Abstract: A method for inspecting a portion of a tyre surface involves comparison with an image of a three-dimensional (“3D”) reference surface. The method includes: extracting contours of graphic elements of an image of a 3D profile of a surface to be inspected; transforming the reference surface by establishing a correspondence between the contours of the graphic elements of the surface to be inspected and contours of identical graphic elements of the reference surface using a series of transformations; associating a B-spline surface, which includes control points, with the graphic elements of the transformed reference surface; and deforming the contours of the graphic elements of the reference surface by modifying positions of the control points of the B-spline surface so as to minimize distances between the contours of the graphic elements of the reference surface and the contours of the graphic elements of the surface to be inspected corresponding thereto.

Abstract: A method for inspecting a tyre surface involves comparison with an image of a three-dimensional (“3D”) reference surface. The method includes: extracting contours of graphic elements of an image of a 3D profile of a tyre surface to be inspected; locating characteristic points on the image of the tyre surface, and pairing the characteristic points with corresponding reference characteristic points on the image of the reference surface; associating a first reset B-spline surface with the reference surface by associating the reference characteristic points of the image of the reference surface with control points of the first reset B-spline surface; and deforming the reference surface by moving the control points of the first reset B-spline surface so as to superpose the control points on the characteristic points of the tyre surface, in accordance with the reference characteristic points of the reference surface paired with the characteristic points of the tyre surface.

Abstract: A tyre tread, having circumferentially juxtaposed elements separated from one another by identically shaped boundaries and having a least one basic pattern, is inspected by: producing an image of the tyre tread; identifying tread wear indicators on the image; grouping together sub-sets of the indicators according to the basic pattern(s) included in the indicators; determining a characteristic point of each of the sub-sets of the indicators; determining a sequence of distances by computing distances between the characteristics points of each of the sub-sets of the indicators; comparing and the sequence of distances with a known sequence of distances between characteristic points of the basic pattern(s) to confirm coincidence thereof; and projecting a shape of a boundary between elements of the tyre tread onto a surface to be inspected according to the known sequence of distances between characteristic points of the basic pattern(s).

Abstract: A method for inspecting tyre tread, having circumferentially juxtaposed elements separated by identically shaped boundaries and having patterns arranged in a predetermined sequence, includes: acquiring an image of a surface of the tyre tread, the image including pixels associated with a light-intensity level; transforming the image by circumferentially offsetting pixels located axially at a same distance (x1, x2) from a given circumferential reference (OY), by an inverse (?y1, ?y2) of a circumferential offset (y1, y2) with respect to an axial line (OX) of a point (P1, P2) located on a boundary line of known shape at the same axial distance (x1, x2) from the circumferential reference (OY), such that boundaries between elements appear as straight traces orientated in an axial direction; and analyzing the image to identify points located on an axially orientated straight line, the points being treated as points located on a boundary line between two elements.

Abstract: Method for inspecting a zone of the surface of a tire, said surface comprising markings in relief, wherein the three-dimensional profile of the surface to be inspected is determined, characteristic points on the surface to be inspected are located and these points are matched with the corresponding points originating from the three-dimensional data of a reference surface, so as to create a set of pairs of matched points, in an iterative manner, a first affine transformation function is sought, applied to the characteristic points of the reference surface, so that the value representing the sum of the distances between each of the characteristic points of the reference surface, which points are transformed with the aid of said first transformation function, and the points of the surface to be inspected that are matched with them, is minimal, and said first transformation function is applied to all of the points of the reference surface in order to obtain a transformed reference surface.

Abstract: A method for evaluating the surfaces of a tire, said surfaces being molded with rigid elements, wherein a collection of N images of a given zone of the tire is constituted based on the images originating from one or more tires, each of the images of the collection being constituted by the values of physical magnitudes measured by a sensor sensitive to the reflection of the light at each of the points with coordinates i, j of said surface, and then the images of said collection are made to correspond by superposition, and the image of the zone of a tire from said collection to be evaluated is compared with a reference image. The value of the physical magnitudes of the reference image is calculated based on the value of each of these physical magnitudes measured on the N images of said collection.

Abstract: Systems and methods for scheduling instructions without instruction decode. In one embodiment, a multi-core processor includes a scheduling unit in each core for scheduling instructions from two or more threads scheduled for execution on that particular core. As threads are scheduled for execution on the core, instructions from the threads are fetched into a buffer without being decoded. The scheduling unit includes a macro-scheduler unit for performing a priority sort of the two or more threads and a micro-scheduler arbiter for determining the highest order thread that is ready to execute. The macro-scheduler unit and the micro-scheduler arbiter use pre-decode data to implement the scheduling algorithm. The pre-decode data may be generated by decoding only a small portion of the instruction or received along with the instruction. Once the micro-scheduler arbiter has selected an instruction to dispatch to the execution unit, a decode unit fully decodes the instruction.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method of qualitatively evaluating a digital audio signal. It calculates a quality indicator consisting of a vector associated with each time window in real time, in continuous time, and in successive time windows. For example, the generation of a quality indicator vector calculates, for a reference audio signal and for an audio signal to be evaluated, the spectral power density of the audio signal, the coefficients of a prediction filter, using an autoregressive method, a temporal activity of the signal or the minimum value of the spectrum in successive blocks of the signal. To evaluate the deterioration of the audio signal, the method may calculate a distance between the vectors of the reference audio signal and the audio signal to be evaluated associated with each time window.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for lossless compression of color data. Color data for a packet including multiple sub-pixel samples is compressed using a predictor map that is selected based on the sampling format specified for the graphics surface storing the color data. The predictor map defines one of the samples as an anchor that is represented exactly and a transform indicating which neighboring samples are used to compute difference samples for the other samples in the packet. The difference samples are truncated and tested to determine if the difference samples can fit into one or more compressed data formats, i.e., if the color data can be compressed without loss. When compression can be performed without loss, the transformed packet is output. Otherwise, the original packet is output.

Abstract: Acquisition device for taking a digital relief image of the surface of a tire P, comprising: two colour cameras (13a, 13b) for the acquisition of stereoscopic images, each camera comprising N primary image sensors (131a, 132a, 133a, 131b, 132b, 133b) in a given primary colour (R, G, B), N being equal to or greater than two, and placed so as to acquire the light emitted (E) towards a predetermined area (Z) of the surface of the tire by illumination means (231, 232, 233) and reflected (F) by the surface of said tire; and N illumination means (231, 232, 233) simultaneously projecting, each independently and along the same direction onto said area (Z) of the surface of the tire, light having a wavelength that corresponds to one of the primary colours (R, G, B) of the cameras, according to a fringe system (S1, S2, . . . SN) consisting of an alternation of illuminated and non-illuminated bands of given width (L1, L2, . . . LN).

Abstract: The invention relates to a method of qualitatively evaluating a digital audio signal. It calculates a quality indicator consisting of a vector associated with each time window in real time, in continuous time, and in successive time windows. For example, the generation of a quality indicator vector calculates, for a reference audio signal and for an audio signal to be evaluated, the spectral power density of the audio signal, the coefficients of a prediction filter, using an autoregressive method, a temporal activity of the signal or the minimum value of the spectrum in successive blocks of the signal. To evaluate the deterioration of the audio signal, the method may calculate a distance between the vectors of the reference audio signal and the audio signal to be evaluated associated with each time window.

Abstract: Method for inspecting a zone of the surface of a tire, said surface comprising markings in relief, wherein the three-dimensional profile of the surface to be inspected is determined, characteristic points on the surface to be inspected are located and these points are matched with the corresponding points originating from the three-dimensional data of a reference surface, so as to create a set of pairs of matched points, in an iterative manner, a first affine transformation function is sought, applied to the characteristic points of the reference surface, so that the value representing the sum of the distances between each of the characteristic points of the reference surface, which points are transformed with the aid of said first transformation function, and the points of the surface to be inspected that are matched with them, is minimal, and said first transformation function is applied to all of the points of the reference surface in order to obtain a transformed reference surface.

Abstract: A device for evaluating the appearance of the surface of a tire (P) comprising a color linear camera (1) comprising means (14, 15, 16) for separating the light beam (F) reflected by the surface of said tire (P) and entering the camera (1) into at least two base colors (R, G, B) of given wavelength, so as to direct the light beam to as many sensors (11, 12, 13) capable of obtaining a basic image in gray level (41, 42, 43) for each of the base colors, as many lighting means (21, 22, 23) as base colors, said lighting means being oriented so as to light the surface to be evaluated at different angles, characterized in that each of the lighting means (21, 22, 23) emits a colored light (R, G, B) that differs from that of the other lighting means, and the wavelength of which corresponds substantially to the wavelength of one of the base colors selected by the camera.

Abstract: A method for evaluating the surfaces of a tire, said surfaces being molded with rigid elements, wherein a collection of N images of a given zone of the tire is constituted based on the images originating from one or more tires, each of the images of the collection being constituted by the values of physical magnitudes measured by a sensor sensitive to the reflection of the light at each of the points with coordinates i, j of said surface, and then the images of said collection are made to correspond by superposition, and the image of the zone of a tire from said collection to be evaluated is compared with a reference image. The value of the physical magnitudes of the reference image is calculated based on the value of each of these physical magnitudes measured on the N images of said collection.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method of synchronizing two digital data streams with the same content, the method comprising the steps of: a) generating at given intervals for each of the two digital data streams S1 and S2 at least two characteristic numbers expressing at least one parameter characteristic of their content; b) generating from said numbers points D1 and D2 for each of the two streams S1 and S2 representing at least one of said characteristic parameters in a space of at least two dimensions, the points D1 corresponding to the stream S1 and the points D2 corresponding to the stream S2 that are situated in a time period T defining trajectories representative of the data streams S1 and S2 to be synchronized; c) shifting the time periods of duration T assigned to the digital data streams S1 and S2 relative to each other by calculating a criterion of superposition of said trajectories having an optimum value representing the required synchronization; d) choosing the shift between the time periods corres

Abstract: The invention relates to a method of qualitatively evaluating a digital audio signal. It calculates a quality indicator consisting of a vector associated with each time window in real time, in continuous time, and in successive time windows. For example, the generation of a quality indicator vector calculates, for a reference audio signal and for an audio signal to be evaluated, the spectral power density of the audio signal, the coefficients of a prediction filter, using an autoregressive method, a temporal activity of the signal or the minimum value of the spectrum in successive blocks of the signal. To evaluate the deterioration of the audio signal, the method may calculate a distance between the vectors of the reference audio signal and the audio signal to be evaluated associated with each time window.