Patents Examined by Michael A Newman
  • Patent number: 8401318
    Abstract: Generation of evaluation value information about a motion vector, extraction of candidates for the motion vector on the basis of the evaluation value information, and determination of the motion vector to be allocated from the candidates for the motion vector are performed. The possibility that a reference pixel a in a second frame is a candidate for a motion from a target point in a first frame is evaluated on the basis of pixel-value correlation information to generate an evaluation value table. A constant area is adaptively set around each of the target pixel and the reference pixel corresponding to each extracted candidate for the motion vector in accordance with the state of the continuity of a constant pixel value. The motion vector from the first frame to the second frame is allocated on the basis of the result of comparison between values calculated for the constant areas.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroki Tetsukawa, Tetsujiro Kondo, Kenji Takahashi, Kazushi Yoshikawa
  • Patent number: 8396330
    Abstract: A method for interpolation includes receiving an input image having a plurality of pixels. The edge direction proximate a first pixel of the input image is estimated using a first technique from a plurality of discrete potential directions. An edge direction is selected based upon the estimating the edge direction proximate the first pixel of the input image using a second technique. The pixels proximate the first pixel are interpolated based upon the selected edge direction. The pixels proximate the first pixel are interpolated based upon another technique. An output image is determined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2013
    Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America, Inc.
    Inventors: Hao Pan, Petrus J. L. Van Beek
  • Patent number: 8391559
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method and system for image identification and identification result output, wherein a feature image under identification acquired from an image is compared with a plurality of sample images respectively stored in a database so as to obtain a plurality of similarity indexes associated with the plurality of sample images respectively. Each similarity index represents similarity between the feature image and the corresponding sample image. Thereafter, the plurality of similarity indexes are sorted and then a least one of comparison results is output. The present invention is further capable of being used for identifying identification marks with respect to a carrier. By sorting the similarity index with respect to each feature forming the identification marks, it is capable of outputting many sets of combinations corresponding to the identification marks so as to improve speed for targeting suspected carrier and enhance the identification efficiency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2013
    Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
    Inventors: Ya-Hui Tsai, Kuo-Tang Huang, Yu-Ting Lin, Chun-Lung Chang, Tung-Chuan Wu
  • Patent number: 8391560
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method and a system for image identification and identification result output, which determines a location coordinate with respect to an image and a rotating angle based on at least one direction of the image according to features of the image. The image is compared to a plurality of sample images stored in a database according to the rotating angle so as to obtain at least one identification result. By means of the method and the system of the present invention, identification can be achieved with respect to various rotating angles and distances so as to improve the identification rate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2013
    Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
    Inventors: Ya-Hui Tsai, Yu-Ting Lin, Kuo-Tang Huang, Chun-Lung Chang, Tung-Chuan Wu
  • Patent number: 8385633
    Abstract: Embodiments described herein facilitate or enhance the implementation of image recognition processes which can perform recognition on images to identify objects and/or faces by class or by people.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2013
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Salih Burak Gokturk, Dragomir Anguelov, Lorenzo Torresani, Vincent Vanhoucke, Munjal Shah, Diem Vu, Kuang-Chih Lee
  • Patent number: 8374404
    Abstract: The spectral diversity of the iris can be used as a unique biometric identifier. By careful selection of a number of spectral bands, four or more, the hyper-spectral signature derived from data contained in those bands can distinguish color signatures that are not visually distinguishable in RGB color space to uniquely identify a person. Classification of hyper-spectral signatures requires less spatial resolution than the classification of texture signatures, maybe an order of magnitude or more. This reduces the size of the sensor aperture required at a given range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2013
    Assignee: Raytheon Company
    Inventors: Darin S. Williams, Kent P. Pflibsen
  • Patent number: 8369645
    Abstract: An image correction circuit includes: a region determining means for determining an intermediate luminance region in each image frame on the basis of the description of input image data; a luminance distribution acquiring means for acquiring a luminance distribution of input image data in the determined intermediate luminance region in each image frame; a determining means for determining an input/output characteristic line in each image frame by adaptively changing a predetermined reference input/output characteristic line on the basis of the acquired luminance distribution of the intermediate luminance region, the input/output characteristic line defining the substance of image correction on input image data; and a correction executing means for executing image correction on input image data on the basis of the determined input/output characteristic line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Shigeru Harada
  • Patent number: 8369646
    Abstract: An image correction method includes the steps of: acquiring a black-side intermediate luminance distribution as a luminance distribution in a region between a lowest luminance in a given intermediate luminance region in a luminance distribution of input image data in an image frame and a reference luminance provided in the center of the intermediate luminance region; determining a low-luminance-region input/output characteristic curve on the basis of the acquired black-side intermediate luminance distribution, the low-luminance-region input/output characteristic curve passing through a reference point, in the reference input/output characteristic line, determined in accordance with the reference luminance and through a minimum luminance point of the reference input/output characteristic line; and executing image correction on input image data having a luminance which is lower than the reference luminance on the basis of the determined low-luminance-region input/output characteristic curve.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Shigeru Harada
  • Patent number: 8363922
    Abstract: A system and method for restricting the number of layout patterns by pattern identification, matching and classification, includes decomposing the pattern windows into a low frequency component and a high frequency component using a wavelet analysis for an integrated circuit layout having a plurality of pattern windows. Using the low frequency component as an approximation, a plurality of moments is computed for each pattern window. The pattern windows are classified using a distance computation for respective moments of the pattern windows by comparing the distance computation to an error value to determine similarities between the pattern windows.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2013
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Maria Gabrani, Paul Hurley
  • Patent number: 8355530
    Abstract: Object feature points are tracked in a video image, and detected feature points are affine-transformed. Then, it is determined whether the video image is a real object using characteristics of the affine-transformed feature points. Therefore, liveness detection resistant to spoofing can be performed without requiring user intervention and additional hardware.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2013
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Gyu-tae Park, Haitao Wang, Young-su Moon
  • Patent number: 8340397
    Abstract: Disclosed are a system and a method extensible for performing, in real-time, stereo snatching for calculating depth images with a result of searching for points of similarity by using images taken with two cameras. The system includes a coordinate creating module, a census transform module, a delay XOR calculation module, a stereo matching module, and a control module. Accordingly, by using the system extensible for performing stereo matching, depth information of corrected images can be acquired in real-time without using computer systems or software programs for special purposes. Furthermore, since the system extensible for performing stereo matching can be simply realized by hardware, the system and the method of the present invention can be easily applied to actual intellectual-type robots, industrial settings, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2012
    Assignee: Sungkyunkwan University Foundation For Corporate Collaboration
    Inventors: Jae Wook Jeon, Seung Hun Jin, Jung Uk Cho, Sung Kee Park, Munsang Kim, Kyoung Mu Lee, Jong Eun Byun
  • Patent number: 8331632
    Abstract: A novel, linear modeling method to model a face recognition algorithm based on the match scores produced by the algorithm. Starting with a distance matrix representing the pair-wise match scores between face images, an iterative stress minimization algorithm is used to obtain an embedding of the distance matrix in a low-dimensional space. A linear transformation used to project new face images into the model space is divided into two sub-transformations: a rigid transformation of face images obtained through principal component analysis of face images and a non-rigid transformation responsible for preserving pair-wise distance relationships between face images. Also provided is a linear indexing method using the linear modeling method to perform the binning or algorithm-specific indexing task with little overhead.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2012
    Assignees: University of South Florida, The United States of America, as represented by the Secretary of the Department of Commerce, the National Institute of Standards and Technology
    Inventors: Pranab Mohanty, Sudeep Sarkar, Rangachar Kasturi, P. Jonathon Phillips
  • Patent number: 8331706
    Abstract: A first aspect of the invention relates to a method for creating a binary mask image from an a inputted digital image of a scanned document, comprising the steps of creating a binarized image by binarizing the inputted digital image, detecting first text regions representing light text on a dark background, and inverting the first text regions, such that the inverted first text regions are interpretable in the same way as dark text on a light background. A second aspect of the invention relates to a method for comparing in a binary image a first pixel blob with a second pixel blob to determine whether they represent matching symbols, comprising the steps of detecting a line in one blob not present in the other and/or determining if one of the blobs represents an italicized symbol where the other does not.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2012
    Assignee: I.R.I.S.
    Inventors: Michel Dauw, Pierre Demuelenaere
  • Patent number: 8331693
    Abstract: An information retrieval apparatus includes an obtaining unit configured to obtain dynamic ranges or re-quantization codes of a target object to be retrieved and dynamic ranges or re-quantization codes of each of comparison objects to be compared with the target object, the dynamic ranges or re-quantization codes of the target object and the dynamic ranges or re-quantization codes of the comparison objects being obtained as a result of adaptive dynamic range coding; a distance computation unit configured to compute distances between the target object and the comparison objects using the obtained dynamic ranges or re-quantization codes of the target object and the obtained dynamic ranges or re-quantization codes of the comparison objects; and a comparison unit configured to compare the distances between the target object and the comparison objects to select one of the comparison objects having a minimum distance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Seiichi Inomata, Hideo Nakaya, Takashi Horishi, Tsugihiko Haga, Ryosuke Araki, Takuro Kawai, Toshiyuki Hino, Tetsujiro Kondo
  • Patent number: 8320658
    Abstract: An unevenness inspection method for inspecting presence of unevenness in a panel material, the method includes: acquiring a plurality of primary images by imaging the panel material under inspection on a plurality of levels of condition; creating a plurality of secondary images by processing the plurality of primary images to enhance variation of the image; creating a composite image by combining the plurality of secondary images with a prescribed weighting; and determining the presence of unevenness using the composite image, the prescribed weighting being determined so that a region having the unevenness can be distinguished from the other region, when the plurality of secondary images are created for the panel material for training use having unevenness and are combined into a composite image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Tanizaki, Naoko Toyoshima, Yosuke Okamoto, Yasunori Takase
  • Patent number: 8320659
    Abstract: A method and system of inspecting baggage to be transported from a location of origin to a destination is provided that includes generating scan data representative of a piece of baggage while the baggage is at the location of origin, and storing the scan data in a database. A rendered view representative of a content of the baggage is provided where the rendered views are based on the scan data retrieved from the database over a network. The rendered views are presented at a destination different from the origin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: TeleSecurity Sciences, Inc.
    Inventors: Samuel Moon-Ho Song, Douglas Perry Boyd
  • Patent number: 8311283
    Abstract: A method for detecting the lane departure of a vehicle includes an image recognition process and a deviation estimation process. The image recognition process includes the following steps: an image capturing step for capturing image frame data by using an image capturing unit; and a lane line recognition for analyzing the image frame data for determining the lane lines. By using a quadratic curve fitting equation, a plurality of lane line being detected so as to establish a road geometry estimation model. The road geometry estimation model is inputted into the deviation estimation process to detect the lane departure of the vehicle so as to alert the driver. Furthermore, an apparatus for detecting the deviation of the vehicle, comprising: an image capturing unit, a processing unit and a signal output unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2012
    Assignee: Automotive Research&Testing Center
    Inventors: Jui-Hung Wu, Jing-Fu Liu, Yi-Feng Su
  • Patent number: 8311291
    Abstract: An extraction-pattern storing unit stores therein information related to a plurality of different extraction patterns for extracting a predetermined number of pixels from pixels surrounding a pixel that is a target for detecting a face part image. A face-part-image detecting unit extracts a pixel using the different extraction patterns stored in the extraction-pattern storing unit, and detects the face part image included in an image using a feature amount of an extracted pixel. A face-image detecting unit detects a face image from the image based on the face part image detected by the face-part-image detecting unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2012
    Assignee: Glory Ltd.
    Inventors: Toru Yonezawa, Kozo Kawata
  • Patent number: 8300987
    Abstract: An upscaler is disclosed that upscales each of a maximum value map, a minimum value map and an average value map to a destination resolution. A blending module generates a detail-enhanced upscaled image of the source image having the destination resolution by blending corresponding pixel values from an upscaled image of the source image with at least one of: the upscaled maximum value map and the upscaled minimum value map. The blending may be based on the strength of detected edges in the source image and further based on a comparison of each pixel value in the upscaled image with a corresponding pixel value in an average value map. A source image characteristic calculator may generate the maximum value map, the minimum value map and the average value map based on the intensity values of a source image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2012
    Assignee: ATI Technologies ULC
    Inventor: Jeff X. Wei
  • Patent number: 8300930
    Abstract: A process for performing white balancing of an image is performed by subdividing an image into a plurality of subframes, and then analyzing each subframe to determine if that subframe is predominantly monochromatic other than gray. If so, that subframe is excluded from the computation of the gain adjustments in the white balancing operation. As a result, the white balance process is performed using only the multicolored and/or gray subframes, thus allowing the overall white-balance of the image to be shifted only when a change in the color average is due to a change in the spectra of illumination, and not a presence of large monochromatic areas in the image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2012
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Kaplinsky, Igor Subbotin