Patents Examined by John Strege
  • Patent number: 9464992
    Abstract: An automated defect inspection system has been invented and is used on patterned wafers, whole wafers, broken wafers, partial wafers, sawn wafers such as on film frames, JEDEC trays, Auer boats, die in gel or waffle packs, MCMs, etc., and is specifically intended and designed for second optical wafer inspection for such defects as metalization defects (such as scratches, voids, corrosion, and bridging), diffusion defects, passivation layer defects, scribing defects, glassivation defects, chips and cracks from sawing, solder bump defects, and bond pad area defects.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2016
    Assignee: Rudolph Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Jeffrey L. O'Dell, Thomas Verburgt, Mark Harless, Cory Watkins
  • Patent number: 9466539
    Abstract: Systems and methods for automated inspection of fillet formation along on or more peripheral edges (13a) of a packaged microelectronic device (14) that is attached to a supporting substrate (16), such system (10) including a feedback loop for controlling fillet formation. More specifically, the system (10) includes a dispensing system (18) configured for dispensing underfill material (22) onto the supporting substrate (16). The system (19) further includes an automated optical inspection (AOI) system (19) configured for determining a value of a measurable attribute of the fillet (12), such as whether the fillet (12) is properly dimensioned, i.e., sized and shaped. A feedback loop (66) is included between the dispensing system (18) and automated optical inspection system (19).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2016
    Assignee: Nordson Corporation
    Inventors: Alec Babiarz, Stephane Etienne, Owen Yikon Sit
  • Patent number: 9460363
    Abstract: A method for estimating a rotation axis and a mass center of a spatial target based on binocular optical flows.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
    Assignee: HUAZHONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Tianxu Zhang, Sufei Fan, Yimeng Chen, Yayun Zheng, Changsheng Chen, Zheng Wang, Huan Wu, Xudong He
  • Patent number: 9456777
    Abstract: Devices, systems, and methods for assessing microbiota of skin are described which include: a skin-covering material with an inner surface conforming in shape to a topography of a skin surface and including a plurality of specific microbe-binding elements; an image capture device to capture an image of the inner surface of the skin-covering material and to transform the image into a digital output including information associated with at least one property and a spatial distribution of at least one type of microbe bound to the specific microbe-binding elements; and a computing device including circuitry configured to receive the digital output from the image-capture device, compare the at least one property of the at least one type of microbe bound to the specific microbe-binding elements with a database of reference microbe properties, and generate a digital profile including the at least one property and the spatial distribution of the at least one type of microbe bound to the specific microbe-binding eleme
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
    Assignee: Elwha LLC
    Inventors: Mahalaxmi G. Bangera, Michael H. Baym, Roderick A. Hyde, Jordin T. Kare, Eric C. Leuthardt, Gary L. McKnight, Tony S. Pan, Katherine E. Sharadin, Elizabeth A. Sweeney, Clarence T. Tegreene, Lowell L. Wood, Jr.
  • Patent number: 9454814
    Abstract: A PACS viewer and an associated method and computer program product are provided for identifying patient orientation. With respect to a PACS viewer, the PACS viewer includes processing circuitry configured to register an image onto a template. The processing circuitry is also configured to determine a representative seed point within each of the left and right lungs as represented by the image. The processing circuitry is further configured to apply an active contour model to each of the left and right lungs to generate a binary image of the left and right lungs. In this regard, the processing circuitry is configured to apply the active contour model by initializing the active contour model with a mask constructed using the representative seed points. Further, the processing circuitry is configured to detect at least one feature from the binary image to permit identification of the left and right lungs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2016
    Assignee: McKesson Financial Holdings
    Inventors: Mahmoud Ramze Rezaee, Darya Abdollahzadeh, Delaram Behnami, Ava Sheikhi Shoshtari, Purang Abolmaesumi
  • Patent number: 9456152
    Abstract: Provided is a blur processing method and apparatus that may determine whether a blur occurs in an image generated by a Time of Flight (ToF) camera, and may deblur a blur using a value of a normal adjacent pixel in which the blur is absent when the blur occurs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2016
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Seung Kyu Lee, Byong Min Kang
  • Patent number: 9454703
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for determining a static element in images captured by an imaging means mounted on a movable device. The method comprises steps of acquiring a first image and a second image captured by the imaging means. The first image and the second image are captured at capture times separated by a time difference and the method is characterized by the time difference being selected depending on motion parameters of the movable device. A determination measure for corresponding regions of the first and the second image for representing a similarity of the corresponding regions is calculated and a static element of the first and the second image is determined based on the calculated determination measure. An output signal comprising information on the determined static element is generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2016
    Assignee: HONDA RESEARCH INSTITUTE EUROPE GMBH
    Inventors: Nils Einecke, Jörg Deigmöller
  • Patent number: 9449218
    Abstract: Certain example embodiments relate to large venue surveillance and reaction systems and/or methods that take into account both subjective emotional attributes of persons having relations to the large venues, and objective measures such as, for example, actual or expected wait times, current staffing levels, numbers of customers to be serviced, etc. Pre-programmed scenarios are run in real-time as events stream in over one or more electronic interfaces, with each scenario being implemented as a logic sequence that takes into account at least an aspect of a representation of an inferred emotional state. The scenarios are run to (a) determine whether an incident might be occurring and/or might have occurred, and/or (b) dynamically determine a responsive action to be taken. A complex event processing engine may be used in this regard. The analysis may be used in certain example embodiments to help improve customer satisfaction at the large venue.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
    Assignee: Software AG USA, Inc.
    Inventors: Leighton Smith, Gareth Smith
  • Patent number: 9424458
    Abstract: Technologies are presented herein in support of a system and method for performing fingerprint recognition. Embodiments of the present invention concern a system and method for capturing a user's biometric features and generating an identifier characterizing the user's biometric features using a mobile device such as a smartphone. The biometric identifier is generated using imagery captured of a plurality of fingers of a user for the purposes of authenticating/identifying the user according to the captured biometrics and determining the user's liveness. The present disclosure also describes additional techniques for preventing erroneous authentication caused by spoofing. In some examples, the anti-spoofing techniques may include capturing one or more images of a user's fingers and analyzing the captured images for indications of liveness.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2016
    Assignee: Hoyos Labs IP Ltd.
    Inventors: Jonathan Francis Mather, Asem Othman, Richard Tyson, Andrew Simpson
  • Patent number: 9418426
    Abstract: A camera outputs video as a sequence of video frames having pixel values in a first (e.g., relatively low dimensional) color space, where the first color space has a first number of channels. An image-processing device maps the video frames to a second (e.g., relatively higher dimensional) color representation of video frames. The mapping causes the second color representation of video frames to have a greater number of channels relative to the first number of channels. The image-processing device extracts a second color representation of a background frame of the scene. The image-processing device can then detect foreground objects in a current frame of the second color representation of video frames by comparing the current frame with the second color representation of a background frame. The image-processing device then outputs an identification of the foreground objects in the current frame of the video.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2016
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Edgar A. Bernal, Qun Li
  • Patent number: 9418486
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for generating a multi-view image, the method including determining an input image for generating multi-view images, and selecting a total of stereo images or one of stereo images to be the input image based on a presence of a distortion between the stereo images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2016
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yang Ho Cho, Ho Young Lee, Ji Won Kim
  • Patent number: 9418418
    Abstract: The present invention refers to a method for calculating a shape factor indicative of the evenness of the pellucid zone thickness of a biological structure and to a method for evaluating the evenness of the pellucid zone thickness of a biological structure through said shape factor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2016
    Assignee: ADVANCED COMPUTER SYSTEMS A.C.S. S.P.A.
    Inventors: Stefano Bizzi, Luca Galli
  • Patent number: 9418415
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is a trabecular bone analyzer that can quantitatively determine the state of trabecular bone accurately. The trabecular bone analyzer of may perform trabecular bone analysis on a tomographic image D. In the tomographic image D, trabeculae forming a network may appear without overlapping. Therefore, such trabecular bone analysis may more accurately quantify trabecular bone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2016
    Assignee: SHIMADZU CORPORATION
    Inventor: Junya Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 9411824
    Abstract: An efficient image retrieval method utilizing topological order distance (TOD) algorithm is disclosed. In one aspect, an image recognition method may include steps of receiving one or more input images; extracting one or more key features on the input images; determining an origin and one or more feature points on the key features on the input images; establishing a topological relationship in each dimension between the feature points on the key features; and utilizing the topological relationship in each dimension between the feature points to identify the input images in an image database. Comparing with the conventional image retrieval techniques, the TOD algorithm is advantageous because it is more efficient, scale and rotation invariant, and tolerant to affine and perspective transformation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
    Inventor: Lida Huang
  • Patent number: 9412034
    Abstract: Disclosed are a system, apparatus, and method for performing occlusion handling for simultaneous localization and mapping. Occluded map points may be detected according to a depth-mask created according to an image keyframe. Dividing a scene into sections may optimize the depth-mask. Size of depth-mask points may be adjusted according to intensity. Visibility may be verified with an optimized subset of possible map points. Visibility may be propagated to nearby points in response to determining an initial visibility of a first point's surrounding image patch. Visibility may also be organized and optimized according to a grid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Youngmin Park, Daniel Wagner
  • Patent number: 9412160
    Abstract: Systems and methods are described that provide a fast and simple way of processing meat or food products. Information is compiled and analyzed regarding the condition of a carcass, meat product, styling of the meat product and associated tray or package. Information is used in various processes, including determining which further processing steps are required. The information is also stored for future reference and analysis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
    Assignee: JBS USA, LLC
    Inventor: John Erick Johnson
  • Patent number: 9405744
    Abstract: A method for recognizing an image and an apparatus using the same. The method includes: receiving image information including a first object and a second object; recognizing position information of the first object indicated by the second information in the received image information; extracting effective information included in the first object of the received image information in response to the recognized position information; and outputting related information corresponding to the recognized effective information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2016
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Gongwook Lee, Taehwan Son, Junho Lee, Jinhe Jung
  • Patent number: 9400943
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to identifying an object associated with a nearby Internet of Things (IoT) device. In an aspect, a device receives identifying information associated with the nearby IoT device, detects a nearby object in a field of view of a camera application, determines whether or not the nearby object is associated with the nearby IoT device based on the received identifying information, and based on the nearby object being associated with the nearby IoT device, determines that the nearby object corresponds to the object associated with the nearby IoT device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2016
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Sandeep Sharma, Amit Goel, Mohammed Ataur Rahman Shuman, Nivedita Sarkar
  • Patent number: 9396510
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to data hiding and digital watermarking in imagery. One claim recites an apparatus comprising: memory storing an image editing program; an input for receiving imagery, the imagery comprising image features that vary across the imagery; a processor configured for: encoding a pattern of 2-dimensional auxiliary data at a first intensity within a first multi-dimensional region within the imagery; and encoding the pattern of 2-dimensional auxiliary data at a second, different intensity within a second multi-dimensional region within the imagery. Of course, other claims and combinations are provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2016
    Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
    Inventors: Marc D. Miller, Donald Haaga, Tony F. Rodriguez
  • Patent number: 9396391
    Abstract: Generation of a plurality of orthomosaic image layers for a geographical area, wherein the layers comprise different spatial resolutions and are radiometrically normalized to facilitate improved radiometric consistency when zooming relative to the geographic area. In applications that facilitate zooming with respect to a geographic area imaged by the orthomosaic layers, radiometric normalization of the orthomosaic image layers may reduce radiometric discontinuities when zooming in, zooming out, and/or panning a displayed portion that is output to the user. The orthomosaic layers may be generated based on one or more orthomosaic image layer or may be developed independently using a source images. In any regard, the radiometric normalization may include generating a normalization function based on image metadata that is calculated and may be independent of the spatial resolution of the image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2016
    Assignee: DigitalGlobe, Inc.
    Inventor: Kumar Navulur