Patents by Inventor Soman Nikhara

Soman Nikhara 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: 10511771
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are techniques for dynamically configuring an image sensor of a mobile device for visible light communication (VLC) to an operational mode based on the position of the image of a VLC source on the image sensor and the different regions of interest (ROIs) of different operational modes of the image sensor. The operational mode that the image sensor is configured to has the smallest ROI among ROIs of operational modes that include at least a portion of the image of the VLC source on the image sensor. Techniques disclosed herein can reduce the power consumption of the mobile device during VLC communication and improve the effective sampling rate of VLC signals by the image sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2019
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Ravi Shankar Kadambala, Bapineedu Chowdary Gummadi, Soman Nikhara
  • Patent number: 10475405
    Abstract: Techniques are described for controlling the display refresh rate of a display panel. A display driver may determine a display refresh rate based on user activity. One example of user activity is a rate at which a user is scrolling image content being displayed on the display panel. One example of user activity is a duration or pressure of a user interaction with a display panel or a pressure sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2019
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Ankita Anil Kumar Choudha, Soman Nikhara, Vishnuvardhan Prodduturi, Prashant Nukala, Jayant Shekhar, Raviteja Tamatam, Kalyan Thota
  • Patent number: 10423049
    Abstract: An electronic device is described. The electronic device includes an image sensor that is configured to capture phase detection data for automatic focusing. The electronic device also includes an automatic focusing module that is configured to dynamically enable or disable transmission of the phase detection data from the image sensor. The automatic focusing module may be configured to enable transmission of the phase detection data from the image sensor in response to detecting a scene change.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2019
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Soman Nikhara, Bapineedu Chowdary Gummadi, Ravi Shankar Kadambala
  • Patent number: 10409141
    Abstract: Methods, systems, computer-readable media, and apparatuses for improved camera flash are presented. In some embodiments, a method includes performing an autofocus technique on a scene to obtain an autofocus output. The method also includes obtaining an ambient light measurement of the scene. The method further includes adjusting a sensitivity of an image sensor based at least in part on the autofocus output and the ambient light measurement. The method additionally includes, after adjusting the light sensitivity of the image sensor, illuminating the scene using a pre-flash.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2019
    Assignee: Qualcomm Incorporated
    Inventors: Soman Nikhara, Ravi Shankar Kadambala, Bapineedu Chowdary Gummadi
  • Publication number: 20190230253
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and devices for color enhancement are described. A device may receive a raw image from a sensor (e.g., a camera of the device). The device may detect multiple regions of pixels corresponding to different image features in the raw image. For example, each region of pixels may correspond to one or more facial features. The device may compute one or more color ratios for each region of pixels. The device may then determine a respective color correction matrix for each region of pixels based at least in part on the one or more color ratios associated with that region of pixels. The device may generate a color-corrected image based on applying the respective color correction matrix to each region of pixels and may output the color-corrected image (e.g., to a display of the device, to a system memory, etc.).
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 23, 2018
    Publication date: July 25, 2019
    Inventors: Soman Nikhara, Ho Sang Lee, Wei-Chih Liu
  • Publication number: 20190180705
    Abstract: Techniques are described for controlling the display refresh rate of a display panel. A display driver may determine a display refresh rate based on user activity. One example of user activity is a rate at which a user is scrolling image content being displayed on the display panel. One example of user activity is a duration or pressure of a user interaction with a display panel or a pressure sensor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 7, 2017
    Publication date: June 13, 2019
    Inventors: Ankita Anil Kumar Choudha, Soman Nikhara, Vishnuvardhan Prodduturi, Prashant Nukala, Jayant Shekhar, Raviteja Tamatam, Kalyan Thota
  • Publication number: 20190182452
    Abstract: Techniques are described for controlling the display refresh rate of a display panel. A display driver may determine a display refresh rate based on user activity. One example of user activity is a rate at which a user is scrolling image content being displayed on the display panel. One example of user activity is a duration or pressure of a user interaction with a display panel or a pressure sensor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 7, 2017
    Publication date: June 13, 2019
    Inventors: Ankita Anil Kumar Choudha, Soman Nikhara, Vishnuvardhan Prodduturi, Prashant Nukala, Jayant Shekhar, Raviteja Tamatam, Kalyan Thota
  • Patent number: 10313579
    Abstract: A method of image processing includes capturing two frames of image data using a camera having a phase detection auto focus (PDAF) sensor, subtracting phase difference pixel data associated with the two frames of image data to produce residual phase difference values, detecting a region-of-interest change based on the residual phase differences values, and determining a focus for the PDAF camera sensor based on the detected region-of-interest change. The method may further include compressing the residual phase difference values, sending the compressed residual phase difference values to a processor, and reconstructing, with the processor, the phase difference pixel data from the compressed residual phase difference values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2019
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Ravi Shankar Kadambala, Soman Nikhara, Bapineedu Chowdary Gummadi
  • Publication number: 20190086769
    Abstract: Methods, systems, computer-readable media, and apparatuses for improved camera flash are presented. In some embodiments, a method includes performing an autofocus technique on a scene to obtain an autofocus output. The method also includes obtaining an ambient light measurement of the scene. The method further includes adjusting a sensitivity of an image sensor based at least in part on the autofocus output and the ambient light measurement. The method additionally includes, after adjusting the light sensitivity of the image sensor, illuminating the scene using a pre-flash.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 20, 2017
    Publication date: March 21, 2019
    Inventors: Soman Nikhara, Ravi Shankar Kadambala, Bapineedu Chowdary Gummadi
  • Publication number: 20190068869
    Abstract: A method of image processing includes capturing two frames of image data using a camera having a phase detection auto focus (PDAF) sensor, subtracting phase difference pixel data associated with the two frames of image data to produce residual phase difference values, detecting a region-of-interest change based on the residual phase differences values, and determining a focus for the PDAF camera sensor based on the detected region-of-interest change. The method may further include compressing the residual phase difference values, sending the compressed residual phase difference values to a processor, and reconstructing, with the processor, the phase difference pixel data from the compressed residual phase difference values.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2017
    Publication date: February 28, 2019
    Inventors: Ravi Shankar Kadambala, Soman Nikhara, Bapineedu Chowdary Gummadi
  • Publication number: 20190007589
    Abstract: Methods and devices for camera initialization are disclosed. In some aspects, a device includes a first camera to capture one or more first image frames, a second camera to capture one or more second image frames, and a camera controller coupled to the first camera and the second camera. The camera controller is configured to initialize the first camera, to cause the second camera to capture one or more second image frames while initializing the first camera, to determine an initial capture setting for the first camera based on the one or more second image frames captured by the second camera, and to complete initialization of the first camera using the initial capture setting.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 30, 2017
    Publication date: January 3, 2019
    Inventors: Ravi Shankar Kadambala, Soman Nikhara, Pradeep Veeramalla, Bapineedu Chowdary Gummadi
  • Publication number: 20180376087
    Abstract: Systems and methods for performing HDR imaging are described. Aspects of the disclosure may include a camera system that uses the same pixels to capture both short and long exposure pixel data to improve camera hardware efficiency and pixel efficiency, and to reduce power usage by the camera system. In some aspects, exposure of a plurality of pixels available in a device may be started. Pixel data from the plurality of pixels may be captured after a first time period has elapsed to obtain short exposure pixel data. Pixel data from the plurality of pixels may also be captured after a second time period, longer than the first time period, has elapsed to obtain long exposure pixel data. The short exposure pixel data and the long exposure pixel data may be processed to create HDR images and/or videos.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 8, 2018
    Publication date: December 27, 2018
    Inventors: Ravi Shankar Kadambala, Soman Nikhara, Bapineedu Chowdary Gummadi
  • Publication number: 20180359409
    Abstract: An electronic device is described. The electronic device includes an image sensor that is configured to capture phase detection data for automatic focusing. The electronic device also includes an automatic focusing module that is configured to dynamically enable or disable transmission of the phase detection data from the image sensor. The automatic focusing module may be configured to enable transmission of the phase detection data from the image sensor in response to detecting a scene change.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 12, 2017
    Publication date: December 13, 2018
    Inventors: Soman Nikhara, Bapineedu Chowdary Gummadi, Ravi Shankar Kadambala
  • Publication number: 20180309928
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are techniques for dynamically configuring an image sensor of a mobile device for visible light communication (VLC) to an operational mode based on the position of the image of a VLC source on the image sensor and the different regions of interest (ROIs) of different operational modes of the image sensor. The operational mode that the image sensor is configured to has the smallest ROI among ROIs of operational modes that include at least a portion of the image of the VLC source on the image sensor. Techniques disclosed herein can reduce the power consumption of the mobile device during VLC communication and improve the effective sampling rate of VLC signals by the image sensor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 21, 2017
    Publication date: October 25, 2018
    Inventors: Ravi Shankar Kadambala, Bapineedu Chowdary Gummadi, Soman Nikhara
  • Publication number: 20180007336
    Abstract: Certain aspects relate to systems, methods, devices and non-transient computer readable medium for correlation based frame skipping of processing intensive image processing algorithms for image adjustments, such as automatic white balance (AWB) operations and automatic exposure correction (AEC) operations. In certain embodiments, if a scene is deemed stable based on determining a correlation between the statistics associated with a current and previous frames, certain steps for the purpose of performing processing intensive image processing algorithms, such as AWB operations and AEC operations, may be skipped.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 1, 2016
    Publication date: January 4, 2018
    Inventors: Soman Nikhara, Vignesh Bhuvaneshwar
  • Patent number: 9860507
    Abstract: Certain aspects relate to systems and techniques for dynamically configuring frame skip for AWB calculations. For example, if RGB gains are deemed to be stable across a number of frames, the frame skip value used for AWB calculations can be increased. Changing RGB gains are indicators of image changes such as a changing scene and/or changing illuminant, which can indicate a need for updated AWB calculations, and accordingly the frame skip value can be set to zero or a low number of frames.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2018
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Soman Nikhara, Vignesh Bhuvaneshwar
  • Publication number: 20160360176
    Abstract: Certain aspects relate to systems and techniques for dynamically configuring frame skip for AWB calculations. For example, if RGB gains are deemed to be stable across a number of frames, the frame skip value used for AWB calculations can be increased. Changing RGB gains are indicators of image changes such as a changing scene and/or changing illuminant, which can indicate a need for updated AWB calculations, and accordingly the frame skip value can be set to zero or a low number of frames.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 6, 2016
    Publication date: December 8, 2016
    Inventors: Soman Nikhara, Vignesh Bhuvaneshwar