Patents Examined by Matthew J Anderson
  • Patent number: 9088790
    Abstract: A multi-viewpoint image display device is provided. The display device includes a tracker configured to track a position of a face of a user according to a user shifting position, a display configured to provide a multi-view and to select and provide first and second target views of the multi-view as user's left-eye and right-eye images, and a controller configured to shift positions of the multi-view and to provide the shifted multi-view so that the first and second target views are provided as the user's left-eye and right-eye images based on the tracked face position of the face of the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2015
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Sung-yeol Kim, In-hak Na, Jin-sung Lee, Ho-young Lee
  • Patent number: 9083959
    Abstract: Systems, apparatus and methods are described related to real-time automatic conversion of 2-dimensional images or video to 3-dimensional stereo images or video.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2015
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Hyeong-Seok V. Ha, Yi-Jen Chiu
  • Patent number: 9077979
    Abstract: A stereoscopic image capture device comprising: a single imaging optical system; an imaging element that forms pupil-divided object images; a diaphragm that restricts a light flux that enters into the imaging element; and a diaphragm control device, wherein, when focal lengths before and after adjusting the focal length of the imaging optical system are assumed to be f1 and f2 and the F value of the diaphragm before adjusting the focal length of the imaging optical system is assumed to be FNo1, the diaphragm control device performs control such that an F value of FNo2 after adjusting the focal length of the imaging optical system becomes an F value that can be set according to a following equation: FNo ? ? 2 = FNo ? ? 1 * ( f ? ? 2 f ? ? 1 ) 2 .
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2015
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Corporation
    Inventor: Yoichi Iwasaki
  • Patent number: 9071742
    Abstract: Selected described embodiments include an imager providing concurrent wide field of view (WFOV) and foveated images. The imager includes a frontend optic configured to receive light from a scene. Corrective optics reduces distortions, and transmits the light to a beam splitter. One portion of the light exiting the beam splitter is focused on a WFOV image detector. A second portion of the light falls on a scanning mirror that can be configured to target a selected field position in the field of view. From the scanning mirror, the light passes through a magnifier and is corrected by an adaptive wavefront corrector. The corrector may be configured to correct aberrations corresponding to the particular field of view selected by the scanning mirror. The light from the wavefront corrector is focused on a foveated image detector. The images captured by the image detectors may be stored, processed, and transmitted to other systems.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2015
    Assignee: ZIVA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Aaron L. Birkbeck, Anis Husain, Eliseo Ranalli
  • Patent number: 9055240
    Abstract: The invention relates to a polychromatic imaging method, using a picture-taking instrument, which is placed on board an aircraft or satellite, which enables a reduction of the size of the instrument without reducing resolution of a final obtained image. To this end, a pupil of the instrument is sized for intermediate images that are limited to a first spectral sub-band without any image information being completely transmitted by the instrument for at least one wavelength that is located beyond said first spectral sub-band. Merging the intermediate image, inputted for the first spectral sub-band, with at least one other intermediate image, inputted for another spectral sub-band, recreates a polychromatic visual rendering that is satisfactory for the final image. Said other intermediate image includes the wavelength located beyond the first sub-band.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2015
    Assignee: Airbus Defence and Space SAS
    Inventors: Laurent Brouard, Cyrille Tourneur
  • Patent number: 9049420
    Abstract: A relative quality score is provided that takes into account properties of an encoded version of a source video. For example, one such quality score calculates a difference of higher and lower quality transcoded versions of the source video, and computes quality metrics for each to evaluate how similar the transcoded versions are to the source video. A relative quality score quantifying the quality improvement of the high-quality version over the low-quality version is computed. The relative quality score is adjusted based on a measurement of the quality of the source video. If the relative quality score for the video indicates a sufficient quality improvement of the high-quality version over the low-quality version, various actions are taken, such as retaining the high-quality version, and making the high-quality version available to users, e.g. via a video viewing user interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2015
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Huisheng Wang, Xiaoquan Yi
  • Patent number: 9036713
    Abstract: An image encoding device include a predicting unit for adaptively determining the size of each motion prediction unit block according to color component signals, and for dividing each motion prediction unit block into motion, vector allocation regions to search for a motion vector, and a variable length encoding unit for, when a motion vector is allocated to the whole of each motion prediction unit block, performing encoding in mc_skip mode if the motion vector is equal to an estimated vector and a prediction error signal does not exist, and for, when each motion vector allocation region has a size equal to or larger than a predetermined size and a motion vector is allocated to the whole of each motion vector allocation region, performing encoding in sub_mc_skip mode if the motion vector is equal to an estimated vector and a prediction error signal does not exist.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Shunichi Sekiguchi, Kazuo Sugimoto, Yusuke Itani, Akira Minezawa, Yoshiaki Kato
  • Patent number: 9025664
    Abstract: A moving image encoding apparatus, which divides moving image data into a plurality of sub-data, encodes the sub-data in parallel by using a plurality of encoders, and thereafter splices the resulting encoded sub-bitstream data into a single bitstream, includes a convergence target deriving function for determining a target value for a first amount of buffer occupancy so that the first amount of buffer occupancy at a point in time at which data corresponding to a last picture contained in first sub-bitstream data is removed from a first hypothetical buffer does not drop below a second amount of buffer occupancy which represents the amount of space that second sub-bitstream data occupies in a second hypothetical buffer at that point in time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventor: Tomonori Kubota
  • Patent number: 9019342
    Abstract: A wide-angle lens having a field angle larger than 180 degrees includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a front group, a reflection surface, and a back group, wherein the front group includes three lenses having a negative refractive power, the reflection surface is configured to curve an optical axis of the front group at 90 degrees toward the back group, the back group includes four lenses having a positive refractive power, a front principle point is set between a second lens and a third lens from the object side in the front group, and a focal length of an entire system f and a distance between an intersection of the reflection surface and the optical axis of the front group and the front principle point d satisfy the following condition (1) 7.0<d/f<9.0.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2015
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Satoh, Noriyuki Terao, Yoshiaki Irino, Tomonori Tanaka, Nozomi Imae, Toru Harada, Hirokazu Takenaka, Hideaki Yamamoto, Kensuke Masuda, Satoshi Sawaguchi, Daisuke Bessho
  • Patent number: 9007455
    Abstract: There are provided an image recording system for a vehicle and a reflection unit thereof. The image recording system includes a vehicle in which a storage space is provided, a camera that is installed in the storage space, and a reflection unit that is installed on a window or a ceiling of the vehicle to reflect image information from a forward or rearward direction of the vehicle into the camera.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2015
    Assignee: Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Jae Hoon Lee
  • Patent number: 9001203
    Abstract: A photography unit photographs a target, a control unit acquires distance data between a photography position and a target to be photographed of the photography unit, an azimuth angle and an elevation/depression angle of a photography direction of the photography unit together with the image information by an angle distance measurement unit synchronously or asynchronously to the shutter operation of the photography unit. The angle distance measurement unit has a configuration without using an axis fixed onto a mobile object. Coordinate information of the photography position of the photography unit is acquired from the coordinate measurement unit synchronously to asynchronously to the shutter operation. The control unit calculates coordinate information of a photographing target, based on the data of the acquired distance data, the azimuth, elevation and depression angles, and the coordinate information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2015
    Assignee: Pasco Corporation
    Inventors: Tadao Shimada, Tsuneki Sakakibara, Tatsuya Hirai
  • Patent number: 8989274
    Abstract: An apparatus and method for encoding video data and an apparatus and method for decoding video data are provided. The encoding method includes: splitting a current picture into at least one maximum coding unit; determining a coded depth to output an encoding result by encoding at least one split region of the at least one maximum coding unit according to operating mode of coding tool, respectively, based on a relationship among a depth of at least one coding unit of the at least one maximum coding unit, a coding tool, and an operating mode, wherein the at least one split region is generated by hierarchically splitting the at least one maximum coding unit according to depths; and outputting a bitstream including encoded video data of the coded depth, information regarding a coded depth of at least one maximum coding unit, information regarding an encoding mode, and information regarding the relationship.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2015
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Woo-jin Han, Jung-hye Min, Il-koo Kim
  • Patent number: 8947774
    Abstract: A catadioptric optical system includes a first imaging optical system that includes a catadioptric part that collects a light beam from an object to form an intermediate image of the object, and a second imaging optical system that includes a refractive part that images the intermediate image on an image plane. The first imaging optical system includes a first optical element, a second optical element, and a negative lens in an optical path between the first and second optical elements, and the first and second optical elements are disposed so that reflection parts of the first and second optical element face each other. A power ?n of the negative lens, radii of curvature R1n and R2n of lens surfaces of the negative lens at an object side and an image side, respectively, and a power ?1 of the first imaging optical system are appropriately set.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 3, 2015
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Masatsugu Nakano
  • Patent number: 8941721
    Abstract: A mobile terminal and a method for controlling the operation of the same are provided. The mobile terminal includes a first camera including a first lens, a second camera including a second lens having a wider angle than the first lens, and a controller configured to generate a stereoscopic 3D image using disparity between images captured through the first and second cameras. It is possible to generate a stereoscopic 3D image having the same resolution as that of a 2D image that can be captured.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 27, 2015
    Assignee: LG Electronics Inc.
    Inventors: Kilseon Kim, Hakhae Kim
  • Patent number: 8934548
    Abstract: An image encoding device include a predicting unit for adaptively determining the size of each motion prediction unit block according to color component signals, and for dividing each motion prediction unit block into motion vector allocation regions to search for a motion vector, and a variable length encoding unit for, when a motion vector is allocated to the whole of each motion prediction unit block, performing encoding in mc_skip mode if the motion vector is equal to an estimated vector and a prediction error signal 5 does not exist, and for, when each motion vector allocation region has a size equal to or larger than a predetermined size and a motion vector is allocated to the whole of each motion vector allocation region, performing encoding in sub_mc_skip mode if the motion vector is equal to an estimated vector and a prediction error signal does not exist.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 13, 2015
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Shunichi Sekiguchi, Kazuo Sugimoto, Yusuke Itani, Akira Minezawa, Yoshiaki Kato
  • Patent number: 8929455
    Abstract: A method codes pictures in a bitstream, wherein the bitstream includes coded pictures to obtain data for associated TUs and data for generating a transform tree, and a partitioning of coding units (CUs) into Prediction Units (PUs), and data for obtaining prediction modes or directions associated with each PU. One or more mapping tables are defined, wherein each row of each table has an associated index and a first set of transform types to be used for applying an inverse transformation to the data in TU. The first set of transform types is selected according to an index, and then a second set of transform types is applied as the inverse transformation to the data, wherein the second set of transform types is determined according to the first set of transform types and a transform-toggle flag (ttf) to obtain a reconstructed prediction residual.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2015
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert A. Cohen, Anthony Vetro
  • Patent number: 8917313
    Abstract: An image capturing apparatus includes a driving unit for displacing one of a lens unit and an imaging device with respect to an optical axis, and a controller for causing the driving unit to displace one of the lens unit and the imaging device, in response to the motion of the image capturing apparatus. When, with a shooting direction being moved, captured images are generated so that a panoramic image is generated from the captured images, the controller displaces the position of the lens unit or the imaging device at the start of exposure of each image to be captured in a direction based on a direction in which the shooting direction is moved. In addition, a displacement amount at the start of the exposure is set in response to the length of an exposure time period so that the displacement during the exposure time period becomes small and the quality of an image is improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 23, 2014
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Junji Shimada
  • Patent number: 8902319
    Abstract: An image signal processing apparatus includes: a basic movement level finding section for detecting a movement level of a video image; a timing controller for dividing one frame period into a plurality of periods containing a sub-frame A period and a sub-frame B period; a sub-frame A image signal generating section for subjecting, to a smoothing process, image signals which are supplied to pixels, in the sub-frame A period, in accordance with the movement level of the video image; a sub-frame B image signal generating section for subjecting, to an emphasizing process, image signals which are supplied to pixels, in the sub-frame B period, in accordance with the movement level of the video image; and an applied movement level finding section for finding, from a movement level of a video image of a current frame period and a movement level of a video image of a previous frame period, an applied movement level which is applied to the sub-frame A image signal generating section and/or the sub-frame B image signal
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2014
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Tomoyuki Ishihara
  • Patent number: 8897369
    Abstract: An apparatus and method for encoding video data and an apparatus and method for decoding video data are provided. The encoding method includes: splitting a current picture into at least one maximum coding unit; determining a coded depth to output an encoding result by encoding at least one split region of the at least one maximum coding unit according to operating mode of coding tool, respectively, based on a relationship among a depth of at least one coding unit of the at least one maximum coding unit, a coding tool, and an operating mode, wherein the at least one split region is generated by hierarchically splitting the at least one maximum coding unit according to depths; and outputting a bitstream including encoded video data of the coded depth, information regarding a coded depth of at least one maximum coding unit, information regarding an encoding mode, and information regarding the relationship.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 25, 2014
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Woo-jin Han, Jung-hye Min, Il-koo Kim
  • Patent number: 8891631
    Abstract: An apparatus and method for encoding video data and an apparatus and method for decoding video data are provided. The encoding method includes: splitting a current picture into at least one maximum coding unit; determining a coded depth to output an encoding result by encoding at least one split region of the at least one maximum coding unit according to operating mode of coding tool, respectively, based on a relationship among a depth of at least one coding unit of the at least one maximum coding unit, a coding tool, and an operating mode, wherein the at least one split region is generated by hierarchically splitting the at least one maximum coding unit according to depths; and outputting a bitstream including encoded video data of the coded depth, information regarding a coded depth of at least one maximum coding unit, information regarding an encoding mode, and information regarding the relationship.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 18, 2014
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Woo-jin Han, Jung-hye Min, Il-koo Kim