Patents by Inventor Lowell L. Winger

Lowell L. Winger 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: 9843815
    Abstract: A method of deblocking an input signal is disclosed. The method generally includes the steps of (A) calculating a plurality of transform coefficients corresponding to each of a plurality of blocks in the input signal at baseband, (B) calculating a plurality of quantization parameters based on the transform coefficients, at least one of the quantization parameters corresponding to each respective one of the blocks and (C) generating an output signal by deblocking the input signal based on the quantization parameters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2017
    Assignee: AVAGO TECHNOLOGIES GENERAL IP (SINGAPORE) PTE. LTD.
    Inventors: Lowell L. Winger, Ossama E. A. El Badawy, Cheng-Yu Pai
  • Publication number: 20150003519
    Abstract: A method of deblocking an input signal is disclosed. The method generally includes the steps of (A) calculating a plurality of transform coefficients corresponding to each of a plurality of blocks in the input signal at baseband, (B) calculating a plurality of quantization parameters based on the transform coefficients, at least one of the quantization parameters corresponding to each respective one of the blocks and (C) generating an output signal by deblocking the input signal based on the quantization parameters.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 18, 2014
    Publication date: January 1, 2015
    Inventors: Lowell L. Winger, Ossama E.A. El Badawy, Cheng-Yu Pai
  • Patent number: 8842929
    Abstract: A method of deblocking an input signal is disclosed. The method generally includes the steps of (A) calculating a plurality of transform coefficients corresponding to each of a plurality of blocks in the input signal at baseband, (B) calculating a plurality of quantization parameters based on the transform coefficients, at least one of the quantization parameters corresponding to each respective one of the blocks and (C) generating an output signal by deblocking the input signal based on the quantization parameters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 23, 2014
    Assignee: Avago Technologies General IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.
    Inventors: Lowell L. Winger, Ossama E. A. El Badawy, Cheng-Yu Pai
  • Patent number: 8798155
    Abstract: A method for transcoding from an H.264 format to an MPEG-2 format is disclosed. The method generally comprises the steps of (A) decoding an input video stream in the H.264 format to generate a picture having a plurality of macroblock pairs that used an H.264 macroblock adaptive field/frame coding; (B) determining a mode indicator for each of the macroblock pairs; and (C) coding the macroblock pairs into an output video stream in the MPEG-2 format using one of (i) an MPEG-2 field mode coding and (ii) an MPEG-2 frame mode coding as determined from the mode indicators.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 5, 2014
    Assignee: LSI Corporation
    Inventors: Guy Cote, Lowell L. Winger
  • Publication number: 20140205005
    Abstract: A method for transcoding from an MPEG-2 format to an H.264 format is disclosed. The method generally comprises the steps of (A) decoding an input video stream in the MPEG-2 format to generate a plurality of macroblocks; (B) determining a plurality of indicators from a pair of the macroblocks, the pair of the macroblocks being vertically adjoining; and (C) coding the pair of the macroblocks into an output video stream in the H.264 format using one of (i) a field mode coding and (ii) a frame mode coding as determined from the indicators.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 19, 2014
    Publication date: July 24, 2014
    Applicant: LSI Corporation
    Inventors: Lowell L. Winger, Guy Cote
  • Patent number: 8654853
    Abstract: A method for transcoding from an MPEG-2 format to a VC-1 format is disclosed. The method generally comprises the steps of (A) decoding an input video stream in the MPEG-2 format to generate a picture; (B) determining a mode indicator for the picture; and (C) coding the picture into an output video stream in the VC-1 format using one of (i) a VC-1 field mode coding and (ii) a VC-1 frame mode coding as determined from the mode indicator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2014
    Assignee: LSI Corporation
    Inventors: Guy Cote, Anthony Peter Joch, Lowell L. Winger
  • Patent number: 8644390
    Abstract: A method for transcoding from an H.264 format to a VC-1 format. The method generally comprises the steps of (A) decoding an input video stream in the H.264 format to generate a picture having a plurality of macroblock pairs that used an H.264 macroblock adaptive field/frame coding; (B) determining a mode indicator for each of the macroblock pairs; and (C) coding the macroblock pairs into an output video stream in the VC-1 format using one of (i) a VC-1 field motion compensation mode coding and (ii) a VC-1 frame motion compensation mode coding as determined from the mode indicator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2014
    Assignee: LSI Corporation
    Inventors: Anthony Peter Joch, Lowell L. Winger
  • Patent number: 8537277
    Abstract: A system having a memory and a processor is disclosed. The memory may be arranged as (i) a first pipeline to buffer a plurality of full resolution fields and (ii) a second pipeline to buffer a plurality of low resolution fields. The processor is generally configured to (i) receive a particular one or more of the full resolution fields and a particular one or more of the low resolution fields from the memory and (ii) generate a film mode signal based on the particular low resolution fields, the film mode signal indicating a current mode among a plurality of pull-down modes related to a current field being deinterlaced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2013
    Assignee: LSI Corporation
    Inventor: Lowell L. Winger
  • Patent number: 8437401
    Abstract: A method of motion estimation (ME) refinement. The method generally includes the steps of (A) generating an initial motion vector (MV) by conducting a first ME on an initial block in a picture, the initial block covering an initial area of the picture, (B) generating a current MV by conducting a second ME on a current block in the picture, (i) the current block covering a subset of the initial area and (ii) the second ME being seeded by the initial MV, (C) generating at least one additional MV by conducting at least one third ME on the current block, the at least one third ME being seeded respectively by at least one neighboring MV spatially adjacent to the current MV and (D) generating a refined MV of the current block by storing in a memory a best among the current MV and the additional MV.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2013
    Assignee: LSI Corporation
    Inventors: Pavel Novotny, Michael D. Gallant, Lowell L. Winger
  • Patent number: 8401070
    Abstract: A method for inverse telecine. The method generally includes the steps of (A) checking if a current field of a plurality of fields in a video sequence repeats in the video sequence according to a pattern-based approach where the current field fits a telecine pattern, (B) checking if the current field repeats according to a first pattern-less approach where the current field complies with at least one of a plurality of rules and (C) generating a signal for an encoder in (i) an asserted state if the current field repeats and (ii) a deasserted state if the current field does not repeat.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: LSI Corporation
    Inventors: Yunwei Jia, Lowell L. Winger, Elliot N. Linzer
  • Patent number: 8331458
    Abstract: A method for composite noise filtering is disclosed. The method generally includes the steps of (A) generating a selection value in response to a stationary check identifying one of a plurality of blendings for a current item of a current field, (B) generating a filtered item in response to one of (i) a first of the blendings between the current item and a first previous item co-located in a first previous field having an opposite phase of composite artifacts from the current field and (ii) a second of the blendings between the current item and a first motion compensated item from the first previous field and (C) switching between the first blending and the second blending in response to the selection value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2012
    Assignee: LSI Corporation
    Inventors: Yunwei Jia, Lowell L. Winger
  • Patent number: 8305497
    Abstract: In one embodiment of the invention, decompressed video signals are upscaled and then filtered using a combined mosquito noise reduction (MNR) and aliasing coring filter that reduces both mosquito noise in the decompressed video signals as well as aliasing noise resulting from the upscaling process. In one implementation, the combined coring filter includes a dual-band filter having two passbands interleaved with two stopbands. The strength of the coring filter may be dynamically controlled based on compression information (e.g., quantizer scales indicative of video quality) associated with the compressed video bitstream from which the decompressed video is recovered.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 6, 2012
    Assignee: LSI Corporation
    Inventor: Lowell L. Winger
  • Publication number: 20120230415
    Abstract: A method for transcoding from an MPEG-2 format to an H.264 format is disclosed. The method generally comprises the steps of (A) decoding an input video stream in the MPEG-2 format to generate a plurality of macroblocks; (B) determining a plurality of indicators from a pair of the macroblocks, the pair of the macroblocks being vertically adjoining; and (C) coding the pair of the macroblocks into an output video stream in the H.264 format using one of (i) a field mode coding and (ii) a frame mode coding as determined from the indicators.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 9, 2012
    Publication date: September 13, 2012
    Inventors: Lowell L. Winger, Guy Cote
  • Publication number: 20120207228
    Abstract: A method of deblocking an input signal is disclosed. The method generally includes the steps of (A) calculating a plurality of transform coefficients corresponding to each of a plurality of blocks in the input signal at baseband, (B) calculating a plurality of quantization parameters based on the transform coefficients, at least one of the quantization parameters corresponding to each respective one of the blocks and (C) generating an output signal by deblocking the input signal based on the quantization parameters.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 22, 2012
    Publication date: August 16, 2012
    Inventors: Lowell L. Winger, Ossama E. A. El Badawy, Cheng-Yu Pai
  • Patent number: 8233547
    Abstract: A method for activating and deactivating parameter sets during decoding of a bitstream for display, comprising the steps of: (A) tagging a first picture parameter information set associated with a first identification value as active in response to a reference to the first identification value in a bitstream; (B) changing the tag of the first picture parameter information set from active to inactive and tagging a second picture parameter information set associated with a second identification value as active in response to a reference to the second identification value in the bitstream; and (C) tagging the second picture parameter information set as inactive and re-tagging the first picture parameter information set as active in response to a subsequent reference to the first identification value in the bitstream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2012
    Assignee: LSI Corporation
    Inventor: Lowell L. Winger
  • Patent number: 8223264
    Abstract: A method for deinterlacing a picture is disclosed. The method generally includes the steps of (A) generating a plurality of primary scores by searching along a plurality of primary angles for an edge in the picture proximate a location interlaced with a field of the picture, (B) generating a plurality of neighbor scores by searching for the edge along a plurality of neighbor angles proximate a particular angle of the primary angles corresponding to a particular score of the primary scores having a best value and (C) identifying a best score from a group of scores consisting of the particular score and the neighbor scores to generate an interpolated sample at the location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2012
    Assignee: LSI Corporation
    Inventors: Lowell L. Winger, Yunwei Jia, Aaron G. Wells, Elliot N. Linzer, Simon Booth, Guy Cote
  • Publication number: 20120170660
    Abstract: A method of motion estimation (ME) refinement. The method generally includes the steps of (A) generating an initial motion vector (MV) by conducting a first ME on an initial block in a picture, the initial block covering an initial area of the picture, (B) generating a current MV by conducting a second ME on a current block in the picture, (i) the current block covering a subset of the initial area and (ii) the second ME being seeded by the initial MV, (C) generating at least one additional MV by conducting at least one third ME on the current block, the at least one third ME being seeded respectively by at least one neighboring MV spatially adjacent to the current MV and (D) generating a refined MV of the current block by storing in a memory a best among the current MV and the additional MV.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 8, 2012
    Publication date: July 5, 2012
    Inventors: Pavel Novotny, Michael D. Gallant, Lowell L. Winger
  • Patent number: 8204122
    Abstract: A method of compressed picture reconstruction using a plurality of post-processed reference pictures. The method generally includes the steps of (A) generating a first of a plurality of reconstructed pictures by decoding a first of a plurality of compressed pictures using at least one of a plurality of non-post-processed reference pictures buffered in a reference memory, wherein the compressed pictures are received in an input bitstream, (B) generating a first of a plurality of processed pictures by artifact processing the first reconstructed picture to remove artifacts, (C) buffering in the reference memory both (i) the first reconstructed picture as one of the non-post-processed reference pictures and (ii) the first processed picture as one of the post-processed reference pictures and (D) generating a second of the reconstructed pictures by decoding a second of the compressed pictures using at least one of the post-processed reference pictures buffered in the reference memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2012
    Assignee: LSI Corporation
    Inventors: Lowell L. Winger, Ossama E. A. El Badawy, Cheng-Yu Pai
  • Publication number: 20120147952
    Abstract: A method for transcoding from an H.264 format to an MPEG-2 format is disclosed. The method generally comprises the steps of (A) decoding an input video stream in the H.264 format to generate a picture having a plurality of macroblock pairs that used an H.264 macroblock adaptive field/frame coding; (B) determining a mode indicator for each of the macroblock pairs; and (C) coding the macroblock pairs into an output video stream in the MPEG-2 format using one of (i) an MPEG-2 field mode coding and (ii) an MPEG-2 frame mode coding as determined from the mode indicators.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 20, 2012
    Publication date: June 14, 2012
    Inventors: Guy Cote, Lowell L. Winger
  • Patent number: 8170107
    Abstract: A method of decoding a video bitstream is disclosed. The method generally includes the steps of (A) buffering the video bitstream in a main memory, the video bitstream comprising a first residual block based on a first motion compensated block, the first motion compensated block having been generated by a subpixel motion compensation using an N-tap interpolation on a plurality of first reference samples, (B) copying a first subset of the first reference samples from the main memory to an internal memory, (C) generating a first decode block using the subpixel motion compensation with an M-tap interpolation on the first subset in the internal memory, and (D) reconstructing a first original block by adding the first residual block to the first decode block.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2012
    Assignee: LSI Corporation
    Inventor: Lowell L. Winger