Abstract: Pulpless absorbent cores and methods of manufacture are disclosed. A first exemplary absorbent core may comprise a carrier sheet having a first edge region, a central region, and a second edge region and particulate material disposed on the carrier sheet through the first edge region, the central region, and the second edge region. The absorbent core may additionally have an absorbent core width and the central region may have a central region width, and the central width may comprise between 33% and 75% of the absorbent core width. Further, the central region may comprise an average basis weight of particulate material that is at least 110% of an average basis weight of particulate material within at least one of the left edge region and the right edge region.

Abstract: Pulpless absorbent cores and methods of manufacture are disclosed. A first method for forming an absorbent core may comprise advancing a carrier sheet on a foraminous forming surface in a machine direction, the foraminous forming surface having a width extending in a cross-machine direction, creating a pressure differential across the forming surface, applying a first adhesive onto the carrier sheet, advancing the carrier sheet within a particulate material delivery chamber, and dispensing particulate material from a particulate material inlet within the particulate material delivery chamber to deposit the particulate material onto the first adhesive, wherein the particulate material inlet has a width that is between 25% and 75% of the foraminous forming surface width, and wherein the particulate material is delivered from the particulate material inlet at less than 900 meters per minute.

Abstract: Pulpless absorbent cores and methods of manufacture are disclosed. A first exemplary absorbent core may comprise a carrier sheet having a first edge region, a central region, and a second edge region and particulate material disposed on the carrier sheet through the first edge region, the central region, and the second edge region. The absorbent core may additionally have an absorbent core width and the central region may have a central region width, and the central width may comprise between 33% and 75% of the absorbent core width. Further, the central region may comprise an average basis weight of particulate material that is at least 110% of an average basis weight of particulate material within at least one of the left edge region and the right edge region.

Abstract: Pulpless absorbent cores and methods of manufacture are disclosed. A first method for forming an absorbent core may comprise advancing a carrier sheet on a foraminous forming surface in a machine direction, the foraminous forming surface having a width extending in a cross-machine direction, creating a pressure differential across the forming surface, applying a first adhesive onto the carrier sheet, advancing the carrier sheet within a particulate material delivery chamber, and dispensing particulate material from a particulate material inlet within the particulate material delivery chamber to deposit the particulate material onto the first adhesive, wherein the particulate material inlet has a width that is between 25% and 75% of the foraminous forming surface width, and wherein the particulate material is delivered from the particulate material inlet at less than 900 meters per minute.

Abstract: A method for resizing an input digital image to provide a high-resolution output digital image having a larger number of image pixels. The input image pixels in the input digital image are analyzed and assigned to different pixel classifications. A plurality of pixel generation processes are provided, each pixel generation process being associated with a different pixel classification and being adapted to operate on a neighborhood of input image pixels around a particular input image pixel to provide a plurality of output image pixels. Each input image pixel is processed using a pixel generation process that is selected in accordance with the corresponding pixel classification to produce the high-resolution output digital image.

Abstract: A method for producing a noise-reduced digital image captured using a digital imaging system having signal-dependent noise characteristics, comprising: capturing one or more noisy digital images of a scene, wherein said at least one noisy digital image has signal-dependent noise characteristics; defining a functional relationship to relate the noisy digital images to a noise-reduced digital image, wherein the functional relationship includes at least two sets of unknown parameters, and wherein at least one of the sets of unknown parameters relates to the signal-dependent noise characteristics; defining an energy function responsive to the functional relationship which includes at least a data fidelity term to enforce similarities between the noisy digital images and the noise-reduced digital image, and a spatial fidelity term to encourage sharp edges in the noise-reduced digital image; and using an optimization process to determine a noise-reduced image responsive to the energy function.

Abstract: A method for determining a range map for a particular video frame from a digital video comprising: determining a set of extrinsic parameters and one or more intrinsic parameters for each video frame. A set of candidate video frames are defined and an image similarity score for each candidate video frame providing an indication of the visual similarity. The image similarity scores are compared to a predefined threshold to determine a subset of the candidate video frames. A position difference score is determined for each video frame in the determined subset responsive to the extrinsic parameters, and the video frame having the largest position difference score is selected. The range map is determined responsive to disparity values representing a displacement between corresponding image pixels in the particular video frame and the selected video frame.

Abstract: A method for determining a deblurred image, the method implemented at least in part by a data processing system and comprising: receiving a sharp image of a scene captured with a short exposure time; receiving a blurred image of the scene captured with a longer exposure time than the sharp image, wherein the blurred image has a higher level of motion blur and a lower level of image noise than the sharp image; determining a blur kernel responsive to the sharp image and the blurred image; determining one or more reference differential images responsive to the sharp image; determining a deblurred image responsive to the blurred image, the blur kernel and the one or more reference differential images; and storing the deblurred image in a processor-accessible memory system.

Abstract: A method for determining a deblurred image comprising: receiving a blurred image of a scene; receiving a blur kernel; initializing a candidate deblurred image; determining a plurality of differential images representing differences between neighboring pixels in the candidate deblurred image; determining a combined differential image by combining the differential images; repeatedly updating the candidate deblurred image responsive to the blurred image, the blur kernel, the candidate deblurred image and the combined differential image until a convergence criterion is satisfied; and storing the final candidate deblurred image in a processor-accessible memory system.

Abstract: Method of using an image capture device to identify range information for objects in a scene includes providing an image capture device at least one image sensor, a coded aperture, a first optical path including the coded aperture and a second optical path not including the coded aperture; storing in a memory a set of blur parameters derived from range calibration data for the coded aperture; capturing a first and second image of the scene, corresponding to the first and second optical paths, the second image having equal or higher resolution than the first; providing a set of deblurred images using the first capture image and each of the blur parameters from the stored set; using the set of deblurred images to determine the range information for the objects captured by the first optical path; and using the range information to control the image capture or processing of second image.

Abstract: A method for modifying an input digital image having input dimensions defined by a number of input rows and input columns to form an output digital image where the number of rows or columns is reduced by one, comprising an image energy map determined from the input image; determining a seam path responsive to the image energy map; imposing constraints on the seam path; and removing pixels along the seam path to modify the input digital image.

Abstract: A method for determining a deblurred image from images captured using an image sensor comprising a two-dimensional array of light-sensitive pixels including panchromatic pixels and color pixels, the method comprising: receiving image sensor data from the image sensor for a sharp image of a scene captured with a short exposure time; receiving image sensor data from the image sensor for a blurred image of the scene captured with a longer exposure time than the sharp image; determining an interpolated sharp grayscale image from the sharp image; determining an interpolated blurred color image from the blurred image; determining an interpolated blurred grayscale image from the blurred image; determining a blur kernel responsive to the sharp grayscale image and the blurred grayscale image; determining a deblurred image responsive to the blurred color image and the blur kernel; and storing the deblurred image in a processor-accessible memory system.

Abstract: A method for resizing an input digital image to form an output digital image with an output aspect ratio, comprising: determining a number of rows or columns that need to be reduced from the input digital image; determining an image energy map for the input digital image; repeatedly determining a seam path responsive to the image energy map and removing pixels along the determined seam path to determine the output digital image, wherein the determined seam path satisfies a constraint that a directional image gradient is less than a gradient threshold for each pixel in the seam path, until either the determined number of rows or columns has been reduced or no valid seam path can be found; and cropping or scaling the output digital image to the output aspect ratio if the determined number of rows or columns was not reduced.

Abstract: Method of using an image capture device to identify range information for objects in a scene includes providing an image capture device at least one image sensor, a coded aperture, a first optical path including the coded aperture and a second optical path not including the coded aperture; storing in a memory a set of blur parameters derived from range calibration data for the coded aperture; capturing a first and second image of the scene, corresponding to the first and second optical paths, the second image having equal or higher resolution than the first; providing a set of deblurred images using the first capture image and each of the blur parameters from the stored set; using the set of deblurred images to determine the range information for the objects captured by the first optical path; and using the range information to control the image capture or processing of second image.

Abstract: A method for determining a deblurred image comprising: receiving a blurred image of a scene; receiving a blur kernel; initializing a candidate deblurred image; determining a plurality of differential images representing differences between neighboring pixels in the candidate deblurred image; determining a combined differential image by combining the differential images; repeatedly updating the candidate deblurred image responsive to the blurred image, the blur kernel, the candidate deblurred image and the combined differential image until a convergence criterion is satisfied; and storing the final candidate deblurred image in a processor-accessible memory system.

Abstract: A method for producing a noise-reduced digital image captured using a digital imaging system having signal-dependent noise characteristics, comprising: capturing one or more noisy digital images of a scene, wherein said at least one noisy digital image has signal-dependent noise characteristics; defining a functional relationship to relate the noisy digital images to a noise-reduced digital image, wherein the functional relationship includes at least two sets of unknown parameters, and wherein at least one of the sets of unknown parameters relates to the signal-dependent noise characteristics; defining an energy function responsive to the functional relationship which includes at least a data fidelity term to enforce similarities between the noisy digital images and the noise-reduced digital image, and a spatial fidelity term to encourage sharp edges in the noise-reduced digital image; and using an optimization process to determine a noise-reduced image responsive to the energy function.

Abstract: A method for determining a deblurred image from images captured using an image sensor comprising a two-dimensional array of light-sensitive pixels including panchromatic pixels and color pixels, the method comprising: receiving image sensor data from the image sensor for a sharp image of a scene captured with a short exposure time; receiving image sensor data from the image sensor for a blurred image of the scene captured with a longer exposure time than the sharp image; determining an interpolated sharp grayscale image from the sharp image; determining an interpolated blurred color image from the blurred image; determining an interpolated blurred grayscale image from the blurred image; determining a blur kernel responsive to the sharp grayscale image and the blurred grayscale image; determining a deblurred image responsive to the blurred color image and the blur kernel; and storing the deblurred image in a processor-accessible memory system.

Abstract: A method for resizing an input digital image to form an output digital image with an output aspect ratio, comprising: determining a number of rows or columns that need to be reduced from the input digital image; determining an image energy map for the input digital image; repeatedly determining a seam path responsive to the image energy map and removing pixels along the determined seam path to determine the output digital image, wherein the determined seam path satisfies a constraint that a directional image gradient is less than a gradient threshold for each pixel in the seam path, until either the determined number of rows or columns has been reduced or no valid seam path can be found; and cropping or scaling the output digital image to the output aspect ratio if the determined number of rows or columns was not reduced.

Abstract: A method for determining a deblurred image, the method implemented at least in part by a data processing system and comprising: receiving a sharp image of a scene captured with a short exposure time; receiving a blurred image of the scene captured with a longer exposure time than the sharp image, wherein the blurred image has a higher level of motion blur and a lower level of image noise than the sharp image; determining a blur kernel responsive to the sharp image and the blurred image; determining one or more reference differential images responsive to the sharp image; determining a deblurred image responsive to the blurred image, the blur kernel and the one or more reference differential images; and storing the deblurred image in a processor-accessible memory system.

Abstract: A method for modifying an input digital image having input dimensions defined by a number of input rows and input columns to form an output digital image where the number of rows or columns is reduced by one, comprising an image energy map determined from the input image; determining a seam path responsive to the image energy map; imposing constraints on the seam path; and removing pixels along the seam path to modify the input digital image.