Abstract: When an original image containing a code image is lossy-compressed, the image quality of the code image is deteriorated. Thus, due to the deterioration of the image quality of the code image, information contained in the code image cannot be acquired. Thus, a portion corresponding to the code image is not lossy compressed, and the portion corresponding to the code image, which has not been subjected to lossy compression, is stored in a storage unit.

Abstract: A color classification method including: determining a plurality of predetermined process target regions from a plurality of pickup images taken by an imaging device; calculating a plurality of color distributions of pixels contained in the respective determined process target regions; and forming a plurality of clusters by executing a clustering process based on the calculated color distributions for the pickup images, the method being for classifying a plurality of colors with respect to the respective formed clusters, the forming step including: extracting predetermined number of the classified colors, whose calculated rates are highest in the calculated plurality of the rates, from among the predetermined classified colors; defining a plurality of color spaces, dimensions of each of which are selected from the predetermined number of the extracted classified colors.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus that receives mosaic image data having settings of only one color component, R, G, or B, in each pixel and subjects the received mosaic image data to a series of image processing to generate color image data with settings of all the three color components, R, G, and B, in each pixel; wherein the mosaic image data has the form of a Bayer color filter array; and the image processing apparatus includes: a vertical-direction color difference component computation module; a horizontal-direction color difference component computation module; an edge direction determination module; a color component interpolation module; an oblique edge pixel detection module; an oblique edge direction determination module; and an oblique edge pixel interpolation correction module.

Abstract: Aspects of a system and method for processing an image are presented. The method may comprise stretching contrast of an input image based on a distribution of luma values for the input image and a distribution of luma values for a desired output image. The pixels below a specified level of contrast defined by the distribution of luma values for the input image and the distribution of luma values for the desired output image are substantially stretched. The method may also comprise constructing a lookup table of the desired output luma values and stretching a contrast of the input image using the constructed lookup table. The method may also comprise applying linear function and a non-linear function to the distribution of luma values, and applying a stretch factor above a specified level of the distribution and a stretch factor below a specified level of the distribution.

Abstract: Provided are an image encoding apparatus and an image decoding apparatus. The image encoding apparatus includes a compression unit compressing a reference image by reducing a resolution of the reference image in a resolution adjustment mode determined from among at least two resolution adjustment modes according to a distribution of values of pixels of the reference image, and providing the compressed reference image to a memory, a reconstruction unit reconstructing the reference image by increasing a resolution of the compressed reference image stored in the memory to an original resolution, a predictive encoding unit performing predictive encoding on a current image by using the reconstructed reference image, and a predictive decoding unit generating the reference image by performing decoding on the predictive encoded current image, and providing the generated reference image to the compression unit.

Abstract: A data transform apparatus transforms four integer data D0-D3 into one DC coefficient Y0 and three AC coefficients Y1-Y3 as lossless-Hadamard transform coefficients. A first calculation unit group adds date D0 to respective data D1 to D3. A first shifter shifts data D0 1 bit to the left. A second calculation unit group subtracts three data calculated by the first calculation unit group from output of the shifter. A second shifter halves a calculation result of the second calculation unit group by shifting the subtraction result 1 bit to the right, and executes round processing for truncating a fractional part of the halved data. A sign inverter inverts the sign of output from the second shifter, and outputs it as DC coefficient. A third calculation unit group subtracts output from the sign inverter from output of the first calculation unit group, and outputs these data as AC coefficients.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a real-time wideband compressor for multi-dimensional data. The compressor comprises a plurality of compression engines for simultaneously compressing a plurality of data subsets of a set of input data vectors and providing compressed data thereof using one of SAMVQ or HSOCVQ data compression. Each compression engine comprises an along spectral vectors codevector trainer as well as an across spectral bands codevector trainer. The compression engines are programmable to perform either along spectral vectors codevector training or across spectral bands codevector training in combination with one of the SAMVQ or HSOCVQ techniques without changing hardware. The compressor further comprises a network switch for partitioning the set of input data vectors into the plurality of data subsets, for providing each of the plurality of data subsets to one of the plurality of compression engines, and for transmitting the compressed data.

Abstract: The invention relates to an encoder for forming an encoded picture stream. The pictures are defined as reference pictures or non-reference pictures, and information relating to decoding order and output order of a picture is defined for pictures of the picture stream. The encoder is arranged to form to the bitstream an indication of such a number of pictures arranged to be buffered in decoding order that is sufficient to recover the output order of pictures. The invention also relates to a signal, hypothetical encoder, decoder, hypothetical decoder, electronic device, system, software program and a storage medium.

Abstract: A biological growth plate scanner includes a multi-color illumination system that illuminates a biological growth plate with different illumination colors. A monochromatic image capture device captures images of the biological growth plate during illumination of the growth plate with each of the illumination colors. A processor combines the images to form a composite multi-color image, and/or individual components of the composite image, and analyzes the composite image to produce an analytical result such as a colony count or a presence/absence result. The biological growth plate scanner may include both front and back illumination components. The back illumination component may include a diffuser element disposed under the biological growth plate. The diffuser element receives light from one or more laterally disposed illumination sources, and distributes the light to illuminate a back side of the biological growth plate.

Abstract: Images captured in a digital form are stored in a digital storage device with already-stored images by determining if a percentage of a finite storage capacity of the digital storage device needed to store the captured and already stored images in the storage device exceeds a pre-set threshold value, wherein storage used of the finite storage capacity to store images may exceed the pre-set threshold value. If the percentage of storage space needed to store the captured and already stored images in the storage device exceeds the pre-set threshold value, then at least one of the captured and already stored images are compressed and all of the captured and already stored images, including all of the compressed images of the captured image and the already stored image, are stored in the storage device.

Abstract: A content-adaptive video preview system (100) allows to go faster through a video than existing video skimming techniques. Thereby, a user can interactively adapt (S1) the speed of browsing and/or the abstraction level of presentation. According to one embodiment of the invention, this adaptation procedure (S1) is realized by the following steps: First, differences between precalculated spatial color histograms associated with chronologically subsequent pairs of video frames said video file is composed of are calculated (S1a). Then, these differences and/or a cumulative difference value representing the sum of these differences are compared (S1b) to a predefined redundancy threshold (S(t)). In case differences in the color histograms of particular video frames (302a-c) and/or said cumulative difference value exceed this redundancy threshold (S(t)), these video frames are selected (S1c) for the preview.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer program products used to locate a feature in an image, including identifying one or more candidate features in an image, where each candidate feature is a group of pixels in the image that satisfies a pattern-matching criterion. A best candidate feature is selected from the one or more candidate features, and a parameterized shape is fit to the image in the region of the best candidate feature to compute a feature shape corresponding to the best candidate feature. Particular implentations can include one or more of the following features. The candidate feature is a candidate pupil and the feature shape is an ellipse. Fitting the parameterizes shape to the mage includes applying an iterative process varying shape parameters.

Abstract: The present invention enables highly accurate estimation of a motion amount of a target pixel for motion-estimation located between two adjacent lines in a current field when generating a non-interlaced video signal from an interlaced video signal. To achieve this aim, an inter-field motion-estimating unit estimates a motion amount between a current field and a previous field. An intra-field motion-estimating unit estimates a motion amount within a current field. A motion amount calculation unit calculates a final motion amount based on the inter-field motion amount estimated by the inter-field motion-estimating unit and the intra-field motion amount estimated by the intra-field motion-estimating unit, and then outputs the motion amount.

Abstract: An image processing method for individually processing an image of each pixel unit is provided. A red-green-blue color space signal to be input to a pixel unit is transformed into a first brightness signal. The red-green-blue color space signal includes a first red signal, a first green signal and a first blue signal. The first brightness signal is transformed into a second brightness signal to obtain a contrast factor, wherein the contrast factor is a ratio of the second brightness signal and the first brightness signal. The first red signal, the first green signal and the first blue signal are multiplied by the contrast factor to obtain a second red signal, a second green signal and a second blue signal. The second red signal, the second green signal and the second blue signal are performed by color enhancement to obtain a high contrast and colorful image.

Abstract: Techniques for performing the processing of blocks of video in multiple stages. Each stage is executed for blocks of data in the frame that need to go through that stage, based on the coding type, before moving to the next stage. This order of execution allows blocks of data to be processed in a nonsequential order, unless the blocks need to go through the same processing stages. Multiple processing elements (PEs) operating in SIMD mode executing the same task and operating on different blocks of data may be utilized, avoiding idle times for the PEs. In another aspect, inverse scan and dequantization operations for blocks of data are merged in a single procedure operating on multiple PEs operating in SIMD mode. This procedure makes efficient use of the multiple PEs and speeds up processing by combining two operations, inverse scan (reordering) and dequantization, which load the execution units differently.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for reducing data size of at least one bitmap image comprising at least one block, wherein the block comprises a plurality of image components, each image component being associated with a distinct color plane. The method may include compressing the plurality of image components of the at least one block. The method may further include ranking the plurality of image components using a dominance rank, wherein the dominance rank for an image component is based on a compression ratio for the image component. The method may also include reducing the resolution of at least one image component associated with the block, based on the dominance rank of the color plane associated with the image component.

Abstract: An image enhancement device is obtained which is capable of extracting, as regions of interest, still objects or objects with smaller motion vectors, or regions located out of the central area of an image. An image processing module (22) applies memorized-color correction to image data, and then stores, in an SDRAM (7) through a memory interface (26), information about the positions of the memorized-color-corrected pixels and information about the application levels (correction levels) applied to the memorized-color-corrected pixels. A mask signal generating module (23) refers to the positional information stored in the SDRAM (7) to extract the memorized-color-corrected regions of the image data as regions of interest.

Abstract: A method for detecting a redeye defect in a digital image containing an eye comprises converting the digital image into an intensity image, and segmenting the intensity image into segments each having a local intensity maximum. Separately, the original digital image is thresholded to identify regions of relatively high intensity and a size falling within a predetermined range. Of these, a region is selected having substantially the highest average intensity, and those segments from the segmentation of the intensity image whose maxima are located in the selected region are identified.

Abstract: A method of compressed sensing imaging includes acquiring a sparse digital image b, said image comprising a plurality of intensities corresponding to an I-dimensional grid of points, initializing points (x(k), y(k)), wherein x(k) is an element of a first expanded image x defined by b=R??1 x, wherein R is a Fourier transform matrix, ? is a wavelet transform matrix, y(k) is a point in ? ( ? i = 1 l ? ( ? i ? ? - 1 ? x ( k ) ) 2 ) 1 / 2 , ?i is a forward finite difference operator for a ith coordinate, and k is an iteration counter; calculating a first auxiliary variable s(k) from x ( k ) - ? 1 ( ?? ? ? n ? L n * ? y n ( k ) + ? ? ? R * ( R ? ? ? - 1 ? x ( k ) - b ) ) , wherein ?1,? are predetermined positive scalar constants, the sum is over all points n in x, and L* is an adjoint of operator L=(?1, . . .

Abstract: Even through security information is embedded in a printed document, if the security level is changed after original data is printed, it is impossible to change the security level of a printed document. Hence, when vector data is generated from the printed document, vector data with a low security level is obtained, and that vector data can be edited and printed. Hence, a document image is read, the read image is segmented into image regions of different attributes, and pointer information embedded in each image region is extracted. An image of the image region from which no pointer information is extracted and whose vector conversion is instructed by the user is converted into vector data. A security level is set in the vector data, and the vector data set with the security level is registered in a server.