Patents by Inventor Herbert Thomas

Herbert Thomas 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: 20200177936
    Abstract: Audio video synchronization and alignment or alignment of audio to some other external clock are rendered more effective or easier by treating fragment grid and frame grid as independent values, but, nevertheless, for each fragment the frame grid is aligned to the respective fragment's beginning. A compression effectiveness lost may be kept low when appropriately selecting the fragment size. On the other hand, the alignment of the frame grid with respect to the fragments' beginnings allows for an easy and fragment-synchronized way of handling the fragments in connection with, for example, parallel audio video streaming, bitrate adaptive streaming or the like.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 7, 2020
    Publication date: June 4, 2020
    Inventors: Bernd CZELHAN, Harald FUCHS, Ingo HOFMANN, Herbert THOMA, Stephan SCHREINER
  • Patent number: 10595066
    Abstract: Audio video synchronization and alignment or alignment of audio to some other external clock are rendered more effective or easier by treating fragment grid and frame grid as independent values, but, nevertheless, for each fragment the frame grid is aligned to the respective fragment's beginning. A compression effectiveness lost may be kept low when appropriately selecting the fragment size. On the other hand, the alignment of the frame grid with respect to the fragments' beginnings allows for an easy and fragment-synchronized way of handling the fragments in connection with, for example, parallel audio video streaming, bitrate adaptive streaming or the like.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2020
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Bernd Czelhan, Harald Fuchs, Ingo Hofmann, Herbert Thoma, Stephan Schreiner
  • Patent number: 10511865
    Abstract: Audio splicing is rendered more effective by the use of one or more truncation unit packets inserted into the audio data stream so as to indicate to an audio decoder, for a predetermined access unit, an end portion of an audio frame with which the predetermined access unit is associated, as to be discarded in playout.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2019
    Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG e.V.
    Inventors: Herbert Thoma, Robert Bleidt, Stefan Kraegeloh, Max Neuendorf, Achim Kuntz, Andreas Niedermeier, Michael Kratschmer
  • Publication number: 20190222853
    Abstract: Transform block coding is performed very efficiently in terms of computational complexity and compression ratio, by coding the magnitude bits of the transform coefficients distributed in a matrix, in which the magnitude bits of the spectral coefficients are arranged column-wise with the spectral coefficients of the transform block ordered along a row direction of the matrix. That is, magnitude bits within a certain column of the matrix belong to a certain spectral coefficient, while magnitude bits within a certain row of the matrix belong to a certain bit plane. In this configuration, the distribution of non-zero magnitude bits may be condensed towards one corner of the matrix, corresponding to, for instance, the least significant bit plane and corresponding to, by using a scan order among the transform coefficients which sorts the transform coefficients generally in a manner from lowest to highest frequency, the lowest frequency. Various low complexity variants are presented.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 21, 2019
    Publication date: July 18, 2019
    Inventors: Joachim KEINERT, Thomas RICHTER, Herbert THOMA, Christian SCHERL, Manuel DE FRUTOS LÓPEZ, Siegfried FOESSEL, Wolfgang HEPPNER, Miguel Ángel MARTÍNEZ DEL AMOR, Sergej WTJURIN
  • Publication number: 20190222854
    Abstract: Concepts are presented herein how to efficiently create a suitable palette for low complexity image and video coding. A combination of the palette coding with transform coding is feasible.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 21, 2019
    Publication date: July 18, 2019
    Inventors: Joachim KEINERT, Thomas RICHTER, Herbert THOMA, Christian SCHERL, Manuel DE FRUTOS LÓPEZ, Siegfried FOESSEL, Wolfgang HEPPNER, Miguel Ángel MARTÍNEZ DEL AMOR, Sergej WTJURIN
  • Patent number: 10207561
    Abstract: Embodiments disclose systems and methods for a vehicle with an articulating suspension exploration platform with shock dampening. More specifically, embodiments include a passive articulating of forces by mirroring and chaining bar linkages.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2019
    Inventor: Herbert Thomas Baumgartner
  • Patent number: 10205958
    Abstract: A more efficient co-use of dynamic range mapping on the one hand and temporal prediction on the other hand such as, for example, in order to code HDR frame sequences, is achieved by exploiting the concept of weighted prediction in order to transition from the mapping parameter from the reference frame to the currently temporally predicted frame. By this measure, the temporal prediction does not fail and despite the frame-wise variation in the dynamic range mapping, encoding efficiency is, thus, maintained. As a favorable side aspect, weighted temporal prediction is already within the capabilities of existing video coding stages such as, for example, the H.264/AVC.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2019
    Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.
    Inventors: Jens-Uwe Garbas, Herbert Thoma
  • Publication number: 20190045206
    Abstract: A coding efficiency improvement is achieved by performing bit-plane coding in a manner so that coefficient groups for which the set of coded bit-planes is predictively signaled in the datastream, are grouped in two group sets and if a signal is spent in the datastream which signals, for a group set, whether the set of coded bit-planes of all coefficient groups of the respective group set are empty, i.e. all coefficients within the respective group sets are insignificant. In accordance with another aspect, a coding efficiency improvement is achieved by providing bit-plane coding with group-set-wise insignificant signalization according to the first aspect as a coding option alternative relative to the signalization for group sets for which it is signaled that there is no coded prediction residual for the coded bit-planes for the claim groups within the respective group set.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 10, 2018
    Publication date: February 7, 2019
    Inventors: Joachim KEINERT, Thomas RICHTER, Miguel Ángel MARTÍNEZ DEL AMOR, Manuel DE FRUTOS LÓPEZ, Christian SCHERL, Herbert THOMA, Siegfried FOESSEL
  • Publication number: 20190014321
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention concern coders, e.g. a decoder for decoding a sequence of portions of media from a data stream. The decoder is configured to decode, for a current portion, a signed integer variable from the data stream by use of a unary code comprising a series of codewords of increasing length which are sequentially assigned to possible values of the signed integer variable in a manner so that a first possible value having a first sign and a predetermined absolute value has assigned a first codeword of the unary code of a first length which differs from a second length of a second codeword of the unary code assigned to a second possible value having a second sign and the predetermined absolute value, or being zero with the predetermined absolute value being one, by exactly one.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 7, 2017
    Publication date: January 10, 2019
    Inventors: Joachim KEINERT, Thomas RICHTER, Herbert THOMA, Christian SCHERL, Manuel DE FRUTOS LÓPEZ, Siegfried FOESSEL, Miguel Angel MARTINEZ DEL AMOR
  • Publication number: 20180079276
    Abstract: Embodiments disclose systems and methods for a vehicle with an articulating suspension exploration platform with shock dampening.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 31, 2017
    Publication date: March 22, 2018
    Inventor: Herbert Thomas Baumgartner
  • Patent number: 9916645
    Abstract: A chroma subsampling having reduced artifacts is achieved by detecting high contrast areas in a luminance channel of an image to be chroma subsampled so as to partition the image into a first region composed of the high contrast areas and a second region distinct from the first region, with chroma subsampling the image in the first region using a first chroma subsampler and chroma subsampling the image in the second region using a second chroma subsampler, with the first chroma subsampler having a higher edge preserving property than compared to the second chroma subsampler. Thereby, bleeding artifacts may be avoided at least partially, while the saturation of the image may be substantially preserved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 13, 2018
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Herbert Thoma, Christian Scherl
  • Publication number: 20180025311
    Abstract: An inventory management system to manage inventories of business/organizations by a user is provided. The inventory management system is attached to a handheld scanner to scan products. The details of the products are stored in a database. In one embodiment, the user may be a manager or admin personal of the business/organization. The inventory management system an alert to the user via emails if (i) the quantities of the products are getting low, and/or (ii) the date is crossing the best-by-date of the products. The user orders the products when the quantities of the products are getting low. The user orders the products from the business/organization to deliver to the one or more customers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 25, 2016
    Publication date: January 25, 2018
    Inventor: Dexter Herbert Thomas
  • Publication number: 20170366830
    Abstract: Audio video synchronization and alignment or alignment of audio to some other external clock are rendered more effective or easier by treating fragment grid and frame grid as independent values, but, nevertheless, for each fragment the frame grid is aligned to the respective fragment's beginning. A compression effectiveness lost may be kept low when appropriately selecting the fragment size. On the other hand, the alignment of the frame grid with respect to the fragments' beginnings allows for an easy and fragment-synchronized way of handling the fragments in connection with, for example, parallel audio video streaming, bitrate adaptive streaming or the like.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 6, 2017
    Publication date: December 21, 2017
    Inventors: Bernd CZELHAN, Harald FUCHS, Ingo HOFMANN, Herbert THOMA, Stephan SCHREINER
  • Publication number: 20170230693
    Abstract: Audio splicing is rendered more effective by the use of one or more truncation unit packets inserted into the audio data stream so as to indicate to an audio decoder, for a predetermined access unit, an end portion of an audio frame with which the predetermined access unit is associated, as to be discarded in playout.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 7, 2017
    Publication date: August 10, 2017
    Applicant: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Herbert Thoma, Robert Bleidt, Stefan Kraegeloh, Max Neuendorf, Achim Kuntz, Andreas Niedermeier, Michael Kratschmer
  • Patent number: 9712816
    Abstract: The ratio between coding quality on the one hand and coding rate on the other hand is increased. To this end, a global predictor and a local predictor are used in combination. The global predictor derives a global tone-mapping function based on a statistical analysis of pairs of values of co-located samples in the first tone-mapped version and the second version of the picture, and applies the global tone-mapping function onto the first tone-mapped version of the picture. The local predictor locally derives a locally varying tone-mapping function based on a statistical analysis of values of co-located samples in the second version of the picture and the globally predicted reference picture in units of sub-portions into which the globally predicted reference picture and the second version of the picture are partitioned, and applies the locally varying tone-mapping function onto the globally predicted reference picture.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2017
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Jens-Uwe Garbas, Herbert Thoma
  • Publication number: 20170064324
    Abstract: A more efficient co-use of dynamic range mapping on the one hand and temporal prediction on the other hand such as, for example, in order to code HDR frame sequences, is achieved by exploiting the concept of weighted prediction in order to transition from the mapping parameter from the reference frame to the currently temporally predicted frame. By this measure, the temporal prediction does not fail and despite the frame-wise variation in the dynamic range mapping, encoding efficiency is, thus, maintained. As a favorable side aspect, weighted temporal prediction is already within the capabilities of existing video coding stages such as, for example, the H.264/AVC.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 16, 2016
    Publication date: March 2, 2017
    Inventors: Jens-Uwe GARBAS, Herbert THOMA
  • Patent number: 9552652
    Abstract: An image encoder includes an extreme value determiner, a floating point-to-integer converter and an encoder. The extreme value determiner determines minimal and maximal values of a floating point image value of each pixel of a part of an image, an image or a group of images. The floating point-to-integer converter maps the floating point image value of each pixel to an integer image value. The minimal floating point image value is mapped to a minimal integer image value of a predefined range of integer image values and the maximal floating point image value is mapped to a maximal integer image value of the predefined range of integer image values. The encoder encodes the integer image value of each pixel to obtain and provide encoded image data of the part of the image, the image or the group of images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2017
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Herbert Thoma, Ajit Motra
  • Patent number: 9532047
    Abstract: A more efficient co-use of dynamic range mapping on the one hand and temporal prediction on the other hand such as, for example, in order to code HDR frame sequences, is achieved by exploiting the concept of weighted prediction in order to transition from the mapping parameter from the reference frame to the currently temporally predicted frame. By this measure, the temporal prediction does not fail and despite the frame-wise variation in the dynamic range mapping, encoding efficiency is, thus, maintained. As a favorable side aspect, weighted temporal prediction is already within the capabilities of existing video coding stages such as, for example, the H.264/AVC.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Jens-Uwe Garbas, Herbert Thoma
  • Patent number: 9457651
    Abstract: Systems are provided for a fuel system comprising an external refueling request switch accessible at or near a refueling door, thus enabling methods that may include initiating depressurization of a fuel tank responsive to an operator engaging the refueling request switch. The status of depressurization may be communicated to the operator via on one or more LED displays located either inside the refueling assembly or located at the refueling door. In this way, refueling requests may be initiated by a refueling operator, and by relaying the status of depressurization to the operator, any confusion on the part of the operator may be avoided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Michael Paul Lindlbauer, Bryan Michael Bolger, Herbert Thomas Meissner, Roman Schesnuk, Aed M. Dudar, Dennis Seung-Man Yang, Russell Randall Pearce
  • Patent number: 9445102
    Abstract: A more accurate model parameter estimation is achieved by using a Kalman filter for discretely estimating the model parameters between the consecutive frames of the frame sequence and performing the correction of the time-discrete Kalman filter twice per frame, firstly using a measurement value which depends on a complexity measure of the current frame to achieve a primarily corrected state of the time-discrete Kalman filter, and secondly using a measurement value depending on an actual coding rate or distortion of the video encoder in encoding the current frame using a predetermined quantization which may have been determined by an estimation of the actual rate- or distortion-quantization function according to the primarily corrected state. A rate-quantization model function relates the quantization of the video encoder to the coding rate of the video encoder and is piecewise defined to exhibit quadratic and exponential functions in finer and coarser quantization intervals, respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 5, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2016
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V
    Inventors: Manuel Schwaab, Herbert Thoma