Patents by Inventor Geoffrey T. Anneheim

Geoffrey T. Anneheim 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: 10909706
    Abstract: Determining disparity includes obtaining a first image of a scene and a second image of a scene, determining correspondences between one or more pixels of the first image and one or more pixels of the second image, performing local denoising on the correspondences based on at least on a strength and direction of gradient values for the one or more pixels of the first image and the one or more pixels of the second image, and generating a disparity map based on the determined correspondences and local denoising.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Geoffrey T. Anneheim, Bruno J. Conejo, Stephane S. Ben Soussan, Michael W. Tao
  • Patent number: 10755426
    Abstract: An electronic device comprises circuitry implementing a depth map enhancer. The depth map enhancer obtains an initial depth map corresponding to a scene and an image of the scene. The depth map enhancer generates a refined depth map corresponding to the scene using an optimizer, the initial depth map and the image. The refined depth map includes estimated depth indicators corresponding to at least a first depth-information region, identified based at least in part on a first criterion, of the initial depth map. Input based on the refined depth map is provided to an image processing application.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Mark Norman Lester Jouppi, Michael Wish Tao, Eric Bujold, Stephane Simon Rene Ben Soussan, Volker Roelke, Geoffrey T. Anneheim, Julio Cesar Hernandez Zaragoza, Florian Ciurea
  • Publication number: 20190362511
    Abstract: An electronic device comprises circuitry implementing a depth map enhancer. The depth map enhancer obtains an initial depth map corresponding to a scene and an image of the scene. The depth map enhancer generates a refined depth map corresponding to the scene using an optimizer, the initial depth map and the image. The refined depth map includes estimated depth indicators corresponding to at least a first depth-information region, identified based at least in part on a first criterion, of the initial depth map. Input based on the refined depth map is provided to an image processing application.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 23, 2018
    Publication date: November 28, 2019
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Mark Norman Lester Jouppi, Michael Wish Tao, Eric Bujold, Stephane Simon Rene Ben Soussan, Volker Roelke, Geoffrey T. Anneheim, Julio Cesar Hernandez Zaragoza, Florian Ciurea
  • Patent number: 10410327
    Abstract: This disclosure relates to techniques for synthesizing out of focus effects in digital images. Digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras and other cameras having wide aperture lenses typically capture images with a shallow depth of field (SDOF). SDOF photography is often used in portrait photography, since it emphasizes the subject, while deemphasizing the background via blurring. Simulating this kind of blurring using a large depth of field (LDOF) camera may require a large amount of computational resources, i.e., in order to simulate the physical effects of using a wide aperture lens while constructing a synthetic SDOF image. However, cameras having smaller lens apertures, such as mobile phones, may not have the processing power to simulate the spreading of all background light sources in a reasonable amount of time. Thus, described herein are techniques to synthesize out-of-focus background blurring effects in a computationally-efficient manner for images captured by LDOF cameras.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 25, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2019
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Richard D. Seely, Michael W. Tao, Alexander Lindskog, Geoffrey T. Anneheim
  • Publication number: 20180350043
    Abstract: This disclosure relates to techniques for synthesizing out of focus effects in digital images. Digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras and other cameras having wide aperture lenses typically capture images with a shallow depth of field (SDOF). SDOF photography is often used in portrait photography, since it emphasizes the subject, while deemphasizing the background via blurring. Simulating this kind of blurring using a large depth of field (LDOF) camera may require a large amount of computational resources, i.e., in order to simulate the physical effects of using a wide aperture lens while constructing a synthetic SDOF image. However, cameras having smaller lens apertures, such as mobile phones, may not have the processing power to simulate the spreading of all background light sources in a reasonable amount of time. Thus, described herein are techniques to synthesize out-of-focus background blurring effects in a computationally-efficient manner for images captured by LDOF cameras.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 25, 2018
    Publication date: December 6, 2018
    Inventors: Richard D. Seely, Michael W. Tao, Alexander Lindskog, Geoffrey T. Anneheim
  • Patent number: 9911061
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer readable media to rapidly identify and track an arbitrary sized object through a temporal sequence of frames is described. The object being tracked may initially be identified via a specified or otherwise known region-of-interest (ROI). A portion of that ROI can be used to generate an initial or reference histogram and luminosity measure, metrics that may be used to identify the ROI in a subsequent frame. For a frame subsequent to the initial or reference frame, a series of putative ROIs (each having its own location and size) may be identified and the “best” of the identified ROIs selected. As used here, the term “best” simply means that the more similar two frames' histograms and luminosity measures are, the better one is with respect to the other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2018
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jianping Zhou, Geoffrey T. Anneheim, Xiaoxing Li, Benjamin M. Olson
  • Patent number: 9773192
    Abstract: Techniques to identify and track a pre-identified region-of-interest (ROI) through a temporal sequence of frames/images are described. In general, a down-sampled color gradient (edge map) of an arbitrary sized ROI from a prior frame may be used to generate a small template. This initial template may be used to identify a region of a new or current frame that may be overscan and used to create a current frame's edge map. By comparing the prior frame's template to the current frame's edge map, a cost value or image may be found and used to identify the current frame's ROI center. The size of the current frame's ROI may be found by varying the size of putative new ROIs and testing for their congruence with the prior frame's template. Subsequent ROI's for subsequent frames may be identified to, effectively, track an arbitrarily sized ROI through a sequence of video frames.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2017
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Xiaoxing Li, Geoffrey T. Anneheim, Jianping Zhou, Richard D. Seely, Marco Zuliani
  • Publication number: 20160358341
    Abstract: Techniques to identify and track a pre-identified region-of-interest (ROI) through a temporal sequence of frames/images are described. In general, a down-sampled color gradient (edge map) of an arbitrary sized ROI from a prior frame may be used to generate a small template. This initial template may be used to identify a region of a new or current frame that may be overscan and used to create a current frame's edge map. By comparing the prior frame's template to the current frame's edge map, a cost value or image may be found and used to identify the current frame's ROI center. The size of the current frame's ROI may be found by varying the size of putative new ROIs and testing for their congruence with the prior frame's template. Subsequent ROI's for subsequent frames may be identified to, effectively, track an arbitrarily sized ROI through a sequence of video frames.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 7, 2015
    Publication date: December 8, 2016
    Inventors: Xiaoxing Li, Geoffrey T. Anneheim, Jianping Zhou, Richard D. Seely, Marco Zuliani
  • Publication number: 20160358340
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer readable media to rapidly identify and track an arbitrary sized object through a temporal sequence of frames is described. The object being tracked may initially be identified via a specified or otherwise known region-of-interest (ROI). A portion of that ROI can be used to generate an initial or reference histogram and luminosity measure, metrics that may be used to identify the ROI in a subsequent frame. For a frame subsequent to the initial or reference frame, a series of putative ROIs (each having its own location and size) may be identified and the “best” of the identified ROIs selected. As used here, the term “best” simply means that the more similar two frames' histograms and luminosity measures are, the better one is with respect to the other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 29, 2015
    Publication date: December 8, 2016
    Inventors: Jianping Zhou, Geoffrey T. Anneheim, Xiaoxing Li, Benjamin M. Olson
  • Patent number: 9277123
    Abstract: Techniques and devices for acquiring and processing timelapse video are described. The techniques use exposure bracketing to provide a plurality of images at each acquisition time. Images of the plurality are selected to minimize flicker in a timelapse video encoded from the selected images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2016
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: George E. Williams, Geoffrey T. Anneheim
  • Publication number: 20150350544
    Abstract: Techniques and devices for acquiring and processing timelapse video are described. The techniques use exposure bracketing to provide a plurality of images at each acquisition time. Images of the plurality are selected to minimize flicker in a timelapse video encoded from the selected images.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 30, 2014
    Publication date: December 3, 2015
    Inventors: George E. Williams, Geoffrey T. Anneheim