Patents by Inventor Michael J. Black
Michael J. Black 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).
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Patent number: 11782028Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for monitoring slug flow in subterranean wells. In one aspect, a method includes at a time instant, transmitting an acoustic signal across a cross-section of a pipeline flowing multiphase fluid including gaseous fluid and liquid fluid, wherein a portion of the acoustic signal is carried through the cross-section of the pipeline by the multiphase fluid and determining, at the time instant, a first quantity of the gaseous fluid and a second quantity of the liquid fluid passing the cross-section of the pipeline based, in part, on an energy of the portion of the acoustic signal carried through the cross-section and at least a portion of a total energy of the transmitted acoustic signal.Type: GrantFiled: December 6, 2021Date of Patent: October 10, 2023Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Talha Jamal Ahmad, Michael J. Black, Mohamed N. Noui-Mehidi
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Publication number: 20230122143Abstract: Computer-implemented methods are provided for labelling motion-captured points that correspond to markers on an object. The methods include obtaining the motion-captured points, processing a representation of the motion-captured points in a trained self-attention unit to obtain label scores for the motion-captured points, and assigning labels based on the label scores.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 20, 2022Publication date: April 20, 2023Inventors: Michael J. Black, Nima Ghorbani
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Patent number: 11501508Abstract: Disclosed are computer-readable devices, systems and methods for generating a model of a clothed body. The method includes generating a model of an unclothed human body, the model capturing a shape or a pose of the unclothed human body, determining two-dimensional contours associated with the model, and computing deformations by aligning a contour of a clothed human body with a contour of the unclothed human body. Based on the two-dimensional contours and the deformations, the method includes generating a first two-dimensional model of the unclothed human body, the first two-dimensional model factoring the deformations of the unclothed human body into one or more of a shape variation component, a viewpoint change, and a pose variation and learning an eigen-clothing model using principal component analysis applied to the deformations, wherein the eigen-clothing model classifies different types of clothing, to yield a second two-dimensional model of a clothed human body.Type: GrantFiled: July 8, 2021Date of Patent: November 15, 2022Assignee: Brown UniversityInventors: Michael J. Black, Oren Freifeld, Alexander W. Weiss, Matthew M. Loper, Peng Guan
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Patent number: 11448618Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for monitoring slug flow in subterranean wells. In one aspect, a method includes at a time instant, transmitting an acoustic signal across a cross-section of a pipeline flowing multiphase fluid including gaseous fluid and liquid fluid, wherein a portion of the acoustic signal is carried through the cross-section of the pipeline by the multiphase fluid and determining, at the time instant, a first quantity of the gaseous fluid and a second quantity of the liquid fluid passing the cross-section of the pipeline based, in part, on an energy of the portion of the acoustic signal carried through the cross-section and at least a portion of a total energy of the transmitted acoustic signal.Type: GrantFiled: September 11, 2019Date of Patent: September 20, 2022Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Talha Jamal Ahmad, Michael J. Black, Mohamed Nabil Noui-Mehidi
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Publication number: 20220170887Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for monitoring slug flow in subterranean wells. In one aspect, a method includes at a time instant, transmitting an acoustic signal across a cross-section of a pipeline flowing multiphase fluid including gaseous fluid and liquid fluid, wherein a portion of the acoustic signal is carried through the cross-section of the pipeline by the multiphase fluid and determining, at the time instant, a first quantity of the gaseous fluid and a second quantity of the liquid fluid passing the cross-section of the pipeline based, in part, on an energy of the portion of the acoustic signal carried through the cross-section and at least a portion of a total energy of the transmitted acoustic signal.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 6, 2021Publication date: June 2, 2022Inventors: Talha Jamal Ahmad, Michael J. Black, Mohamed N. Noui-Mehidi
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Publication number: 20210398361Abstract: Disclosed are computer-readable devices, systems and methods for generating a model of a clothed body. The method includes generating a model of an unclothed human body, the model capturing a shape or a pose of the unclothed human body, determining two-dimensional contours associated with the model, and computing deformations by aligning a contour of a clothed human body with a contour of the unclothed human body. Based on the two-dimensional contours and the deformations, the method includes generating a first two-dimensional model of the unclothed human body, the first two-dimensional model factoring the deformations of the unclothed human body into one or more of a shape variation component, a viewpoint change, and a pose variation and learning an eigen-clothing model using principal component analysis applied to the deformations, wherein the eigen-clothing model classifies different types of clothing, to yield a second two-dimensional model of a clothed human body.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 8, 2021Publication date: December 23, 2021Inventors: Michael J. Black, Oren Freifeld, Alexander W. Weiss, Matthew M. Loper, Peng Guan
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Patent number: 11062528Abstract: Disclosed are computer-readable devices, systems and methods for generating a model of a clothed body. The method includes generating a model of an unclothed human body, the model capturing a shape or a pose of the unclothed human body, determining two-dimensional contours associated with the model, and computing deformations by aligning a contour of a clothed human body with a contour of the unclothed human body. Based on the two-dimensional contours and the deformations, the method includes generating a first two-dimensional model of the unclothed human body, the first two-dimensional model factoring the deformations of the unclothed human body into one or more of a shape variation component, a viewpoint change, and a pose variation and learning an eigen-clothing model using principal component analysis applied to the deformations, wherein the eigen-clothing model classifies different types of clothing, to yield a second two-dimensional model of a clothed human body.Type: GrantFiled: August 19, 2019Date of Patent: July 13, 2021Assignee: BROWN UNIVERSITYInventors: Michael J. Black, Oren Freifeld, Alexander W. Weiss, Matthew M. Loper, Peng Guan
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Patent number: 11017577Abstract: The invention comprises a learned model of human body shape and pose dependent shape variation that is more accurate than previous models and is compatible with existing graphics pipelines. Our Skinned Multi-Person Linear model (SMPL) is a skinned vertex based model that accurately represents a wide variety of body shapes in natural human poses. The parameters of the model are learned from data including the rest pose template, blend weights, pose-dependent blend shapes, identity-dependent blend shapes, and a regressor from vertices to joint locations. Unlike previous models, the pose-dependent blend shapes are a linear function of the elements of the pose rotation matrices. This simple formulation enables training the entire model from a relatively large number of aligned 3D meshes of different people in different poses. The invention quantitatively evaluates variants of SMPL using linear or dual quaternion blend skinning and show that both are more accurate than a BlendSCAPE model trained on the same data.Type: GrantFiled: August 14, 2019Date of Patent: May 25, 2021Assignee: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e.V.Inventors: Michael J. Black, Matthew Loper, Naureen Mahmood, Gerard Pons-Moll, Javier Romero
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Patent number: 10574157Abstract: The bluff body attaches to an elastic mount and is capable of generate vortex shedding when the elastic mount orients the bluff body in a flow-line traverse to a fluid flow and vibrates in response to the vortex shedding. A harvester is located within the bluff body and is capable of generating power above a specified threshold in response to the vibration.Type: GrantFiled: April 26, 2019Date of Patent: February 25, 2020Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Talha Jamal Ahmad, Muhammad Arsalan, Michael J. Black, Mohamed Nabil Noui-Mehidi
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Patent number: 10574158Abstract: The bluff body attaches to an elastic mount and is capable of generate vortex shedding when the elastic mount orients the bluff body in a flow-line traverse to a fluid flow and vibrates in response to the vortex shedding. A harvester is located within the bluff body and is capable of generating power above a specified threshold in response to the vibration.Type: GrantFiled: April 26, 2019Date of Patent: February 25, 2020Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Talha Jamal Ahmad, Muhammad Arsalan, Michael J. Black, Mohamed Nabil Noui-Mehidi
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Patent number: 10560039Abstract: The bluff body attaches to an elastic mount and is capable of generate vortex shedding when the elastic mount orients the bluff body in a flow-line traverse to a fluid flow and vibrates in response to the vortex shedding. A harvester is located within the bluff body and is capable of generating power above a specified threshold in response to the vibration.Type: GrantFiled: April 26, 2019Date of Patent: February 11, 2020Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Talha Jamal Ahmad, Muhammad Arsalan, Michael J. Black, Mohamed Nabil Noui-Mehidi
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Patent number: 10560040Abstract: The bluff body attaches to an elastic mount and is capable of generate vortex shedding when the elastic mount orients the bluff body in a flow-line traverse to a fluid flow and vibrates in response to the vortex shedding. A harvester is located within the bluff body and is capable of generating power above a specified threshold in response to the vibration.Type: GrantFiled: April 29, 2019Date of Patent: February 11, 2020Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Talha Jamal Ahmad, Muhammad Arsalan, Michael J. Black, Mohamed Nabil Noui-Mehidi
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Patent number: 10546417Abstract: A system and method of estimating the body shape of an individual from input data such as images or range maps. The body may appear in one or more poses captured at different times and a consistent body shape is computed for all poses. The body may appearin minimal tight-fitting clothing or in normal clothing wherein the described method produces an estimate of the body shape under the clothing. Clothed or bare regions of the body are detected via image classification and the fitting method is adapted to treat each region differently. Body shapes are represented parametrically and are matched to other bodies based on shape similarity and other features. Standard measurements are extracted using parametric or non-parametric functions of body shape. The system components support many applications in body scanning, advertising, social networking, collaborative filtering and Internet clothing shopping.Type: GrantFiled: June 26, 2019Date of Patent: January 28, 2020Assignee: BROWN UNIVERSITYInventors: Michael J. Black, Alexandru O. Balan, Alexander W. Weiss, Leonid Sigal, Matthew M. Loper, Timothy S. St. Clair
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Publication number: 20200025719Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for monitoring slug flow in subterranean wells. In one aspect, a method includes at a time instant, transmitting an acoustic signal across a cross-section of a pipeline flowing multiphase fluid including gaseous fluid and liquid fluid, wherein a portion of the acoustic signal is carried through the cross-section of the pipeline by the multiphase fluid and determining, at the time instant, a first quantity of the gaseous fluid and a second quantity of the liquid fluid passing the cross-section of the pipeline based, in part, on an energy of the portion of the acoustic signal carried through the cross-section and at least a portion of a total energy of the transmitted acoustic signal.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 11, 2019Publication date: January 23, 2020Applicant: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Talha Jamal Ahmad, Michael J. Black, Mohamed Nabil Noui-Mehidi
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Patent number: 10529127Abstract: A system generates a clothing deformation model which models one or more of a pose-dependent clothing shape variation which is induced by underlying body pose parameters, a pose-independent clothing shape variation which is induced by clothing size and underlying body shape parameters and a clothing shape variation including a combination of the pose-dependent clothing shape variation and/or the pose-independent clothing shape variation. The system generates, for an input human body, a custom-shaped garment associated with a clothing type by mapping, via the clothing deformation model, body shape parameters of the input human body to clothing shape parameters of the clothing type and dresses the input human body with the custom-shaped garment.Type: GrantFiled: July 3, 2019Date of Patent: January 7, 2020Assignee: BROWN UNIVERSITYInventors: Michael J. Black, Peng Guan
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Publication number: 20190392626Abstract: The invention comprises a learned model of human body shape and pose dependent shape variation that is more accurate than previous models and is compatible with existing graphics pipelines. Our Skinned Multi-Person Linear model (SMPL) is a skinned vertex based model that accurately represents a wide variety of body shapes in natural human poses. The parameters of the model are learned from data including the rest pose template, blend weights, pose-dependent blend shapes, identity-dependent blend shapes, and a regressor from vertices to joint locations. Unlike previous models, the pose-dependent blend shapes are a linear function of the elements of the pose rotation matrices. This simple formulation enables training the entire model from a relatively large number of aligned 3D meshes of different people in different poses. The invention quantitatively evaluates variants of SMPL using linear or dual quaternion blend skinning and show that both are more accurate than a BlendSCAPE model trained on the same data.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 14, 2019Publication date: December 26, 2019Inventors: Michael J. Black, Matthew Loper, Naureen Mahmood, Gerard Pons-Moll, Javier Romero
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Publication number: 20190385381Abstract: Disclosed are computer-readable devices, systems and methods for generating a model of a clothed body. The method includes generating a model of an unclothed human body, the model capturing a shape or a pose of the unclothed human body, determining two-dimensional contours associated with the model, and computing deformations by aligning a contour of a clothed human body with a contour of the unclothed human body. Based on the two-dimensional contours and the deformations, the method includes generating a first two-dimensional model of the unclothed human body, the first two-dimensional model factoring the deformations of the unclothed human body into one or more of a shape variation component, a viewpoint change, and a pose variation and learning an eigen-clothing model using principal component analysis applied to the deformations, wherein the eigen-clothing model classifies different types of clothing, to yield a second two-dimensional model of a clothed human body.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 19, 2019Publication date: December 19, 2019Inventors: Michael J. Black, Oren Freifeld, Alexander W. Weiss, Matthew M. Loper, Peng Guan
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Patent number: 10494566Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide methods and composition for stimulating a hydrocarbon-bearing, heavy oil containing formation, a deep oil reservoir, or a tight oil reservoir, whereby exothermic reactants are utilized to generate in-situ steam and nitrogen gas downhole in the formation or the reservoir as an enhanced oil recovery process. An oil well stimulation method is provided, which includes injecting, into the one of the formation and the reservoir, an aqueous composition including an ammonium containing compound and a nitrite containing compound. The method further includes injecting, into the one of the formation and the reservoir, an activator. The activator initiates a reaction between the ammonium containing compound and the nitrite containing compound, such that the reaction generates steam and nitrogen gas, increasing localized pressure and improving oil mobility, in the one of the formation and the reservoir, thereby enhancing oil recovery from the one of the formation and the reservoir.Type: GrantFiled: August 25, 2017Date of Patent: December 3, 2019Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Ayman Raja Al-Nakhli, Michael J. Black
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Patent number: 10473623Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for monitoring slug flow in subterranean wells. In one aspect, a method includes at a time instant, transmitting an acoustic signal across a cross-section of a pipeline flowing multiphase fluid including gaseous fluid and liquid fluid, wherein a portion of the acoustic signal is carried through the cross-section of the pipeline by the multiphase fluid and determining, at the time instant, a first quantity of the gaseous fluid and a second quantity of the liquid fluid passing the cross-section of the pipeline based, in part, on an energy of the portion of the acoustic signal carried through the cross-section and at least a portion of a total energy of the transmitted acoustic signal.Type: GrantFiled: September 7, 2017Date of Patent: November 12, 2019Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil CompanyInventors: Talha Jamal Ahmad, Michael J. Black, Mohamed N. Noui-Mehidi
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Publication number: 20190333267Abstract: A system and method of estimating the body shape of an individual from input data such as images or range maps. The body may appear in one or more poses captured at different times and a consistent body shape is computed for all poses. The body may appearin minimal tight-fitting clothing or in normal clothing wherein the described method produces an estimate of the body shape under the clothing. Clothed or bare regions of the body are detected via image classification and the fitting method is adapted to treat each region differently. Body shapes are represented parametrically and are matched to other bodies based on shape similarity and other features. Standard measurements are extracted using parametric or non-parametric functions of body shape. The system components support many applications in body scanning, advertising, social networking, collaborative filtering and Internet clothing shopping.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 26, 2019Publication date: October 31, 2019Inventors: Michael J. BLACK, Alexandru O. BALAN, Alexander W. Weiss, Leonid SIGAL, Matthew M. LOPER, Timothy S. ST. CLAIR