Patents Examined by Xuemei Chen
  • Patent number: 8374464
    Abstract: In super-resolution processing in which a plurality of low resolution images are synthesized to generate a high resolution image, a high-quality high-resolution image is to be generated with suppression of the noise ascribable to motion estimation error. Motion estimating means 11 estimates motion of pixels between a basis image selected out of plural low resolution images and remaining reference images, and outputs a result of motion estimation. Motion estimation reliability evaluating means 12 evaluates reliability of the result of motion estimation output from the motion estimating means 11, based on such as analogy in luminance of pixels, correlated by the results of the motion estimation, and outputs a motion estimation reliability value indicating the degree of reliability.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2013
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Masato Toda
  • Patent number: 8369639
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a partitions setting unit that sets up image partitions into which an input image is separated; a tone number setting unit that sets the number of tones for each of the image partitions set up by the partitions setting unit, based on gray levels of pixels included in each of the image partitions; and a conversion unit that converts each of the image partitions of the input image into an image partition represented with tones equal to or less than the number of tones set by the tone number setting unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2008
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2013
    Assignee: Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Taro Yokose, Tomoki Taniguchi
  • Patent number: 8363970
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus for converting a first image into a second image having higher image quality than the first image. The image processing apparatus including first pixel value extracting means for extracting plural pixel values within the first image and estimate noise amount arithmetically operating means for obtaining estimate noise amounts for the plural pixel values. The image processing apparatus also including processing coefficient generating means for generating second processing coefficients in accordance with an arithmetic operation for first processing coefficients and the estimate noise amounts, second pixel value extracting means for extracting a plurality of pixel values, and predicting means for generating a pixel value of the pixel of interest.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yasuhiro Suto, Tetsujiro Kondo, Hisakazu Shiraki, Takahiro Nagano, Noriaki Takahashi
  • Patent number: 8351735
    Abstract: The present invention relates to an image processing system, method and computer program for contrast enhancement of images, and more specifically to an improvement of multi-scale adaptive gain control of images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2013
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventors: Paul Biezen, Johan Schirris, Sasa Cvetkovic
  • Patent number: 8346022
    Abstract: In a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention, an automated, computerized method is provided for processing an image. According to a feature of the present invention, the method comprises the steps of providing an image file depicting an image in an array of pixels, in a computer memory, performing a tone mapping method on the image, performing a log chromaticity method on the image and calculating a color value for each pixel as a function of information relevant to the tone mapping method and the log chromaticity method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2013
    Assignee: Tandent Vision Science, Inc.
    Inventor: Casey Arthur Smith
  • Patent number: 8340377
    Abstract: A method for processing events in a medical imaging device may comprise the steps of receiving analog signals from at least one PMT into an Applied Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) comprising a Constant Fraction Discriminator (CFD) and transmitting analog outputs from the ASIC. Further, sampling the analog outputs continuously using an Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) and transmitting digital outputs; and collecting a number of samples of the digital output during a sampling period using a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) when triggered by the CFD. The method may additionally determine the energy of the analog signals from the at lease one PMT by subtracting the peak value of each signal from the baseline value of each signal, wherein the peak value is determined as an average of at least one sample taken only around the peak during the sampling period, and the baseline value is determined as an average of at least one sample taken only around the beginning or end of the sampling period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2012
    Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.
    Inventors: Aaron McFarland, Stefan B. Siegel, Danny F. Newport, Robert A. Mintzer
  • Patent number: 8340463
    Abstract: Systems and methods for performing image editing operations may divide an input image into overlapping patches and assign those patches to locations in a reconstructed output image such that visual artifacts are minimized. The methods may use belief propagation to compute a joint probability for the assignment of active patch labels to output image nodes. The computation may include an exclusivity term, steering the solution such that each patch is preferably only used once in the output image. The methods may include a pre-computation of a pruned list of candidate patches for placing next to each patch in the output image, dependent on local evidence (e.g., color, intensity, or user-driven placement) for each patch. The pre-computation may include determining groupings of patches, each forming a highly compatible loop of neighboring patches for a given candidate patch. The methods may be implemented as program instructions executable by a CPU and/or GPU.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2012
    Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated
    Inventors: Taeg Sang Cho, Shmuel Avidan, William T. Freeman
  • Patent number: 8331718
    Abstract: A method of revising edges of an image includes sampling a window of a square shape from an input image; classifying the input image into a homogeneous area and a heterogeneous area; determining a maximum window for the homogeneous area and a minimum window for the heterogeneous area; performing a first noise filtering process for the maximum window; determining a minimum variance area from the minimum window; and performing a second noise filtering process for the minimum variance area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2012
    Assignee: LG Display Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Kil-Tae Kim
  • Patent number: 8244067
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is a method for identifying a constellation of alignment marks within an arrangement of computer readable marks in an image (1412), the arrangement of computer readable marks (1412) including alignment marks (1401-1406) and data carrying marks (1407-1410). The alignment marks (1401-1406) define a reference grid within the arrangement of computer readable marks and the data carrying marks (1407-1410) are modulated with respect to the reference grid to encode data. The method selects at least two marks (1501, 1502) from the arrangement of computer readable marks and determines a rotation center with reference to the selected marks (1501, 1502). The method then determines rotated positions for the selected marks by rotating each of the selected marks by a predetermined angle about the rotation center.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Michael Chun Tao Chan, Eric Lap Min Cheung, Dmitri Katchalov, Kapil Batra, Stephen Edward Ecob
  • Patent number: 8233739
    Abstract: Systems and methods for performing image editing operations may use patch transforms and inverse patch transforms to reconstruct output images from input images and to refine them using patch jittering such that visual artifacts are repaired. The methods may include generating one or more jittered versions of patch(es) initially assigned to nodes of the output image and using them as candidate patches for a refined image. Jittered versions of patches may be shifted by a small number of pixels in one or more directions. The number of jittered versions and amount of jittering exhibited by each may be configurable (e.g., programmatically or by a user) and/or may be dependent on the amount of overlap between the patches. Belief propagation may be used to replace patches in the output image with jittered versions in the refined image. The methods may be implemented as program instructions executable on a CPU and/or GPU.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2012
    Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated
    Inventors: Taeg Sang Cho, Shmuel Avidan, William T. Freeman
  • Patent number: 8180163
    Abstract: The present disclosure describes encoding sequence information into a sequence of display frames for display on a display device. An example of encoding sequence information includes generating the sequence of display frames, inserting monitor flags within each display frame, each monitor flag being capable of moving between a first state and a second state, setting the state of monitor flags within each display frame to a predetermined configuration, and encoding sequence information in the sequence of display frames such that neighboring display frames in the sequence have different predetermined configurations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2012
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: John Collomosse, Timothy Paul James Gerard Kindberg
  • Patent number: 8086056
    Abstract: Described herein are methods and devices for encoding and decoding data. An encoding device can be configured to encode video by performing intra-frame encoding using wavelet transformation. The encoding device can include a generation unit configured to generate a composite image for every n temporally consecutive frames, and an encoding unit configured to perform the encoding for the composite image. The decoding device can be configured to decode data encoded by such an encoding device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2011
    Inventors: Kenji Yamane, Eisaburo Itakura, Takahiro Fukuhara
  • Patent number: 8073225
    Abstract: In a method and a device for optimization of a combined system for the acquisition of magnetic resonance tomographic measurement data and an image reconstruction process, the image reconstruction process is already executed during the acquisition of the measurement data, by the calculation process being deconstructed into calculation packets, and rules are defined that establish which requirements must be met for the execution of the respective calculation packet. The calculation process is reorganized into a workflow structure based on the calculation packets and the rules. The calculation process is controlled using the generated workflow structure synchronized to the acquisition process. The rules entirely describe the calculation process, i.e. inclusive of all calculation packets and their logical dependencies. The stability of the calculation process is thus entirely independent of the chronological order of the measurement data acquisition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2011
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Ulrich Hagen, Oliver Heid, Thomas Kluge, Markus Vester
  • Patent number: 8073252
    Abstract: A computer readable medium is provided embodying instructions executable by a processor to perform a method for sparse volume segmentation for 3D scan of a target. The method including learning prior knowledge, providing volume data comprising the target, selecting a plurality of key contours of the image of the target, building a 3D spare model of the image of the target given the plurality of key contours, segmenting the image of the target given the 3D sparse model, and outputting a segmentation of the image of the target.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2011
    Assignee: Siemens Corporation
    Inventors: Charles Florin, Nikolaos Paragios, James Williams, Gareth Funka-Lea
  • Patent number: 8023734
    Abstract: A general purpose method to segment any kind of lesions in 3D images is provided. Based on a click or a stroke inside the lesion from the user, a distribution of intensity level properties is learned. The random walker segmentation method combines multiple 2D segmentation results to produce the final 3D segmentation of the lesion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2011
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Marie-Pierre Jolly, Leo Grady
  • Patent number: 8000546
    Abstract: An adaptive scan method for image/video coding in accordance with the present invention comprises acts of calculating an average power of the transformed coefficients vector and acts rearranging the powers of the transformed coefficients with descending order in the data block according to the power of transformed coefficients; Therefore, the adaptive scan method is dependent on different prediction mode witch has been coded in H.264 standard, and provides better rate-distortion performance in entropy coding to the conventional zig-zag scan.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2011
    Assignee: National Cheng Kung University
    Inventors: Jar-Ferr Yang, Yung-Chiang Wei