Patents by Inventor C. Chou

C. Chou has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11727619
    Abstract: A mixed reality system that includes a device and a base station that communicate via a wireless connection The device may include sensors that collect information about the user's environment and about the user. The information collected by the sensors may be transmitted to the base station via the wireless connection. The base station renders frames or slices based at least in part on the sensor information received from the device, encodes the frames or slices, and transmits the compressed frames or slices to the device for decoding and display. The base station may provide more computing power than conventional stand-alone systems, and the wireless connection does not tether the device to the base station as in conventional tethered systems. The system may implement methods and apparatus to maintain a target frame rate through the wireless link and to minimize latency in frame rendering, transmittal, and display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Arthur Y Zhang, Ray L. Chang, Timothy R. Oriol, Ling Su, Gurjeet S. Saund, Guy Cote, Jim C. Chou, Hao Pan, Tobias Eble, Avi Bar-Zeev, Sheng Zhang, Justin A. Hensley, Geoffrey Stahl
  • Publication number: 20230254510
    Abstract: A video encoding system in which pixel data is decomposed into frequency bands prior to encoding. The frequency bands are organized into blocks that are provided to a block-based encoder. The encoded frequency data is packetized and transmitted to a receiving device. On the receiving device, the encoded data is decoded to recover the frequency bands. Wavelet synthesis is then performed on the frequency bands to reconstruct the pixel data for display. The system may encode parts of frames (tiles or slices) using one or more encoders and transmit the encoded parts as they are ready. A pre-filter component may perform a lens warp on the pixel data prior to the wavelet transform.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 17, 2023
    Publication date: August 10, 2023
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jim C. Chou, Sorin C. Cismas
  • Publication number: 20230247817
    Abstract: A method (of manufacturing fins for a semiconductor device) includes: forming semiconductor fins including ones thereof having a first cap with a first etch sensitivity (first capped fins) and second ones thereof having a second cap with a second etch sensitivity (second capped fins), the first and second etch sensitivities being different; and eliminating selected ones of the first capped fins and selected ones of the second capped fins.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 27, 2023
    Publication date: August 3, 2023
    Inventors: Chih-Liang CHEN, Chih-Ming LAI, Charles Chew-Yuen YOUNG, Chin-Yuan TSENG, Jiann-Tyng TZENG, Kam-Tou SIO, Ru-Gun LIU, Wei-Liang LIN, L. C. CHOU
  • Publication number: 20230239515
    Abstract: Systems and methods for improving determination of encoded image data using a video encoding pipeline, which includes a first transcode engine that entropy encodes a first portion of a bin stream to determine a first bit stream including first encoded image data that indicates a first coding group row and that determines first characteristic data corresponding to the first bit stream to facilitate communicating a combined bit stream; and a second transcode engine that entropy encodes a second portion of the bin stream to determine a second bit stream including second encoded image data that indicates a second coding group row while the first transcode engine entropy encodes the first portion of the bin stream and that determines second characteristic data corresponding to the second bit stream to facilitate communicating the combined bit stream, which includes the first bit stream and the second bit stream, to a decoding device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2023
    Publication date: July 27, 2023
    Inventors: Jim C. Chou, Syed Muhammad A. Rizvi
  • Patent number: 11695977
    Abstract: An electronic device includes a wireless transceiver configured to receive content primitives via a wireless communication channel. The electronic device also includes control circuitry control circuitry coupled to the wireless transceiver, and configured to perform content provisioning operations based on the received content primitives, wherein the content provisioning operations comprise generating content image data and transmitting the content image data to the wireless communication channel using the wireless transceiver. In response to a bandwidth condition of the wireless communication channel being less than a threshold, the control circuitry is configured to perform adjusted content provisioning operations that decrease an amount of content image data conveyed by the wireless transceiver to the wireless communication channel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 4, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Moinul H. Khan, Jim C. Chou, Sorin C. Cismas
  • Patent number: 11653026
    Abstract: A video encoding system in which pixel data is decomposed into frequency bands prior to encoding. The frequency bands are organized into blocks that are provided to a block-based encoder. The encoded frequency data is packetized and transmitted to a receiving device. On the receiving device, the encoded data is decoded to recover the frequency bands. Wavelet synthesis is then performed on the frequency bands to reconstruct the pixel data for display. The system may encode parts of frames (tiles or slices) using one or more encoders and transmit the encoded parts as they are ready. A pre-filter component may perform a lens warp on the pixel data prior to the wavelet transform.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jim C. Chou, Sorin C. Cismas
  • Patent number: 11638041
    Abstract: Systems and methods for improving determination of encoded image data using a video encoding pipeline, which includes a first transcode engine that entropy encodes a first portion of a bin stream to determine a first bit stream including first encoded image data that indicates a first coding group row and that determines first characteristic data corresponding to the first bit stream to facilitate communicating a combined bit stream; and a second transcode engine that entropy encodes a second portion of the bin stream to determine a second bit stream including second encoded image data that indicates a second coding group row while the first transcode engine entropy encodes the first portion of the bin stream and that determines second characteristic data corresponding to the second bit stream to facilitate communicating the combined bit stream, which includes the first bit stream and the second bit stream, to a decoding device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jim C. Chou, Syed Muhammad A. Rizvi
  • Publication number: 20230096682
    Abstract: A video encoding system encodes source image data corresponding with an image includes a low resolution pipeline that receives the source image data corresponding with a first coding block in the image. The low resolution pipeline includes a low resolution motion estimation block programmed to generate a first downscaled coding block by downscaling resolution of the source image data corresponding with the first coding block. The first downscaled coding block comprises a first downscaled prediction block corresponding with a first prediction block in the first coding block. The low resolution pipeline may also perform several low resolution motion estimation searches to generate motion vector candidates. The video encoding system also includes a main pipeline that receives the source image data and determines encoding parameters to be used to encode the first coding block based at least partially on the motion vector candidates.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 10, 2022
    Publication date: March 30, 2023
    Inventors: Jim C Chou, Mark P Rygh, Jae Young Park
  • Patent number: 11616960
    Abstract: System and method for improving video encoding and/or video decoding. In embodiments, a video encoding pipeline includes a main encoding pipeline that compresses source image data corresponding with an image frame by processing the source image data based at least in part on encoding parameters to generate encoded image data. Additionally the video encoding pipeline includes a machine learning block communicatively coupled to the main encoding pipeline, in which the machine learning block analyzes content of the image frame by processing the source image data based at least in part on machine learning parameters implemented in the machine learning block when the machine learning block is enabled by the encoding parameters; and the video encoding pipeline adaptively adjusts the encoding parameters based at least in part on the content expected to be present in the image frame to facilitate improving encoding efficiency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jim C. Chou, Alexandros Tourapis
  • Patent number: 11616067
    Abstract: In an embodiment, a method (of manufacturing fins for a semiconductor device) includes: forming a first layer (on a semiconductor substrate) that has first spacers and etch stop layer (ESL) portions which are interspersed; forming second spacers on central regions of the first spacers and the ESL portions; removing exposed regions of the first spacers and the ESL portions and corresponding underlying portions of the semiconductor substrate; removing the second spacers resulting in corresponding first capped semiconductor fins and second capped semiconductor fins that are organized into first and second sets; each member of the first set having a first cap with a first etch sensitivity; and each member of the second set having a second cap with a different second etch sensitivity; and eliminating selected ones of the first capped semiconductor fins and selected ones of the second capped semiconductor fins.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2023
    Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Chih-Liang Chen, Chih-Ming Lai, Charles Chew-Yuen Young, Chin-Yuan Tseng, Jiann-Tyng Tzeng, Kam-Tou Sio, Ru-Gun Liu, Wei-Liang Lin, L. C. Chou
  • Publication number: 20230092305
    Abstract: A video encoding system in which pixel data is decomposed into frequency bands prior to encoding. The frequency bands are organized into blocks that are provided to a block-based encoder that encodes the blocks and passes the encoded blocks to a wireless interface that packetizes the blocks for transmittal over a wireless connection. The encoder may categorize the encoded frequency bands into multiple priority levels, and may tag each frequency block with metadata indicating the frequency band represented in the block, the priority of the frequency band, and timing information. The wireless interface may then transmit or drop packets according to the priority levels of the encoded frequency blocks in the packets and/or according to the timing information of the frequency blocks in the packets.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 4, 2022
    Publication date: March 23, 2023
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Sorin C. Cismas, Jim C. Chou, Ling Su, Keangpo R. Ho
  • Patent number: 11606569
    Abstract: Support for additional components may be specified in a coding scheme for image data. A layer of a coding scheme that specifies color components may also specify additional components. Characteristics of the components may be specified in the same layer or a different layer of the coding scheme. An encoder or decoder may identify the specified components and determine the respective characteristics to perform encoding and decoding of image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 14, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Alexandros Tourapis, Yeping Su, Khaled Mammou, Jungsun Kim, David W. Singer, Fabrice A. Robinet, Guy Cote, Jim C. Chou, Hsi-Jung Wu
  • Publication number: 20230009707
    Abstract: A video encoding system in which pixel data is decomposed into frequency bands prior to encoding. The frequency bands for a slice of a frame may be buffered so that complexity statistics may be calculated across the frequency bands prior to encoding. The statistics may then be used by a rate control component in determining quantization parameters for the frequency bands for modulating the rate in the encoder for the current slice. The quantization parameters for the frequency bands may be calculated jointly to optimize the quality of the displayed frames after decoder reconstruction and wavelet synthesis on a receiving device. Information about one or more previously processed frames may be used in combination with the statistics for a current slice in determining the quantization parameters for the current slice.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 16, 2022
    Publication date: January 12, 2023
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Hao Pan, Jim C. Chou, Felix C. Fernandes
  • Patent number: 11551336
    Abstract: An electronic device may include enhancement circuitry to enhance high resolution image data to improve perceived quality of an image corresponding to the high resolution image data. The enhancement circuitry may include tone detection circuitry to determine one or more tones within the image and apply changes to the high resolution image data based on the one or more tones. The enhancement circuitry may also include example-based improvement circuitry to compare the high resolution image data to low resolution image data and apply changes to the high resolution image data based on differences between sections of the high resolution image data and sections of the low resolution image data. The enhancement circuitry may also include channel processing circuitry to apply the first and second changes to one or more channels of the high resolution image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jim C. Chou, Haiyan He, Yun Gong
  • Publication number: 20220414824
    Abstract: An electronic device may include an electronic display to display an image based on processed image data. The electronic device may also include image processing circuitry to determine a hierarchical grid having multiple grid points divided into grid partitions. A first set of grid points associated with a first set of grid partitions may include a first set of mappings to corresponding coordinates of input image data in a source frame. The image processing circuitry may also interpolate between the first set of grid points to determine a second set of grid points of having a second set of mappings to corresponding coordinates of the input image data based on the first set of mappings. The image processing circuitry may also generate the processed image data by applying the first set of mappings and the second set of mappings to the input image data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 23, 2021
    Publication date: December 29, 2022
    Inventors: Jim C. Chou, Jian Zhou
  • Publication number: 20220414840
    Abstract: An electronic device may include an electronic display to display an image based on compensated image data in a panel space. The electronic device may also include image processing circuitry to generate the compensated image data. Further, generating the compensated image data may include determining a first inverse mapping of a pixel grid from the panel space to a rendering space and determining a forward mapping of the pixel grid from the rendering space to the panel space based on the first inverse mapping. The forward mapping may include corrections for multiple different warp operations stacked in a single warp operation. Additionally, the image processing circuitry may apply the forward mapping to input image data to generate the compensated image data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 23, 2021
    Publication date: December 29, 2022
    Inventors: Jim C. Chou, Jian Zhou
  • Publication number: 20220414841
    Abstract: An electronic device may include an electronic display to display an image based on processed image data. The electronic device may also include image processing circuitry to generate the processed image data. The image processing circuitry may receive input image data corresponding to an image in a first perspective and warp the input image data from the first perspective to a second perspective, generating warped image data. Additionally, the image processing circuitry may determine one or more occluded regions in the second perspective and determine fill-data corresponding to the occluded regions. The processed image data may be generated by combining the warped image data and the fill-data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 23, 2021
    Publication date: December 29, 2022
    Inventors: Jim C. Chou, Jian Zhou
  • Patent number: 11496758
    Abstract: A video encoding system in which pixel data is decomposed into frequency bands prior to encoding. The frequency bands are organized into blocks that are provided to a block-based encoder that encodes the blocks and passes the encoded blocks to a wireless interface that packetizes the blocks for transmittal over a wireless connection. The encoder may categorize the encoded frequency bands into multiple priority levels, and may tag each frequency block with metadata indicating the frequency band represented in the block, the priority of the frequency band, and timing information. The wireless interface may then transmit or drop packets according to the priority levels of the encoded frequency blocks in the packets and/or according to the timing information of the frequency blocks in the packets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Sorin C. Cismas, Jim C. Chou, Ling Su, Keangpo R. Ho
  • Publication number: 20220329805
    Abstract: In one implementation, a method of encoding an image is performed at a device including one or more processors and non-transitory memory. The method includes determining a category of a spatial portion of an image based on a relation between a plurality of thresholds associated with a plurality of quantization scaling parameters and a bit rate of the spatial portion of the image at the plurality of quantization scaling parameters. The method includes quantizing the spatial portion of the image based on the categorization.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 17, 2022
    Publication date: October 13, 2022
    Inventors: Krishnakanth Rapaka, Munehiro Nakazato, Jiandong Shen, Ganesh G. Yadav, Sorin Constantin Cismas, Jim C. Chou, Hao Pan
  • Publication number: 20220309616
    Abstract: Methods and systems include neural network-based image processing and blending circuitry to blend an output of the neural network to compensate for potential artifacts from the neural network-based image processing. The neural network(s) apply image processing to image data using one or more neural networks as processed data. Enhance circuitry enhances the image data in a scaling circuitry to generate enhanced data. Blending circuitry receives the processed image data and the enhanced data along with an image plane of the processed data. The blending circuitry also determines whether the image processing using the one or more neural networks has applied a change to the image data greater than a threshold amount. The blending circuitry then, based at least in part in response to the change being greater than the threshold amount and/or edge information of the image data, blends the processed data with the enhanced data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 15, 2022
    Publication date: September 29, 2022
    Inventors: Jim C. Chou, Yun Gong