen Wu, Jeffery Jon Sunzeri, John E. Adcock, Andreas Girgensohn, Lynn D. Wilcox
  • Patent number: 8781181
    Abstract: A number of biometric systems and methods are disclosed. A system according to one embodiment includes an illumination subsystem, an imaging subsystem, and an analyzer. The illumination subsystem is disposed to illuminate a target space. The imaging subsystem is configured to image the target space under distinct optical conditions. The analyzer is provided in communication with the illumination subsystem, the imaging subsystem, and the three-dimensional subsystem. The analyzer also has instructions to operate the subsystems to collect substantially simultaneously a plurality of images of the object disposed at the predetermined spatial location under multispectral conditions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2014
    Assignee: Lumidigm, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert K. Rowe, Matthew Ennis, Stephen P. Corcoran
  • Patent number: 8781204
    Abstract: There is described a method for checking the authenticity of security documents, in particular banknotes, wherein authentic security documents comprise security features printed, applied or otherwise provided on the security documents, which security features comprise characteristic visual features intrinsic to the processes used for producing the security documents. The method comprises the steps of (i) acquiring a sample image of at least one region of interest of the surface of a candidate document to be authenticated, which region of interest encompasses at least part of the security features, (ii) digitally processing the sample image by performing a decomposition of the sample image into at least one scale sub-space containing high resolution details of the sample image and extracting classifying features from the scale sub-space, and (iii) deriving an authenticity rating of the candidate document based on the extracted classifying features.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2014
    Assignee: KBA-Notasys SA
    Inventors: Volker Lohweg, Eugen Gillich, Johannes Schaede
  • Patent number: 8774520
    Abstract: Images may be sorted and categorized by defining a frustum for each image and overlaying the frustums in two, three, or four dimensions to create a density map and identify points of interest. Images that contain a point of interest may be grouped, sorted, and categorized to determine representative images of the point. By including many images from different sources, common points of interest may be defined. Points of interest may be defined in two or three Euclidian dimensions, or may include a dimension of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Eyal Ofek, Boris Epshtein
  • Patent number: 8761475
    Abstract: A system and method for recognizing and labeling anatomical structures in an image includes creating a list of objects such that one or more objects on the list appear before a target object and setting the image as a context for a first object on the list. The first object is detected and labeled by subtracting a background of the image. A local context is set for a next object on the list using the first object. The next object is detected and labeled by registration using the local context. Setting a local context and detecting and labeling the next object are repeated until the target object is detected and labeled. Labeling of the target object is refined using region growing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Leiguang Gong, Jonathan B. Rohrer, Giridharan R. Iyengar
  • Patent number: 8755604
    Abstract: A system and method may include a processor that groups the glyphs of a document into font character models. OCR processing may be performed to identify the ASCII value of the font character models, with the results mapped to the glyphs contained with those models, thereby identifying the text of the original document. This results in fewer calls to an OCR engine, thereby providing a significant speedup. Further, when a model is assigned differing text values by the OCR engine, the system and method may identify the value most likely to be correct, thereby improving the accuracy of the output text.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2014
    Assignee: CVISION Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Ari David Gross, Raphael Meyers, Navdeep Tinna, Yunhao Shi
  • Patent number: 8737719
    Abstract: An alignment unit control apparatus according to the present invention includes: an imaging section configured to control cameras to image a plurality of regions on a surface of a substrate to generate a plurality of images; a region detecting section configured to select a detection region from the plurality of regions based on the plurality of images; and an aligning section configured to align the substrate based on an alignment image obtained by imaging a mark of the substrate in the detection region by one of the plurality of cameras. For this reason, the alignment unit control apparatus does not need to have another mechanism for the purpose of positioning the mark for alignment in the field of vision of the camera, and can more easily be manufactured, and a region of an alignment mark can be detected more easily.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2014
    Assignees: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., Fast Corporation
    Inventors: Yoichiro Tsumura, Takanori Inaba
  • Patent number: 8737695
    Abstract: In embodiments of photography auto-triage, at least a portion of each photograph in a group of photographs can be analyzed with triage filters of an auto-triage service to identify deficient photographs. The deficient photographs can be identified and then removed from the group of photographs. A compilation of triage-approved photographs is then generated, as well as a compilation of triage-removed photographs can be generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Carlos A. Arguelles
  • Patent number: 8731235
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide a method and a system for fingerprinting a data object at a server system and a method and a system for extracting the fingerprint from the data object at a client system. Sections of a data object are watermarked with known watermark data to create a first and a second variant of the data object, whereby the section boundaries are optionally saved as metadata. Using the metadata, the first and second variant are combined by taking sections from the variants to create a fingerprinted data object. From the fingerprinted data object, the watermark data can be extracted again.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2014
    Assignee: Irdeto B.V.
    Inventors: Joseph Boyd, Peter Marcotte
  • Patent number: 8731267
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, An X-ray CT apparatus includes acquisition unit, intermediate image generating unit, weighting factor calculating unit, and resultant image generating unit. The intermediate image generating unit generates a first image based on a first projection data set and a second image based on a second projection data set. The first projection data set falls within a first view angle range of projection data acquired by the acquisition unit. The second projection data set falls within a second view angle range of the projection data. The second view angle range is narrower than the first view angle range. The weighting factor calculating unit calculates a weighting factor corresponding to a pixel value difference between the first image and the second image. The resultant image generating unit generates a resultant image associated with weighted addition of the first image and the second image based on the weighting factor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2014
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation
    Inventor: Satoru Nakanishi