Patents by Inventor Charles Kellner

Charles Kellner 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).

  • System and method for visual chat
    Patent number: 7388966
    Abstract: Disclosed is an inventive method for providing visual chat. A character image is read into memory representing a character a user wishes to be for the duration of the visual chat. Continuous frames of video images are then received, typically using video camera, which include image data of a person. The head image of the person is then tracked by the system, and portions of the head image are extracted from the video images. These extracted portions are preferably features of the person in the video image. Finally, the extracted portions of the head image are blended into corresponding areas of the character image, such that the features of the blended character image match the features of the person, and change as the features of the person change.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2008
    Inventor: Charles Kellner
  • System and method for visual chat
    Publication number: 20070150535
    Abstract: Disclosed is an inventive method for providing visual chat. A character image is read into memory representing a character a user wishes to be for the duration of the visual chat. Continuous frames of video images are then received, typically using video camera, which include image data of a person. The head image of the person is then tracked by the system, and portions of the head image are extracted from the video images. These extracted portions are preferably features of the person in the video image. Finally, the extracted portions of the head image are blended into corresponding areas of the character image, such that the features of the blended character image match the features of the person, and change as the features of the person change.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 5, 2006
    Publication date: June 28, 2007
    Inventor: Charles Kellner
  • System and method for visual chat
    Patent number: 7167577
    Abstract: Disclosed is an inventive method for providing visual chat. A character image is read into memory representing a character a user wishes to be for the duration of the visual chat. Continuous frames of video images are then received, typically using video camera, which include image data of a person. The head image of the person is then tracked by the system, and portions of the head image are extracted from the video images. These extracted portions are preferably features of the person in the video image. Finally, the extracted portions of the head image are blended into corresponding areas of the character image, such that the features of the blended character image match the features of the person, and change as the features of the person change.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2007
    Assignee: Electric Planet, Inc.
    Inventor: Charles Kellner
  • Systems and methods for managing frame rates during multimedia playback
    Publication number: 20050084237
    Abstract: Systems and methods for managing frame rates during multimedia playback are described herein. The ideal playback timing associated with video data is determined. If an actual playback timing of the video data lags the ideal playback timing, a frame rate associated with the video data is varied using a smoothing function to recover toward the ideal playback timing. An iterative frame-dropping algorithm is applied to vary the frame rate in accordance with the smoothing function. The smoothing function incorporates as a variable an average delay associated with playback of frames in the video data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 16, 2003
    Publication date: April 21, 2005
    Inventors: Charles Kellner, William Sanders, Darren Davis
  • System and method for visual chat
    Patent number: 6876754
    Abstract: Disclosed is an inventive method for providing visual chat. A character image is read into memory representing a character a user wishes to be for the duration of the visual chat. Continuous frames of video images are then received, typically using video camera, which include image data of a person. The head image of the person is then tracked by the system, and portions of the head image are extracted from the video images. These extracted portions are preferably features of the person in the video image. Finally, the extracted portions of the head image are blended into corresponding areas of the character image, such that the features of the blended character image match the features of the person, and change as the features of the person change.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2005
    Assignee: Electric Planet
    Inventor: Charles Kellner
  • System and method for visual chat
    Patent number: 6539099
    Abstract: Disclosed is an inventive method for providing visual chat. A character image is read into memory representing a character a user wishes to be for the duration of the visual chat. Continuous frames of video images are then received, typically using video camera, which include image data of a person. The head image of the person is then tracked by the system, and portions of the head image are extracted from the video images. These extracted portions are preferably features of the person in the video image. Finally, the extracted portions of the head image are blended into corresponding areas of the character image, such that the features of the blended character image match the features of the person, and change as the features of the person change.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 1999
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2003
    Assignee: Electric Planet
    Inventor: Charles Kellner