Patents by Inventor Steven D. Hordley
Steven D. Hordley 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).
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Patent number: 9113089Abstract: Methods to generate, and devices to use, an adaptive tone curve generation operation are disclosed. Tone curves so generated have been found to produce stable tone mapping in a wide range of operational environments, including during multi-exposure fused images (e.g., during high dynamic range image fusion). In general, techniques are disclosed that use a content-load histogram in combination with image capture device noise information to adaptively bound a tone curve's slope and, therefore, the resulting tone curve. As used here, a content-load histogram is a histogram that captures spatial, color or other information carried by an image's pixels at various gray levels.Type: GrantFiled: June 6, 2012Date of Patent: August 18, 2015Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Xuemei Zhang, Steven D. Hordley, Graham Finlayson
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Patent number: 9099024Abstract: Some embodiments provide a method that provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for color balancing an image. The method provides a display area for displaying the image. The method provides several color balance modes. The method provides a user interface (UI) control associated with a color balance mode in the several color balance modes. The UI control performs a color balance operation on the image by (1) identifying a color cast in the image and (2) modifying pixels in the image based on the pixels' luminance values in order to reduce the color cast in the image.Type: GrantFiled: September 27, 2012Date of Patent: August 4, 2015Assignee: APPLE INC.Inventors: Russell Y. Webb, Garrett M. Johnson, Francesc T. Terrades, Steven D. Hordley
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Patent number: 8885936Abstract: Some embodiments provide a method of automatically color balancing an image. The method receives a selection of a user interface (UI) item to automatically color balance the image using a color balance tool that includes several color balance modes. In response to the selection, the method analyzes the image based on a set of criteria. Based on the analysis, the method automatically selects a color balance mode from the several color balance modes of the color balance tool. Upon selecting the color balance mode, the method uses the color balance mode to automatically apply a set of color balance operations to the image.Type: GrantFiled: September 27, 2012Date of Patent: November 11, 2014Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Russell Y. Webb, Garrett M. Johnson, Francesc T. Terrades, Steven D. Hordley
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Patent number: 8675964Abstract: Techniques to improve image fusing operations using intensity mapping functions (IMFs) are described. In one approach, when a reference image's pixel values are within its' IMF's useful range, they may be used to generate predicted secondary image pixel values. When the reference image's pixel values are not within the IMF's useful range, actual values from a captured secondary image may be used directly or processed further to generate predicted secondary image pixel values. The predicted and actual pixel values may be used to construct predicted secondary images that may be fused. In another approach, the consistency between pixel pairs may be used to generate consistency-based weighting factors that may be used during image fusion operations.Type: GrantFiled: June 6, 2012Date of Patent: March 18, 2014Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Earl Q. Wong, Steven D. Hordley
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Publication number: 20130329093Abstract: Methods to generate, and devices to use, an adaptive tone curve generation operation are disclosed. Tone curves so generated have been found to produce stable tone mapping in a wide range of operational environments, including during multi-exposure fused images (e.g., during high dynamic range image fusion). In general, techniques are disclosed that use a content-load histogram in combination with image capture device noise information to adaptively bound a tone curve's slope and, therefore, the resulting tone curve. As used here, a content-load histogram is a histogram that captures spatial, color or other information carried by an image's pixels at various gray levels.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 6, 2012Publication date: December 12, 2013Applicant: Apple Inc.Inventors: Xuemei Zhang, Steven D. Hordley, Graham Finlayson
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Publication number: 20130330001Abstract: Techniques to improve image fusing operations using intensity mapping functions (IMFs) are described. In one approach, when a reference image's pixel values are within its' IMF's useful range, they may be used to generate predicted secondary image pixel values. When the reference image's pixel values are not within the IMF's useful range, actual values from a captured secondary image may be used directly or processed further to generate predicted secondary image pixel values. The predicted and actual pixel values may be used to construct predicted secondary images that may be fused. In another approach, the consistency between pixel pairs may be used to generate consistency-based weighting factors that may be used during image fusion operations.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 6, 2012Publication date: December 12, 2013Applicant: Apple Inc.Inventors: Earl Q. Wong, Steven D. Hordley
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Publication number: 20130328906Abstract: Some embodiments provide a method that provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for color balancing an image. The method provides a display area for displaying the image. The method provides several color balance modes. The method provides a user interface (UI) control associated with a color balance mode in the several color balance modes. The UI control performs a color balance operation on the image by (1) identifying a color cast in the image and (2) modifying pixels in the image based on the pixels' luminance values in order to reduce the color cast in the image.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 27, 2012Publication date: December 12, 2013Applicant: APPLE INC.Inventors: Russell Y. Webb, Garrett M. Johnson, Francesc T. Terrades, Steven D. Hordley
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Publication number: 20130329993Abstract: Some embodiments provide a method of automatically color balancing an image. The method receives a selection of a user interface (UI) item to automatically color balance the image using a color balance tool that includes several color balance modes. In response to the selection, the method analyzes the image based on a set of criteria. Based on the analysis, the method automatically selects a color balance mode from the several color balance modes of the color balance tool. Upon selecting the color balance mode, the method uses the color balance mode to automatically apply a set of color balance operations to the image.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 27, 2012Publication date: December 12, 2013Applicant: APPLE INC.Inventors: Russell Y. Webb, Garrett M. Johnson, Francesc T. Terrades, Steven D. Hordley
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Patent number: 7200264Abstract: The probability of a chromaticity being a white point of image scene illumination is estimated by convolving a chromaticity histogram with a function of log probability distribution of chromaticities under an illuminant.Type: GrantFiled: April 10, 2002Date of Patent: April 3, 2007Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.Inventors: Paul M. Hubel, Graham D. Finlayson, Steven D. Hordley
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Publication number: 20030194127Abstract: A white point of scene illumination is determined by using a chromaticity histogram that is weighted for brightness.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 10, 2002Publication date: October 16, 2003Inventors: Paul M. Hubel, Graham D. Finlayson, Steven D. Hordley
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Publication number: 20030194125Abstract: The probability of a chromaticity being a white point of image scene illumination is estimated by convolving a chromaticity histogram with a function of log probability distribution of chromaticities under an illuminant.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 10, 2002Publication date: October 16, 2003Inventors: Paul M. Hubel, Graham D. Finlayson, Steven D. Hordley