Patents by Inventor Hamid R. Sheikh

Hamid R. Sheikh 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).

  • Publication number: 20230237623
    Abstract: A system and method are provided for noise reduction improvement for blending blurred frames in a multi-frame system. The method includes retrieving a number of frames of an image. The method also includes identifying one or more edges within the frames and comparing an edge strength of a reference frame and an edge strength of a non-reference frame. The method further includes determining a weight reduction factor based on a result of the comparison and applying the weight reduction factor to a blending of multiple frames of the number of frames of the image. In addition, the method includes displaying the blended frames.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 28, 2022
    Publication date: July 27, 2023
    Inventors: John Glotzbach, Zhen Tong, Hamid R. Sheikh
  • Patent number: 11615510
    Abstract: An electronic device includes at least one imaging sensor and at least one processor coupled to the at least one imaging sensor. The at least one imaging sensor is configured to capture a burst of image frames. The at least one processor is configured to generate a low-resolution image from the burst of image frames. The at least one processor is also configured to estimate a blur kernel based on the burst of image frames. The at least one processor is further configured to perform deconvolution on the low-resolution image using the blur kernel to generate a deconvolved image. In addition, the at least one processor is configured to generate a high-resolution image using super resolution (SR) on the deconvolved image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2023
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Baekdu Choi, Ruiwen Zhen, John W. Glotzbach, Hamid R. Sheikh
  • Publication number: 20230091909
    Abstract: An apparatus includes at least one memory configured to store an AI network and at least one processor. The at least one processor is configured to generate a dead leaves model. The at least one processor is also configured to capture a ground truth frame from the dead leaves. The at least one processor is further configured to apply a mathematical noise model to the ground truth frame to produce a noisy frame. In addition, the at least one processor is configured to train the AI network using the ground truth frame and the noisy frame.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 28, 2022
    Publication date: March 23, 2023
    Inventors: Pavan Chennagiri, John Seokjun Lee, Hamid R. Sheikh
  • Publication number: 20230073970
    Abstract: A method includes obtaining a Bayer input image. The method also includes generating, using at least one processing device of an electronic device, multiple YUV image frames based on the Bayer input image using non-linear scaling, where the YUV image frames are associated with different exposure settings. The method further includes generating, using the at least one processing device of the electronic device, a fused image based on the YUV image frames. In addition, the method includes applying, using the at least one processing device of the electronic device, global tone-mapping to the fused image in order to generate a tone-mapped fused image, where the global tone-mapping is based on a first cubic spline curve.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 15, 2022
    Publication date: March 9, 2023
    Inventors: Kaimo Lin, Hamid R. Sheikh
  • Publication number: 20230053084
    Abstract: A system and method are provided to improve quality in an under-display camera (UDC) system with radially-increasing distortion. At least one processor receives an image and performs multi-frame processing, image signal processing, and a point spread function inversion (PSFI) on the image to produce a processed image. A PSFI radial coring is applied on the processed image to reduce noise in the processed image resulting from the PSFI. The at least one processor can apply a chroma suppression to the processing of the image to reduce brightness and color saturation is select areas in the processed image. Image restoration can be performed on the processed image to produce an output image. The image restoration may include generating a dither signal, applying a dither signal corner attenuation to the dither signal, combining the attenuated dither signal with a sharpened denoised signal, and applying a halo suppression on the combined signals.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 27, 2022
    Publication date: February 16, 2023
    Inventors: Yibo Xu, Hamid R Sheikh
  • Publication number: 20230052082
    Abstract: An apparatus includes at least one processing device configured to obtain an input image and determine a cumulative distribution function (CDF) histogram from a luminance or luma (Y) channel of the input image. The at least one processing device is also configured to determine an entry CDF histogram in a CDF histogram lookup table (LUT) closest to the determined CDF histogram. The at least one processing device is further configured to apply a Y channel global tone mapping (GTM) curve to the input image based on one or more parameters assigned to the entry CDF histogram from the CDF histogram LUT.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 27, 2022
    Publication date: February 16, 2023
    Inventors: Ibrahim Pekkucuksen, Kaimo Lin, Hamid R. Sheikh
  • Publication number: 20230035482
    Abstract: A method includes obtaining multiple input image frames and determining how to warp at least one of the input image frames. The method also includes performing an intraband demosaic-warp operation to reconstruct image data in different color channels of the input image frames and warp the at least one input image frame to produce RGB input image frames. The method further includes blending the RGB input image frames to produce a blended RGB image frame, performing an interband denoising operation to produce a denoised RGB image frame, and performing an interband sharpening operation to produce a sharpened RGB image frame. In addition, the method includes performing an interband demosaic operation to substantially equalize high-frequency content in different color channels of the sharpened RGB image frame to produce an equalized sharpened RGB image frame and generating a final image of the scene based on the equalized sharpened RGB image frame.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 27, 2022
    Publication date: February 2, 2023
    Inventors: John W. Glotzbach, Long N. Le, Zhen Tong, Hamid R. Sheikh, Yibo Xu
  • Publication number: 20230034109
    Abstract: A method includes obtaining a blended red-green-blue (RGB) image frame of a scene. The method also includes performing, using at least one processing device of an electronic device, an interband denoising operation to remove at least one of noise and one or more artifacts from the blended RGB image frame in order to produce a denoised RGB image frame. Performing the interband denoising operation includes performing filtering of red, green, and blue color channels of the blended RGB image frame to remove at least one of the noise and the one or more artifacts from the blended RGB image frame. The filtering of the red and blue color channels of the blended RGB image frame is based on image data of at least one of the green color channel and a white color channel of the blended RGB image frame.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 27, 2022
    Publication date: February 2, 2023
    Inventors: Long N. Le, Yibo Xu, John W. Glotzbach, Zhen Tong, Hamid R. Sheikh
  • Publication number: 20230022753
    Abstract: A method includes obtaining, using at least one image sensor of an electronic device, a first image frame and multiple second image frames of a scene. Each of the second image frames has an exposure time different from an exposure time of the first image frame. The method also includes generating, using at least one processor, blur kernels indicating a motion direction of the first image frame using an optical flow network. The method further includes refining, using the at least one processor, the blur kernels using a convolutional neural network. In addition, the method includes generating, using the at least one processor, a target image frame of the scene using the refined blur kernels and occlusion masks for the second image frames.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 4, 2022
    Publication date: January 26, 2023
    Inventors: Anqi Yang, John W. Glotzbach, Hamid R. Sheikh
  • Publication number: 20230021726
    Abstract: A method includes obtaining multiple images of a scene using at least one red-green-blue-white (RGBW) image sensor. The method also includes generating multi-channel frames at different exposure levels from the images. The method further includes estimating motion across exposure differences between the different exposure levels using a white channel of the multi-channel frames as a guidance signal to generate multiple motion maps. The method also includes estimating saturation across the exposure differences between the different exposure levels to generate multiple saturation maps. The method further includes using the generated motion maps and saturation maps to recover saturations from the different exposure levels and generate a saturation-free RGBW frame. In addition, the method includes processing the saturation-free RGBW frame to generate a final image of the scene.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 28, 2022
    Publication date: January 26, 2023
    Inventors: Long N. Le, Hamid R. Sheikh, John W. Glotzbach
  • Patent number: 11532091
    Abstract: A method includes obtaining, using at least one processor, an input image frame. The method also includes identifying, using the at least one processor, one or more regions of the input image frame containing redundant information. In addition, the method includes performing, using the at least one processor, an image processing task using the input image frame. The image processing task is guided based on the one or more identified regions of the input image frame. The method may further include obtaining, using the at least one processor, a coarse depth map associated with the input image frame. Performing the image processing task may include refining the coarse depth map to produce a refined depth map, where the refining of the coarse depth map is guided based on the one or more identified regions of the input image frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2022
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kushal Kardam Vyas, Yingmao Li, Chenchi Luo, George Q. Chen, Hamid R. Sheikh, Youngjun Yoo, Michael O. Polley
  • Patent number: 11503266
    Abstract: A method includes obtaining, using at least one processor, first and second input image frames, where the first and second input image frames are associated with first and second image planes, respectively. The method also includes obtaining, using the at least one processor, a depth map associated with the first input image frame. The method further includes producing another version of the depth map by performing one or more times: (a) projecting, using the at least one processor, the first input image frame to the second image plane in order to produce a projected image frame using (i) the depth map and (ii) information identifying a conversion from the first image plane to the second image plane and (b) adjusting, using the at least one processor, at least one of the depth map and the information identifying the conversion from the first image plane to the second image plane.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kushal Kardam Vyas, Yingmao Li, Chenchi Luo, George Q. Chen, Hamid R. Sheikh, Youngjun Yoo, Michael O. Polley
  • Patent number: 11503221
    Abstract: A method includes obtaining, using at least one image sensor of an electronic device, a first image frame and multiple second image frames of a scene. Each of the second image frames has an exposure time different from an exposure time of the first image frame. The method also includes encoding, using at least one processor, each of the first image frame and the second image frames using a convolutional neural network to generate a corresponding feature map. The method further includes aligning, using the at least one processor, encoded features of the feature map corresponding to the first image frame with encoded features of the feature maps corresponding to the second image frames.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Anqi Yang, John W. Glotzbach, Hamid R. Sheikh
  • Publication number: 20220337747
    Abstract: A method for operating an electronic device includes capturing, by an image sensor module, a stream from a pixel array. The method also includes processing, by the image sensor module, the stream to generate a preview stream and a full frame stream. The method further includes compressing, by the image sensor module, the preview stream using a first compression and the full frame stream using a second compression. In addition, the method includes outputting, by the image sensor module, the compressed preview stream and the compressed full frame stream.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 30, 2022
    Publication date: October 20, 2022
    Inventors: Hamid R. Sheikh, Youngjun Yoo, John Seokjun Lee, Michael O. Polley
  • Publication number: 20220301184
    Abstract: A method includes obtaining multiple video frames. The method also includes determining whether a bi-directional optical flow between the multiple video frames satisfies an image quality criterion for bi-directional consistency. The method further includes identifying a non-linear curve based on pixel coordinate values from at least two of the video frames. The at least two video frames include first and second video frames. The method also includes generating interpolated video frames between the first and second video frames by applying non-linear interpolation based on the non-linear curve. In addition, the method includes outputting the interpolated video frames for presentation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 2, 2022
    Publication date: September 22, 2022
    Inventors: Gyeongmin Choe, Yingmao Li, John Seokjun Lee, Hamid R. Sheikh, Michael O. Polley
  • Publication number: 20220303495
    Abstract: An apparatus includes at least one processing device configured to obtain input frames from a video. The at least one processing device is also configured to generate a forward flow from a first input frame to a second input frame and a backward flow from the second input frame to the first input frame. The at least one processing device is further configured to generate an occlusion map at an interpolated frame coordinate using the forward flow and the backward flow. The at least one processing device is also configured to generate a consistency map at the interpolated frame coordinate using the forward flow and the backward flow. In addition, the at least one processing device is configured to perform blending using the occlusion map and the consistency map to generate an interpolated frame at the interpolated frame coordinate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 2, 2022
    Publication date: September 22, 2022
    Inventors: Gyeongmin Choe, Yingmao Li, John Seokjun Lee, Hamid R. Sheikh, Michael O. Polley
  • Patent number: 11412136
    Abstract: A method includes, in a first mode, positioning first and second tiltable image sensor modules of an image sensor array of an electronic device so that a first optical axis of the first tiltable image sensor module and a second optical axis of the second tiltable image sensor module are substantially perpendicular to a surface of the electronic device, and the first and second tiltable image sensor modules are within a thickness profile of the electronic device. The method also includes, in a second mode, tilting the first and second tiltable image sensor modules so that the first optical axis of the first tiltable image sensor module and the second optical axis of the second tiltable image sensor module are not perpendicular to the surface of the electronic device, and at least part of the first and second tiltable image sensor modules are no longer within the thickness profile of the electronic device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2022
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hamid R. Sheikh, Youngjun Yoo, John Seokjun Lee, Michael O. Polley
  • Patent number: 11388348
    Abstract: A method includes obtaining, using at least one processor of an electronic device, a high dynamic range (HDR) input Bayer image. The method also includes generating, using the at least one processor of the electronic device, a plurality of synthesized images at different exposure levels based on the input Bayer image. The method further includes fusing, using the at least one processor of the electronic device, the synthesized images to generate a fused image. The method also includes generating, using the at least one processor of the electronic device, a gain map based on the fused image. In addition, the method includes applying, using the at least one processor of the electronic device, a gain based on the gain map to the input Bayer image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2022
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Long N. Le, Ruiwen Zhen, John W. Glotzbach, Hamid R. Sheikh, Ibrahim Pekkucuksen
  • Publication number: 20220207658
    Abstract: Various image sharpening techniques are disclosed. For example, a method for image sharpening includes obtaining, using at least one sensor of an electronic device, an image that includes visual content. The method also includes generating an edge map that indicates edges of the visual content within the image. The method further includes applying a high-pass signal and an adaptive gain based on the edge map to sharpen the image. The method also includes generating a bright halo mask and a dark halo mask based on the edge map, where the bright halo mask indicates an upper sharpening limit and the dark halo mask indicates a lower sharpening limit. In addition, the method includes modifying a level of sharpening at one or more of the edges within the sharpened image to provide halo artifact reduction based on the bright halo mask and the dark halo mask.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 31, 2020
    Publication date: June 30, 2022
    Inventors: Zhen Tong, Yibo Xu, John W. Glotzbach, Hamid R. Sheikh, Ruiwen Zhen, Baekdu Choi
  • Publication number: 20220198722
    Abstract: A method includes capturing a plurality of first images using a first image sensor and capturing a plurality of second images using a second image sensor. The method also includes estimating depth information based on at least one of the first images and at least one of the second images. The method further includes obtaining information related to a lighting direction from an artificial intelligence (AI) light director, where the AI light director is trained to determine one or more lighting directions. In addition, the method includes generating at least one relit image using at least one of the first and second images based on the obtained information related to the lighting direction and the estimated depth information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2021
    Publication date: June 23, 2022
    Inventors: Deboleena Roy, Long N. Le, Hamid R. Sheikh