Patents Examined by Michelle K. Lay
  • Patent number: 7889217
    Abstract: A display control apparatus for controlling display in a first display device that displays a predetermined display range of an entire supplied image is provided. The display control apparatus includes an image scaledown unit adapted to scale down a first image based on a scaledown ratio that is preset in accordance with the size of the display range relative to the entire image; and a display control unit adapted to control display of the first image that is scaled down by the image scaledown unit in the first display device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2011
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Sakuma, Masanori Nomura, Hiroshi Nagatani, Haruhiko Sakata, Hiroyuki Yoshida, Hirooki Tajima
  • Patent number: 7876334
    Abstract: A digital photography system and a method of its use. The system includes a digital camera having a mechanism for selecting a graphical object, a mechanism for superimposing the graphical object within a field of view of a digital camera, a mechanism for manipulating the graphical object within the field of view before capturing the image according to manipulation parameters that are set by a user and a mechanism for defining a relationship between the manipulated graphical object and at least part of the image. The scope of the invention also includes a memory card bearing such graphical objects and a method of offering the system for sale at a price that depends on the graphical objects stored in the memory card(s).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2011
    Assignee: Sandisk IL Ltd.
    Inventors: Eyal Bychkov, Itzhak Pomerantz
  • Patent number: 7876337
    Abstract: According to the present invention, when video resolution is changed, the TV receiver selects resolution having a priority to the graphics resolution requested by the application depending on the application types, or the TV receiver selects graphics resolution appropriate for video format resolution, thereby the TV receiver enables the clear display of graphics without causing any distortion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2011
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Takakazu Shiomi, Shigeaki Watanabe, Satoshi Terao
  • Patent number: 7876323
    Abstract: A display apparatus that displays an image includes: an image converting unit converting a photographed image signal, which is an image signal from a photographing unit that photographs an object, into a high-quality image signal of an image higher in quality than an image corresponding to the photographed image signal according to an arithmetic operation between the photographed image signal and a tap coefficient obtained by learning performed in advance; and a display control unit causing a display to display the image corresponding to the high-quality image signal in a display format determined by learning performed using an image higher in quality than the image corresponding to the high-quality image signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2011
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Tetsujiro Kondo
  • Patent number: 7847808
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for determining a location for a virtual object on a course terrain for a course. A photographic image of the course corresponding to the location is identified. The virtual object is incorporated in a presentation of the photographic image such that the virtual object appears in the photographic image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2010
    Assignee: World Golf Tour, Inc.
    Inventors: YuChiang Cheng, Chad M. Nelson, David Castelnuovo
  • Patent number: 7839420
    Abstract: Digital images may be grouped based on attributes of the images. To represent this grouping, the representations of the digital images are arranged into stacks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2010
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Randy Ubillos
  • Patent number: 7839415
    Abstract: The present invention provides a technique for providing color corrected images to a user over a network. In particular, the present invention allows multiple image providers to provide color corrected images to a user when the user's computer and its associated devices are not calibrated and/or characterized, or the calibration and/or characterization data is not available over the network to the image providers. This abstract is provided for the sole purpose of complying with the rules requiring an abstract to allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure contained herein. This abstract is submitted with the express understanding that it will not be used to interpret or to limit the scope or the meaning of the claims.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2010
    Assignee: VeriSign, Inc.
    Inventors: William Hilliard, Kees van Prooijen, Peter G. Engeldrum, Jean-Pierre Huber, Thomas Strother, Peter Bernard, Joel Warwick, Keith Ball, James Deutch, Tamara Baker
  • Patent number: 7834874
    Abstract: Systems and methods for presenting image data to a terminal are disclosed, the system including a memory configured to store tolerance cycle information associated with the realization time of an image data, a processor configured to determine a realization processing cycle of a first image data transmitted to the terminal, and a controller configured to control a realization processing cycle of a second image data transmitted to the terminal after the first image data, based at least in part on the outcome of comparing the realization processing cycle of the first image data with the tolerance cycle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2010
    Assignee: NHN Corporation
    Inventor: Jong Suk Lee
  • Patent number: 7830400
    Abstract: A display unit has an image presentation section 10 for receiving a plurality of monomedia data and presentation style data describing a presentation style of a frame of each of the individual monomedia data, for generating scaling/combining control information 111 for combining the individual monomedia data, and for generating a composite video frame 103 by combining the individual monomedia data; an image enhancing section 20 for obtaining a correction target region of designated monomedia data in the composite video frame 103 in response to the scaling/combining control information 111, for generating correction data by obtaining interframe difference in the correction target region, and for generating a display video frame 104 by carrying out image enhancing processing of the correction target region in response to the correction data generated; and an image display section 30 for displaying the display video frame 104.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2010
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Yuka Fujita, Toshiyuki Takahashi, Atsushi Hori, Koichi Hiramatsu
  • Patent number: 7821515
    Abstract: A method is provided for reducing a height of a font character in a nonlinear scaling process. The method includes reducing the height of the character by interacting with hinting instruction to adjust relevant instructions to thereby reduce the overall height of a font character while preserving as much of the integrity of the character as possible. The method includes an iterative process which selectively removes various pixels, defining an outline of a font character while maintaining a removal criteria, which results in a nonlinear height reduction in order to produce a font of a desired height.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2010
    Assignee: Monotype Imaging Inc.
    Inventor: Barbara J. Goddeau
  • Patent number: 7817164
    Abstract: Systems and methods for adding to or deleting from an attention region in a medical image using a drawn curved line depending on the positions of the end points of the line using computer processing and user interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 19, 2010
    Assignee: Hitachi Medical Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Shirahata, Yoshihiro Goto
  • Patent number: 7787000
    Abstract: An improved exposure adjustment technique for brightening and darkening an image using a modified Gamma-like (G+) function is provided. The G+ function possesses characteristics such that, when applied brightening an image, the darker pixels are not enhanced too quickly when brightening, and the lighter pixels are not decreased too quickly when darkening. Two pertinent characteristics include the fact that the slope of the G+ function is not infinite at the origin, where “origin” corresponds to black pixels, and the slope near the origin, where corresponding to pixels are relatively dark, is lower than the slope of a conventional Gamma-like function.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2010
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Russell M. Reid
  • Patent number: 7755643
    Abstract: A system, including apparatuses, software and methods, is disclosed for capturing and delivering images as to which various interactive functions are enabled for a user. The images introduced to the system can come from any one of a variety of sources, including from a digital camera. A graphical user interface permits a user to customize a set of interactive functions to be enabled for a given set of images. The interactively enabled images can be delivered via a webpage to a user, for example, via email, the Internet or downloaded from a disk or from disk drive on a computer on which the webpage is stored. Each image is delivered to a user in its own layer of software, which permits complex sets of images of relatively high resolution to be delivered to users without any appreciable delay associated with the delivery or the need for the user to have additional software, such as a plug-in to receive images and enable interactive functions with respect to the images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2010
    Assignee: Virtual Iris Studios, Inc.
    Inventors: Gary Kramer, Adam Rubin
  • Patent number: 7750909
    Abstract: A graph of nodes and edges is used to represent artist influence between different artists. Each node of the graph represents an artist. An edge between two nodes represents an influence relationship between two artists. The relative influence between artists is computed for the artists represented in the graph. Furthermore, the artists are ordered based on the computed influence.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2010
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Electronics Inc.
    Inventors: Khemdut Purang, Mark Plutowski
  • Patent number: 7750923
    Abstract: A display device for use with a computer adapted for operation in an unrestricted use mode and a limited function mode and a method for enforcing a limited function mode display is disclosed. The display device enters a limited function mode when a condition of non-compliance with an operating policy is discovered by the computer. Additionally, the display device may also enter a limited function mode upon powering up or when connections to the computer and/or selected components of the display are disabled or disconnected. When in the limited function mode, the display may support a limited function interface for use in correcting the condition of non-compliance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Hanumant Kumar Yadav, William J. Westerinen, Todd L. Carpenter, Stephen Richard Drake
  • Patent number: 7737982
    Abstract: A method and system for minimizing an amount of data needed to test data against subarea boundaries in spatially composited digital video. Spatial compositing uses a graphics unit or pipeline to render a portion (subarea) of each overall frame of digital video images. This reduces the amount of data that each processor must act on and increases the rate at which an overall frame is rendered. Optimization of spatial compositing depends on balancing the processing load among the different pipelines. The processing load typically is a direct function of the size of a given subarea and a function of the rendering complexity for objects within this subarea. Load balancing strives to measure these variables and adjust, from frame to frame, the number, sizes, and positions of the subareas. The cost of this approach is the necessity to communicate, in conjunction with each frame, the graphics data that will be rendered. Graphics data for a frame is composed of geometry chunks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2010
    Assignee: Graphics Properties Holdings, Inc.
    Inventors: David R. Blythe, Marc Schafer, Paul Jeffrey Ungar, David Yu
  • Patent number: 7728836
    Abstract: A method for displaying time dependent information includes displaying a time axis, wherein periods of time are displayed equidistantly on the time axis regardless of an actual time period being represented and providing a user interface allowing a user to scroll along the time axis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2010
    Assignee: SAP AG
    Inventor: Martin Kaiser
  • Patent number: 7724206
    Abstract: A position adjustment method for adjusting positions of two projection images projected from multiple projectors contained in a multi-projection display onto a projection surface such that the images overlap. A first step involves setting pixel values of colors such that a predetermined characteristic is exhibited in an overlapping area when the adjustment images are projected. A second step involves producing adjustment image data corresponding to the adjustment images. Colors of the adjustment images are allocated to patterns such that the patterns overlap when the adjustment images are projected. A third step involves giving the adjustment image data to the multiple projectors and calculating evaluation values associated with the image data that is obtained by taking an image of the projection surface on which the adjustment images are projected from the multiple projectors. A forth step involves performing position adjustment for the projection images based on the evaluation values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2010
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Toshiki Saito
  • Patent number: 7701470
    Abstract: A method, system, and computer-readable storage medium are disclosed for combining raster image masks in a digital image. A first raster image mask may be generated that comprises a first set of one or more pixels having a first intermediate value for membership in the first raster image mask. A second raster image mask may be generated that comprises the first set of one or more pixels having a second intermediate value for membership in the second raster image mask. The first raster image mask and the second raster image mask may be combined to generate a third raster image mask, wherein a boundary of the third raster image mask is not greater than a combined boundary of the first raster image mask and the second raster image mask.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2010
    Assignee: Adobe Systems, Incorporated
    Inventors: Gregg D. Wilensky, Jen-Chan Chien
  • Patent number: 7697002
    Abstract: The present invention overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art with a system for varying hand-drawn line width as a function of geometric or temporal properties such as curvature or time of the strokes as the user draws them. In one embodiment, the system of the present invention includes a stroke control module, a velocity adjustment module, a curvature adjustment module, a smoothing module, an adjacency verification module and a stroke dominance module. A stroke control module is operable on a processor to modify the width of input strokes and adjust them based on their curvature and/or the velocity at which they were received. The stroke control module cooperates with and controls the velocity adjustment module, a curvature adjustment module, the smoothing module and the other modules to provide overall width adjustment of strokes input by the user automatically to reflect the needs and intentions of the user and provide a natural-feeling drawing experience similar to that provided by paper.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2010
    Assignee: Ricoh Co. Ltd.
    Inventors: M. Kim McCall, Kurt W. Piersol