Patents by Inventor Neil D. Woodall

Neil D. Woodall 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: 9736456
    Abstract: A method of converting two-dimensional image data to three-dimensional image data includes dividing the image data into blocks, performing motion estimation on the blocks to produce block-based motion vectors, applying a global motion analysis and a local motion analysis to the block-based motion vectors to generate motion-based depth, applying a global image model and a local image model to the block-based motion vectors to generate image-based depth, and generating a three-dimensional view by fusing the motion-based depth and the image-based depth. Other conversion methods are also included.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2017
    Assignee: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Tao Chen, Bob Zhang, Junhua Chen, Ji Zhao, Neil D. Woodall, James Zhou
  • Patent number: 9648347
    Abstract: A method of generating new views for a multi-view display system includes receiving a block-based disparity estimate between left image data and right image data for a frame of image data at a processor, upscaling the block-based disparity estimate to a pixel-based disparity for each pixel in the image date, performing motion vector based disparity interpolation and image interpolation simultaneously to produce left and right side interpolated data, and generating at least one new view using left and right side interpolated data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2017
    Assignee: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Guohua Cheng, Neil D. Woodall, James Zhou, Yue Ma
  • Patent number: 9602763
    Abstract: An apparatus has a neighbor motion vector module arranged to receive motion vector data for blocks that neighbor a current pixel and select a predetermined number of block motion vectors, at least two pixel motion vector modules arranged to receive the block motion vector data and to produce interpolated pixel motion vector data, a weighting module configured to produce a weighting for the interpolated pixel motion vector data from the motion vector modules, and a blending module to blend the interpolated pixel motion vector data according to the weighting and to produce pixel output data for the current pixel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2017
    Assignee: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Guohua Cheng, Yanxin Li, Neil D. Woodall, Bob Zhang
  • Patent number: 9524008
    Abstract: An apparatus includes a display device having a pixel and vector storage, and a by-pass mode and an interpolation mode, wherein the interpolation mode converts input data from an input frame rate to a display refresh rate based on pixel and vector data stored in the storage. A method includes determining a selected interpolation mode to be employed by a frame interpolator, retrieving pixel data and vector data received from a host system from a storage, and generating interpolated frames of display data according to the selected interpolation mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2016
    Assignee: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Neil D. Woodall, James Zhou, Bob Zhang, Richard Miller
  • Patent number: 9491398
    Abstract: A method and system for detecting and processing a series of video frames includes receiving the series of video frames, determining whether the video frames are associated with a recognized non-video source, and depending on the determination, processing the video frames using a variety of techniques. A system may detect whether each video frame is a repeat frame or a new original frame, keep the new original frames, discard the repeat frames, and then adjust one or more timestamps associated with the new original frames so as to conform to an intermediate frame rate. The frame indexes and timestamps associated with the new original frames are stored in a FIFO or buffer. The system can interpolate video frames using the stored timestamps, and output a series of video frames. The output video stream is delivered at any frame rate and can include original video frames and interpolated video frames.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2016
    Assignee: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Yongmin Hou, Yanxin Li, Jian Zhou, Miao Sima, Neil D. Woodall, Bob Zhang
  • Patent number: 9462293
    Abstract: A method of receiving video data receives an original image at a processing device, estimates an image of higher resolution than the original image from the original image, generate a simulated image of the original image from the higher resolution image, derives difference data between the original image and the simulated image, upscale the difference data, wherein upscaling includes weighting the difference data with an adjusted confidence value, wherein the confidence value is adjusted based upon local information, and uses the upscaled difference data to estimate a new higher resolution image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
    Assignee: PIXEL WORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Junhua Chen, Neil D. Woodall
  • Patent number: 9357161
    Abstract: A method of performing motion compensation includes identifying a set of candidate motion vectors for a block in an intermediate frame from a set of motion vectors from a previous and current frames, performing block-level analysis for each candidate motion vector, selecting an interpolation motion vector, and using the interpolation motion vector to interpolate the intermediate frame between the previous and current frames, wherein the number of intermediate frames depends upon a conversion to a faster frame rate. A method of determining background and foreground motion vectors for a block in an interpolated frame includes comparing a first motion vector that points to a previous frame to a second motion vector that points to a next frame to produce a difference, and designating one of the first and second motion vectors as a background motion vector and the other as a foreground motion vector depending upon the difference.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2016
    Assignee: Pixelworks, Inc.
    Inventors: Guohua Cheng, Neil D. Woodall, Bob Zhang, Xiaojie Sheng
  • Patent number: 9106926
    Abstract: An apparatus includes a phase plane conversion module to convert image data into at least two phases, a current phase and a previous phase, a first phase motion vector calculation module to generate a first phase motion vector field, a second phase motion vector calculation module to generate a second phase motion vector field, and a double check module to determine which vectors in the first and second phase motion vector fields are double confirmed and to identify regions in which the motion vectors are not double confirmed as occluded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2015
    Assignee: Pixelworks, Inc.
    Inventors: Qiang Li, Neil D. Woodall
  • Patent number: 9094561
    Abstract: An apparatus has a motion vector estimation module to perform motion vector estimation on a current frame and on a previous frame of image data to produce a current phase and a previous phase, a motion vector generation module to generate motion vector fields for the current and previous phases, and a motion vector interpolation module to find interpolated motion vectors for an interpolated phase that have minimal differences between motion vectors in the current and previous motion vector fields and to product interpolated motion vectors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2015
    Assignee: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: Guohua Cheng, Neil D. Woodall, Bob Zhang, Xiaojie Sheng
  • Patent number: 8891010
    Abstract: A method of displaying video data includes receiving, at a timing controller, a frame of pixel data at a resolution lower than the display resolution from an application processor, generating new frames of video data at the timing controller by applying a filter with a different set of coefficients to at least one neighboring frame at the lower resolution to generate a display frame of video data at a higher resolution. A video processing device has an application processor to execute instructions causing the application process to transmit frames of image data at a resolution lower than an original resolution, and a timing controller to execute instructions causing the timing controller to reconstruct frames of image data at the original resolution from the frames of lower resolution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 18, 2014
    Assignee: Pixelworks, Inc.
    Inventor: Neil D. Woodall
  • Patent number: 8861793
    Abstract: A method can include detecting a pixel direction and a pixel weight for each of a number of pixels in an image, generating one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) histograms based on the pixel directions and weights, and generating a global 2D histogram based on the generated 1D and 2D histograms. The method can also include generating a final depth map based on the global 2D histogram. The method can also include generating a block histogram statistic based on the pixel directions and pixel weights and checking the block histogram based on the block histogram statistic.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: Pixelworks, Inc.
    Inventors: Tao Chen, Neil D. Woodall, Bob Zhang
  • Patent number: 8811774
    Abstract: A method of generating an initial high resolution frame includes receiving at least two low resolution frames of an image at a processor, wherein the low resolution frames have a resolution lower than the high resolution frame, using one or more low resolution frames to interpolate a high resolution frame using an interpretive scaler, wherein the interpolation adapts to the contours of the image, and using the initial high resolution frame and the low resolution frame in an iterative super resolution process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 19, 2014
    Assignee: Pixelworks, Inc.
    Inventors: Junhua Chen, Neil D. Woodall, Bob Zhang
  • Patent number: 8600178
    Abstract: A method of performing motion compensation includes dividing at least one frame of image data into blocks, performing phase plane correlation to determine a correlation surface for each block between a first frame and a second frame, using the correlation surfaces for each block in the first frame to produce a global correlation surface for a first frame, using the global correlation surface to produce a refined correlation surface, selecting peaks in the refined correlation surface, and perform sub-pixel motion vector calculations to produce global motion vectors using the peaks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2013
    Assignee: Pixelworks, Inc.
    Inventors: Neil D. Woodall, Guodong Liu, Minghui Yang
  • Patent number: 8564528
    Abstract: A method, includes receiving original image data having a first resolution, dividing the original image data into zones based upon a second resolution, wherein the second resolution corresponds to a resolution of backlight elements, determining a backlight value for each zone, and adjusting the original image data in each block to compensate for the backlight value for each zone to produce compensated image data, wherein adjusting the original image data comprises using the backlight value and an original image data value as indexes into at least one look-up table to acquire compensated image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2013
    Assignee: Pixelworks, Inc.
    Inventors: Tao Chen, Bob Zhang, James Zhou, Neil D. Woodall
  • Patent number: 8421921
    Abstract: An apparatus has at least one port to receive a data stream of image and on screen display data, an image processor to process the image data separate from the on screen display data and produced processed image data, and a display port to combine the on screen display data and the processed image data and transmit the combined data to a display. A method of processing on screen display data with an image post processor includes receiving a data stream from a video processor at a post processing device having at least one port, the data stream having both image data and on screen display data, separating the on screen display data from the image data, storing the image data and the on screen display data in separate areas of a memory, performing image processing on the image data with the post processor to produce processed image data, and transmitting the processed image data and the on screen display data through a display port.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2013
    Assignee: Pixelworks, Inc.
    Inventor: Neil D. Woodall
  • Patent number: 8396322
    Abstract: Methods for reducing optical distortion such as keystone distortion can include receiving an input image and modifying the input image by applying two separate 1D operations to the input image and applying a polyphase filter to the input image, where the first 1D operation is performed after application of the second 1D operation has begun. The modified image can then be projected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2013
    Assignee: Pixelworks, Inc.
    Inventors: Neil D. Woodall, Carl Alelyunas, Minghui Yang
  • Patent number: 8358379
    Abstract: A method of processing on screen display data with an image post processor includes receiving a data stream from a video processor at a post processing device having at least one port, the data stream including on screen display data overlaid on a white background and the on screen display data overlaid on a black background, finding a difference between the on screen display data overlaid on white and the on screen display data overlaid on black, using the difference to determine a complement of an alpha blend value, performing image processing on the image data with the post processor by applying the complement of an alpha blend value to the image data to produce processed image data, and transmitting the processed image data and the on screen display data through a display port.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 22, 2013
    Assignee: Pixelworks, Inc.
    Inventor: Neil D. Woodall
  • Publication number: 20110013081
    Abstract: A video sequence may include a modality corresponding with an embedded pattern. At least one state machine detects the modality in accordance with difference signals. A signal generator generates the difference signals responsive to decision windows that define regions of interest in the video sequence. The modality may correspond with an embedded film source or other pattern types in the video sequence. Where the state machine detects more than one pattern, a single pattern is selected according to a predetermined priority. The video sequence may contain both static patterns and embedded film source patterns. The state machine discerns the presence of the embedded film source patterns notwithstanding the presence of the static patterns.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 16, 2010
    Publication date: January 20, 2011
    Applicant: PIXELWORKS, INC.
    Inventors: G. Finn Wredenhagen, Gary Cheng, Kevin Ng, Neil D. Woodall, Yue Ma, Guodong Liu, Jun Wang
  • Patent number: 7742110
    Abstract: I describe and claim a temporal comb filtering system and method. The temporal comb filter system includes a comb filter to temporally process separated luminance and chrominance components from an image field responsive to image data from at least one other image field and a panel to display the processed components. The comb filter includes a cross-chroma detector to detect luminance information within chrominance data from a first image field responsive to chrominance data from at least one other image field and a cross-luma detector to detect chrominance information within the luminance data from the first image field responsive to the luminance data from at least one other image field.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2010
    Assignee: Pixelworks, Inc.
    Inventor: Neil D. Woodall
  • Patent number: 7701512
    Abstract: We describe and claim a system and method for horizontal and vertical sync detection and processing. A method comprises detecting synchronization information within a video signal, estimating stability of the video signal according to the detected synchronization information, and generating one or more synchronization signals according to the detected synchronization information and the estimated stability of the video signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2010
    Assignee: Pixelworks, Inc.
    Inventors: Neil D. Woodall, Kevin Ng