Patents by Inventor Steven Maxwell Seitz

Steven Maxwell Seitz 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).

  • Publication number: 20140320661
    Abstract: An indoor scene capture system is provided that, with a handheld device with a camera, collects videos of rooms, spatially indexes the frames of the videos, marks doorways between rooms, and collects videos of transitions from room to room via doorways. The indoor scene capture system may assign a direction to at least some of the frames based on the angle of rotation as determined by an inertial sensor (e.g., gyroscope) of the handheld device. The indoor scene capture system marks doorways within the frames of the videos. For each doorway between rooms, the indoor scene capture system collects a video of transitioning through the doorway as the camera moves from the point within a room through the doorway to a point within the adjoining room.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 25, 2014
    Publication date: October 30, 2014
    Applicant: University of Washington through its Center for Commercialization
    Inventors: Aditya Sankar, Steven Maxwell Seitz
  • Publication number: 20140267618
    Abstract: Systems and methods for generating depth data from images captured by a camera-enabled mobile device are provided. The depth data can be used to refocus one or more portions of an image captured by the camera-enabled mobile device. A user can select different portions of the captured image to bring different portions of the image into focus and out of focus. Depth data for an image can be generated from a reference image and a sequence of images captured by the image capture device. The sequences of images can be acquired using a suitable camera motion. A refocused image can be generated with portions of the image out of focus relative to the reference image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 31, 2013
    Publication date: September 18, 2014
    Applicant: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Carlos Hernandez Esteban, Steven Maxwell Seitz, Sameer Agarwal, Simon Fuhrmann
  • Patent number: 8818081
    Abstract: An exemplary method includes prompting a user to capture video data at a location. The location is associated with navigation directions for the user. Information representing visual orientation and positioning information associated with the captured video data is received by one or more computing devices, and a stored data model representing a 3D geometry depicting objects associated with the location is accessed. Between corresponding images from the captured video data and projections of the 3D geometry, one or more candidate change regions are detected. Each candidate change region indicates an area of visual difference between the captured video data and projections. When it is detected that a count of the one or more candidate change regions is below a threshold, the stored model data is updated with at least part of the captured video data based on the visual orientation and positioning information associated with the captured video data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Lookingbill, Steven Maxwell Seitz
  • Publication number: 20140177969
    Abstract: Systems, methods and articles of manufacture for generating sequences of face and expression aligned images are presented. An embodiment includes determining a plurality of candidate images, computing a similarity distance between an input image and each of the candidate images based on facial features in the input image and the candidate images, comparing the computed similarity distances, selecting a candidate image based on the comparing, and adding the selected candidate image to an image sequence for real-time display. Embodiments select images from the image sequence as they are being added to the image sequence and scale, rotate and translate each image so that a face appearing in a selected image is aligned with a face appearing in a subsequently selected image from the image sequence. In this way, embodiments are able to render arbitrarily large image collections efficiently and in real time to display a face and expression aligned movie.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 25, 2014
    Publication date: June 26, 2014
    Applicant: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Steven Maxwell SEITZ, Rahul GARG, Irena KEMELMAHER
  • Patent number: 8761457
    Abstract: Systems and methods for aligning ground based images of a geographic area taken from a perspective at or near ground level and a set of aerial images taken from, for instance, an oblique perspective, are provided. More specifically, candidate aerial imagery can be identified for alignment with the ground based image. Geometric data associated with the ground based image can be obtained and used to warp the ground based image to a perspective associated with the candidate aerial imagery. One or more feature matches between the warped image and the candidate aerial imagery can then be identified using a feature matching technique. The matched features can be used to align the ground based image with the candidate aerial imagery.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Steven Maxwell Seitz, Carlos Hernandez Esteban, Qi Shan
  • Patent number: 8760500
    Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure relate generally to generating depth data from a video. As an example, one or more computing devices may receive an initialization request for a still image capture mode. After receiving the request to initialize the still image capture mode, the one or more computing devices may automatically begin to capture a video including a plurality of image frames. The one or more computing devices track features between a first image frame of the video and each of the other image frames of the video. Points corresponding to the tracked features may be generated by the one or more computing devices using a set of assumptions. The assumptions may include a first assumption that there is no rotation and a second assumption that there is no translation. The one or more computing devices then generate a depth map based at least in part on the points.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: David Gallup, Fu Yu, Steven Maxwell Seitz
  • Patent number: 8744214
    Abstract: Over the past few years there has been a dramatic proliferation of digital cameras, and it has become increasingly easy to share large numbers of photographs with many other people. These trends have contributed to the availability of large databases of photographs. Effectively organizing, browsing, and visualizing such .seas. of images, as well as finding a particular image, can be difficult tasks. In this paper, we demonstrate that knowledge of where images were taken and where they were pointed makes it possible to visualize large sets of photographs in powerful, intuitive new ways. We present and evaluate a set of novel tools that use location and orientation information, derived semi-automatically using structure from motion, to enhance the experience of exploring such large collections of images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 3, 2014
    Assignees: Microsoft Corporation, University of Washington
    Inventors: Keith Noah Snavely, Steven Maxwell Seitz, Richard Szeliski
  • Publication number: 20140104280
    Abstract: Systems and methods for navigating an imagery graph are provided. In some aspects, a first image is provided for display, where the first image corresponds to a first image node within an imagery graph, where the imagery graph comprises image nodes corresponding to images from a plurality of different imagery types, and where each image node in the imagery graph is associated with geospatial data. An indication of a selection of a predetermined region within the first image is received, where the predetermined region is associated with a position in the first image that corresponds to geospatial data associated a second image node within the imagery graph. A second image corresponding to the second image node is provided for display in response to the indication of the selection of the predetermined region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 30, 2012
    Publication date: April 17, 2014
    Applicant: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew OFSTAD, Steven Maxwell SEITZ
  • Patent number: 8693789
    Abstract: Systems, methods and articles of manufacture for generating sequences of face and expression aligned images are presented. An embodiment includes determining a plurality of candidate images, computing a similarity distance between an input image and each of the candidate images based on facial features in the input image and the candidate images, comparing the computed similarity distances, selecting a candidate image based on the comparing, and adding the selected candidate image to an image sequence for real-time display. Embodiments select images from the image sequence as they are being added to the image sequence and scale, rotate and translate each image so that a face appearing in a selected image is aligned with a face appearing in a subsequently selected image from the image sequence. In this way, embodiments are able to render arbitrarily large image collections efficiently and in real time to display a face and expression aligned movie.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Steven Maxwell Seitz, Rahul Garg, Irena Kemelmaher
  • Publication number: 20130254666
    Abstract: Over the past few years there has been a dramatic proliferation of digital cameras, and it has become increasingly easy to share large numbers of photographs with many other people. These trends have contributed to the availability of large databases of photographs. Effectively organizing, browsing, and visualizing such .scas. of images, as well as finding a particular image, can be difficult tasks. In this paper, we demonstrate that knowledge of where images were taken and where they were pointed makes it possible to visualize large sets of photographs in powerful, intuitive new ways. We present and evaluate a set of novel tools that use location and orientation information, derived semi-automatically using structure from motion, to enhance the experience of exploring such large collections of images.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 21, 2013
    Publication date: September 26, 2013
    Applicants: University of Washington, Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Keith Noah Snavely, Steven Maxwell Seitz, Richard Szeliski
  • Patent number: 8515159
    Abstract: Over the past few years there has been a dramatic proliferation of digital cameras, and it has become increasingly easy to share large numbers of photographs with many other people. These trends have contributed to the availability of large databases of photographs. Effectively organizing, browsing, and visualizing such .seas. of images, as well as finding a particular image, can be difficult tasks. In this paper, we demonstrate that knowledge of where images were taken and where they were pointed makes it possible to visualize large sets of photographs in powerful, intuitive new ways. We present and evaluate a set of novel tools that use location and orientation information, derived semi-automatically using structure from motion, to enhance the experience of exploring such large collections of images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2013
    Assignees: Microsoft Corporation, University of Washington
    Inventors: Keith Noah Snavely, Steven Maxwell Seitz, Richard Szeliski
  • Patent number: 8463071
    Abstract: Over the past few years there has been a dramatic proliferation of digital cameras, and it has become increasingly easy to share large numbers of photographs with many other people. These trends have contributed to the availability of large databases of photographs. Effectively organizing, browsing, and visualizing such .seas. of images, as well as finding a particular image, can be difficult tasks. In this paper, we demonstrate that knowledge of where images were taken and where they were pointed makes it possible to visualize large sets of photographs in powerful, intuitive new ways. We present and evaluate a set of novel tools that use location and orientation information, derived semi-automatically using structure from motion, to enhance the experience of exploring such large collections of images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 11, 2013
    Assignees: Microsoft Corporation, University of Washington
    Inventors: Keith Noah Snavely, Steven Maxwell Seitz, Richard Szeliski
  • Patent number: 8428390
    Abstract: A “Blur Remover” provides various techniques for constructing deblurred images from a sequence of motion-blurred images such as a video sequence of a scene. Significantly, this deblurring is accomplished without requiring specialized side information or camera setups. In fact, the Blur Remover receives sequential images, such as a typical video stream captured using conventional digital video capture devices, and directly processes those images to generate or construct deblurred images for use in a variety of applications. No other input beyond the video stream is required for a variety of the embodiments enabled by the Blur Remover. More specifically, the Blur Remover uses joint global motion estimation and multi-frame deblurring with optional automatic video “duty cycle” estimation to construct deblurred images from video sequences for use in a variety of applications. Further, the automatically estimated video duty cycle is also separately usable in a variety of applications.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Yunpeng Li, Sing Bing Kang, Neel Suresh Joshi, Steven Maxwell Seitz
  • Publication number: 20120169770
    Abstract: Over the past few years there has been a dramatic proliferation of digital cameras, and it has become increasingly easy to share large numbers of photographs with many other people. These trends have contributed to the availability of large databases of photographs. Effectively organizing, browsing, and visualizing such .seas. of images, as well as finding a particular image, can be difficult tasks. In this paper, we demonstrate that knowledge of where images were taken and where they were pointed makes it possible to visualize large sets of photographs in powerful, intuitive new ways. We present and evaluate a set of novel tools that use location and orientation information, derived semi-automatically using structure from motion, to enhance the experience of exploring such large collections of images.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 13, 2012
    Publication date: July 5, 2012
    Applicants: University of Washington, Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Keith Noah Snavely, Steven Maxwell Seitz, Richard Szeliski
  • Publication number: 20120169734
    Abstract: Over the past few years there has been a dramatic proliferation of digital cameras, and it has become increasingly easy to share large numbers of photographs with many other people. These trends have contributed to the availability of large databases of photographs. Effectively organizing, browsing, and visualizing such .seas. of images, as well as finding a particular image, can be difficult tasks. In this paper, we demonstrate that knowledge of where images were taken and where they were pointed makes it possible to visualize large sets of photographs in powerful, intuitive new ways. We present and evaluate a set of novel tools that use location and orientation information, derived semi-automatically using structure from motion, to enhance the experience of exploring such large collections of images.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 14, 2012
    Publication date: July 5, 2012
    Applicants: University of Washington, Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Keith Noah Snavely, Steven Maxwell Seitz, Richard Szeliski
  • Patent number: 8160400
    Abstract: Over the past few years there has been a dramatic proliferation of digital cameras, and it has become increasingly easy to share large numbers of photographs with many other people. These trends have contributed to the availability of large databases of photographs. Effectively organizing, browsing, and visualizing such .seas. of images, as well as finding a particular image, can be difficult tasks. In this paper, we demonstrate that knowledge of where images were taken and where they were pointed makes it possible to visualize large sets of photographs in powerful, intuitive new ways. We present and evaluate a set of novel tools that use location and orientation information, derived semi-automatically using structure from motion, to enhance the experience of exploring such large collections of images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Keith Noah Snavely, Steven Maxwell Seitz, Richard Szeliski
  • Publication number: 20110304687
    Abstract: A “Blur Remover” provides various techniques for constructing deblurred images from a sequence of motion-blurred images such as a video sequence of a scene. Significantly, this deblurring is accomplished without requiring specialized side information or camera setups. In fact, the Blur Remover receives sequential images, such as a typical video stream captured using conventional digital video capture devices, and directly processes those images to generate or construct deblurred images for use in a variety of applications. No other input beyond the video stream is required for a variety of the embodiments enabled by the Blur Remover. More specifically, the Blur Remover uses joint global motion estimation and multi-frame deblurring with optional automatic video “duty cycle” estimation to construct deblurred images from video sequences for use in a variety of applications. Further, the automatically estimated video duty cycle is also separately usable in a variety of applications.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 14, 2010
    Publication date: December 15, 2011
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Neel Suresh Joshi, Sing Bing Kang, Yunpeng Li, Steven Maxwell Seitz