Patents by Inventor Nikhil Balram

Nikhil Balram 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).

  • Publication number: 20150059002
    Abstract: A mobile information gateway comprises a wearable human interface module having an image delivery and display mechanism for presenting information overlaid upon a wide field of view, a computing and communication module adapted receive information from the human interface module and adapted to send commands and information to the human interface module including information for presentation; and a backend service server coupled for processing data from the computing and communication module including user identification and verification.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2013
    Publication date: February 26, 2015
    Applicant: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Nikhil Balram, Kathrin Berkner, Ivana Tosic, Wanmin Wu
  • Patent number: 8922714
    Abstract: A video processing system includes a network processing module configured to receive video content. A decoder module is configured to decode the video content received from the content transmitting system, and separately provide each of the decoded video content and data describing transmission features of the video content. A video quality estimation module is configured to estimate a quality factor based on the data describing the transmission features of the video content, wherein the quality factor corresponds to an estimation of a visual quality of the video content. A database control module configured to select, based on the quality factor, one of a plurality of predetermined settings for video post-processing. A video post-processing module is configured to receive the decoded video content separately provided from the decoder module, and process the decoded video content based on the selected one of the predetermined settings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 30, 2014
    Assignee: Marvell World Trade Ltd.
    Inventors: Vasudev Bhaskaran, Mainak Biswas, Nikhil Balram
  • Patent number: 8885099
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for improving the visual quality of low resolution and/or low frame rate video content displayed on large-screen displays. A video format converter may be used to process a low resolution and/or low frame rate video signal from a media providing device before the video is displayed. The video format converter may detect the true resolution of the video and deinterlace the video signal accordingly. The video format converter may also determine the frame rate of a video and may increase the frame rate if the received frame rate is below a certain threshold. For videos that are also low in quality, the video format converter may reduce compression artifacts and apply techniques to enhance the appearance of the video.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2014
    Assignee: Marvell World Trade Ltd.
    Inventor: Nikhil Balram
  • Patent number: 8879002
    Abstract: A system and method for enhancing the detail edges and transitions in an input video signal. This enhancement may be accomplished by enhancing small detail edges before up-scaling and enhancing large amplitude transitions after up-scaling. For example, detail edge enhancement (detail EE) may be used to enhance the fine details of an input video signal. An edge map may be used to prevent enhancing the large edges and accompanying mosquito noise with the detail enhancement. Noise may additionally be removed from the signal. After the fine details are enhanced, the signal may be up-scaled. Luminance transition improvement (LTI) or chrominance transition improvement (CTI) may be used to enhance the large transitions of the input video signal post scaler.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2014
    Assignee: Marvell World Trade Ltd.
    Inventors: Shilpi Sahu, Nikhil Balram, Sanjay Garg
  • Publication number: 20140316238
    Abstract: A plenoptic otoscope captures images used in making a medical diagnosis. For example, the plenoptic data can be processed to produce enhanced imagery of the ear interior, and this enhanced imagery can be used in making a medical diagnosis.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 28, 2014
    Publication date: October 23, 2014
    Applicant: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Kathrin Berkner, Lingfei Meng, Ivana Tosic, Nikhil Balram
  • Patent number: 8860657
    Abstract: To improve contrast ratio of the image on a backlit display plane such as a liquid crystal display (“LCD”), each area of the image that has separately controllable backlight may be given full backlight until an average or composite brightness of the image in that area is less than a threshold value at which light leakage through the image from full-strength backlight begins to be noticeable by a viewer. For image areas with composite brightness less than that threshold, backlight brightness may be reduced in proportion to how much below the threshold the area's composite image brightness is. Backlight brightness may also be adjusted for other image aspects such as (1) the presence of bright pixels in an otherwise relatively dark area, (2) whether the area is adjacent to one or more other areas in which the image information is in motion, and/or (3) time-averaging of image information over several successive frames of such information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: Marvell World Trade Ltd.
    Inventors: Wonbok Lee, Vasudev Bhaskaran, Mainak Biswas, Nikhil Balram
  • Patent number: 8860747
    Abstract: System and methods for gamut bounded saturation adaptive color enhancement are provided. Color enhancement incorporating gamut bounded saturation enhances colors of an pixel from a source color gamut such that the resulting color is within a target color gamut. This resulting color may, for example, take advantage of an expanded target color gamut of a display. Gamut bounded saturation may be implemented independently or in combination with RGB bounded saturation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: Marvell World Trade Ltd.
    Inventors: Vasudev Bhaskaran, Sujith Srinivasan, Nikhil Balram
  • Patent number: 8819760
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for improving the visual quality of low-resolution video displayed on large-screen displays. A video format converter may be used to process a low-resolution video signal from a media providing device before the video is displayed. The video format converter may detect the true resolution of the video and deinterlace the video signal accordingly. For low-resolution videos that are also low in quality, the video format converter may reduce compression artifacts and apply techniques to enhance the appearance of the video.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2014
    Assignee: Marvell World Trade Ltd.
    Inventors: Nikhil Balram, Gwyn Edwards, Sanjay Garg
  • Publication number: 20140225935
    Abstract: To improve contrast ratio of the image on a backlit display plane such as a liquid crystal display (“LCD”), each area of the image that has separately controllable backlight may be given full backlight until an average or composite brightness of the image in that area is less than a threshold value at which light leakage through the image from full-strength backlight begins to be noticable by a viewer. For image areas with composite brightness less than that threshold, backlight brightness may be reduced in proportion to how much below the threshold the area's composite image brightness is. Backlight brightness may also be adjusted for other image aspects such as (1) the presence of bright pixels in an otherwise relatively dark area, (2) whether the area is adjacent to one or more other areas in which the image information is in motion, and/or (3) time-averaging of image information over several successive frames of such information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2014
    Publication date: August 14, 2014
    Inventors: Wonbok Lee, Vasudev Bhaskaran, Mainak Biswas, Nikhil Balram
  • Patent number: 8804040
    Abstract: The invention includes a system and the associated method for decoding multiple video signals. The video signals may be component video, composite video or s-video signals each having multiple portions using a multimode video decoder. A selection stage may combine the multiple video signals and select some of their video signal portions for processing. The selection stage may time-multiplex some of the video signal portions. An analog to digital conversion stage may be shared by the time-multiplexing of the video signals. A decoder stage may decode the various signal portions and provide decoded output video signals. These feature may reduce the overall cost of the system. Various clock signals may be used to operate various stages of a multimode video decoder. Some of the clock signals may run at different frequencies and others may operate at a different phase.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 12, 2014
    Assignee: Marvell World Trade Ltd.
    Inventors: Sanjay Garg, Bipasha Ghosh, Nikhil Balram, Kaip Sridhar, Shilpi Sahu, Richard Taylor, Gwyn Edwards, Loren Tomasi, Vipin Namboodiri
  • Patent number: 8754991
    Abstract: A shared memory video processor including signal processing circuitry. The signal processing circuitry may enable a noise reducer and a de-interlacer to share access to field buffers in a memory device to store various field lines. Some of the stored field lines may also be shared within the signal processing circuitry. The sharing of some stored field lines reduces overall memory bandwidth and capacity requirements. The signal processing circuitry may be capable of performing multiple field line processing. A set of field line buffers may be provided to store field lines for multiple field segments and may provide the data to the corresponding inputs of the signal processing circuitry. To further reduce storage, some of the field line buffers may also be shared among the signal processing circuitry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2014
    Assignee: Marvell World Trade Ltd.
    Inventors: Sanjay Garg, Bipasha Ghosh, Nikhil Balram, Kaip Sridhar, Shilpi Sahu, Richard Taylor, Gwyn Edwards, Loren Tomasi, Vipin Namboodiri
  • Patent number: 8736757
    Abstract: A scaler positioning module may receive a video signal selected from among a plurality of video signals. The scaler positioning module may include scaler slots for arranging the signal path of the selected video signal through at least one scaler in the scaler positioning module. The scaler slots may enable the scaler positioning module to operate in three modes. The three modes may enable the scaler positioning module to output scaled data without memory operations, scale prior to a memory write, and scale after a memory read. A blank time optimizer (BTO) may receive data from the scaler positioning module at a first clock rate and distributed memory accesses based on a bandwidth requirement determination. The BTO may access memory at a second clock rate. The second clock rate may be slower than the first which may reduce memory bandwidth and enable another video signal to access memory faster.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2014
    Assignee: Marvell World Trade Ltd.
    Inventors: Sanjay Garg, Bipasha Ghosh, Nikhil Balram, Kaip Sridhar, Shilpi Sahu, Richard Taylor, Gwyn Edwards, Loren Tomasi, Vipin Namboodiri
  • Patent number: 8731290
    Abstract: The adaptive contrast enhancer uses an adaptive histogram equalization-based approach to improve contrast in a video signal. For each video frame, the histogram of the pixel luminance values is calculated. The calculated histogram is divided into three regions that are equalized independently of the other. The equalized values are averaged with the original pixel values with a weighting factor that depends on the shape of the histogram. The weighting factors can be also chosen differently for the three regions to enhance the darker regions more than the brighter ones. The statistics calculated from one frame are used to enhance the next frame such that frame buffers are not required. Many of the calculations are done in the inactive time between two frames.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2014
    Assignee: Marvell International Ltd.
    Inventors: Sujith Srinivasan, Nikhil Balram
  • Patent number: 8711083
    Abstract: To improve contrast ratio of the image on a backlit display plane such as a liquid crystal display (“LCD”), each area of the image that has separately controllable backlight may be given full backlight until an average or composite brightness of the image in that area is less than a threshold value at which light leakage through the image from full-strength backlight begins to be noticable by a viewer. For image areas with composite brightness less than that threshold, backlight brightness may be reduced in proportion to how much below the threshold the area's composite image brightness is. Backlight brightness may also be adjusted for other image aspects such as (1) the presence of bright pixels in an otherwise relatively dark area, (2) whether the area is adjacent to one or more other areas in which the image information is in motion, and/or (3) time-averaging of image information over several successive frames of such information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2014
    Assignee: Marvell World Trade Ltd.
    Inventors: Wonbok Lee, Vasudev Bhaskaran, Mainak Biswas, Nikhil Balram
  • Patent number: 8682101
    Abstract: A multi-purpose scaler utilizes a vertical scaler module and a moveable horizontal scaler module to resample a video signal either vertically or horizontally according to a selected scaling ratio. The moveable horizontal scaler module resides in one of two slots within the multi-purpose scaler architecture to provide either horizontal reduction or horizontal expansion as desired. The multi-purpose scaler is arranged to scale the video using non-linear 3 zone scaling in both the vertical and horizontal direction when selected. The multi-purpose scaler is arranged to provide vertical keystone correction and vertical height distortion correction when the video is presented through a projector at a non-zero tilt angle. The multi-purpose scaler is also arranged to provide interlacing and de-interlacing of the video frames as necessary.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2014
    Assignee: Marvell International Ltd.
    Inventors: Shilpi Sahu, Sanjay Garg, Nikhil Balram
  • Publication number: 20140049694
    Abstract: A video processing system includes a network processing module configured to receive video content. A decoder module is configured to decode the video content received from the content transmitting system, and separately provide each of the decoded video content and data describing transmission features of the video content. A video quality estimation module is configured to estimate a quality factor based on the data describing the transmission features of the video content, wherein the quality factor corresponds to an estimation of a visual quality of the video content. A database control module configured to select, based on the quality factor, one of a plurality of predetermined settings for video post-processing. A video post-processing module is configured to receive the decoded video content separately provided from the decoder module, and process the decoded video content based on the selected one of the predetermined settings.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 24, 2013
    Publication date: February 20, 2014
    Applicant: Marvell World Trade Ltd.
    Inventors: Vasudev Bhaskaran, Mainak Biswas, Nikhil Balram
  • Publication number: 20140002480
    Abstract: System and methods for gamut bounded saturation adaptive color enhancement are provided. Color enhancement incorporating gamut bounded saturation enhances colors of an pixel from a source color gamut such that the resulting color is within a target color gamut. This resulting color may, for example, take advantage of an expanded target color gamut of a display. Gamut bounded saturation may be implemented independently or in combination with RGB bounded saturation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 3, 2013
    Publication date: January 2, 2014
    Applicant: Marvell World Trade Ltd.
    Inventors: Vasudev Bhaskaran, Sujith Srinivasan, Nikhil Balram
  • Patent number: 8619187
    Abstract: Devices, methods, and other embodiments associated with cadence detection are discussed. In one embodiment, an apparatus analyzes a progressive video stream and determines a cadence pattern from the progressive video stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2013
    Assignee: Marvell World Trade Ltd
    Inventors: Sanjay Garg, Nikhil Balram, Mainak Biswas, Vipin Namboodiri
  • Patent number: 8570438
    Abstract: A system including a quality estimation module configured to estimate a visual quality of video content based on data from a decoder module. The system further including a settings database configured to store a plurality of predetermined settings. The settings database outputs at least one of the predetermined settings in response to the visual quality. The system further including a video post-processor module configured to automatically adjust settings of the video post-processor module based on the at least one of the predetermined settings. The video content is processed based on the settings of the video post-processor module that were automatically adjusted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2013
    Assignee: Marvell World Trade Ltd.
    Inventors: Vasudev Bhaskaran, Mainak Biswas, Nikhil Balram
  • Patent number: 8537177
    Abstract: System and methods for gamut bounded saturation adaptive color enhancement are provided. Color enhancement incorporating gamut bounded saturation enhances colors of an pixel from a source color gamut such that the resulting color is within a target color gamut. This resulting color may, for example, take advantage of an expanded target color gamut of a display. Gamut bounded saturation may be implemented independently or in combination with RGB bounded saturation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2013
    Assignee: Marvell World Trade Ltd.
    Inventors: Vasudev Bhaskaran, Sujith Srinivasan, Nikhil Balram