Abstract: The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method that allow wireless communications to be readily and quickly started. When a cellular phone 1 is placed in proximity to a personal computer 11, a strap ID is transmitted from a contactless IC tag 3 of a cellular phone strap 2 to a reader/writer 12 of the personal computer 11. The personal computer 11 has a table of association between the strap ID and a Bluetooth device name of the cellular phone 1. The personal computer 11, upon obtaining the strap ID, refers to the association table and thereby identifies the cellular phone 1 as a party for carrying out Bluetooth communications therewith. The personal computer 11, by referring to the Bluetooth device name, identifies the cellular phone 1 from among a plurality of Bluetooth devices including the cellular phone 1, and carries out Bluetooth communications with the cellular phone 1.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a communication system and a communication method for simply and quickly starting communication. A cellular phone is loaded with a non-contact IC card that communicates with a reader/writer of a personal computer using an electromagnetic wave. When the non-contact IC card receives the electromagnetic wave emitted from the reader/writer with the cellular phone placed close to the personal computer, the cellular phone notifies the personal computer of a card ID set in the non-contact IC card. When the personal computer acquires Bluetooth device names of the cellular phone and PDA with intra-piconet synchronization established between the cellular phone and the PDA, the personal computer identifies the cellular phone as a communication partner based on the Bluetooth device names already notified of as the card ID. The present invention is applicable to an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer and a cellular phone.

Abstract: The present invention is an information processing apparatus which obtains identification information of an electronic device and makes communication with the electronic device via a network based on the identification information. When a portable telephone (11) is placed on an input display section (2) of a personal computer (1), a reader/writer built in the personal computer (1) reads a telephone number of the portable telephone (11) stored in an RF tag built in the portable telephone (11). Based on the telephone number, a telephone line is connected between the portable telephone (11) and the personal computer (1). Data is interchanged between the portable telephone (11) and the personal computer (1) via the telephone line.

Abstract: A portable information terminal is placed in proximity with an ID recognition unit of a notebook PC. By reading ID from the portable information terminal, the notebook PC is able to identify a network address of the portable information terminal so as to establish a network connection with the portable information terminal. The notebook PC then sends suitable operation information to the portable information terminal via a network. For example, if presentation is running on the notebook PC, screen information for operating the presentation is transferred to the portable information terminal. Accordingly, by using one device connected to the other device by a wired or wireless network, the operation of the other device can be controlled.

Abstract: A portable information terminal is placed in proximity with an ID recognition unit of a notebook PC. By reading ID from the portable information terminal, the notebook PC is able to identify a network address of the portable information terminal so as to establish a network connection with the portable information terminal. The notebook PC then sends suitable operation information to the portable information terminal via a network. For example, if presentation is running on the notebook PC, screen information for operating the presentation is transferred to the portable information terminal. Accordingly, by using one device connected to the other device by a wired or wireless network, the operation of the other device can be controlled.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for generating a dense depth map. In one embodiment, the method includes applying a joint bilateral filter to a first depth map to generate a second depth map, where at least one filter weight of the joint bilateral filter is adapted based upon content of an image represented by the first depth map, and the second depth map has a higher resolution than the first depth map.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes an image adding unit to perform noise reduction processing in the spatial direction by adding multiple images while performing motion compensation, an intra-screen noise reducing unit to perform noise reduction processing in the spatial direction within one image for each of the multiple images before adding with the image adding unit, and a control unit to vary the noise reduction strength in the spatial direction by the intra-screen noise reduction unit as to the multiple images to be added with the image adding unit.

Abstract: There is provided an image processing device including a motion compensation section which compensates motion between a target image and a reference image, an image compositing section which generates a composited image by compositing the target image and the reference image, the motion therebetween having been compensated, and a spatial filtering section which performs spatial filtering of the composited image. The spatial filtering section may perform spatial filtering of the composited image by using an ?-filter.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a communication system and a communication method for simply and quickly starting communication. A cellular phone is loaded with a non-contact IC card that communicates with a reader/writer of a personal computer using an electromagnetic wave. When the non-contact IC card receives the electromagnetic wave emitted from the reader/writer with the cellular phone placed close to the personal computer, the cellular phone notifies the personal computer of a card ID set in the non-contact IC card. When the personal computer acquires Bluetooth device names of the cellular phone and PDA with intra-piconet synchronization established between the cellular phone and the PDA, the personal computer identifies the cellular phone as a communication partner based on the Bluetooth device names already notified of as the card ID. The present invention is applicable to an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer and a cellular phone.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method, and a program in which information can be reliably exchanged when performing wireless communication by allowing a user to know a communication distance at which devices can be connected. For example, a communication unit 28 performs Bluetooth communication with a communication unit, which serves as a Bluetooth module, provided for a cellular telephone; a CPU 21 displays an image corresponding to the cellular telephone based on the input level of Bluetooth radio waves transmitted from the cellular telephone; the CPU 21 calculates the display position of the image to be displayed based on the data indicating the input level of the radio waves. The present invention can be applied to an information processing apparatus, for example, a personal computer, PDA, or a cellular telephone.

Abstract: A portable information terminal is placed in proximity with an ID recognition unit of a notebook PC. By reading ID from the portable information terminal, the notebook PC is able to identify a network address of the portable information terminal so as to establish a network connection with the portable information terminal. The notebook PC then sends suitable operation information to the portable information terminal via a network. For example, if presentation is running on the notebook PC, screen information for operating the presentation is transferred to the portable information terminal. Accordingly, by using one device connected to the other device by a wired or wireless network, the operation of the other device can be controlled.

Abstract: The present invention is an information processing apparatus which obtains identification information of an electronic device and makes communication with the electronic device via a network based on the identification information. When a portable telephone (11) is placed on an input display section (2) of a personal computer (1), a reader/writer built in the personal computer (1) reads a telephone number of the portable telephone (11) stored in an RF tag built in the portable telephone (11). Based on the telephone number, a telephone line is connected between the portable telephone (11) and the personal computer (1). Data is interchanged between the portable telephone (11) and the personal computer (1) via the telephone line.

Abstract: The present invention is an information processing apparatus which obtains identification information of an electronic device and makes communication with the electronic device via a network based on the identification information. When a portable telephone (11) is placed on an input display section (2) of a personal computer (1), a reader/writer built in the personal computer (1) reads a telephone number of the portable telephone (11) stored in an RF tag built in the portable telephone (11). Based on the telephone number, a telephone line is connected between the portable telephone (11) and the personal computer (1). Data is interchanged between the portable telephone (11) and the personal computer (1) via the telephone line.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method, and a program in which information can be reliably exchanged when performing wireless communication by allowing a user to know a communication distance at which devices can be connected. A communication unit 28 performs Bluetooth communication with a communication unit, which serves as a Bluetooth module, provided for a cellular telephone. A CPU 21 displays an image corresponding to the cellular telephone based on the input level of Bluetooth radio waves transmitted from the cellular telephone. For example, when the input level of the radio waves transmitted from the cellular telephone is equal to the maximum input, the CPU 21 sets the level of transparency to be 0, and displays the image corresponding to the cellular telephone on an LCD 32 so that a background image is not transmitted at all.

Abstract: An image pickup apparatus includes an image pickup optical system having an optical axis and configured to form a subject image, an image pickup element configured to pick up the subject image and output the picked-up subject image as an image, an optical axis controller configured to displace an optical axis position relative to the image pickup element every time image capturing is performed, an image addition processor configured to correct positional displacement between a plurality of images output from the image pickup element and add the resulting images together, and an operation unit.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus to perform a denoising process of removing noise included in image data based on a predetermined parameter is provided. The image processing apparatus includes an input unit configured to input image data; a physical characteristic value calculating unit configured to calculate a brightness-dependent physical characteristic value based on brightness of the input image data; a color determining unit configured to determine a color of the input image data; and a parameter deciding unit configured to decide the parameter based on the physical characteristic value calculated by the physical characteristic value calculating unit and a visual characteristic value according to the color determined by the color determining unit.

Abstract: The present invention is an information processing apparatus which obtains identification information of an electronic device and makes communication with the electronic device via a network based on the identification information. When a portable telephone (11) is placed on an input display section (2) of a personal computer (1), a reader/writer built in the personal computer (1) reads a telephone number of the portable telephone (11) stored in an RF tag built in the portable telephone (11). Based on the telephone number, a telephone line is connected between the portable telephone (11) and the personal computer (1). Data is interchanged between the portable telephone (11) and the personal computer (1) via the telephone line.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a communication system and a communication method for simply and quickly starting communication. A cellular phone is loaded with a non-contact IC card that communicates with a reader/writer of a personal computer using an electromagnetic wave. When the non-contact IC card receives the electromagnetic wave emitted from the reader/writer with the cellular phone placed close to the personal computer, the cellular phone notifies the personal computer of a card ID set in the non-contact IC card. When the personal computer acquires Bluetooth device names of the cellular phone and PDA with intra-piconet synchronization established between the cellular phone and the PDA, the personal computer identifies the cellular phone as a communication partner based on the Bluetooth device names already notified of as the card ID. The present invention is applicable to an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer and a cellular phone.

Abstract: A method of adaptive local image similarity measurement based on the L1 distance measure is described. A relationship between distance measures is used to estimate appropriate thresholds for various patch sizes. The choice of patch size depends on the degradations contained in the image and the application. The relation between the similarity measures is established using the distribution of L1 distances for various patch sizes. For larger degradations, similarity measure with a bigger patch size is employed. For lesser imperfections, a smaller patch size produces acceptable results. To keep the computational overhead manageable, the smallest patch size that gives the desired image quality is employed.

Abstract: A picture processing apparatus is disclosed which includes: an acquiring device which, apart from a first picture sequence picked up for reproduction purposes, acquires a second picture sequence picked up in synchronism with the first picture sequence, the second picture sequence being made up of pictures wider in angle than those constituting the first picture sequence; a calculating device operable to calculate degrees of similarity between scenes each made up of a predetermined number of consecutive pictures included in the second picture sequence; and a linking device which, after appropriating the degrees of similarity calculated by the calculating device for the degrees of similarity between the corresponding scenes in the first picture sequence, links together those of the corresponding scenes which have high degrees of similarity in the first picture sequence.