Patents Examined by Kate R Duffy
  • Patent number: 9361721
    Abstract: Various methods are provided for processing images. One example method may include computing a starting point and an ending point for an image seam as defined by an intersection of a rectangle bounding a first image and a rectangle bounding a second image. The method may also include determining whether the starting point and the ending point for the image seam are final points based on a determined mask region. The method may also include refining the starting point and the ending point by using an intersection of a mask image of the first image and a mask image of the second image in an instance in which it is determined that the starting point and the ending point are not final points. The method may also include computing a seam direction and one or more seam points using the starting point and the ending point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 7, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2016
    Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy
    Inventors: Veldandi Muninder, S V Basavaraja
  • Patent number: 9339257
    Abstract: A measuring apparatus is provided. The measuring apparatus includes a measurement reference part setting unit configured to set-measurement reference parts to each of a plurality of sequential ultrasound images of a subject, a tracking unit configured to perform tracking of a plurality of regions in the ultrasound images, a first motion information calculating unit configured to calculate first motion information of the regions, based on the tracking performed by the tracking unit, and a second motion information calculating unit configured to calculate second motion information of the measurement reference parts, based on the first motion information, wherein the plurality of regions move with the measurement reference parts and include parts capable of capturing moving factors that are not able to be captured by tracking the measurement reference parts between a first ultrasound image and a second ultrasound image using the tracking unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2016
    Assignee: GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY
    Inventors: Seiji Funaya, Koji Miyama, Yasuyo Saito, Masafumi Ogasawara
  • Patent number: 9299161
    Abstract: A method for performing head tracking is disclosed. The method includes receiving an input of an image including a facial area and tracking a movement of the facial area, including if a rotation angle of a facial area is within a predetermined angle range from a front side, searching for a location change of feature points within a facial area through a comparison with a template learned in advance and if a rotation angle of a facial area is beyond a predetermined angle range from a front side, searching for a location change of feature points within a facial area through a comparison with a facial area image frame previously inputted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2016
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventor: Woo Ju Ryu
  • Patent number: 9298976
    Abstract: Various embodiments of the present disclosure presents a method for managing a reference face database to improve face recognition performance under a restricted memory environment, said method comprising: acquiring a new input face image; determining a classification condition corresponding to the input face image with reference to classification conditions of existing registered face images of a reference face database used for face recognition; and if the classification condition corresponding to the input face image is a specific classification condition and the value of the face image corresponding to the specific classification condition in the reference face database is less than a preset threshold value, selecting the input face image as an image that can be additionally registered to the reference face database.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2016
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Hong Mo Je, Hyung Soo Lee, Woo Ju Ryu
  • Patent number: 9297739
    Abstract: A method and device for estimating a porosity ratio of a sample of material from at least one gray-scale coded image. The method includes: evaluating an intermediate ratio of a sample for each value of a plurality of gray-scale threshold values lying between two determined limit values, the intermediate ratio being equal to a ratio of a number of pixels of the at least one image having a gray-scale value bounded by the threshold value to a total number of pixels of the at least one image; and estimating the porosity ratio of the sample by analyzing variations in the intermediate ratio as a function of the threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2016
    Assignee: SNECMA
    Inventors: Julien Schneider, Benedicte Marie Le Borgne
  • Patent number: 9286513
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes: a processor configured to: store information on a reference area that has been extracted from a first image not including a target object by using a condition regarding color, generate, by using the condition, information on a target area in a second image that has been captured at a point in time different from a point in time at which the first image has been captured, determine, by using the target area and the reference area, whether or not there is an overlap between the reference area and the target object, when the overlap exists, identify an overlap area, and extract, by using the difference area between the reference area and the target area, and the overlap area, the target object from the second image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: FUJITSU LIMITED
    Inventors: Taichi Murase, Takahiro Matsuda
  • Patent number: 9285466
    Abstract: Apparatus for producing image data representing a specimen being imaged using ultrasound includes a processor and memory. The processor receives input data representing output from an ultrasound probe, and performs an iterative algorithm on the input data until a converged estimate of the mean of the distribution of the image data is reached. This estimate is used to produce output image data for display. The algorithm uses a first matrix that is dependent upon attributes of the probe and upon the way in which the input data was produced, and a second matrix that is the inverse of the sum of: a positive scalar matrix having the same dimensions as the first matrix, and the product of a Hermitian transpose of the first matrix and the first matrix. One step of the algorithm uses the second matrix as a preconditioner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Inventor: William Henry Gomersall
  • Patent number: 9256981
    Abstract: A method and a device for processing geological information is disclosed. The method for processing the geological information includes acquiring multiple geological image graphs, determining the relation between the image coordinate and the ground coordinate of each of the multiple geological image graphs by an imaging mode of geological images, and joining the multiple geological image graphs together according to the relation between the image coordinate and the ground coordinate of each of the multiple geological image graphs. Accordingly, large-scale ground images can be acquired by processing the geological images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2016
    Assignees: BEIJING ELECTRIC POWER ECONOMIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE, STATE GRID BEIJING ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY, STATE GRID CORPORATION OF CHINA, BEIJING FOREVER TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Bin Shu, Chao Yang, Kai Zhang, Youjun Wang, Yong Wang, Zhishan Ren, Xinwei Luo, Congyun Li, Kai Chen, Chunhua Jiang, Guoyong Li, Jinglei Zhou, Tong Zhou, Xiaopeng Han
  • Patent number: 9208575
    Abstract: In the present disclosure, a plurality of frames of input images sequentially received for a predetermined time interval is obtained, and a face detecting operation is performed on a first frame if a full detecting mode is implemented. If a face is detected from a specific region of the first frame during the face detecting operation, a face tracking mode is implemented, a second frame is divided to produce the divided input image portions of the second frame, and the face tracking operation is performed on a surrounding region of the specific region of the divided input image portions of the second frame that corresponds to the specific region in the first frame. If the face is not detected in the face tracking mode, a partial detecting mode is implemented, and the face detecting operation is performed on image portions resized on divided input image portions of a third frame to which a specific region of the third frame corresponding to the specific region of the first frame belongs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2015
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventor: Woo Ju Ryu
  • Patent number: 9208532
    Abstract: Disclosed are a watermark processing device, a method thereof, and an image capturing apparatus capable of reducing a processing time and a calculation amount while inserting a watermark into an image. The watermark processing method includes creating a watermarked image by inserting a predetermined watermark into a virtual wavelet image; and creating a synthesized image by synthesizing an input image and the watermarked image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2015
    Assignee: Hanwha Techwin Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Young-Je Jung, Eun-Jeong Kim
  • Patent number: 9196034
    Abstract: In a method of fast analysis of relief elements featuring on an inner surface of a tire, a three-dimensional image of the surface is captured, and each pixel of the image is assigned a greyscale value proportional to a topographical elevation of a point corresponding to the pixel, so as to obtain a starting image. The image is transformed into an orthogonal reference frame (OXY) in which an abscissa axis (OX) represents circumferential values and an ordinate axis (OY) represents radial values. Each point of the surface, i.e., each pixel, is assigned an altitude gradient value (f(p)) by comparing an elevation of the point with an elevation of a discrete and reduced number of points arranged on a straight line passing through a pixel being considered (p) and oriented in a circumferential direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2015
    Assignees: COMPAGNIE GENERALE DES ETABLISSEMENTS MICHELIN, MICHELIN RECHERCHE ET TECHNIQUE S.A.
    Inventors: Guillaume Noyel, Dominique Jeulin, Estelle Parra-Denis, Michel Bilodeau
  • Patent number: 9189841
    Abstract: A tire appearance detection method includes: capturing an original grey-level image of an inner surface of a tire, and transforming the original image into an orthonormal space with an x-axis (OX) representing a circumferential direction and with a y-axis (OY) representing a radial direction; applying a series of filters to the original image, to obtain a multivariate image; splitting the multivariate image according to a predefined tiling in axial and circumferential directions, to obtain multivariate sub-images of the inner surface of the tire; transforming each of the multivariate sub-images into one-dimensional vectors using selected descriptors, to obtain a simplified multivariate image of the inner surface of the tire; transforming the simplified multivariate image into a common reduced factorial space; and locating sub-images of the inner surface of the tire containing an anomaly using a classifier suitable for identifying an area of the common reduced factorial space containing an anomaly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2015
    Assignees: COMPAGNIE GENERALE DES ETABLISSEMENTS MICHELIN, MICHELIN RECHERCHE ET TECHNIQUE S.A.
    Inventors: Guillaume Noyel, Dominique Jeulin, Estelle Parra-Denis, Michel Bilodeau
  • Patent number: 9098243
    Abstract: A method for adjusting an observation distances between an user and a display device is provided. When the display device determines that the user is squinting and determines a distance value between the user and the display device is larger than a predetermined value, the display device controls a driving unit to drive a display unit of the display device to move toward to the user. A display device is also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2015
    Assignees: HONG FU JIN PRECISION INDUSTRY (WuHan) CO., LTD., HON HAI PRECISION INDUSTRY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Min Yang, Xin-Shu Wang, Jian-Hung Hung
  • Patent number: 9047723
    Abstract: A method of categorizing defects in a media item is described. The method comprises the steps of: receiving an ultrasonic image of the media item, where the ultrasonic image comprises a plurality of points, each point having a thickness value corresponding to a normal value, a thin value, or a thick value; identifying one or more blobs comprising contiguous points each having a thickness value corresponding to a thin value; for each identified blob, comparing a size of the blob with a damage criterion; ignoring the blob if the blob size does not meet the damage criterion; and for each identified blob having a size meeting the damage criterion, categorizing the identified blob using the thickness values and locations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2015
    Assignee: NCR Corporation
    Inventor: Ping Chen