Patents by Inventor Jiefu Zhai

Jiefu Zhai 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: 9992450
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure provide systems and methods for background concealment in a video conferencing session. In one exemplary method, a video stream may be captured and provided to a first terminal participating in a video chat session. A background element and a foreground element may be determined in the video stream. A border region may additionally be determined in the video stream. The border region may define a boundary between the foreground element and the background element. The background region may be modified based, at least in part, on video content of the border region. The modified video stream may be transmitted to a second terminal participating in the video conferencing session.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2018
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Hang Yuan, Chris Y. Chung, Dazhong Zhang, Hsi-Jung Wu, Xiaosong Zhou, Jae Hoon Kim, Jiefu Zhai
  • Publication number: 20170357871
    Abstract: Techniques are disclosed for estimating quality of images in an automated fashion. According to these techniques, a source image may be downsampled to generate at least two downsampled images at different levels of downsampling. Blurriness of the images may be estimated starting with a most-heavily downsampled image. Blocks of a given image may be evaluated for blurriness and, when a block of a given image is estimated to be blurry, the block of the image and co-located blocks of higher resolution image(s) may be designated as blurry. Thereafter, a blurriness score may be calculated for the source image from the number of blocks of the source image designated as blurry.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 9, 2017
    Publication date: December 14, 2017
    Inventors: Jiefu Zhai, Ke Zhang, Yunfei Zheng, Shujie Liu, Albert Keinath, Xiaosong Zhou, Chris Chung, Hsi-Jung Wu
  • Publication number: 20170358059
    Abstract: Techniques for cropping images containing an occlusion are presented. A method for image editing is presented comprising, when an occlusion is detected in an original digital image, determining an area occupied by the occlusion, assigning importance scores to different content elements of the original digital image, defining a cropping window around an area of the original digital image that does not include the area occupied by the occlusion and that is based on the importance scores, and cropping the original digital image to the cropping window.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 9, 2017
    Publication date: December 14, 2017
    Inventors: Ke Zhang, Jiefu Zhai, Yunfei Zheng, Shujie Liu, Albert E. Keinath, Xiaosong Zhou, Chris Y. Chung, Hsi-Jung Wu
  • Patent number: 9729818
    Abstract: A system may include a receiver, a decoder, a post-processor, and a controller. The receiver may receive encoded video data. The decoder may decode the encoded video data. The post-processor may perform post-processing on frames of decoded video sequence from the decoder. The controller may adjust post-processing of a current frame, based upon at least one condition parameters detected at the system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2017
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Jiefu Zhai, Chris Y. Chung, Xiaosong Zhou, Hsi-Jung Wu
  • Patent number: 9729870
    Abstract: A system and method for using camera capture settings and related metadata to estimate the parameters for encoding a frame of the captured video data and to modify reference frames to accommodate detected camera setting changes. Global brightness and color changes in video capture may be modeled by performing a sequence of transform operations on the reference frames to further improve the coding efficiency of a video coding system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2017
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jiefu Zhai, Xiaosong Zhou, Hsi-Jung Wu
  • Patent number: 9716871
    Abstract: An encoder may include a luma transform, a transformer, and a chroma transform. The luma transform may determine a linear luminance value based upon a plurality of primary color values of a pixel. The transformer may generate a transformed luminance value based upon the linear luminance value and a plurality of transformed color values based upon corresponding more than one of the primary color values of the pixel. The chroma transform may determine a plurality of chroma values based upon corresponding plurality of transformed color values and the transformed luminance value of the pixel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 25, 2017
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jiefu Zhai, Yeping Su, Hsi-Jung Wu, Chris Y. Chung, Xiaosong Zhou, Ke Zhang
  • Patent number: 9679365
    Abstract: Various implementations address high dynamic range (“HDR”) images. In one particular implementation, a low dynamic range (“LDR”) image is generated from an HDR image, and information is generated allowing the HDR image to be reconstructed from the LDR image. The LDR image and the information are encoded. In another implementation, a signal or signal structure includes an LDR section including the encoded LDR image, and an information section including the encoded information. In another implementation, the encoded LDR image and the encoded information are both decoded. The HDR image is then reconstructed based on the decoded LDR image and the decoded information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2017
    Assignee: THOMSON LICENSING
    Inventors: Jiefu Zhai, Zhe Wang, Dong Tian
  • Publication number: 20170109596
    Abstract: A method for processing media assets includes, given a first media asset, deriving characteristics from the first media asset, searching for other media assets having characteristics that correlate to the characteristics of the first media asset, when a match is found, deriving content corrections for the first media asset or a matching media asset from the other of the first media asset or the matching media asset, and correcting content of the first media asset or the matching media asset based on the content corrections.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 20, 2016
    Publication date: April 20, 2017
    Inventors: Shujie Liu, Jiefu Zhai, Chris Y. Chung, Hsi-Jung Wu, Yunfei Zheng, Albert E. Keinath, Xiaosong Zhou, Ke Zhang
  • Publication number: 20160357605
    Abstract: A system for processing media on a resource restricted device, the system including a memory to store data representing media assets and associated descriptors, and program instructions representing an application and a media processing system, and a processor to execute the program instructions, wherein the program instructions represent the media processing system, in response to a call from an application defining a plurality of services to be performed on an asset, determine a tiered schedule of processing operations to be performed upon the asset based on a processing budget associated therewith, and iteratively execute the processing operations on a tier-by-tier basis, unless interrupted.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 3, 2016
    Publication date: December 8, 2016
    Inventors: Albert Keinath, Ke Zhang, Yunfei Zheng, Shujie Liu, Jiefu Zhai, Chris Y. Chung, Xiaosong Zhou, Hsi-Jung Wu
  • Publication number: 20160360231
    Abstract: Coding techniques for image data may cause a still image to be converted to a “phantom” video sequence, which is coded by motion compensated prediction techniques. Thus, coded video data obtained from the coding operation may include temporal prediction references between frames of the video sequence. Metadata may be generated that identifies allocations of content from the still image to the frames of the video sequence. The coded data and the metadata may be transmitted to another device, whereupon it may be decoded by motion compensated prediction techniques and converted back to a still image data. Other techniques may involve coding an image in both a base layer representation and at least one coded enhancement layer representation. The enhancement layer representation may be coded predictively with reference to the base layer representation. The coded base layer representation may be partitioned into a plurality of individually-transmittable segments and stored.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 5, 2015
    Publication date: December 8, 2016
    Inventors: Hang Yuan, Chris Y. Chung, Jae Hoon Kim, Yeping Su, Jiefu Zhai, Xiaosong Zhou, Hsi-Jung Wu
  • Patent number: 9516305
    Abstract: An adaptive scaler switching system may implement multiple scalers including both a software scaler and a hardware scaler, and a controller that may manage the switch between scalers by considering the real-time constraints of the system and the available system resources. Information about the availability of system resources may be received in real-time, for example the controller may receive information about the system thermal status, the timing requirements for processing the video data, the quality of the scaled data, and any other relevant system statistics that may affect the scaler switch decision. According to an embodiment, the system may maintain statistics in a table, and update the table information as necessary.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2016
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jiefu Zhai, Douglas Price, Albert Keinath, Xiaosong Zhou, Hsi-Jung Wu
  • Patent number: 9412335
    Abstract: A method and system for calibration and compensation of color in a three dimensional display system includes user calibration of individual color channels using a multiplicity of grey screens while viewing with three dimensional glasses. Look-up tables are generated to ease conversion of input pixels to color corrected pixels to pre-distort the color of the pixels being driven by the three dimensional display system. Input pixels are then converted using the look-up tables and color corrected frames are displayed to a user. The pre-distortion effect allows a user to perceive colors in the three dimensional system as intended with the distortions caused by the viewing glasses and other aspects of the three dimensional display system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
    Assignee: Thomson Licensing
    Inventors: Zhe Wang, Jiefu Zhai, Tao Zhang
  • Publication number: 20160182911
    Abstract: Judder artifacts are remedied in video coding system by employing frame rate conversion at an encoder. According to the disclosure, a source video sequence may be coded as base layer coded video at a first frame rate. An encoder may identify a portion of the coded video sequence that likely will exhibit judder effects when decoded. For those portions that likely will exhibit judder effects, video data representing the portion of the source video may be coded at a higher frame rate than a frame rate of the coded base layer data as enhancement layer data. Moreover, an encoder may generate metadata representing “FRC hints”—techniques that a decoder should employ when performing decoder-side frame rate conversion. An encoding terminal may transmit the base layer coded video and either the enhancement layer coded video or the FRC hints to a decoder. Thus, encoder infrastructure may mitigate against judder artifacts that may arise during decoding.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 10, 2015
    Publication date: June 23, 2016
    Inventors: Yeping Su, Chris Y. Chung, Hsi-Jung Wu, Xiaosong Zhou, Jiefu Zhai
  • Publication number: 20160173817
    Abstract: A system may include a receiver, a decoder, a post-processor, and a controller. The receiver may receive encoded video data. The decoder may decode the encoded video data. The post-processor may perform post-processing on frames of decoded video sequence from the decoder. The controller may adjust post-processing of a current frame, based upon at least one condition parameters detected at the system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 12, 2016
    Publication date: June 16, 2016
    Inventors: Jiefu Zhai, Chris Y. Chung, Xiaosong Zhou, Hsi-Jung Wu
  • Patent number: 9336578
    Abstract: A user interactive video tone mapping method is provided that can be used for the tone reproduction of high dynamic range (HDR) content on low dynamic range (LDR) displays. The method comprises the steps of selecting a frame of a video sequence; providing a user interface for a user to manually apply scribble marks to the frame; manually applying N scribble marks to the frame, N being a whole number of value 1 or greater; and tone mapping the video sequence responsive to the scribble marks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2016
    Assignee: THOMSON LICENSING
    Inventors: Zhe Wang, Jiefu Zhai, Joan Llach
  • Publication number: 20160127738
    Abstract: A scalable coding system codes video as a base layer representation and an enhancement layer representation. A base layer coder may code an LDR representation of a source video. A predictor may predict an HDR representation of the source video from the coded base layer data. A comparator may generate prediction residuals which represent a difference between an HDR representation of the source video and the predicted HDR representation of the source video. A quantizer may quantize the residuals down to an LDR representation. An enhancement layer coder may code the LDR residuals. In other embodiments, the enhancement layer coder may code LDR-converted HDR video directly.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 5, 2015
    Publication date: May 5, 2016
    Inventors: Yeping Su, Chris Y. Chung, Hsi-Jung Wu, Jiefu Zhai, Ke Zhang, Xiaosong Zhou
  • Publication number: 20160094823
    Abstract: An encoder may include a luma transform, a transformer, and a chroma transform. The luma transform may determine a linear luminance value based upon a plurality of primary color values of a pixel. The transformer may generate a transformed luminance value based upon the linear luminance value and a plurality of transformed color values based upon corresponding more than one of the primary color values of the pixel. The chroma transform may determine a plurality of chroma values based upon corresponding plurality of transformed color values and the transformed luminance value of the pixel.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 22, 2015
    Publication date: March 31, 2016
    Inventors: Jiefu Zhai, Yeping Su, Hsi-Jung Wu, Chris Y. Chung, Xiaosong Zhou, Ke Zhang
  • Patent number: 9264661
    Abstract: A system may include a receiver, a decoder, a post-processor, and a controller. The receiver may receive encoded video data. The decoder may decode the encoded video data. The post-processor may perform post-processing on frames of decoded video sequence from the decoder. The controller may adjust post-processing of a current frame, based upon at least one condition parameters detected at the system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2016
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jiefu Zhai, Chris Y. Chung, Xiaosong Zhou, Hsi-Jung Wu
  • Patent number: 9215466
    Abstract: A video coder employs techniques for applying frame rate adaptation and variable resolution adaptation in response to environmental coding factors present at the coding terminal. According to such techniques, a coder may estimate a coding quality level to be applied based on the environmental coding factors. The coder may retrieve from a controller table, settings for resolution and frame rate based on the estimated quality level. Optionally, the coder further may retrieve settings identifying a range of quantization parameters that may be used during coding. Prior to coding, the coder may configure input video data to match the resolution and frame rate settings retrieved from the controller table. Thereafter, the coder may code the reconfigured input video data by motion-compensation prediction constrained, as applicable, by the retrieved quantization parameter range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2015
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jiefu Zhai, Xiaosong Zhou, Hsi-Jung Wu
  • Publication number: 20150350514
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for capturing high quality video data, including data having a high dynamic range, for use with conventional encoders and decoders. High dynamic range data is captured using multiple groups of pixels where each group is captured using different exposure times to create groups of pixels. The pixels that are captured at different exposure times may be determined adaptively based on the content of the image, the parameters of the encoding system, or on the available resources within the encoding system. The transition from single exposure to using two different exposure times may be implemented gradually.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 29, 2015
    Publication date: December 3, 2015
    Inventors: Jiefu Zhai, Xiaosong Zhou, Chris Y. Chung, Hsi-Jung Wu