Patents by Inventor Zhichun Lei

Zhichun Lei 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: 9311927
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a device and a corresponding method for audible transient noise detection in an audio signal. To avoid the detection of false positives or at least reduce the number of detected false positives a device is proposed comprising a detector configured to detect a set of transient noise candidates in time or frequency domain among a plurality of samples of said audio signal, and a selector configured to select audible transient noise candidates from said set of transient noise candidates by use of one or more selection criteria, wherein the selection criteria used for said selection are selected and/or whose parameters are at least partly set based on characteristics of said audio signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2016
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Zhichun Lei, Paul Springer, Frank Moesle, Ryota Isozaki, Thimo Emmerich
  • Patent number: 8885969
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method and a corresponding apparatus for detecting coding artifacts in an image. The proposed apparatus comprises an edge position detector that detects an edge position of an edge in said image, a border position detector that detects a border position of a border between a texture area and a flat area in said image, and an artifact position defining unit that defines the area between said edge position and said border position as artifact area potentially comprising coding artifacts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2014
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Paul Springer, Frank Moesle, Zhichun Lei, Matthias Brueggemann
  • Patent number: 8842128
    Abstract: A method of processing image data that includes identifying picture elements of a first image portion having a first hue and a first saturation assigned to the first hue, the first hue lying in a first critical hue interval, identifying picture elements a second image portion having a second hue and a second saturation assigned to the second hue, the second hue lying in a second critical hue interval, and changing the first saturation by an amount delta S, at least one of the first and the second hues not being changed, and the delta S varying for picture elements lying in the first image portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 23, 2014
    Assignee: SONY Corporation
    Inventors: Frank Mösle, Dong Zhou, Zhichun Lei
  • Patent number: 8588544
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for reducing ringing artifacts of image deconvolution. A deconvolution is applied to the original blurred image and edges are detected within the deconvolved image. Then edge tapering on the original blurred image is performed based on the detected edges. The present invention further relates to a system and a computer program product for reducing ringing artifacts of image deconvolution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Zhichun Lei, Klaus Zimmermann
  • Patent number: 8339516
    Abstract: A method and unit for noise reduction in a current image frame, wherein the current image frame is a part of a sequence of image frames. The method compares a current pixel value of a pixel within the current image frame with a corresponding pixel value of the pixel in at least one adjacent image frame, and determines a piled-up value of the current pixel value and the corresponding pixel value if a pixel difference between the current pixel value and the corresponding pixel value is below a pixel threshold, wherein the pixel threshold depends on the corresponding pixel value and/or the current pixel value. The method and unit can be applied for block and color processing as well.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2012
    Assignee: SONY Deutschland GmbH
    Inventors: Zhichun Lei, Christian Unruh, Muhammad Siddiqui
  • Publication number: 20120293530
    Abstract: A method of processing image data comprises identifying picture elements of a first image portion having a first hue and a first saturation assigned to the first hue, the first hue lying in a first critical hue interval, identifying picture elements a second image portion having a second hue and a second saturation assigned to the second hue, the second hue lying in a second critical hue interval, and changing the first saturation by an amount delta S. According to an embodiment, at least one of the first and the second hues is not changed. According to a further embodiment, delta S varies for picture elements lying in the first image portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 11, 2012
    Publication date: November 22, 2012
    Applicant: SONY Corporation
    Inventors: Frank Mösle, Dong Zhou, Zhichun Lei
  • Publication number: 20120201390
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a device and a corresponding method for audible transient noise detection in an audio signal. To avoid the detection of false positives or at least reduce the number of detected false positives a device is proposed comprising a detector configured to detect a set of transient noise candidates in time or frequency domain among a plurality of samples of said audio signal, and a selector configured to select audible transient noise candidates from said set of transient noise candidates by use of one or more selection criteria, wherein the selection criteria used for said selection are selected and/or whose parameters are at least partly set based on characteristics of said audio signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 11, 2012
    Publication date: August 9, 2012
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Zhichun LEI, Paul SPRINGER, Frank MOESLE, Ryota ISOZAKI, Thimo EMMERICH
  • Publication number: 20110235921
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method and a corresponding apparatus for detecting coding artifacts in an image. The proposed apparatus comprises an edge position detector that detects an edge position of an edge in said image, a border position detector that detects a border position of a border between a texture area and a flat area in said image, and an artifact position defining unit that defines the area between said edge position and said border position as artifact area potentially comprising coding artifacts.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 22, 2011
    Publication date: September 29, 2011
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Paul SPRINGER, Frank MOESLE, Zhichun LEI, Matthias BRUEGGEMANN
  • Publication number: 20110085743
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for reducing ringing artifacts of image deconvolution. A deconvolution is applied to the original blurred image and edges are detected within the deconvolved image. Then edge tapering on the original blurred image is performed based on the detected edges. The present invention further relates to a system and a computer program product for reducing ringing artifacts of image deconvolution.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 29, 2010
    Publication date: April 14, 2011
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Zhichun Lei, Klaus Zimmermann
  • Patent number: 7856151
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for processing digital image data (ID), wherein the process of multi rate, multi resolution and/or multi scale signal processing is involved in order to realize a respective multi rate, multi resolution and/or multi scale sharpness enhancement with respect to said image data (ID).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2010
    Assignee: Sony Deutschland GmbH
    Inventor: Zhichun Lei
  • Patent number: 7822272
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method, apparatus and computer program product for contrast enhancement of images based on adaptive histogram equalization. In particular it relates to preventing adaptive histogram equalization from causing fading artifacts and object extension artifacts. An adaptive histogram equalization method is provided comprising the steps of dividing an image into regions of pixels, determining structures of local pixel value differences of a predefined strength of the image, building for every region a histogram of the pixel values based on the determined structures of local pixel value differences and mapping pixel values of each region based on the histogram corresponding to the region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2010
    Assignee: Sony Deutschland GmbH
    Inventor: Zhichun Lei
  • Patent number: 7715634
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for classifying a signal (S). An intermediate signal (IS) is decimated in order to obtain a processed signal (PS) as a new intermediate signal (IS). A processed signal (PS) is compared with respect to the signal (S) to be classified to thereby generate comparison data (CompDAT). Based on the comparison data (CompDAT) said signal (S) to be classified is classified, thereby classification data (ClassDAT) are generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2010
    Assignee: SONY Deutschland GmbH
    Inventors: Zhichun Lei, Christian Unruh
  • Publication number: 20100091194
    Abstract: A method and unit for noise reduction in a current image frame, wherein the current image frame is a part of a sequence of image frames. The method compares a current pixel value of a pixel within the current image frame with a corresponding pixel value of the pixel in at least one adjacent image frame, and determines a piled-up value of the current pixel value and the corresponding pixel value if a pixel difference between the current pixel value and the corresponding pixel value is below a pixel threshold, wherein the pixel threshold depends on the corresponding pixel value and/or the current pixel value. The method and unit can be applied for block and color processing as well.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 20, 2008
    Publication date: April 15, 2010
    Applicant: Sony Deutschland GMBH
    Inventors: Zhichun Lei, Christian Unruh, Muhammed Siddiqui
  • Publication number: 20100092086
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for image deblurring comprising the steps of splitting an image into different image parts and performing a deconvolution on a subset of image parts, said subset comprising one or more image parts. The present invention further relates to a system for image deblurring comprising a processing unit (3), said processing unit (3) comprising an image splitting component (6) for splitting an image into different image parts and a deconvolution component (8, 8a) for performing a deconvolution on a subset comprising one or more image parts.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 4, 2009
    Publication date: April 15, 2010
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Zhichun LEI, Klaus Zimmermann
  • Publication number: 20100040290
    Abstract: A motion estimation and scene change detection method using two matching criteria, whereby the first matching criterion applies goodness-of-fit or another known matching criterion for motion estimation and the second matching criterion is the reciprocal value of the estimation error variance lower bound, which can be given by the Cramer-Rao-Inequation. The method allows taking full advantage of multiresolution signal processing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 14, 2007
    Publication date: February 18, 2010
    Applicant: Sony Deutschland GMBH
    Inventor: Zhichun Lei
  • Publication number: 20090097542
    Abstract: In a data compression, a pre-processing is applied to a signal before it is encoded and a post-processing is applied to a signal after it is decoded. A pre-processor for signals to be encoded includes a filtering device for filtering a signal with one or more filters and a providing device for providing information about the filtering process. A post-processor for previously filtered, encoded and decoded signals includes an information retrieving device for retrieving information about the filtering process and an inverse filtering device for inverse filtering the decoded signal based on the retrieved information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 8, 2007
    Publication date: April 16, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Deutschland GMBH
    Inventors: Zhichun Lei, Christian Unruh, Klaus Zimmermann
  • Publication number: 20080129875
    Abstract: The present invention relates to the fields of motion detection, scene change detection and temporal domain noise reduction. Especially, the present invention relates to a device, a method and a software for detecting motion and/or scene change in a sequence of image frames. The device for detecting motion and/or scene change in a sequence of image frames comprises a difference generator adapted to calculate one or more differences between values of pixels of separate image frames, the pixel values comprising color information, and a discriminator for providing an indication whether the calculated one or more pixel value differences correspond to noise or correspond to image content based on the one or more pixel value differences.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 29, 2007
    Publication date: June 5, 2008
    Applicant: Sony Deutschland GmbH
    Inventors: Zhichun Lei, Muhammed Siddiqui, Klaus Zimmermann
  • Publication number: 20080100748
    Abstract: The present invention relates to the field of noise reduction. The invention especially relates to a filter for temporal domain noise reduction and to a method, a device and a computer software for temporal domain noise reduction of image sequences. The filter for temporal domain noise reduction is operable to switch between a finite impulse response filter characteristic and an infinite impulse response filter characteristic. The device for temporal domain noise reduction of video signals which comprise image frames ordered by a time index comprises a filter for successively filtering the image frames of a video signal, whereby a filter coefficient of the filter is a function of a frame counting index, the frame counting index corresponding to the frame index shifted by an offset.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 4, 2007
    Publication date: May 1, 2008
    Applicant: Sony Deutschland GmbH
    Inventors: Zhichun LEI, Christian Unruh
  • Patent number: 7365800
    Abstract: A method for pre-processing image data, including steps of: receiving primary image data corresponding to an image or a sequence of images to be displayed; pre-processing the primary image data by applying a pre-distortion operation to the primary image data so as to obtain secondary image data; and outputting the secondary image data to a display process as data to be displayed, wherein the pre-distortion operation is configured to correspond to an inverse (IDO) of a distortion operation of a display process to be used for displaying the secondary image data and the pre-distortion operation is designed to describe parameters for sharpness, contrast, brightness or color of a display device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2008
    Assignee: Sony Deutschland GmbH
    Inventor: Zhichun Lei
  • Publication number: 20070230788
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method, apparatus and computer program product for contrast enhancement of images based on adaptive histogram equalization. In particular it relates to preventing adaptive histogram equalization from causing fading artifacts and object extension artifacts. An adaptive histogram equalization method is provided comprising the steps of dividing an image into regions of pixels, determining structures of local pixel value differences of a predefined strength of the image, building for every region a histogram of the pixel values based on the determined structures of local pixel value differences and mapping pixel values of each region based on the histogram corresponding to the region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 29, 2006
    Publication date: October 4, 2007
    Applicant: Sony Deutschland GmbH
    Inventor: Zhichun LEI