Patents by Inventor Valter Drazic

Valter Drazic 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: 20180252928
    Abstract: There are several types of plenoptic devices and camera arrays available on the market, and all these light field acquisition devices have their proprietary file format. However, there is no standard supporting the acquisition and transmission of multi-dimensional information. It is interesting to obtain information related to a correspondence between pixels of a sensor of said optical acquisition system and an object space of said optical acquisition system. Indeed, knowing which portion of the object space of an optical acquisition system a pixel belonging to the sensor of said optical acquisition system is sensing enables the improvement of signal processing operations. The notion of pixel beam, which represents a volume occupied by a set of rays of light in an object space of an optical system of a camera along with a compact format for storing such information is thus introduce.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 16, 2016
    Publication date: September 6, 2018
    Inventors: Laurent BLONDE, Valter DRAZIC, Mozhdeh SEIFI
  • Patent number: 10027908
    Abstract: An image sensor unit (3) includes a microlens array (31) and a sensor (32). The sensor includes a plurality of sensor regions (323) that respectively include pixels (322) having different sensitivities arranged in a matrix arrangement. The pixels (322) at corresponding positions of the plurality of sensor regions (323) have identical sensitivities. Each of the microlenses (311) of the microlens array (31) is arranged to direct the light to a corresponding one of the plurality of sensor regions (323) of the sensor (32).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2018
    Assignee: THOMSON Licensing
    Inventors: Mozhdeh Seifi, Neus Sabater, Valter Drazic
  • Patent number: 10025094
    Abstract: An optical see-through glass type display device comprises: an optical unit having a front correcting surface and a rear correcting surface; an image projector projecting a virtual image; and an image sensor for capturing an ambient scene image. The optical unit is configured to guide light of the ambient scene image coming through the front correcting surface to the image sensor and to guide light of the virtual image so that the light of the virtual image outgoes through the rear correcting surface. A first optical compensation element is located between the optical unit and the image sensor and a second optical compensation element is located between the image projector and the optical unit. The device further comprises a processing module configured to analyze the ambient scene image captured by the image sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2018
    Assignee: Thomson Licensing
    Inventors: Laurent Blonde, Valter Drazic, Arno Schubert
  • Patent number: 10021340
    Abstract: There are several types of plenoptic devices and camera arrays available on the market, and all these light field acquisition devices have their proprietary file format. However, there is no standard supporting the acquisition and transmission of multi-dimensional information. It is interesting to obtain information related to a correspondence between pixels of a sensor of said optical acquisition system and an object space of said optical acquisition system. Indeed, knowing which portion of the object space of an optical acquisition system a pixel belonging to the sensor of said optical acquisition system is sensing enables the improvement of signal processing operations. The notion of pixel beam, which represents a volume occupied by a set of rays of light in an object space of an optical system of a camera along with a compact format for storing such information is thus introduce.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2018
    Assignee: THOMSON LICENSING
    Inventors: Valter Drazic, Laurent Blonde, Arno Schubert
  • Publication number: 20180150975
    Abstract: A method for modelling an imaging device including an image sensor and an optical system is disclosed. The optical system has an aperture iris diaphragm defining an entrance pupil of the optical system. For a given configuration of the imaging device the method includes estimating a set of characteristic intrinsic parameters of the imaging device, in which a first intrinsic parameter is representative of a distance between the image plane and a sensor conjugated plane conjugated to the image sensor with respect to the optical system; a second intrinsic parameter is representative of a distance between the sensor conjugated plane and the entrance pupil and a third intrinsic parameter is representative of a magnification of the optical system; determining first and second modelling data respectively as a function of the first and third intrinsic parameters and second and third intrinsic parameters; and establishing a model of the imaging device as a function of the second and third modelling data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 10, 2017
    Publication date: May 31, 2018
    Inventors: Valter DRAZIC, Laurent Blonde, Paul Kerbiriou, Olivier Bureller, Guillaume Boisson
  • Publication number: 20180067237
    Abstract: A plenoptic imaging device is described including a micro-lens array placed between a main lens and a photosensor. The micro-lens array has a plurality of micro-lenses each configured to project a micro-image onto the photosensor, the main lens covering a central field-of-view of the scene according to capture axis. The plenoptic imaging device includes multi-faceted optical means structure having at least two facets and placed in a plane adjacent to the aperture diaphragm plane and centered on the main optical axis, each facet being configured to angularly rotated the capture axis with respect to the main optical axis so as to capture a rotated field-of-view from the central field-of-view, and so that the captured rotated field-of-views form an expanded field-of-view covering the central field-of-view.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 6, 2017
    Publication date: March 8, 2018
    Inventors: Benoit VANDAME, Frederic Babon, Valter Drazic
  • Publication number: 20180038733
    Abstract: A method for obtaining, for at least one pixel of an image sensor comprised in an optical device, parameters defining a pixel beam is described. The method is remarkable in that it includes determining a direction of a chief ray associated with at least one pixel of the image sensor from the features of an optical system associated with the optical device, determining a set of pixels formed in a screen of a display device, the set of pixels comprising at least one pixel close to a point corresponding to an intersection of the chief ray and the screen, and the set of pixels comprising only pixels which are detected by the at least one pixel of the image sensor, when they are illuminated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 4, 2017
    Publication date: February 8, 2018
    Inventors: Pierre DAVID, Valter Drazic, Laurent Blonde, Paul Kerbiriou, Olivier Bureller
  • Publication number: 20170366765
    Abstract: An image sensor unit (3) includes a microlens array (31) and a sensor (32). The sensor includes a plurality of sensor regions (323) that respectively include pixels (322) having different sensitivities arranged in a matrix arrangement. The pixels (322) at corresponding positions of the plurality of sensor regions (323) have identical sensitivities. Each of the microlenses (311) of the microlens array (31) is arranged to direct the light to a corresponding one of the plurality of sensor regions (323) of the sensor (32).
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 1, 2015
    Publication date: December 21, 2017
    Inventors: Mozhdeh SEIFI, Neus SABATER, Valter DRAZIC
  • Patent number: 9846302
    Abstract: An optical see-through glass type display device comprises: an image projector projecting a virtual image; a first optical element configured to guide light of the virtual image; and a second optical element having a first reflection surface for reflecting back light coming through the front surface of the second optical element and a second reflection surface for retro-reflecting light coming through the rear surface of the second optical element. The second optical element is switchable between a first state in which the reflection on the first and second reflection surfaces is enabled and a second state in which the reflection on the first and second reflection surfaces is disabled.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2017
    Assignee: Thomson Licensing
    Inventors: Laurent Blonde, Valter Drazic
  • Publication number: 20170330339
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for estimating a depth of unfocused plenoptic data are suggested. The method includes: determining a level of homogeneity of micro-lens images of unfocused plenoptic data; determining pixels of the micro-lens images of the unfocused plenoptic unfocused plenoptic data which either have disparities equal to zero or belong to homogeneous areas as a function of the calculated level of homogeneity of the micro-lens images of the unfocused plenoptic data; and estimating the depth of the unfocused plenoptic data by a disparity estimation without considering the determined pixels. With the disclosure, by pre-processing the raw data, it can prevent any disparity estimation method to spend time on estimating disparities for: (i) pixels that are in focus, (ii) pixels that belong to homogenous areas of the scene.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 24, 2015
    Publication date: November 16, 2017
    Inventors: Mozhdeh SEIFI, Neus SABATER, Valter DRAZIC
  • Patent number: 9818199
    Abstract: Method and apparatus for estimating the depth of focused plenoptic data are suggested. The method includes: estimating the inherent shift of in-focus pixels of the focused plenoptic data; calculating a level of homogeneity of the pixels of the focused plenoptic data; determining the pixels of the focused plenoptic data which either have disparities equal to the inherent shift or belong to homogeneous areas, as a function of the level of homogeneity of the pixels of the focused plenoptic data; and estimating the depth of the focused plenoptic data by a disparity estimation without considering the determined pixels. According to the disclosure, the pixels of the focused plenoptic data which either have a disparity equal to the inherent shift or belong to a homogeneous area will not be considered for the estimation of the depth, which can reduce computational costs and at the same time increase accuracy of estimations for in-focus parts of the scene.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2017
    Assignee: THOMSON LICENSING
    Inventors: Mozhdeh Seifi, Neus Sabater, Valter Drazic
  • Patent number: 9811890
    Abstract: In one embodiment, it is proposed a method for obtaining at least one high dynamic range image via aligning and fusion of at least two low dynamic range images. The method is remarkable in that it comprises: obtaining a first low dynamic range image, said first low dynamic range image comprising several color components in a color space; obtaining a second low dynamic range image in said color space, comprising, for at least one component color, at least a part of pixels of said second low dynamic range image, defining a region, for which Euclidean distance between a value of a pixel in said region in said second low dynamic range image and a value of a corresponding pixel in said region in said first low dynamic range image is below a threshold; and said aligning comprising matching features obtained from said at least one component color of said first low dynamic range image and from said at least one component color of said second low dynamic range image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Assignee: THOMSON LICENSING
    Inventors: Laurent Blonde, David Touze, Valter Drazic
  • Patent number: 9807368
    Abstract: A plenoptic camera is proposed having a color filter array positioned on an image sensor with an array of pixels, the color filter array having a first filter with a set of unit elements, each unit element covering M×M pixels of the image sensor, with M an integer such that M?2. The plenoptic camera further includes a set of micro-lens, each micro-lens delivering a micro-lens image on the image sensor with a diameter equal to p=k×M, with k being an integer greater than or equal to two.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2017
    Assignee: Thomson Licensing
    Inventors: Benoit Vandame, Mathilde Brossard, Valter Drazic
  • Publication number: 20170302839
    Abstract: A plenoptic camera including a camera lens, a lenslet array having a plurality of microlenses and a photosensors array and having a plurality of photosensors. The camera lens has a spatial light modulator arranged in the aperture stop plane of the camera lens.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 21, 2015
    Publication date: October 19, 2017
    Inventors: Thierry BOREL, Valter DRAZIC
  • Patent number: 9704252
    Abstract: A method for hierarchical disparity estimation on an image pair, wherein image pyramids are created by successively downscaling each image of the image pair, and an apparatus configured to perform the method are described. An initial disparity estimator applies a full search on a highest level of the image pyramids to determine initial disparity estimates, the highest level having the lowest resolution. A disparity propagator passes the initial disparity estimates to a next lower level of the image pyramids. An allocator then partitions the pixels of each remaining hierarchy level of the image pyramids into two or more groups of pixels, where each pixel in a group of pixels can be processed independently from remaining pixels of that group of pixels. A disparity estimator estimates disparity values for the pixels of a first group of pixels utilizing disparity estimates from a next higher level of the image pyramids.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 11, 2017
    Inventors: Joern Jachalsky, Uwe Janssen, Valter Drazic
  • Patent number: 9691149
    Abstract: A plenoptic camera comprising a camera lens, a lenslet array comprising a plurality of microlenses and a photosensor array. In order to determine reference pixels of sub-images, the camera lens comprises a light emitting device arranged in the aperture stop plane of the camera lens, the light emitting device lighting the photosensor array.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2017
    Assignee: THOMSON LICENSING
    Inventors: Valter Drazic, Mozhdeh Seifi, Neus Sabater
  • Patent number: 9685006
    Abstract: The invention concerns a method and a device for inserting 3D graphic animation in a 3D image, each 3D graphic element of the graphic animation being defined in size and in depth for the insertion in a determined insertion zone of said 3D image. The method comprises the step of determining for the graphic element to be inserted a depth range with a maximum allowed depth value, replacing the out of range depth values by the maximum allowed depth value when depth values of the graphic element are out of range and compensating the depth difference between the depth values of the graphic element and the maximal allowed depth value in reducing the graphic element in size proportionally to the reduction of depth for the graphic element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2017
    Assignee: THOMSON LICENSING DTV
    Inventors: Alain Verdier, Anita Orhand, Valter Drazic
  • Publication number: 20170171479
    Abstract: The disclosure addresses the vignetting effect caused on an image captured by lightfield camera. A method to compensate for the vignetting effect for a lightfield camera comprising an image sensor array including plurality of photosites. The method includes the operations of obtaining luminance values from the each photosite; obtaining a set of weight values for compensating the vignetting effect for the each photosite being associated with a present setting of the lightfield camera; and changing the luminance values of the each photosite based on the obtained a set of the weight values.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2016
    Publication date: June 15, 2017
    Inventors: Mozhdeh SEIFI, Valter Drazic, Paul Kerbiriou
  • Publication number: 20170132757
    Abstract: A method for presenting an image on a display device (100) includes modifying the image by applying a geometric transformation to the image so that an area of the image on the display device is presented to a viewer with higher density of pixels than that in the rest of the image (S18).
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 16, 2015
    Publication date: May 11, 2017
    Inventors: Sylvain THIEBAUD, Laurent BLONDE, Thierry TAPIE, VALTER DRAZIC
  • Publication number: 20170118387
    Abstract: A plenoptic camera has a moveable micro-lens array in optical registration with an image sensor. A first prime mover displaces the micro-lens array synchronized with a frame rate for the camera to obtain multi-resolution of a scene. A second prime mover displaces the image sensor to increase color sampling.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 9, 2015
    Publication date: April 27, 2017
    Inventors: Mozhdeh SEIFI, Neus SABATER, Valter DRAZIC