Abstract: An ethylene oxide sterilization sensor, and method of use, wherein the sensor includes: a heat-shrinkable film; an acid-functional porous sorbent in thermal contact with the heat-shrinkable film; and an acid having a boiling point above 120° C. and a pKa of no greater than 2.5, wherein the acid is impregnated in or covalently attached to the porous sorbent.

Abstract: Video signal data characterized by an extended dynamic range and/or an extended dimensionality is accepted. The accepted video signal data is converted into a different color space. Extended dynamic range and/or extended dimensionality data may be mapped to a container format that conforms to a legacy media interface. The extended dynamic range/dimensionality data are thus transportable over the legacy media interface.

Abstract: Motion vectors are important to many video signal processing techniques that are applied to video data streams such as MPEG 2 compliant video data streams. The performance of these techniques can often be improved if larger numbers of motion vectors are available. Two techniques are disclosed that may be used to derive a significant number of additional motion vectors from the original motion vectors that exist in an encoded video data stream. A motion vector reversal technique derives new motion vectors representing motion in directions opposite to that represented by original motion vectors. A vector tracing technique derives new motion vectors from combinations of original motion vectors.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for reducing noise in an image sequence is provided. Images in the image sequence are recursively filtered on an area-by-area or, for example, pixel-by-pixel, basis. A pixel from an image is compared to a similarly located pixel from a previous image. A difference between one or more parameters of the pixels is determined. One or, preferably, two thresholds are used to classify three types of differences. Depending on the classification, the two pixels are blended together according to their parameters in varying amounts. Relatively small differences indicate a large fraction of the previous pixel to be combined with a small fraction of the current pixel. This substantially reduces the effects of random noise, which tends to cause relatively small, transient variations in the pixels of each image of the image sequence. Relatively large differences indicate the use of 100% of the current pixel without combining any of the previous pixel.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for loading data from memory to a cache is provided. The method and apparatus provide substantially improved performance, especially in conjunction with large data arrays for which each element of data is processed completely at once and need not be later accessed. A technique is provided to allow a data element to be loaded directly to a cache location corresponding to the local variable used to process that data element, thereby avoiding copying of the data element to multiple cache locations. In conjunction with the use of non-caching stores of processed results back into main memory, this technique completely avoids cache thrashing within the framework of a conventional microprocessor architecture. This technique is ideally suited for high-performance processing of streaming multimedia data including video processing.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for indexing and locating key frames in streaming frame data and variable-frame-length data is described. Fast and efficient location of desired key frames in both directions (e.g., forward/backward, future/past) is provided. An estimate of the distance to the desired key frame is made and a seek performed according to that distance. At the location specified by the seek, key frame seek assist data are obtained. The desired key frame is located or a new seek is performed, depending on the key frame seek assist data obtained. By placing the key frame seek assist data at readily identifiable locations, efficient location of key frames is provided. The key frame seek assist data may be tailored to optimize efficiency for seeking in a particular direction, for example, backwards. The seek process is correspondingly configured to favor seeking in the more efficient direction.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for motion estimation for encoding sequential frames is described. One embodiment of the invention provides efficiency by checking only four points surrounding a given point. Scores may be calculated corresponding to a level of difference between the given point in a reference frame and the points in a candidate frame. The efficiency may be further enhanced by storing scores of previously examined points for later use. The scores may be stored in a table. The table may be initialized to have invalid scores or scores corresponding to a great difference along search window boundaries to prevent searching outside of the search window boundaries. One embodiment of the invention implements a sliding window technique for efficient computation.

Abstract: A computer system that performs motion compensation pixels, the computer system includes a storage device; a memory unit that loads at least one error correction value and at least one reference component into the storage device; and a calculation unit coupled to receive the at least one reference component and the at least one error correction value from the storage device. The calculation unit determines multiple predicted components in parallel and stores the multiple predicted components into the storage device. The arrangement, i.e., field or frame type, of the at least one reference component can differ from the arrangement of the stored multiple predicted components.

Abstract: A method and apparatus that reduce the complexity of motion estimation while providing better quality for a particular level of reduced resolution than previously available are described. The method and apparatus involve motion estimation quantization dithering to avoid quantization error effects when reducing the resolution, for example, from eight-bit pixel intensity values to two-bit pixel intensity values. Consequently, an embodiment of the invention provides efficient motion estimation using statistically accurate reduced resolution representations.