Patents Examined by Kanji Patel
  • Patent number: 7634158
    Abstract: In this invention, when images, in image files managed according to photographing dates, which match a search condition are to be displayed, the images matching the search condition are sequentially displayed such that the positions or distribution of the image files, of all image files, which match the search condition can be checked. For this reason, when the search condition is changed by operating upper and lower keys provided on the back face of a digital camera, a search is made for images matching the condition after the change. Indicators indicating the relative positions of the images matching the search condition in the list of image files arranged in the order of photographing dates are displayed. When the left and right keys are operated, one of images matching the search condition is displayed in the image display area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2009
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yuichi Nakase, Hiroaki Yoshino
  • Patent number: 7630575
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus generates, from original image data, low- and high-frequency components of the original image data. By smoothing at least some of the high-frequency components, the second high-frequency component is generated. Image data is generated on the basis of the generated second high-frequency component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2009
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hiroyuki Shinbata
  • Patent number: 7630512
    Abstract: A method for performing recoverable image and video watermarking which survives the use of block-based image and video compression techniques. One or more of the lowest order bits of the first DCT coefficient (the “DC” coefficient) which is to be coded are used as a “data channel” by which information representing a recoverable watermark may be embedded into an image or into a video signal frame. Encoding is performed by replacing one or more low order bits of the luminance value of each pixel in a block with a number of bits of the watermark data, and decoding is performed by averaging one or more low order bits of the decoded luminance values of the pixels in a block to retrieve a corresponding number of bits of the watermark data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2009
    Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc.
    Inventors: Senthil Kumar, James William McGowan
  • Patent number: 7627195
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for correcting misfocus in original image data using at least one approximation of a fractional Fourier transform operation. Original image data may comprise a light image, an electron beam image such as produced by an electron microscope, a particle beam image, or other types of images admissible to the technique. The approximation of a fractional Fourier transform operation may comprise a portion of a Taylor series expansion, a Hermite function expansion, a perturbation approximation, a singular integral approximation, or an infinitesimal generator. The method provides for the reconstruction of phase information associated with the original image data, and for the reconstructed phase information to also utilize an approximation of a fractional Fourier transform operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2009
    Inventor: Lester F. Ludwig
  • Patent number: 7627194
    Abstract: A method of and apparatus for setting a virtual image region is provided in order to efficiently perform motion estimation and compensation of a panorama image including 360-degree omni-direction image information. The method includes the steps of searching a previous panorama image for reference data corresponding to all or part of a virtual image region of a current patch desired to be motion-estimated in order to determine the presence of the reference data, and selectively mapping the reference data to all or part of the virtual image region. By doing so, the panorama image containing omni-directional image information is coded by using a 2-dimensional moving picture coding method without change, while the coding efficiency in the process of motion estimation and compensation can be greatly improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2009
    Assignees: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Industry Academic Cooperation Foundation Kyunghee University
    Inventor: Gwang-Hoon Park
  • Patent number: 7623721
    Abstract: A filter for implementing Floyd Steinberg two-dimensional error diffusion algorithms allows high-speed processing of video and images. The filter is shown in direct form with proper bit precision with implementations that permit the filter to operate at high speed. Furthermore, a reduction in the gate count is achieved over the direct form. The results of static timing analysis obtained post synthesis are also summarized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2009
    Assignee: Marvell International Ltd.
    Inventor: Bharat Pathak
  • Patent number: 7623720
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus capable of controlling the amount of codes in the image data of one image through one-pass encoding, without changing a quantization table. A Discrete Cosine Transformation (DCT) unit performs discrete cosine transformation on each MCU of the image data of the image. A quantizer quantizes DCT coefficients resulted from the discrete cosine transformation, using the quantization table. A code amount controller sets a threshold value for each MCU based on a target amount of codes for one image and the amount of codes usable for the unprocessed MCUs, reduces the quantized DCT coefficients based on the threshold value, in order to adjust the amount of codes to be generated in the MCU.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2009
    Assignee: Fujitsu Microelectronics Limited
    Inventor: Susumu Kashiwagi
  • Patent number: 7623740
    Abstract: Methods and system for transferring images between devices are disclosed. For example, differently scaled images by a host device may automatically and/or selectively be transferred to a media player for display. In turn, appropriately scaled images may be transferred automatically and/or selectively to another display device for example a TV, camera or printer. The selectivity may occur either at the host level or at the player level.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2009
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Greg Marriott, Jesse Boettcher, Thomas Dowdy, David Heller, Jeff Miller, Jeffrey L. Robbin
  • Patent number: 7616842
    Abstract: A unified design strategy takes into account different subsystems within an overall electro-optic imaging system. In one implementation, the design methodology predicts end-to-end imaging performance using a spatial model for the source and models for the optical subsystem, the detector subsystem and the digital image processing subsystem. The optical subsystem and digital image processing subsystems are jointly designed taking into account the entire system. The intermediate image produced by the optical subsystem is not required to be high quality since, for example, the quality may be corrected by the digital image processing subsystem.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2009
    Assignee: Ricoh Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: M. Dirk Robinson
  • Patent number: 7616836
    Abstract: A method and system for performing motion compensation in a temporal sequence of images include performing a conjugate gradient maximization of a similarity measure between two images, based on the local cross-correlation of corresponding regions to obtain a displacement field for warping one of the images. The non-singularity of the deformation is ensured by utilizing a composition of regularized gradients of the similarity measure when building the solution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2009
    Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.
    Inventor: Gerardo Hermosillo Valadez
  • Patent number: 7616841
    Abstract: A unified design strategy takes into account different subsystems within an overall electro-optic imaging system. In one implementation, the design methodology predicts end-to-end imaging performance using a spatial model for the source and models for the optical subsystem, the detector subsystem and the digital image processing subsystem. The optical subsystem and digital image processing subsystems are jointly designed taking into account the entire system. The intermediate image produced by the optical subsystem is not required to be high quality since, for example, the quality may be corrected by the digital image processing subsystem.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2009
    Assignee: Ricoh Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: M. Dirk Robinson, David G Stork
  • Patent number: 7616839
    Abstract: An imaging apparatus transfers image data obtained during image capturing to a communication apparatus and also transmits image setting information used during image capturing of the image data to the communication apparatus. The communication apparatus records the image data transferred from the imaging apparatus, generates a file from the recorded image data, associates the image setting information transmitted from the imaging apparatus with the file of the image data and store the associated information and file.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2009
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Akihiro Tanabe
  • Patent number: 7616824
    Abstract: A method for decomposing a digital image at resolution R and MR into a set of spatial sub-bands of resolution R and MR where MR>R and where the high-band at resolution MR is calculated by subtracting the filtered and up-sampled image at resolution R from the image at resolution MR and where the spatial low-band at resolution R is calculated by adding the filtered and down-sampled spatial high-band to the image at resolution R and where a rational factor for up-and down-sampling M is determined by the resolution ratio.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2009
    Assignee: Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) CM - Ecublens
    Inventors: Markus Flierl, Pierre Vandergheynst
  • Patent number: 7616828
    Abstract: A geospatial modeling system may include a geospatial model database and a processor cooperating therewith for filtering geospatial model data. This may be done by selectively updating a target point based upon adjacent points lying along a plurality of radial line segments extending outwardly from the at least one target point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2009
    Assignee: Harris Corporation
    Inventors: Mark Rahmes, Harlan Yates, Stephen Connetti, Anthony O'Neil Smith
  • Patent number: 7609914
    Abstract: When a history including printed information, a date, a user, and the like is stored, a search for stored information is allowed, and the history can be referred to if information has leaked, a large-capacity storage device is required to store all images in the storage device. Hence, user authorization is made. If user authorization has succeeded, image data is acquired, and is segmented into regions of respective attributes by block selection. Next, objects of respective segments are converted into vector data. It is searched if an object that matches each of the objects is stored in an image storage server. If a matching object is detected, an object ID added to that object is acquired. If no matching object is detected, an object ID of the object of interest is generated, and vector data added with the object ID is registered in the image storage server.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2009
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Tatsuhiko Hirai
  • Patent number: 7606398
    Abstract: A sensor device for performing measurements on an at least partially conductive surface includes a number of conductive structures at or directly below the sensor surface. The conductive structures consist of at least one stimulation or current sink electrode and a number of sensor elements coupled to interrogation electrodes in an electronic circuit for measuring impedance between the electrodes and the stimulation electrode. The sensor device also includes at least one additional clamping electrode positioned in the vicinity of the sensor elements and coupled to a chosen voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2002
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2009
    Assignee: IDEX ASA
    Inventors: Jon Nysæther, Knut Riisnæs, Ingvild Juvkam Dyve, legal representative, Ørjan G. Martinsen, Geir Mostad, Nicolai W. Christie, Rune Pedersen
  • Patent number: 7602971
    Abstract: A system for automatically classifying documents includes a database, a positioning-information capturing device, a locating device, and a document comparison device. The database is used for storing a reference document. The positioning-information capturing device is used for capturing the positioning information of a plurality of objects in a digitized document. The locating device is used for capturing the corresponding objects of the reference document according to the positioning information of the objects. The document comparison device then proceeds with an orientation process and determines whether the digitized document and the reference document are of the same classification according to the distances between all of the objects of the digitized document and the nearest objects thereto in the reference document. A method and a computer readable recording medium for automatically classifying documents are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2009
    Assignee: Newsoft Technology Corporation
    Inventors: Chi-Ping Yeh, Chih-Tsung Chiang, Chih-Yao Chang
  • Patent number: 7602975
    Abstract: A method and an apparatus for image compression. First, an image is partitioned into a plurality of image blocks, the image having A×B pixels, each of the image blocks having N×M pixels, wherein N is less than A and M is less than B. Next, a selected image block is outputted by selecting one of the image blocks as the selected image block. After that, a compressed image block is produced by storing the selected image block and compressing the selected image block. The step of outputting the selected image block and the step of producing the compressed image block are repeated until the image blocks are compressed into a plurality of compressed image blocks. Finally, a compressed image file is produced according to the compressed image blocks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2009
    Assignee: Via Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Chin-Yi Chiang, Wallace Huang
  • Patent number: 7599569
    Abstract: A target pixel and surrounding pixels corresponding to the target pixel are obtained from a digitally represented image. A bilateral high pass filtering kernel is determined based at least in part upon the target pixel and the surrounding pixels. A high pass spatial filtering kernel is provided and multiplied with the high pass photometric filtering kernel to provide a bilateral high pass filtering kernel. The resulting bilateral high pass filtering kernel is thereafter applied to the target pixel and the surrounding pixels to provide a filtered pixel. When it is desirable to combine noise filtering capabilities with sharpening capabilities, the bilateral high pass filter of the present invention may be combined with a bilateral low pass filtering kernel to provide a combined noise reduction and edge sharpening filter. The present invention may be advantageously applied to a variety of devices, including cellular telephones that employ image sensing technology.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2009
    Assignee: ATI Technologies, ULC
    Inventors: Maxim Smirnov, Milivoje Aleksic, Sergiu Goma
  • Patent number: 7599527
    Abstract: A method and system for matching an unknown facial image of an individual with an image of an unknown twin using facial recognition techniques and human perception is disclosed herein. The invention provides a internet hosted system to find, compare, contrast and identify similar characteristics among two or more individuals using a digital camera, cellular telephone camera, wireless device for the purpose of returning information regarding similar faces to the user The system features classification of unknown facial images from a variety of internet accessible sources, including mobile phones, wireless camera-enabled devices, images obtained from digital cameras or scanners that are uploaded from PCs, third-party applications and databases. The method and system uses human perception techniques to weight the feature vectors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2009
    Assignee: Facedouble, Inc.
    Inventors: Alex Shah, Charles A. Myers