Patents by Inventor Manfred Wittmeir

Manfred Wittmeir 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: 9582070
    Abstract: Apparatuses and methods are provided for determining whether a user intends to provide an input using an image of a control appearing on a surface. An apparatus may include first and second cameras to capture set and second sets of two or more images of the surface, and a unit to determine whether various conditions are true. A first condition is that a particular number of skin-color pixels are present within one cell of the two or more images. A cell location substantially coincides with the image of the control. A second condition is that the skin-color pixels persist for at least a particular time period. A third condition is that a region of skin-color pixels has a substantially rectangular shape. A fourth condition is that corresponding edges of skin-color pixels in the first and second sets of images are within a predefined offset distance. Additional conditions are disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2017
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Tatiana Pavlovna Kadantseva, Ricardo Te Lim, Raymond Chow, George Lyons, Manfred Wittmeir
  • Publication number: 20140078052
    Abstract: Apparatuses and methods are provided for determining whether a user intends to provide an input using an image of a control appearing on a surface. An apparatus may include first and second cameras to capture set and second sets of two or more images of the surface, and a unit to determine whether various conditions are true. A first condition is that a particular number of skin-color pixels are present within one cell of the two or more images. A cell location substantially coincides with the image of the control. A second condition is that the skin-color pixels persist for at least a particular time period. A third condition is that a region of skin-color pixels has a substantially rectangular shape. A fourth condition is that corresponding edges of skin-color pixels in the first and second sets of images are within a predefined offset distance. Additional conditions are disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 22, 2013
    Publication date: March 20, 2014
    Applicant: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Tatiana Pavlovna Kadantseva, Ricardo Te Lim, Raymond Chow, George Lyons, Manfred Wittmeir
  • Publication number: 20110254939
    Abstract: Apparatus and methods for determining whether a user intends to provide an input using an image of a control appearing on a surface. An apparatus may include a first camera to capture two or more images of the surface, and a unit to determine whether various conditions are true. A first condition is that a particular number of pixels classified as skin color are present within one cell of the two or more images. A cell has a location substantially coinciding with the image of the control. A second condition is that the pixels classified as skin color persist for at least a particular time period. A third condition is that the pixels classified as skin color have a first shape. Additional conditions are disclosed. A signal indicative of an intent of a user to provide an input may be provided if the each of the first, second, and third conditions are true.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 1, 2011
    Publication date: October 20, 2011
    Inventors: Tatiana Pavlovna Kadantseva, Ricardo Te Lim, Raymond Chow, George Lyons, Manfred Wittmeir
  • Publication number: 20110253693
    Abstract: Various embodiments are disclosed. A cooking vessel may include a cover, thermionic power converter, and a handle having a memory, a transmitter, and an IR light emitting diode. An infrared image sensor may be used with the IR light emitting to determine a location of the cooking vessel. A sensor and a transmitter may be disposed in the vessel cover to detect and transmit an indication of a boil condition. A system may include a sensor to detect a weight of a cooking vessel and a receiver to receive from the cooking vessel a memory-stored property of the cooking vessel, and a processing unit. The processing unit may determine a weight of the food and a predicted cooking time. The system may include a projected user interface and a proximity sensor. An apparatus may include an image sensor to capture a reference image and current images of a surface. A location of a cell on the surface may be determined from the images.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 25, 2011
    Publication date: October 20, 2011
    Inventors: George Lyons, Manfred Wittmeir
  • Patent number: 7702054
    Abstract: This invention relates to methods and apparatus for detecting errors in transmitted data. In one embodiment, a method includes the steps of transmitting data, accumulating a transmit sum, receiving the data, accumulating a receive sum, comparing the transmit and receive sums; and evaluating the result of the comparison for determining a transmission accuracy metric.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2010
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Barinder Singh Rai, Manfred Wittmeir
  • Publication number: 20080055327
    Abstract: A graphics controller including a display pipe and a first-in-first-out (FIFO) buffer within the display pipe is provided. The FIFO buffer stores pixel data representing an image for display. The pixel data includes a pixel value and a corresponding repeater value. The repeater value indicates the number of times the pixel value is successively repeated within the image. The selection logic counts a number of times a pixel value is output and is configured to pause fetching of a next pixel value from the FIFO buffer until the pixel value has been output as many times as indicated by the repeater value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 6, 2006
    Publication date: March 6, 2008
    Inventors: Barinder Singh Rai, Manfred Wittmeir
  • Publication number: 20070294595
    Abstract: This invention relates to methods and apparatus for detecting errors in transmitted data. In one embodiment, a method includes the steps of transmitting data, accumulating a transmit sum, receiving the data, accumulating a receive sum, comparing the transmit and receive sums; and evaluating the result of the comparison for determining a transmission accuracy metric.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 5, 2006
    Publication date: December 20, 2007
    Inventors: Barinder Rai, Manfred Wittmeir