Electrical Motion Detection Patents (Class 348/208.1)
  • Patent number: 9912868
    Abstract: A tilt correction apparatus includes a manipulation unit configured to designate a level of an effect of first tilt correction of an imaging apparatus having an optical axis as a rotary axis and a level of an effect of second tilt correction of the imaging apparatus having an axis orthogonal to the optical axis as a rotary axis, an electronic correction unit configured to execute at least one of the first tilt correction and the second tilt correction by moving an image clipping range set within an imaging screen, and a calculation unit configured to vary a ratio of a first tilt-correctable range and a ratio of a second tilt-correctable range from the electronic correction unit according to the level of the effect of the first tilt correction and the level of the effect of the second tilt correction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2018
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Nobushige Wakamatsu
  • Patent number: 9898845
    Abstract: In a case where a position of a recognized cell is shifted from a position of a ruled line of an actual cell, if the recognized cell is deleted, a part of the ruled line of the actual cell is deleted. According to an aspect of the present invention, straight lines are detected from regions around four sides constituting the recognized cell, and an inside of a region surrounded by the detected straight lines is deleted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2018
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hiromasa Kawasaki, Tadanori Nakatsuka, Kinya Honda, Taeko Yamazaki
  • Patent number: 9888163
    Abstract: Provided is an imaging device, including: an image acquisition unit for acquiring a plurality of images having different focal positions; an orientation acquisition unit for acquiring orientation information of the image acquisition unit; and an image processing unit for generating, from the plurality of images, an image having a depth of field which is enlarged compared to a depth of field of one of the plurality of images, in which a focal position setting value by which the focal position is determined is provided, and the focal position setting value is corrected based on the orientation information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2018
    Assignee: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Daisuke Murayama, Kei Tokui
  • Patent number: 9860553
    Abstract: Techniques related to detecting local change in video are discussed. Such techniques may include determining inlier and outlier keypoints for a current frame of a video sequence based on inlier keypoints from previous frames, detecting a region of local change based on outlier keypoints of the current and previous frames, and providing an indicator of local change based on the detected region of local change.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2018
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Dmitri Bitouk, Artem Zinevich
  • Patent number: 9843711
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, an image processing device includes an imaging element, a lens and an image processor. Light passes through the lens toward the imaging element. A relative position of the imaging element and the lens is changeable. The image processor acquires a first image and a second image. The image processor derives a first stored image by adding at least a portion of the second image to the first image. The first image is captured by the imaging element when the relative position is in a first range. The second image is captured by the imaging element when the relative position is in a second range different from the first range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2017
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Nao Mishima, Takeshi Mita, Yusuke Moriuchi
  • Patent number: 9838625
    Abstract: An image capture apparatus includes an image capture unit, a first correction unit configured to correct a black level of an image signal output from the image capture unit, a combining unit configured to select pixels to be used from among a plurality of image signals, the black level of which has been corrected by the first correction unit, to generate a combined image signal, and a second correction unit configured to correct the black level of the combined image signal generated by the combining unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2017
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Akimitsu Yoshida
  • Patent number: 9811887
    Abstract: An apparatus for stabilizing an image includes: an image analyzing unit analyzing characteristics of each block to calculate a weight of each block; a significant block extracting unit extracting, from the blocks, a block having a weight larger than a threshold value, as a significant block; a feature point extracting unit extracting a feature point from the significant block by extracting pixels of the significant block and comparing at least one of color and brightness between the pixels and neighboring pixels of the pixels; a local motion vector calculating unit calculating local motion vectors of blocks corresponding to the feature point by referring a previous frame of the frame and estimating a motion of the at least one block; a global motion vector calculating unit calculating a global motion vector based on the calculated at least one local motion vector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Assignee: SK TELECOM CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Seungho Shin
  • Patent number: 9794428
    Abstract: Systems and apparatus for sensing and video capture include at least one camera with an optical sensor that captures video image data of a first sampling rate. An auxiliary sensor captures auxiliary data at a second sample rate. A processor is communicatively connected to the optical sensor and auxiliary sensor. The processor transmits video image data captured at the first sample rate auxiliary sensor data captured at the second sampling rate across a data connection to a centralized computer that receives the video image data and the auxiliary sensor data and operate to present the video image data and the auxiliary sensor data on a graphical display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2017
    Assignee: Verint Americas Inc.
    Inventor: Roderick Matheson
  • Patent number: 9794484
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor device that can suppress the cost of a camera module from increasing. Provided is a semiconductor device which is coupled to a device that outputs positional information representing a position and includes a first external terminal to which the positional information is supplied, and a second external terminal. Sensitivity deviation information representing the deviation of the sensitivity of the device is received through the second external terminal, and a gain to amplify the positional information from the first external terminal is set on the basis of the sensitivity deviation information. Further, the first external terminal and the second external terminal are the same external terminals, and the positional information and the sensitivity deviation information are supplied in a time-division manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2017
    Assignee: Renesas Electronics Corporation
    Inventor: Toru Kitano
  • Patent number: 9762800
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus comprises: an input unit configured to input an image signal obtained by photoelectrically converting, by an image sensor, an optical image incident via an optical system including optical image stabilization unit; an acquisition unit configured to acquire optical image stabilization control information obtained by the optical image stabilization unit; and a motion of camera prediction unit configured to predict a motion of camera based on information obtained by eliminating influence of optical image stabilization by the optical image stabilization unit from the image signal input from the input unit based on the optical image stabilization control information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2017
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hidetoshi Tsubaki
  • Patent number: 9756235
    Abstract: A photographing apparatus includes: a reference contrast judging section acquiring, for each of parts of a first picked-up image obtained by an image pickup section performing image pickup at a first timing, a reference contrast; a recorded-image contrast judging section determining a contrast of each of parts of a second picked-up image obtained by the image pickup section performing image pickup for recording at a second timing later than the first timing; a focus judging section judging, for each of the parts, a state of focus of the second picked-up image by comparing the reference contrast and the contrast determined by the recorded-image contrast judging section; and a display control section displaying a judgment result together with the second picked-up image on a display section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2017
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takeshi Kindaichi, Osamu Nonaka
  • Patent number: 9723202
    Abstract: A method of capturing images includes pre-storing a plurality of image templates in a storage device, wherein each of the plurality of image templates includes a predetermined subject. An area of the predetermined subject in each of the plurality of image templates is predetermined. One of the image templates is invoked from the storage device. The predetermined subject of the invoked image template is hollowed according to the area of the predetermined subject, and a hollowed area of the invoked image template is obtained. A captured image is obtained. Once a size of the captured image is adjusted to be equal to a size of the hollowed area of the invoked image template, the hollowed area of the invoked image template is filled with the captured image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2017
    Assignee: Chiun Mai Communication Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: Shang-Wei Wu
  • Patent number: 9712748
    Abstract: A driver includes a piezoelectric sheet, a fixing frame, a moving frame, and a control circuit. The piezoelectric sheet includes a first piezoelectric body portion which bends in a first direction, a second piezoelectric body portion which bends in a second direction that intersects at right angles with the first direction, and a connection portion which connects the first and second piezoelectric body portions. The fixing frame is fixed to the connection portion. The moving frame is supported on the first and second piezoelectric body portions. The control circuit applies voltage signals to the first and second piezoelectric body portions to bend the first and second piezoelectric body portions and which moves the moving frame in one of the first direction and the second direction or in a composite direction of the first direction and the second direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2017
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventor: Sumio Kawai
  • Patent number: 9684970
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method and apparatus for adaptively executing one or more motion blur estimation methods to estimate a motion blur associated with an image target frame in an Augmented Reality environment produced by an Augmented Reality application. In one embodiment, the functions implemented include: applying a first motion blur estimation method to estimate the motion blur; determining whether computational resources are available for a second motion blur estimation method; and applying the second motion blur estimation method to estimate the motion blur in response to a determination that computational resources are available for the second motion blur estimation method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2017
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Erick Mendez Mendez, Kiyoung Kim, Youngmin Park
  • Patent number: 9681050
    Abstract: Techniques to capture and fuse short- and long-exposure images of a scene from a stabilized image capture device are disclosed. More particularly, the disclosed techniques use not only individual pixel differences between co-captured short- and long-exposure images, but also the spatial structure of occluded regions in the long-exposure images (e.g., areas of the long-exposure image(s) exhibiting blur due to scene object motion). A novel device used to represent this feature of the long-exposure image is a “spatial difference map.” Spatial difference maps may be used to identify pixels in the short-and long-exposure images for fusion and, in one embodiment, may be used to identify pixels from the short-exposure image(s) to filter post-fusion so as to reduce visual discontinuities in the output image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2017
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Claus Molgaard, Marius Tico, Rolf Toft, Paul M. Hubel
  • Patent number: 9672510
    Abstract: Real-time evaluation of high quality preview images of a document prior to capturing a final image of the document on a mobile device is disclosed. In one aspect, an image capture device is activated on the mobile device. A plurality of preview images of the document is then captured, each of which has a lower image quality than a final image to be captured by the image capture device. Next, for each of the plurality of preview images, the system measures a parameter associated with the image capturing, and related to the ability to accurately extract text and other content from a captured preview image of the document. Next, the system selects a preview image among a subset of the captured preview images that passes the image quality measurement. When a predetermined condition is met, the system chooses the selected preview image as a final captured image of the document.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: MITEK SYSTEMS, INC.
    Inventors: John J. Roach, Kevin Andrew Bell, Oleg Rybakov
  • Patent number: 9674438
    Abstract: Techniques to improve a digital image capture device's ability to stabilize a video stream in low light capture conditions are presented. In general, techniques are disclosed for stabilizing video images using an overscan region and a look-ahead technique enabled by buffering a number of video input frames before generating a first stabilized video output frame. More particularly, techniques are disclosed for buffering an initial number of input frames so that a “current” frame can use time stamped image capture device motion data from both “past” and “future” frames to adjust the strength of a stabilization metric value so as to keep the current frame within its overscan. The calculated adjustments to the strength of the stabilization metric value for a particular frame may be limited to a target max strength value that is determined based, at least in part, on an estimated amount of motion blur in the current frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jianping Zhou, Sebastien X. Beysserie
  • Patent number: 9667863
    Abstract: An information processing system that acquires first image data captured by a first camera unit disposed on a first side of a housing; acquires second image data captured by a second camera unit disposed on a second side of the housing, which is opposite to the first side of the housing; and modifies the second image data based on the first image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2017
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Hirotaka Shinozaki, Shinichi Yoshimura, Shuichi Konami, Mayuko Maruyama, Masayuki Tachi, Mitsuharu Ohki, Hideshi Yamada
  • Patent number: 9651796
    Abstract: Provided is an image shake correcting apparatus including an angular velocity sensor. A frequency separating unit separates a shake detection signal into a low frequency signal and a high frequency signal by filtering. A first image shake correcting unit performs image shake correction based on one signal of the high frequency signal and the low frequency signal and a second image shake correcting unit performs image shake correction based on the other signal. A frequency separation control unit determines the image shake correcting units to which the low frequency signal and the high frequency signal are respectively applied depending on the zoom position of the optical system of an imaging apparatus. The frequency separation control unit prohibits a change of control of the frequency separating unit during a zoom position change operation but changes control of the frequency separating unit after completion of the zoom position change operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2017
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kenichi Miyasako
  • Patent number: 9648239
    Abstract: The invention is directed to controlling shake blur and motion blur associated with an image. An exemplary method comprises: receiving a first image frame and a second image frame associated with the image; determining first movement of the camera in the first image frame or the second image frame; determining second movement of the camera between the first image frame and the second image frame; controlling, based on the first movement, at least a portion of shake blur associated with the image; and controlling, based on the second movement, at least a portion of motion blur associated with the image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2017
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Mobile Communications Inc.
    Inventors: Linus Mårtensson, Ola Thörn, Jonas Gustavsson
  • Patent number: 9646388
    Abstract: A motion compensated integration (MCI) system is disclosed. The MCI system may include a moveable platform, an optical sensor mounted to the moveable platform, an optical sensor line-of-sight measuring device configured to generate optical sensor line-of-sight movement data, and a processor in communication with the optical sensor and the optical sensor line-of-sight measuring device. The optical sensor may include a set of optics, and a focal plane array. The focal plane array may be configured to detect infrared wavelengths focused through the set of optics, and generate focal plane array data. The processor may be configured to simultaneously correct optical distortion from the set of optics and perform MCI re-registration based on the focal plane array data and the optical sensor line-of-sight movement data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2017
    Assignee: The Boeing Company
    Inventors: Kevin Paxton, Scott Myers Peterson, Scott Andrew Connors
  • Patent number: 9635276
    Abstract: An apparatus for adjusting an exposure time for an image frame is presented. The apparatus comprises at least one processing unit and at least one memory. The at least one memory stores program instructions that, when executed by the at least one processing unit, cause the apparatus to process at least one image frame, select at least one region of interest from the at least one image frame, process at least two consecutive image frames to determine a motion field, segment the motion field into at least one motion cluster, select based on the at least one region of interest and the at least one motion cluster, the most relevant motion cluster, and adjust the exposure time based on motion information of the selected most relevant motion cluster.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2017
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventor: Sumeet Sen
  • Patent number: 9635256
    Abstract: Method, device and computer program product for transmitting a video signal from a user device includes capturing a plurality of frames of the video signal using a camera at the user device, determining a functional state of the device and selectively stabilizing the video signal prior to transmission based on the functional state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2017
    Assignee: Skype
    Inventors: Christopher Owen, Pontus Carlsson
  • Patent number: 9628713
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for implementing optical image stabilization (OIS) in a mobile device. One or more functions associated with OIS may be performed by hardware and/or processing resources that are provided independently of a camera unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2017
    Assignee: InvenSense, Inc.
    Inventors: Stephen Lloyd, Mehran Ayat
  • Patent number: 9621805
    Abstract: The invention is directed to a camera deblur technique. An exemplary method comprises capturing an image using the camera, wherein the image is captured using a first sampling frequency; estimating, using pixel samples from the image and sampled with a second sampling frequency, a blur function, wherein the second sampling frequency is greater than the first sampling frequency; and performing deblur processing of the image based on the estimated blur function.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2017
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Mobile Communications Inc.
    Inventor: Jim Rasmusson
  • Patent number: 9621807
    Abstract: An optical device that is capable of reducing eccentric aberration while reducing image blur. A first shake correction unit corrects image blur optically based on a shake amount that is detected by a shake detection unit. A second shake correction unit corrects image blur optically based on a shake amount that is detected by the shake detection unit. The second shake correction unit has a different image blur correction effect from the first shake correction unit. The optical device has a mode in which shake correction is performed using the first shake correction unit without using the second shake correction unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2017
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Yu Narita
  • Patent number: 9615040
    Abstract: Embodiments perform an iterative process for enlarging a rectangle having a fixed aspect ratio within a convex polygon to find the largest rectangular area within the convex polygon. The iterative process includes detecting an intersection of one or more corners of the rectangle with the convex polygon and adjusting a position of the rectangle based on the quantity of intersecting corners. The iterative growth process continues until a maximum inscribed size of the rectangle has been determined. Some embodiments process images from bracketed photography and crop areas outside the determined maximum inscribed size when combining the images into a single image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2017
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Denis Demandolx, Thomas Lund Dideriksen
  • Patent number: 9607319
    Abstract: The presentation of advertisements to a user on a mobile communications device is disclosed. A first external input corresponding to a triggering of an advertisement delivery is received on a first input modality. An advertisement overlay is displayed in a graphical user interface in response to receiving the external input. Advertisement invocation instructions are displayed within the advertisement overlay. A second external input is received on a second input modality different from the first input modality. The second external input is translated to a set of quantified values. An advertisement is then displayed within the advertisement overlay in response to a substantial match between the set of quantified values translated from the received second external input to the set of predefined values corresponding to the advertisement invocation instructions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2017
    Assignee: Adtile Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Nils Forsblom
  • Patent number: 9596411
    Abstract: Techniques to improve a digital image capture device's ability to stabilize a video stream are presented. According to some embodiments, improved stabilization of captured video frames is provided by intelligently harnessing the complementary effects of both optical image stabilization (OIS) and electronic image stabilization (EIS). In particular, OIS may be used to remove intra-frame motion blur that is typically lower in amplitude and dominates with longer integration times, while EIS may be used to remove residual unwanted frame-to-frame motion that is typically larger in amplitude. The techniques disclosed herein may also leverage information provided from the image capture device's OIS system to perform improved motion blur-aware video stabilization strength modulation, which permits better video stabilization performance in low light conditions, where integration times tend to be longer, thus leading to a greater amount of motion blurring in the output stabilized video.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 14, 2017
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Damien J. Thivent, George E. Williams, Jianping Zhou, Richard L. Baer, Rolf Toft, Sebastien X. Beysserie
  • Patent number: 9503709
    Abstract: Devices, systems and methods employing modular camera arrays are described. A two-dimensional array of cameras may be arranged in a non-rectangular array. A first camera, a second camera, and a third camera in the array may be located approximately equidistant from each other, and/or may be arranged approximately in an equilateral triangle, an isosceles triangle, a scalene triangle, and/or a right triangle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2016
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Jianbo Shi, Daniel C. Middleton
  • Patent number: 9491381
    Abstract: An image capture apparatus includes an image capture unit, a first correction unit configured to correct a black level of an image signal output from the image capture unit, a combining unit configured to select pixels to be used from among a plurality of image signals, the black level of which has been corrected by the first correction unit, to generate a combined image signal, and a second correction unit configured to correct the black level of the combined image signal generated by the combining unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2016
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Akimitsu Yoshida
  • Patent number: 9467623
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide an image correcting apparatus for an imaging device including a camera module having a first motion sensor. The image correct apparatus includes a second motion sensor sensing a movement, and a controller determining whether the movement gets out of an operation range of the first motion sensor, and correcting an image obtained from the camera module based on movement data sensed by the second motion sensor, when the movement gets out of the operation range of the first motion sensor. Generation of blur in an image when a displacement of handshaking is at an angle equal to or greater than a correction angle of an optical image stabilizer (OIS) module is prevented, and thus, a clear image is obtained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2016
    Assignee: Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hae Seung Hyun, Hee Bum Lee
  • Patent number: 9466094
    Abstract: A method to improve video quality by suppressing noise and artifacts in difference frames of a video is described herein.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2016
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Xiaogang Dong, Jiro Takatori, Tak Shing Wong
  • Patent number: 9398217
    Abstract: One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for video stabilization and/or for image frame generation. For example, a user may instruct a video application hosted on a smart phone to capture a video at a target resolution of 1080 pixels. A padded input having a padded resolution that is larger than the target resolution may be obtained from a capture device, such as a camera of the smart phone. The padded input may be provided to a video stabilization component to obtain a target image frame having the target resolution. In this way, the video stabilization component may perform cropping using padded margin pixels (e.g., additional pixels of the padded input beyond the 1080 pixels of the target resolution) so that image upscaling after cropping (e.g., to account for global warping, etc.) may be mitigated to reduce blur that may otherwise result from image upscaling.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2016
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Jinglin Shen, Naveen Thumpudi, Jeffrey D. Day, Yongjun Wu, Sandeep Kanumuri
  • Patent number: 9398232
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for producing special effects with a video camera with a process including: receiving successive video image frames from an image sensor; storing motion effect data defining a special effect; and producing instructions to an image stabilizer such that the following one or more video image frames will be moved in at least one of X- and Y-directions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2016
    Assignee: Nokia Corporation
    Inventor: Jouni Kauhanen
  • Patent number: 9392169
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes an image data obtaining unit configured to obtain first image data which is generated by imaging an object using an imaging unit, an information obtaining unit configured to obtain photographing information of the first image data, and a file generating unit configured to generate a first image file based on the obtained first image data and the obtained photographing information. The file generating unit changes a size of an area of the first image data to be stored in the first image file according to the photographing information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2016
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Katsuhiro Wada
  • Patent number: 9392173
    Abstract: A blurred image having a spatially invariant motion blur resulting from camera motion during image capture is deblurred based on one or more light streaks identified and extracted from the blurred image. A blur kernel for the blurred image is estimated by performing an optimization procedure having a blur kernel constraint based at least in part on the light streak. One or more light streaks can in some embodiments be posed as the blur kernel constraint. A modeled light streak may be defined as a convolution between the blur kernel and a simulated light source, with the optimization procedure being to minimize a distance between the modeled light streak and the corresponding identified light streak from the blurred image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2016
    Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated
    Inventors: Jue Wang, Sunghyun Cho, Zhe Hu
  • Patent number: 9361704
    Abstract: This technique relate to an image processing device, an image processing method, an imaging device, an electronic equipment, and a program which can provide a technique to execute a highly accurate global motion search process which is robust to a local moving subject, an illumination intensity change, and the like.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2016
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takeshi Masuura, Masaru Matsuura, Naoki Kuzuya
  • Patent number: 9307149
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes determining one or more amounts of light present during recording of a multimedia clip. The method also includes determining a motion-blur metric for the multimedia clip, the motion-blur metric based at least in part on the amounts of light. The method further includes determining whether to apply a video-stabilization routine to the multimedia clip based at least in part on the motion-blur metric.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2016
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventor: Alexandre Karpenko
  • Patent number: 9270906
    Abstract: Imaging systems may be provided with stacked-chip image sensors. A stacked-chip image sensor may include a vertical chip stack that includes an array of image pixels and processing circuitry. The image pixel array may be coupled to the processing circuitry through an array of vertical metal interconnects. The image pixel array may be partitioned into image pixel sub-arrays configured to capture image data using one or more integration times. The processing circuitry may determine motion information for the image data captured by each pixel sub-array and may determine integration times for each pixel sub-array. The pixel sub-arrays may capture additional image data using the determined integration times. The additional image data may be combined to generate final image frames having short integration pixel values and long integration pixel values. The processing circuitry may output the final image frames to off-chip image processing circuitry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2016
    Assignee: Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC
    Inventors: Honghong Peng, Brian Keelan
  • Patent number: 9270897
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a correction parameter calculation unit for calculating a motion blur correction parameter for motion blur correction on the basis of motion information indicating a motion of an image between unit images, the unit images forming image data, and shutter speed information obtained at the image capturing of the image data, and a motion blur correction processing unit for correcting a motion blur quantity contained in the image data by performing at least a process of reducing a motion blur in accordance with the motion blur correction parameter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2016
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Atsushi Ito, Seiji Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 9241100
    Abstract: A portable device has a display, a display processor displays a magnification image on a screen of the display, and an input device. The portable device further has a display-area shift processor that shifts the magnification-image-display area in accordance to an input operation administered to the input device, and a position sensor that detects an angle of inclination of the body. Then, The display processor changes the magnification-image-display area to an image area that is inclined by an angle corresponding to the angle of inclination, and the display-area shift processor changes shift directions of the magnification-image-display area from vertical and lateral directions of the original image to directions that are perpendicular to each other and correspond to inclined vertical and lateral directions rotated by the angle of inclination.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 19, 2016
    Assignee: RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventor: Tetsuaki Kato
  • Patent number: 9224212
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus configured to detect a position deviation between a first image and a second image includes a first memory configured to store motion vectors between the first image and the second image as a first motion vector group, a second memory configured to store, as a second motion vector group, motion vectors extracted from the first motion vector group determined to have a higher reliability than a predetermined threshold, an acceptable motion vector selection unit configured to calculate a temporary position deviation parameter from the second motion vector group, and select the motion vectors representing the position deviation as an acceptable motion vector group from the first motion vector group, using the temporary position deviation parameter, and a parameter estimation unit configured to estimate the position deviation parameter representing the position deviation from the acceptable motion vector group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2015
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Shota Yamaguchi
  • Patent number: 9189835
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for robust estimation of a non-uniform motion blur that may reduce an amount of the non-uniform motion blur information, that is, a number of homographies by estimating non-uniform motion blur information about a blur in a predetermined area, thereby reducing an amount of time needed to remove the non-uniform motion blur, and may improve accuracy and stability of the non-uniform motion blur information by estimating homographies for an input image while increasing a number of the homographies, iteratively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2015
    Assignees: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD., POSTECH ACADEMY-INDUSTRY FOUNDATION POHANG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Jung Uk Cho, Seung Yong Lee, Young Su Moon, Shi Hwa Lee, Chi Young Lee, Sung Hyun Cho, Ho Jin Cho
  • Patent number: 9167135
    Abstract: An image processing device includes: a motion-vector computation unit that computes a motion vector between a base image and a reference image; a motion compensation unit that performs a motion compensation to align the reference image with the base image based on the motion vector; a contrast computation unit that computes a contrast value of a target pixel of the base image based on one of the base image and the reference image; a synthetic ratio computation unit that computes a synthetic ratio between: the target pixel for a synthesis processing in the base image; and a corresponding pixel corresponding to the target pixel in the reference image processed by the motion compensation, in response to the contrast value of the target pixel; and a synthesizing unit that synthesizes the target pixel of the base image and the corresponding pixel of the reference image based on the synthetic ratio.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2015
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Eiji Furukawa
  • Patent number: 9097541
    Abstract: A driving support device includes a maximum measurement range determination unit adapted to calculate a distance to a plurality of points on a surface of an object present at surroundings of a vehicle. A distance sensor such as a laser range finder or a stereo camera that measures a distance is used in order to estimate bias of an acceleration sensor with high accuracy upon correction of the bias by use of the distance sensor such as the stereo camera or the LRF in a GPS non-receiving section. A sensor parameter estimation unit is adapted to estimate a parameter of the acceleration sensor based on a behavior of an own vehicle obtained from a vehicle translation and rotation angle calculation means adapted to count backwards the vehicle behavior based on distance variation and also based on a measurement value of the acceleration sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2015
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Mikio Bando, Yukihiro Kawamata, Toshiyuki Aoki
  • Patent number: 9066014
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes determining one or more motions of a camera, where the motions correspond to movements of the camera during recording of a multimedia clip. The method also includes determining one or more amounts of light present during the recording, and from the determined motions and amounts of light, determining a motion-blur metric for the multimedia clip. The method further includes determining whether to apply a video-stabilization routine to the multimedia clip based on the motion-blur metric.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2015
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventor: Alexandre Karpenko
  • Patent number: 9042673
    Abstract: Provided is a method and apparatus for deblurring a non-uniform motion blur in an input image, that may restore a clearer image by dividing a large scale input image into tiles corresponding to partial areas, selecting, among the divided tiles, an optimal tile for a partial area most suitable for estimating non-uniform motion blur information, and effectively removing an artifact in an outer portion of a tile through padding of each tile.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignees: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD., POSTECH ACADEMY-INDUSTRY FOUNDATION POHANG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Jung Uk Cho, Seung Yong Lee, Young Su Moon, Shi Hwa Lee, Chi Young Lee, Sung Hyun Cho, Ho Jin Cho
  • Patent number: 9041817
    Abstract: A Digital Image Stabilization apparatus and method applies a Principal transform including a rotational motion component to a source frame and interpolates and outputs the image data of each pixel of an entire row of the destination frame in raster order. A first step identification the diagonally oriented meta-rows of source frame data that correspond to the pixels of an entire row of the destination frame, based on the principal transform coefficients. A second step is to horizontalize the source frame data of the meta-rows that correspond to the pixels of an entire row of the destination frame, by storing each meta-row of source frame data into one row of a memory buffer, such as a multi-line buffer. Then, a moving-window interpolation step sequentially interpolates based on the principal transform coefficients and outputs the image data of an entire row of the destination frame in raster order.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: ChinCheng Lin, Yongjian Zhou
  • Publication number: 20150138380
    Abstract: An image pickup apparatus capable of detecting a motion vector and selecting a vector search method which enables effects to be always obtained in various usages of a camera, taking into account load balancing with the performance. One input image is set as a reference image, and the other input image is set as a search target image. Using a template having a predetermined size on the reference image, a motion vector is detected from the search target image. A determination index associated with frequency of occurrence of parallax conflict is calculated. When the determination index is not larger than a threshold value, a first detection method using a single layer is selected, whereas when the determination index is larger than the threshold value, a second detection method using a plurality of layers is selected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 19, 2014
    Publication date: May 21, 2015
    Inventor: Hidetoshi TSUBAKI