Patents by Inventor William C. Choate

William C. Choate 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: 5719773
    Abstract: A method and system are provided for relating a passive sensor (14) to a geographic environment (42, 44). The passive sensor (14) senses an image (40) of the geographic environment (42, 44). At least one feature (46) is extracted (26) from the image (40). At least one feature is generated (30) from map data (28) representative of the geographic environment. At least one extracted feature is related (22, 32) to at least one generated feature, such that the passive sensor (14) is related to the geographic environment (42, 44).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 1997
    Date of Patent: February 17, 1998
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventor: William C. Choate
  • Patent number: 5576964
    Abstract: A method and system are provided for relating a passive sensor (14) to a geographic environment (42, 44). The passive sensor (14) senses an image (40) of the geographic environment (42, 44). At least one feature (46) is extracted (26) from the image (40). At least one feature is generated (30) from map data (28) representative of the geographic environment. At least one extracted feature is related (22, 32) to at least one generated feature, such that the passive sensor (14) is related to the geographic environment (42, 44).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 1995
    Date of Patent: November 19, 1996
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventor: William C. Choate
  • Patent number: 5422828
    Abstract: A method of tracking targets across a sequence of images estimates the range of these tracked objects from the camera. The method assumes the motion of the camera between the successive frames is known. The distance from the sensor to the object is assumed to be much larger than the physical dimensions of the object. The method and system make use of the known sensor motion to generate "expected images" that are then used to establish a reliable correspondence and track the targets across the image sequence. The method and system use a mean/energy-normalized area correlation technique to establish inter-frame correspondence. With this correspondence, two new methods can estimate the range of the target from the sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 1991
    Date of Patent: June 6, 1995
    Inventors: William C. Choate, Rajendra K. Talluri
  • Patent number: 5347469
    Abstract: A method and system for covertly determining and predicting air-to-air target data relative to a predetermined position passively senses the target (84) to produce a passive target data set. Next, the method and system transform (14) the passive target data set to produce a transformed passive data set. Then, the system compares (22) the transformed passive data set to a predicted data set (20) to generate a measurement error. By actively sensing (38 and 40) the target for a minimally detectable period (42) of time to produce an active target data set (28), the system applies constraints (28) and therefrom computes penalties (26) that relate to the measurement error (22) to produce a system error. Then, in response to the system error (24) the method and system compute the direction (30) and magnitude (32) for a perturbation or a response (44) to the predicted target data (18).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 1992
    Date of Patent: September 13, 1994
    Inventors: William C. Choate, Charles E. Frey, Anthony K. Tyree
  • Patent number: 4728958
    Abstract: An emitter location system includes a single carrier based first and second short baseline interferometers, and a long baseline interferometer operatively connected to a computing means. The computing means includes a three level processor. The short baseline interferometers provide phase measurements for level one combination into total phase measurements and estimates of the angle of incidence of the incoming electromagnetic energy. After test for acceptance, the estimated angle of incidence is passed for level two processing which includes the simultaneous processing of the estimated incident angle with the phase measurement of the long baseline interferometer for error correction to provide an improved estimated incident angle. After test for acceptance, the improved angle of incidence measurement is passed for determining the angle of the incident wave for level three processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 1986
    Date of Patent: March 1, 1988
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventor: William C. Choate
  • Patent number: 4685143
    Abstract: Edge maps (40) derived from images are used to compute edge spectra (44), an edge spectrum having a plurality of components (41, 43) corresponding to the angular bins (60) of edge vectors having equal angular widths. Various feature detectors (56) process the edge spectrum to yield information identifying the image. A linear detector correlates a shifted prototype edge spectrum (45) to an input spectrum (44). Nonlinear detectors analyze edge spectra to detect mutually orthogonal edges and edge reversal features (90). Higher level logic (30) is used to select certain detected edge reversal features (90) as the ends of an object (16) depicted in the image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 1985
    Date of Patent: August 4, 1987
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventor: William C. Choate
  • Patent number: 4351004
    Abstract: A CCD imager is provided with an adaptive threshold circuit. The variations in the illumination across the document being read by the imager are compensated for by the adaptive threshold circuit to accurately provide an accurate digital representation of the image on the document.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 1980
    Date of Patent: September 21, 1982
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventors: William C. Choate, David S. Ho