Patents by Inventor Frank Doepke
Frank Doepke 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).
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Method and apparatus for finding and using video portions that are relevant to adjacent still images
Patent number: 10706892Abstract: The invention relates to systems, methods, and computer readable media for responding to a user snapshot request by capturing anticipatory pre-snapshot image data as well as post-snapshot image data. The captured information may be used, depending upon the embodiment, to create archival image information and image presentation information that is both useful and pleasing to a user. The captured information may automatically be trimmed or edited to facilitate creating an enhanced image, such as a moving still image. Varying embodiments of the invention offer techniques for trimming and editing based upon the following: exposure, brightness, focus, white balance, detected motion of the camera, substantive image analysis, detected sound, image metadata, and/or any combination of the foregoing.Type: GrantFiled: November 26, 2018Date of Patent: July 7, 2020Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Claus Molgaard, Brett M. Keating, George E. Williams, Marco Zuliani, Vincent Y. Wong, Frank Doepke, Ethan J. Tira-Thompson -
Patent number: 10306140Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer readable media for adaptively selecting what portion (aka slice) of a first image (aka frame) is selected to overlap and blend with a second frame during frame capture operations are disclosed. In general, for every new frame captured in a sequence the overlap between it and the slice selected from a prior frame may be determined based, at least in part, on sensor output. If the overlap so determined is below a desired threshold, the position of the current frame's slice may be adjusted so as to provide the desired overlap.Type: GrantFiled: June 6, 2012Date of Patent: May 28, 2019Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Marius Tico, Frank Doepke
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Patent number: 10284835Abstract: Generating an image with a selected level of background blur includes capturing, by a first image capture device, a plurality of frames of a scene, wherein each of the plurality of frames has a different focus depth, obtaining a depth map of the scene, determining a target object and a background in the scene based on the depth map, determining a goal blur for the background, and selecting, for each pixel in an output image, a corresponding pixel from the focus stack.Type: GrantFiled: September 24, 2015Date of Patent: May 7, 2019Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Thomas E. Bishop, Alexander Lindskog, Claus Molgaard, Frank Doepke
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Method And Apparatus For Finding And Using Video Portions That Are Relevant To Adjacent Still Images
Publication number: 20190096441Abstract: The invention relates to systems, methods, and computer readable media for responding to a user snapshot request by capturing anticipatory pre-snapshot image data as well as post-snapshot image data. The captured information may be used, depending upon the embodiment, to create archival image information and image presentation information that is both useful and pleasing to a user. The captured information may automatically be trimmed or edited to facilitate creating an enhanced image, such as a moving still image. Varying embodiments of the invention offer techniques for trimming and editing based upon the following: exposure, brightness, focus, white balance, detected motion of the camera, substantive image analysis, detected sound, image metadata, and/or any combination of the foregoing.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 26, 2018Publication date: March 28, 2019Inventors: Claus Molgaard, Brett M. Keating, George E. Williams, Marco Zuliani, Vincent Y. Wong, Frank Doepke, Ethan J. Tira-Thompson -
Patent number: 10203857Abstract: A graphical user interface (GUI) element permits a user to control an application in both a coarse manner and a fine manner. When a cursor is moved to coincide or overlap the displayed GUI element, parameter adjustment is made at a first (coarse) granularity so that rapid changes to the target parameter can be made (e.g., displayed zoom level, image rotation or playback volume). As the cursor is moved away from the displayed GUI element, parameter adjustment is made at a second (fine) granularity so that fine changes to the target parameter can be made. In one embodiment, the further the cursor is moved from the displayed GUI element, the finer the control.Type: GrantFiled: January 10, 2014Date of Patent: February 12, 2019Assignee: APPLE INC.Inventors: Frank Doepke, Hans-Werner Neubrand
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Method and apparatus for finding and using video portions that are relevant to adjacent still images
Patent number: 10170157Abstract: The invention relates to systems, methods, and computer readable media for responding to a user snapshot request by capturing anticipatory pre-snapshot image data as well as post-snapshot image data. The captured information may be used, depending upon the embodiment, to create archival image information and image presentation information that is both useful and pleasing to a user. The captured information may automatically be trimmed or edited to facilitate creating an enhanced image, such as a moving still image. Varying embodiments of the invention offer techniques for trimming and editing based upon the following: exposure, brightness, focus, white balance, detected motion of the camera, substantive image analysis, detected sound, image metadata, and/or any combination of the foregoing.Type: GrantFiled: September 25, 2015Date of Patent: January 1, 2019Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Claus Molgaard, Brett M. Keating, George E. Williams, Marco Zuliani, Vincent Y. Wong, Frank Doepke, Ethan J. Tira-Thompson -
Publication number: 20180088776Abstract: The techniques disclosed herein may use various sensors to infer a frame of reference for a hand-held device. In fact, with various inertial clues from accelerometer, pyrometer, and other instruments that report their states in real time, it is possible to track a Frenet frame of the device in real time to provide an instantaneous (or continuous) 3D frame-of-reference. In addition to—or in place of—calculating this instantaneous (or continuous) frame of reference, the position of a user's head may either be inferred or calculated directly by using one or more of a device's optical sensors, e.g., an optical camera, infrared camera, laser, etc. With knowledge of the 3D frame-of-reference for the display and/or knowledge of the position of the user's head, more realistic virtual 3D depictions of the graphical objects on the device's display may be created—and interacted with—by the user.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 2, 2017Publication date: March 29, 2018Inventors: Ricardo Motta, Mark Zimmer, Geoff Stahl, David Hayward, Frank Doepke
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Patent number: 9860446Abstract: Lens flare mitigation techniques determine which pixels in images of a sequence of images are likely to be pixels affected by lens flare. Once the lens flare areas of the images are determined, unwanted lens flare effects may be mitigated by various approaches, including reducing border artifacts along a seam between successive images, discarding entire images of the sequence that contain lens flare areas, and using tone-mapping to reduce the visibility of lens flare.Type: GrantFiled: February 24, 2017Date of Patent: January 2, 2018Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Marius Tico, Paul M. Hubel, Frank Doepke, Todd S. Sachs
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Patent number: 9832378Abstract: Special blend operations for wide area-of-view image generation utilizing a “floating auto exposure” scheme are described. Pixel values in the two images being stitched together are blended within a transition band around a “seam.” identified in the overlap region between the images after changes in exposure and/or color saturation are accounted for. In some embodiments, changes in exposure and/or color saturation are accounted for through the use of one or more exposure mapping curves, the selection and use of which are based, at least in part, on a determined “Exposure Ratio” value, i.e., the amount that the camera's exposure settings have deviated from their initial capture settings. In other embodiments, the Exposure Ratio value is also used to determine regions along the seam where either: alpha blending, Poisson blending—or a combination of the two—should be used to blend in the transitional areas on each side of the seam.Type: GrantFiled: June 6, 2013Date of Patent: November 28, 2017Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Frank Doepke, Marius Tico, Ting Chen, Yongfang Liang
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Patent number: 9778815Abstract: The techniques disclosed herein may use various sensors to infer a frame of reference for a hand-held device. In fact, with various inertial clues from accelerometer, gyrometer, and other instruments that report their states in real time, it is possible to track a Frenet frame of the device in real time to provide an instantaneous (or continuous) 3D frame-of-reference. In addition to—or in place of—calculating this instantaneous (or continuous) frame of reference, the position of a user's head may either be inferred or calculated directly by using one or more of a device's optical sensors, e.g., an optical camera, infrared camera, laser, etc. With knowledge of the 3D frame-of-reference for the display and/or knowledge of the position of the user's head, more realistic virtual 3D depictions of the graphical objects on the device's display may be created—and interacted with—by the user.Type: GrantFiled: July 13, 2016Date of Patent: October 3, 2017Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Ricardo Motta, Mark Zimmer, Geoff Stahl, David Hayward, Frank Doepke
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Patent number: 9762794Abstract: This disclosure pertains to devices, methods, and computer readable media for performing positional sensor-assisted panoramic photography techniques in handheld personal electronic devices. Generalized steps that may be used to carry out the panoramic photography techniques described herein include, but are not necessarily limited to: 1.) acquiring image data from the electronic device's image sensor; 2.) performing “motion filtering” on the acquired image data, e.g., using information returned from positional sensors of the electronic device to inform the processing of the image data; 3.) performing image registration between adjacent captured images; 4.) performing geometric corrections on captured image data, e.g., due to perspective changes and/or camera rotation about a non-center of perspective (COP) camera point; and 5.) “stitching” the captured images together to create the panoramic scene, e.g., blending the image data in the overlap area between adjacent captured images.Type: GrantFiled: May 17, 2011Date of Patent: September 12, 2017Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Frank Doepke, Jianping Zhou
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Patent number: 9749524Abstract: In one embodiment, an image-capturing device includes a camera, one or more motion-estimating devices to detect motion data for the device, and a processing system which is configured to automatically estimate a first direction of a sweep motion of the image-capturing device based on the motion data. The processing system is further configured to automatically estimate a second direction of the sweep motion of the image-capturing device based on images captured by the image-capturing device and to automatically select the first direction or the second direction of the sweep motion.Type: GrantFiled: May 25, 2012Date of Patent: August 29, 2017Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Frank Doepke, Marco Zuliani
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Patent number: 9692995Abstract: Lens flare mitigation techniques determine which pixels in images of a sequence of images are likely to be pixels affected by lens flare. Once the lens flare areas of the images are determined, unwanted lens flare effects may be mitigated by various approaches, including reducing border artifacts along a seam between successive images, discarding entire images of the sequence that contain lens flare areas, and using tone-mapping to reduce the visibility of lens flare.Type: GrantFiled: February 1, 2016Date of Patent: June 27, 2017Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Marius Tico, Paul M. Hubel, Frank Doepke, Todd S. Sachs
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Patent number: 9686470Abstract: Techniques to detect subject and camera motion in a set of consecutively captured image frames are disclosed. More particularly, techniques disclosed herein temporally track two sets of downscaled images to detect motion. One set may contain higher resolution and the other set lower resolution of the same images. For each set, a coefficient of variation may be computed across the set of images for each sample in the downscaled image to detect motion and generate a change mask. The information in the change mask can be used for various applications, including determining how to capture a next image in the sequence.Type: GrantFiled: September 30, 2014Date of Patent: June 20, 2017Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Anita Nariani-Schulze, Benjamin M. Olson, Ralph Brunner, Suk Hwan Lim, Frank Doepke
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Publication number: 20170171466Abstract: Lens flare mitigation techniques determine which pixels in images of a sequence of images are likely to be pixels affected by lens flare. Once the lens flare areas of the images are determined, unwanted lens flare effects may be mitigated by various approaches, including reducing border artifacts along a seam between successive images, discarding entire images of the sequence that contain lens flare areas, and using tone-mapping to reduce the visibility of lens flare.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 24, 2017Publication date: June 15, 2017Inventors: Marius Tico, Paul M. Hubel, Frank Doepke, Todd S. Sachs
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Publication number: 20170115846Abstract: The techniques disclosed herein may use various sensors to infer a frame of reference for a hand-held device. In fact, with various inertial clues from accelerometer, gyrometer, and other instruments that report their states in real time, it is possible to track a Frenet frame of the device in real time to provide an instantaneous (or continuous) 3D frame-of-reference. In addition to—or in place of—calculating this instantaneous (or continuous) frame of reference, the position of a user's head may either be inferred or calculated directly by using one or more of a device's optical sensors, e.g., an optical camera, infrared camera, laser, etc. With knowledge of the 3D frame-of-reference for the display and/or knowledge of the position of the user's head, more realistic virtual 3D depictions of the graphical objects on the device's display may be created—and interacted with—by the user.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 13, 2016Publication date: April 27, 2017Inventors: Ricardo Motta, Mark Zimmer, Geoff Stahl, David Hayward, Frank Doepke
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Publication number: 20170070720Abstract: Generating an image with a selected level of background blur includes capturing, by a first image capture device, a plurality of frames of a scene, wherein each of the plurality of frames has a different focus depth, obtaining a depth map of the scene, determining a target object and a background in the scene based on the depth map, determining a goal blur for the background, and selecting, for each pixel in an output image, a corresponding pixel from the focus stack.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 24, 2015Publication date: March 9, 2017Inventors: Thomas E. Bishop, Alexander Lindskog, Claus Molgaard, Frank Doepke
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Patent number: 9584733Abstract: In personal electronic devices including digital imaging capability, methods, devices and computer readable media are described for determining when image capture operations may benefit from using high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) operations. In general, techniques are disclosed for analyzing an image's luminosity and/or color/tonal histograms to automatically determine when HDRI operations can benefit scene capture. If the determination that HDRI operations can improve scene capture, the user is so notified.Type: GrantFiled: September 30, 2010Date of Patent: February 28, 2017Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventor: Frank Doepke
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Patent number: 9565356Abstract: Generating a focus stack, including receiving initial focus data that identifies a plurality of target depths, positioning a lens at a first position to capture a first image at a first target depth of the plurality of target depths, determining, in response to capturing the first image and prior to capturing additional images, a sharpness metric for the first image, capturing, in response to determining that the sharpness metric for the first image is an unacceptable value, a second image at a second position based on the sharpness metric, wherein the second position is not included in the plurality of target depths, determining that a sharpness metric for the second image is an acceptable value, and generating a focus stack using the second image.Type: GrantFiled: September 24, 2015Date of Patent: February 7, 2017Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Alexander Lindskog, Frank Doepke, Ralf Brunner, Thomas E. Bishop
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Publication number: 20160360091Abstract: Generating a focus stack, including receiving initial focus data that identifies a plurality of target depths, positioning a lens at a first position to capture a first image at a first target depth of the plurality of target depths, determining, in response to capturing the first image and prior to capturing additional images, a sharpness metric for the first image, capturing, in response to determining that the sharpness metric for the first image is an unacceptable value, a second image at a second position based on the sharpness metric, wherein the second position is not included in the plurality of target depths, determining that a sharpness metric for the second image is an acceptable value, and generating a focus stack using the second image.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 24, 2015Publication date: December 8, 2016Inventors: Alexander Lindskog, Frank Doepke, Ralf Brunner, Thomas E. Bishop