Abstract: A palmtop computer stand is provided. The palmtop computer stand includes a computing device, an imaging device and a cover. The imaging device pivotally couples with the computing device to capture an image of an object placed in close proximity to the computing device. The cover pivotally couples with the computing device such that the cover moves from a closed position into a lockable position. The cover supports the computing device and the imaging device at a fixed location relative to the cover in order to ensure precise image capturing of the object with the palmtop computer stand. Likewise, the cover supports a lens of the imaging device such that the lens is a fixed distance from a surface upon which the object rests.

Abstract: A system and method of transmitting an image adapted to a first display area size, such as a standard computer screen having a particular pixel-by-pixel resolution, to an apparatus having a smaller second display area size by scaling the image through coefficient cropping its frequency domain representation. When the cropped frequency coefficients are used to display an image within the second smaller display area, a scaled version of the image is displayed. In a specific embodiment, frequency domain coefficients are cropped such that a region of interest of the image is scaled down less than the remainder of the image when displayed in the second smaller display area. Scaling in this manner provides the user with a readable region of interest with the remainder of the image scaled down so as to facilitate easy image navigation by the user.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to providing an improved user interface for enhancing the manner by which information is entered into a database and later accessed from the database. Exemplary embodiments are directed to the use of an overlay, in the form of a flat digital display, that can be moved about a surface. The position of the movable display is tracked, so that digital content presented on the display is related to a particular position of the display over the document. This capability can be exploited to, for example, permit a much larger image to be viewed using a relatively small, portable display that can be navigated about the larger image. The larger image can optionally include information that, when accessed on the movable display, can be used to link to other information and/or can be used to access executable3 code for performing a desired function.

Abstract: A digital stereo camera using a single sensor array to take both left and right images for stereo (three-dimensional) image capture. In one embodiment, a micro-lens array is used to focus, at a first instant in time, light (“left light”) from a left lens system onto a sensor array for left image capture. Then, the micro-lens array is moved to focus light (“right light”) from a right lens system onto the sensor array for right image capture. In another embodiment, a portion of the left light (the portion having a first polarized direction) and a portion of the right light (the portion having a second polarized direction) are directed to a sensor array; the second polarized direction being orthogonal to the first polarized direction. To capture the left image, a polarization filter is used to allow the left light (having the first polarized direction) to pass toward the sensor array while preventing the right light (having the second polarized direction) from reaching the sensor array.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to enhancing a user's interaction with a physical document, such as a page of a book, by supplying the user with additional information related to the physical document in a simple, easy to use fashion. Exemplary embodiments provide this additional information as digital content that is displayed as an overlay upon the document. The overlay can be in the form of a flat digital display that can be moved about a surface of the physical document. The absolute position of the movable display is tracked, so that digital content presented on the display is related to a particular position of the display over the document. This capability can be exploited to, for example, provide an-the-fly translation of a particular document, with the translation being provided as the movable display is scanned over the words printed on a document to be translated.

Abstract: A multiple spatial channel technique is described that can produce near continuous-tone output quality from an output device having a large, dilute dot channel, referred to as the L (lowpass) channel, and a small, concentrated dot channel, referred to as the N (noisy) channel. The new process described here overcomes contouring artifacts and produces vastly improved images over techniques that use only a single dot type. Given a matrix of image luminance values (raster), two images are computed for printing with the two channels of the printer. The two images are computed simultaneously with a two-pass algorithm, one pass horizontally and one pass vertically. Initially, the L channel image is set to be equal to the input image. Each adjacent pair of pixels in the original image is compared by calculating an edge contrast strength.

Abstract: Traditional techniques such as filtering and edge enhancement have been applied to restoring images that have been distorted due to lossy image compression. However, these techniques have ignored a unique feature that can be exploited when working with digital compression. Before the image is stored or transmitted, the sender has access to both the original and the distorted images, enabling the encoder to transmit information specifying the regions where the enhancement was successful. To utilize this feature, before storage or transmission the sender produces a codec file, and assesses the efficacy of one or more enhancement schemes. To determine which image regions have been improved by the enhancement, the enhanced codec is compared to the original. A map of where the enhancement scheme was successful is encoded into the image by making tiny adjustments to the image itself.

Abstract: A post-filtering method and apparatus for increasing the high-frequency and edge information of halftoned images is described. If a continuous-tone (contone) image is processed by a halftoning algorithm into a binary or multi-level image, some of the high frequency information is lost. However, some of the lost information can be restored by judiciously rearranging some of the halftone picture elements (pixels). Each horizontally adjacent pair of pixels in the contone image are compared with each other. If the difference between their luminance is greater than a threshold, then the corresponding pair of adjacent pixels in the halftone image are compared. If the difference between the halftone image pixels has the opposite sign of the differences between the contone image pixels (e.g., the image changes from dark to light, but the halftone pixels change from light to black), the two halftone pixels are exchanged with each other. The procedure is then repeated in the vertical direction.