Patents Issued in January 28, 2014
  • Patent number: 8638297
    Abstract: An electronic device includes an object sensor for detecting motion of an object, such as a stylus or finger, relative to device and during a period of contactless object movement. A motion sensor, such as an accelerometer, detects device motion during the period of contactless object movement. A processor determines a gesture that corresponds to the movement of the object and to movement of the device. This device, and the associated method, results in a more accurate determination of an intended gesture, such as a three-dimensional gesture. For example, the processor, or gesture determinator, can compensate for movement of the device when determining the gesture corresponding to detected contactless movement of the object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventor: Michael Joseph Deluca
  • Patent number: 8638298
    Abstract: A method for a mouse is provided. The mouse includes a housing, a timing unit. A container is secured in the housing. The container is full of insulated liquid. A sphere suspends in the liquid. First sensors and second sensors are attached to the container. Each first sensors is charged, each second sensors is uncharged. The first sensors are spaced from each other by one second sensor. When any adjacent first sensor and second sensor are simultaneously contacted by the sphere, the contacted second sensor is thus charged. The method includes: determining whether any second sensor is charged; generating a position signal, controlling the timing unit to time within the period the any second sensor being charged; determining the movement direction of the a cursor; determining the movement distance of the cursor; and generating cursor control signal for controlling movement of the cursor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Chun-Hung Chou
  • Patent number: 8638299
    Abstract: A handheld electronic device includes a reduced QWERTY keyboard and is enabled with text disambiguation software. The device provides output in the form of a default output and a number of variants. The output is based largely upon the frequency, i.e., the likelihood that a user intended a particular output, but various features of the device provide additional variants that are not based solely on frequency and rather are provided by various logic structures resident on the device. The device includes a number of non-alphabetic characters that are assigned to keys and that can be accessed directly by the text disambiguation software without the need to active a non-alphabetic input routine or to additionally actuate and <SHIFT> key or an <ALT> key, for instance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventors: Vadim Fux, Michael Elizarov, Alexander Kornilovsky
  • Patent number: 8638300
    Abstract: A method (300) in an electronic device (100) having a touch sensitive display (102) for searching entries in a stored list includes presenting (302) a reference character set as reference character ranges on an A by B matrix (103) of touch sensitive keys (120,121,122,123,124,125). Upon actuating a touch sensitive key having a reference character range presented thereon, the touch sensitive keys (120,121,122,123,124,125) are reconfigured to present (306) a secondary reference character set having alphanumeric characters within the reference character range presented on the touch sensitive key prior to actuation. Upon actuating a touch sensitive key having an alphanumeric character presented thereon, the alphanumeric character is added (308) to a search string indicator (111). Soft keys (104,105) and a soft key identification line (106) may be used in conjunction with the A by B matrix (103).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Motorola Mobility LLC
    Inventors: Gabriel Silberman, Benjamin Duck, Rindala Saliba
  • Patent number: 8638301
    Abstract: Systems and methods for transmitting haptic messages are disclosed. For example, one disclosed method includes the steps of: receiving at least one sensor signal from at least one sensor of a mobile device, the at least one sensor signal associated with a movement of the mobile device, determining a message to be displayed in a user interface based at least in part on the at least one sensor signal, and causing the message to be displayed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Immersion Corporation
    Inventors: David Birnbaum, Chris Ullrich, Peter Rubin, Phong David Ngo, Leo Kopelow
  • Patent number: 8638302
    Abstract: An apparatus including a first surface having at least one display, a second surface having at least one display, and a third surface having at least one display. The first, second and third surface form an outer surface of the apparatus, the outer surface being generally of a triangular shape.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Nokia Corporation
    Inventors: Markku Oksman, Tomas Ivaskevicius, Kim Heikkinen, Tomi Kapiainen, Jenni Väänänen, Kaisa Ruotsalainen
  • Patent number: 8638303
    Abstract: Stylus settings techniques are described. In implementations, an input is recognized as selecting at least one object displayed in a user interface by a display device of a computing device. Responsive to the recognition, an indication is displayed on the display device that is selectable. Responsive to selection of the indication, a portion is displayed by the computing device that is configured to accept one or more inputs as a note to be associated with the at least one object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Jonathan R. Harris, Andrew S. Allen
  • Patent number: 8638304
    Abstract: A touch screen includes an LCD panel; a display controller for processing a video signal to generate a panel control signal and a sensing control signal, with the panel control signal controlling the LCD panel so that the LCD panel displays images according to the panel control signal; a touch panel, for generating the sensing signal in response to a touch; and a sensing circuit, coupled to the touch panel and the display controller, for receiving the sensing signal and the sensing control signal to generate a position signal with reference to the sensing control signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: MStar Semiconductor, Inc.
    Inventors: Chi Kang Liu, Chin-Wei Lin
  • Patent number: 8638305
    Abstract: A method for executing an application program is disclosed. One or more icons are displayed on a touch panel. If a user's fingerprint is authenticated on the touch panel, an application program is given access to designated personal information. The application program is then executed using the designated personal information, if the detected action is an information-designated start operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: KYOCERA Corporation
    Inventor: Akiko Inami
  • Patent number: 8638306
    Abstract: A touch sensor employing capacitive sensing technology in which a series of conductive pads enabling the detection of levels of capacitance imparted to each of the conductive pads as a result of the close proximity of a tip of a digit of a user, in which adjacent pairs of the conductive pads form slider controls, in which one of the conductive pads is a corner-type conductive pad at which two adjacent slider controls formed by the corner-type conductive pad and each of two adjacent conductive pads forms a corner in the series of slider controls, and in which the series of slider controls perhaps forms a rectangular ring shape loop of slider controls in which there are four of the corner-type conductive pads at which four different pairs of slider controls meet at right angles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Bose Corporation
    Inventors: Andrew Ferencz, Bojan Rip, Santiago Carvajal, John Michael Sakalowsky
  • Patent number: 8638307
    Abstract: A touch-sensitive input device includes a cover, a set of first conductors disposed between the cover and a substrate, the first conductors including at least two fingers connected at an end of the fingers, dummy conductors disposed between the first conductors and between the fingers of the first conductors, and a second set of conductors disposed on an opposite side of the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Blackberry Limited
    Inventors: Mykola Golovchenko, Stanislav Pereverzev, William Turlay Stacy
  • Patent number: 8638308
    Abstract: A method for interfacing a user with a computer running an application program, the computer generating a graphical environment comprising a graphical object and a graphical representation of at least a portion of a living body, comprises providing an object in communication with the computer, controlling the graphical object in relation to manipulation of at least a portion of the object by the user, and outputting a haptic sensation to the user when the graphical object interacts with a region within the graphical representation to provide the user with haptic feedback related to a simulated palpation of the region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Immersion Medical, Inc.
    Inventors: Richard L Cunningham, Robert F Cohen, Russell H Dumas, Gregory L Merril, Philip G Feldman, Joseph L Tasto
  • Patent number: 8638309
    Abstract: Disclosed are an apparatus, method, and medium for providing a user interface for file transmission. The apparatus includes a motion perception (recognition) module perceiving (recognizing) a motion input to the user interface and identifying a position of the perceived (recognized) motion, a motion execution module executing a motion corresponding to the perceived motion and the identified position of the perceived motion and modifying components of the user interface according to the executed motion, and a communication module transmitting a file to a transmission target based on the perceived motion and the identified position of the perceived motion. The components of the user interface may include a file list region, a transmission target region, and an execution region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hyun-jeong Lee, Joon-ah Park, Wook Chang
  • Patent number: 8638310
    Abstract: An embodiment of a capacitive touch screen may comprise a display device comprising a substantially transparent substrate, a first plurality of electrodes attached to the substantially transparent substrate, wherein the first plurality of electrodes are substantially parallel in a first direction, and a second plurality of electrodes, wherein each of the second plurality of electrodes is capacitively coupled with each of the first plurality of electrodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Cypress Semiconductor Corporation
    Inventors: Igor Polishchuk, Edward Grivna
  • Patent number: 8638311
    Abstract: A display device and a data displaying method thereof are disclosed. The device includes at least one sensor including a touch sensor to generate touch events according to touch events, a flexible sensor to generate a bend signal to detect bend events, and a pressure sensor to generate a pressure signal to detect pressure events, a storage unit to store a function table, and a controller to control the components of the device. The function table is configured to define control operations to reproduce currently output contents based on the touch events, the bend events, the pressure events, and events combined thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tae Young Kang, Kyoung Woon Hahm, Hyun Jin Kim, Ju Yun Sung
  • Patent number: 8638312
    Abstract: A method for controlling a file browser executing on a computing device is disclosed. A user interface touch sensor is configured to be responsive to at least one angle of contact with at least one finger. A change in an angle of the finger with respect to the surface of the touch sensor is measured by the touch sensor to produce measured data. Real-time calculations on the measured data are performed to produce a measured-angle value. The measured-angle value is used to control the value of at least one user interface parameter of the file browser. At least one aspect of the file browser changes in response to the angle of the position of the finger with respect to the surface of the touch sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Inventor: Seung E. Lim
  • Patent number: 8638313
    Abstract: An electrostatic capacitance type touch panel includes: a substrate; a plurality of first electrodes disposed in parallel on the substrate; an insulating film formed so as to cover the plurality of first electrodes; a plurality of second electrodes disposed in parallel to intersect the plurality of first electrodes on the insulating film; a plurality of first drawing wiring lines connected to the plurality of first electrodes to be drawn to a connection terminal; and a plurality of second drawing wiring lines connected to the plurality of second electrodes to be drawn to the connection terminal. The plurality of first drawing wiring lines have different lengths, larger widths as the lengths are shorter, and larger intervals between adjacent two of the plurality of first drawing wiring lines as the lengths are longer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignees: Japan Display Inc., Panasonic Liquid Crystal Display Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masayoshi Kinoshita, Norio Mamba, Mutsuko Hatano
  • Patent number: 8638314
    Abstract: A capacitive touch sensor includes a layer of electro-luminescent (EL) material arranged between a first electrode and a second electrode, A controller includes a capacitance sensing circuit coupled to first and/or second electrode and arranged to measure a capacitive coupling associated with the first and/or second electrode. The controller is further operable to apply an EL drive signal across the first and second electrodes to cause the layer of EL material between the electrodes to illuminate. This provides a simple structure that is sensitive to objects adjacent a sensing region defined by the first and/or second electrodes, and which may also be readily illuminated by applying an EL drive signal across the electrodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Atmel Corporation
    Inventor: Peter Sleeman
  • Patent number: 8638315
    Abstract: A virtual touch screen system that helps interacting with a computer application on the computer display wherein the system is comprised of: a touchpad connected to the computer and detects a finger position on its surface; a virtual touch screen which is a small window that appears on the computer display presenting a graphical user interface that enables interacting with the computer application; and a virtual spot which is a small circle that appears on the virtual touch screen representing the position of the finger on the touchpad wherein moving the finger on the touchpad manipulates the virtual spot to move on the virtual touch screen to interact with the graphical user interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Inventor: Cherif Atia Algreatly
  • Patent number: 8638316
    Abstract: One embodiment of a capacitive sensor array may comprise a first plurality of sensor elements and a second sensor element capacitively coupled with each of the first plurality of sensor elements. The second sensor element may further comprise a first main trace and a second main trace, where the first main trace and the second main trace intersect each of the first plurality of sensor elements, and where each of the main traces cross at least one of a plurality of unit cells associated with the second sensor element. The second sensor element may also comprise a connecting subtrace electrically coupled to both the first main trace and the second main trace, and within each unit cell, at least one primary subtrace branching away from the first main trace or the second main trace.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Cypress Semiconductor Corporation
    Inventor: Massoud Badaye
  • Patent number: 8638317
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is a display apparatus including: a display panel having a display function and a light-receiving/imaging function; a first image processing section configured to generate a detection signal that indicates whether a to-be-detected object has been detected based on a result of first image processing performed on an image taken by the light-receiving/imaging function; a second image processing section configured to perform second image processing on the image processed by the first image processing section, the second image processing having a heavier processing load than the first image processing; and a control section configured to control an operation of the second image processing section in accordance with the detection signal generated by the first image processing section, and, when it is determined that the processing by the second image processing section is not necessary, control the second image processing section to enter a sleep state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Japan Display West Inc.
    Inventors: Tsutomu Harada, Shinya Hashimoto, Naoya Okada, Tadashi Maekawa, Kazunori Yamguchi, Mitsuru Tateuchi, Ryoichi Tsuzaki, Yoshiharu Nakajima, Chiaki Kon
  • Patent number: 8638318
    Abstract: A touch panel includes a surface acoustic wave propagating substrate having top and bottom surfaces and a multi-layer coversheet that is positioned over the substrate. The coversheet includes a load-spreading layer, a compliant layer and an anti-sticking layer. The load-spreading layer has top and bottom surfaces, and the top surface receives touch input from an object. The compliant layer has top and bottom surfaces and the top surface of the compliant layer is coupled to the bottom surface of the load-spreading layer. The anti-sticking layer has top and bottom surfaces and the top surface of the anti-sticking layer is coupled to the bottom surface of the compliant layer. The bottom surface of the anti-sticking layer is positioned proximate to the top surface of the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: ELO Touch Solutions, Inc.
    Inventors: Ting Gao, Jorge G. Loayza, Joel C. Kent
  • Patent number: 8638319
    Abstract: In a pen-based computing system, a user-specific smart pen application is created from a template application using customer authoring tools. The template application contains computer program code that is to be executed by a processor of a smart pen. Application content and a representation for printed content are received. The application content, provided by user or customer, defines functional interactions between the printed content representation and a smart pen. The template application is combined with application content to generate a user-specific application comprising instructions for being executed on a processor of a smart pen. The user-specific application is stored on a storage medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Livescribe Inc.
    Inventors: Tracy L. Edgecomb, Andy Van Schaack, Jim Marggraff
  • Patent number: 8638320
    Abstract: Stylus orientation detection is disclosed. In an example, the orientation of a stylus relative to a contacting surface, e.g., a touch panel, can be detected by detecting a capacitance at one or more locations on the stylus relative to the surface, and then using the capacitance(s) to determine the orientation of the stylus relative to the surface. In another example, the orientation of a stylus relative to a contacting surface, e.g., a touch panel, can be detected by first detecting the orientation of the stylus relative to a reference, detecting the orientation of the contacting surface relative to the reference, and then calculating the orientation of the stylus relative to the contacting surface using the two detected orientations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jonah A. Harley, Li-Quan Tan, Debanjan Mukherjee, Steven Porter Hotelling
  • Patent number: 8638321
    Abstract: A display apparatus including a display main body having a display part to display an image, a control part to control the display part and a power supplying part to supply power; a stand part to support the display main body and to accommodate a cable unit transmitting a signal from the power supplying part and the control part; a driving part electrically connected to the cable unit to perform a swivel mechanism of the stand part; and a base part to support the stand part and the driving part, the power supplying part supplying power to the driving part, and the control part controlling the driving part to perform the swivel mechanism.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kyung-kyun Lee, Sang-hak Kim
  • Patent number: 8638322
    Abstract: A display device in which partial driving can be performed with a simplified configuration of a circuit including a wiring. One of signal processing circuits includes a first transistor that controls the potential of its respective gate signal line, and a second transistor that outputs a start signal for the subsequent stage and a reset signal for the preceding stage. A signal for controlling whether the gate signal line is in an active state (a state where a selection signal is output) or a non-active state (a state where a selection signal is not output or a non-selection signal continues to be output) is input to the first transistor. A clock signal is input to the second transistor. Thus, the number of wirings necessary for operating the device is reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Atsushi Umezaki
  • Patent number: 8638323
    Abstract: Disclosed is a system and method for correcting a gamma for shortening a gamma correction time period and improving gamma correction efficiency and reliability thereof, and simplifying a gamma correction device for reducing a production cost of image display devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: LG Display Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Joo Hong Lee, Hong Sung Song, Oh Hyun Lee, Woong Ki Min
  • Patent number: 8638324
    Abstract: In a display device, a line inversion driving chip inverts an image data to a data voltage having a positive polarity and a data voltage having a negative polarity based on positive and negative gammas alternately applied at every period, and alternately outputs a first data voltage having a first polarity and a second data voltage having a second polarity at a period less than or equal to a 1H period. A display panel includes a plurality of pixels receiving the first and second data voltages from the line inversion driving chip to display an image. Each pixel row includes first and second pixel groups receiving the first and second data voltages, respectively, and the first and second pixel groups are alternately arranged in each pixel row. Thus, the display device may be driven in a dot inversion method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Samsung Display Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: So-Hyun Lee, Joon-Ha Park, Il-Gon Kim
  • Patent number: 8638325
    Abstract: An apparatus and method for automatically controlling screens displayed on two display units installed in a mobile terminal are provided, in which, an event is identified, if an event occurs, and on and off states of the display units are controlled, if the event is identified as a control operation of the display units corresponding to a user's key input. If the event is identified as a control operation of the display units corresponding to an operation of a sensor, the display units are automatically controlled corresponding to rotation of the mobile terminal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd
    Inventors: Dong Sub Kim, Moon Hyuk Choi, Seong Sun Ban
  • Patent number: 8638326
    Abstract: An organic light emitting diode (OLED) display includes: a display panel including a display area having an organic light emitting element for emitting light and a plurality of peripheral areas neighboring the display area; a driver corresponding to one of the plurality of peripheral areas and supplying driving power to the organic light emitting element; a plurality of power transferring units respectively corresponding to the plurality of peripheral areas thereby being respectively connected to the display panel and receiving the driving power from the driver thereby supplying the driving power to the organic light emitting element; and a power connecting unit connecting between the driver and the power transferring unit and at least one power connecting unit between the neighboring power transferring units among the plurality of power transferring units and transmitting the driving power from the driver to the power transferring unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Samsung Display Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Chun-Seok Ko
  • Patent number: 8638327
    Abstract: A system and method that facilitates planar processing of round earth data by employing a tiled projection is provided. The tiled projection is a two-step projection from the surface of the earth to a common plane that preserves polygons and polygonal paths. During the first step, the system performs a gnomonic projection to the facets of a circumscribed platonic solid, which maps spherical polygons to spatial polygons on the facets of the solid. During the second step, the system performs a polygon-preserving projection from the facets of the platonic solid to tiles in common plane. Thus, projections from multiple facets of the platonic solid on the common plane are processed by employing a planar algorithm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Michael Kallay, Isaac Kenneth Kunen
  • Patent number: 8638328
    Abstract: Systems and methods for visualizing multiple volumes of three-dimensional data. A graphics card is used for voxel intermixing, pixel intermixing and image intermixing, which produces a final-combined image of the three-dimensional data in real time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Landmark Graphics Corporation
    Inventor: Jim Ching-Rong Lin
  • Patent number: 8638329
    Abstract: Described are computer-based methods and apparatuses, including computer program products, for auto-stereoscopic interpolation. A first two dimensional image and a second two dimensional image are received. A reduced pixel image is generated for each of the first and second two dimensional images, wherein each reduced pixel image comprises a reduced pixel size that is less than the original pixel size. Boundary information is calculated for each of the first and second two dimensional images. A depth map is calculated for the first and second reduced pixel images, wherein the depth map comprises data indicative of three dimensional information for one or more objects in the first and second reduced pixel images. A depth map is calculated for the first and second two dimensional images based on the boundary information for each of the first and second two dimensional images and the depth map of the first and second reduced pixel images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Deluxe 3D LLC
    Inventor: Kuniaki Izumi
  • Patent number: 8638330
    Abstract: Systems and methods for approximating terrain data representing a water surface are disclosed. A computer-based geographical information system for approximating terrain data representing a water surface is provided. The system includes a mesh simplifier and a surface inversion corrector. The mesh simplifier simplifies initial water surface and water bottom meshes. The surface inversion corrector corrects simplified water surface and/or water bottom meshes to avoid having a water bottom surface incorrectly appear above a corresponding water surface in a display view. In one example, the mesh simplifier simplifies the initial water surface mesh while accounting for water/land boundaries. The mesh simplifier also simplifies the initial water bottom mesh while accounting for geographic features and/or water/land boundaries. A computer-implemented method for approximating terrain data representing a water surface is provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Emil C. Praun, John Rohlf, Marcin Romaszewicz
  • Patent number: 8638331
    Abstract: A method and system for progressively rendering radiance for a volumetric medium is provided. A photon simulation produces a representation of photon beams in a scene. The photon beams are rendered with respect to a camera viewpoint, by computing an estimated radiance associated with the photon beams. A global radius scaling factor is applied to the photon beams. Over multiple iterations of these steps, the global radius scaling factor is progressively decreased, thereby reducing overall error by facilitating convergence. This order can be mixed up. Finally, the renderer can be efficiently implemented on the GPU as a splatting operation, for use in interactive and real-time applications.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Disney Enterprises, Inc.
    Inventors: Wojciech Jarosz, Derek Nowrouzezahrai, Robert Thomas, Peter-Pike Sloan, Matthias Zwicker
  • Patent number: 8638332
    Abstract: Upon a request for a teleportation operation, a user of a virtual universe is provided with an interface for specification of image resolution parameters for initial rendering of a teleportation destination and the user's avatar which are degraded from a full resolution rendering of the teleportation destination and avatar. Degradation of resolution can be in regard to any of a plurality of image qualities such as spatial resolution, temporal resolution colors or color depth, light modeling and rendering style or the like or combinations thereof. Alternatively, a degraded copy of the teleportation destination can be provided as an alternative initial teleportation destination image. Since a rendering of a degraded image can be done with reduced response time, the user is thus provided with full control over a trade-off between image quality and response time and teleportation operations are thus encouraged.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Christopher J. Dawson, Barry M. Graham, Rick A. Hamilton, II, Clifford A. Pickover
  • Patent number: 8638333
    Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for modifying a chart. Chart elements are provided to a user pictorially. Each picture represents a chart modification. The chart elements are used to modify the formatting of a standard chart according to user preferences. The modified chart document is then displayed to the user including user desired formatting.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Anupam Garg, Eric W. Patterson
  • Patent number: 8638334
    Abstract: Techniques for selectively displaying surfaces of an object model to a user are described. In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method may include, for a given one of a plurality of surfaces included in an object model that is representative of a physical object, determining a normal vector of the given surface. The method may also include determining an angle between the normal vector of the given surface and a current viewing direction of the model. The method may further include displaying the object model to a user without displaying the given surface to the user, dependent upon determining that the angle between the normal vector and the current viewing direction is greater than a threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated
    Inventors: Hailin Jin, Liang Wang
  • Patent number: 8638335
    Abstract: An information processing apparatus includes a storage unit configured to store information representing a plurality of screens in each of a plurality of groups to which priorities are previously set, a determination unit configured to determine a group which is assigned the highest priority, and a control unit configured to display on a display unit a representative screen of the group assigned the highest priority.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Makoto Hirota, Kenichiro Nakagawa
  • Patent number: 8638336
    Abstract: Systems and methods for remotely displaying three dimensional graphical data, include a local computing machine that communicates with a remote computing machine via a connection. An application executing on the local computing machine, generates three dimensional graphics commands which are intercepted and transferred to either the remote computing machine or a computing element on the local computing machine. Determining where to transfer the three dimensional graphics commands requires: an analysis of the application to obtain application specific characteristics; an analysis of the remote computing machine to obtain the capabilities of the remote computing machine; an analysis of the local computing machine to obtain the capabilities of the local computing machine; and an analysis of the connection to determine characteristics of the connection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Justin Bullard, Franklyn Peart, Terry Treder, Derek Thorslund, Brad Anderson
  • Patent number: 8638337
    Abstract: Disclosed are methods and systems for tracking which data tiles have changed within an image frame. In an embodiment, each cell of a tile change list buffer may contain a frame number and updated when a tile is received from encoder. The frame number may be used as a base pointer for a particular frame buffer. When a frame is decoded, the contents of the tile change list buffer may be copied from the current tile change list buffer to the next buffer. This process may reduce memory traffic because the unchanged tile data does not have to be copied from frame to frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Jackson Tung, Thomas Young, Kai Chee Li, Jeff B. Widergren, Hao Guo, Francis A. Palita, Hua Zhou
  • Patent number: 8638338
    Abstract: Some embodiments of the invention provide an image-editing process that non-uniformly adjusts at least one particular color attribute (e.g., saturation level) of pixels in an image. Specifically, the image-editing process of these embodiments uniformly adjusts the particular color attribute of pixels with a first set of values and non-uniformly adjusts the color attribute of pixels with a second set of values. In this manner, some embodiments provide a vibrancy process that non-uniformly adjusts saturation levels of an image in order to preserve saturation levels for skin tones appearing within the image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Ben Weiss
  • Patent number: 8638339
    Abstract: A method is for correcting pixel data provided to a display apparatus. The display apparatus includes a display panel having a plurality of pixels and a light source module having a plurality of light-emitting blocks. The method includes determining a pixel luminance that is a luminance of light provided to one of the pixels; and generating correction data to correct the pixel data, the correction data being generated based on the pixel luminance and a maximum emission luminance that is a maximum luminance of the light emitted from one of the light-emitting blocks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Samsung Display Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Weon-Jun Choe, Yun-Jae Park, Dae-Gwang Jang, Kyoung-Phil Kim, Sang-Su Han
  • Patent number: 8638340
    Abstract: Color calibration of color image rendering devices, such as large color displays, which operate by either projection or emission of images, utilize internal color measurement instrument or external color measurement modules locatable on a wall or speaker. A dual use camera is provided for a portable or laptop computer, or a cellular phone, handset, personal digital assistant or other handheld device with a digital camera, in which one of the camera or a display is movable with respect to the other to enable the camera in a first mode to capture images of the display for enabling calibration of the display, and in a second mode for capturing image other than of the display. The displays may represent rendering devices for enabling virtual proofing in a network, or may be part of stand-alone systems and apparatuses for color calibration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: RAH Color Technologies LLC
    Inventor: Richard A. Holub
  • Patent number: 8638341
    Abstract: Described is a method of rendering an image. A transparency of a destination pixel and a transparency of a source pixel are determined at multiple sample positions in each pixel. A new pre-multiplied color is determined for the destination pixel in response to the transparencies of the destination pixel, the transparencies of the source pixel, a color of the source pixel and a pre-multiplied color of the destination pixel. New transparencies of the destination pixel are determined at the samples in the destination pixel in response to the transparencies of the source pixels and the transparencies of the destination pixel. The method of the present invention permits rendering of polygonal two-dimensional images while eliminating overdraw, therefore using less memory bandwidth than conventional methods for rendering typical two-dimensional vector images. Thus the method is suited for mobile computing and other applications with limited memory bandwidth.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventor: Kiia K. Kallio
  • Patent number: 8638342
    Abstract: Various techniques are provided herein for the demosaicing of images acquired and processed by an imaging system. The imaging system includes an image signal processor and image sensors utilizing color filter arrays (CFA) for acquiring red, green, and blue color data using one pixel array. In one embodiment, the CFA may include a Bayer pattern. During image signal processing, demosaicing may be applied to interpolate missing color samples from the raw image pattern. In one embodiment, interpolation for the green color channel may include employing edge-adaptive filters with weighted gradients of horizontal and vertical filtered values. The red and blue color channels may be interpolated using color difference samples with co-located interpolated values of the green color channel. In another embodiment, interpolation of the red and blue color channels may be performed using color ratios (e.g., versus color difference data).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Guy Cote, Jeffrey E. Frederiksen
  • Patent number: 8638343
    Abstract: Data visualization platform optimization may be provided. Applications may provide data values and request creation of a visualization from a data visualization platform (DVP). The DVP may composite a plurality of geometry records associated with a subset of the visualization's data values. The application may render the visualization by iterating through the geometry vectors and translating a subset of the vectors into drawing instructions for output to a display device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Barry Christopher Allyn, Brian Scott Ruble
  • Patent number: 8638344
    Abstract: Some embodiments of the inventive subject matter are directed to determining a first setting(s) for presentation of content on a display of a mobile device at a distance from a user. The first setting(s) are based on analysis of characteristics associated with the mobile device. The characteristics are related to a user, an environment external to the mobile device, and content presented via the mobile device. Some embodiments are further directed to detecting a change in one or more of the characteristics in response to presentation of the content on the mobile device. The change is an event that indicates that the first setting(s) are non-optimal for presentation of the content at the distance. Some embodiments are further directed to determining second settings for presentation of content at the distance from the user based on the change in the one or more characteristics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: David Jaramillo, Robert E. Loredo, Jonathan Palgon
  • Patent number: 8638345
    Abstract: A program generation device (11) for generating a control program for causing a display device (30) to display an image in different display sizes comprises: a determination unit (116) that determines a conversion image size based on the different display sizes of the image; a conversion unit (117) that converts an item of image data representing the image into an item of image data having an image size equal to the conversion image size; and a generation unit (118) that generates a control program for causing the display device to display the image in different display sizes by using the item of image data converted by the conversion unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: NTT Docomo, Inc.
    Inventors: Yukou Miyazawa, Takahiro Ohori, Kazuya Anzawa
  • Patent number: 8638346
    Abstract: A source line driver circuit and a display apparatus including the same are provided. The source line driver circuit includes a logic block configured to receive serialized image data, to change the number of bits of the image data, and to output image data having the changed number of bits, and a source channel driver unit configured to receive the image data having the changed number of bits and to provide at least one analog voltage corresponding to the received image data to source lines. Accordingly, the number of necessary switches may be reduced, and therefore, the required area and/or current consumption may also be reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Jae Hyuck Woo, Jae Goo Lee, Won Sik Kang