For Removal Of Low Amplitude Random Noise (e.g., Variable Bandwidth) Patents (Class 348/618)
  • Patent number: 11963668
    Abstract: An endoscope system includes a light source apparatus configured to cause light of a plurality of colors to be emitted at a first/second light amount ratio to generate first/second illumination light, an endoscope configured to generate an image pickup signal, and a processing apparatus including a processor. The processor causes the light source apparatus to emit light while switching light between the first/second illumination light, generates a first image signal from an image pickup signal related to the first illumination light, generates a second image signal from an image pickup signal related to the second illumination light and generates a corrected image signal in which color is enhanced based on the first and the second image signals. The second illumination light is light obtained by adjusting the second light amount ratio so that the second image signal related to a reference portion substantially indicates achromatic color.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2024
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kenji Yamazaki
  • Patent number: 11860370
    Abstract: Augmented reality and virtual reality display systems and devices are configured for efficient use of projected light. In some aspects, a display system includes a light projection system and a head-mounted display configured to project light into an eye of the user to display virtual image content. The head-mounted display includes at least one waveguide comprising a plurality of in-coupling regions each configured to receive, from the light projection system, light corresponding to a portion of the user's field of view and to in-couple the light into the waveguide; and a plurality of out-coupling regions configured to out-couple the light out of the waveguide to display the virtual content, wherein each of the out-coupling regions are configured to receive light from different ones of the in-coupling regions. In some implementations, each in-coupling region has a one-to-one correspondence with a unique corresponding out-coupling region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2024
    Assignee: Magic Leap, Inc.
    Inventor: Brian T. Schowengerdt
  • Patent number: 10985806
    Abstract: Using a transformation based at least in part on a non-simple orthogonal or unitary matrix, data may be transmitted over a data bus in a manner that is resilient to one or more types of signal noise, that does not require a common reference at the transmission and acquisition points, and/or that has a pin-efficiency that is greater than 50% and may approach that of single-ended signaling. Such transformations may be implemented in hardware in an efficient manner. Hybrid transformers that apply such transformations to selected subsets of signals to be transmitted may be used to adapt to various signal set sizes and/or transmission environment properties including noise and physical space requirements of given transmission environments.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2021
    Assignee: Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale De Lausanne
    Inventors: Harm Cronie, Amin Shokrollahi
  • Patent number: 10601885
    Abstract: Content, such as a video game, may be delivered by a content provider to a destination using, for example, streaming content delivery techniques. The transmission of the content may be monitored in order to determine transmission conditions such as a quality of the network connection from the content provider to the destination. The determined transmission conditions may then be used to determine adjustments to a complexity of various scenes associated with the content. For example, in some cases, when transmission conditions are unfavorable, scenes may be adjusted by reducing a complexity of the scenes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2020
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Gerard Joseph Heinz, II, Jonathan Paul Thompson, Venelin Nikolaev Efremov
  • Patent number: 10542291
    Abstract: An adaptive video noise reduction (AVNR) engine reduces noise in streaming video. The engine reads embedded information in the streaming video describing attributes of the video, such as bit rate, frame rate, resolution, content type and quality of the streaming video. The information may be included in a manifest of the streaming video. Based on the video attributes, the engine outputs one or more input values to applications that reduce noise of the streaming video. The one or more applications may reduce mosquito, block, temporal, random and banding noise of the video in response to the input values from the engine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2020
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Stacey Spears, Haoyun Wu, Wenbo Zhang, Sudhakar Prabhu
  • Patent number: 10349900
    Abstract: A device for extracting physiological information indicative of at least one vital sign of a subject from detected electromagnetic radiation transmitted through or reflected from a subject comprises an input interface for receiving a data stream of detection data derived from detected electromagnetic radiation transmitted through or reflected from a skin region of a subject. The detection data comprises wavelength-dependent reflection or transmission information in at least two signal channels representative of respective wavelength portions. A signal mixer dynamically mixes the at least two signal channels into at least one mixed signal. A processor derives physiological information indicative of at least one vital sign from the at least one mixed signal, and a controller controls the signal mixer to limit the relative contributions of the at least two signal channels mixed into at least one mixed signal and/or the rate-of-change at which said relative contributions are allowed to dynamically change.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2019
    Assignee: KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.
    Inventor: Gerard De Haan
  • Patent number: 10355756
    Abstract: Using a transformation based at least in part on a non-simple orthogonal or unitary matrix, data may be transmitted over a data bus in a manner that is resilient to one or more types of signal noise, that does not require a common reference at the transmission and acquisition points, and/or that has a pin-efficiency that is greater than 50% and may approach that of single-ended signaling. Such transformations may be implemented in hardware in an efficient manner. Hybrid transformers that apply such transformations to selected subsets of signals to be transmitted may be used to adapt to various signal set sizes and/or transmission environment properties including noise and physical space requirements of given transmission environments.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2019
    Assignee: Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale De Lausanne
    Inventors: Harm Cronie, Amin Shokrollahi
  • Patent number: 10032402
    Abstract: System, method, and device for maximizing brightness of solid-state illuminators while minimizing power usage based on individual scene contents. An embodiment varies power to each of the solid-state illuminators (red, green, & blue) based on the scene content that is being displayed optimizing the non-linear brightness response of solid-state illuminators.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2018
    Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventor: Jeffrey Matthew Kempf
  • Patent number: 9959599
    Abstract: A system for enhancing an image includes a cadence detection process that detects a cadence of a series of frames, a scene cut detection process that detects a scene cut of the series of frames, and a noise monitoring process that detects noise in the series of frames based upon the cadence detection process. The system also includes a temporal filtering process temporally filtering the series of frames wherein the temporal filtering is modified based upon the scene cut detection process and the noise monitoring process, and a spatial noise reduction process reducing spatial noise in the series of frames wherein the reducing spatial noise is modified based upon the modified temporally filtered frames and the noise monitoring process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2018
    Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America, Inc.
    Inventors: Anustup Kumar A. Choudhury, Christopher Andrew Segall, Mark DeNies
  • Patent number: 9832398
    Abstract: A camera system is described, particularly for a vehicle, the camera system having at least: a camera which has an image sensor and a filter mask, and a control and evaluation device which receives image signals output by the image sensor, the image sensor having an array of sensor pixels outputting pixel signals, and the filter mask having an array of filters which are disposed in front of the sensor pixels and have different wavelength-selective transmission response, a portion of the filters being attenuation filters, and sensor pixels, in front of which in each case one of the attenuation filters is disposed, outputting attenuation pixel signals. The attenuation filters advantageously attenuate white light more strongly than the other filters of the filter mask; in particular, they are blue pixels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2017
    Assignee: ROBERT BOSCH GMBH
    Inventors: Frank Moesle, Daniela Weiss, Paul Ruhnau, Dimitrios Bariamis
  • Patent number: 9712821
    Abstract: Provided is an image processing apparatus which includes a setting unit assigning a control block, which is a control unit of a filter process that is locally performed with respect to an image, to an initial position of the image determined based on a predetermined reference point; a movement unit moving the control block, which has been assigned to the initial position of the image by the setting unit, up to a position in which the result of the filter process is improved; and a filter processing unit performing the filter process for the respective control blocks which has been moved by the movement unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2017
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kondo Kenji
  • Patent number: 9583068
    Abstract: An image display apparatus includes a display unit configured to display an image, an information acquisition unit configured to extract a target image and a comparison image, to cut first and second regions from the extracted target image, to cut third and fourth regions from the extracted comparison image, and to obtain an image feature quantity of each of the first to fourth regions, a comparison unit configured to perform comparison of the image feature quantities of the first region and the third region, and to perform comparison of the image feature quantities of the second region and the fourth region, and a feature quantity setting unit configured to perform weighting to the first region and the second region based on the comparison result of the comparison unit, and to obtain an image feature quantity of the entire target image based on the result of weighting.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2017
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Tatsuhiko Nobori
  • Patent number: 9576344
    Abstract: In order to make it possible to reduce the storage capacity required for noise removal processing in, for example, multi-resolution analysis and the like, without affecting signal quality, the present invention is equipped with: a storage device into which a input signal of a first channel is written, the input signal branching off into at least first and second channels; a first frequency transform processing unit which transforms the input signal read out and inputted from the storage device into a frequency-domain to output a first signal; a second frequency transform processing unit which transforms the input signal inputted from the second system into a frequency-domain to output a second signal; a third frequency transform processing unit which transforms the second input signal inputted from the second frequency transform processing unit into a frequency range to output a third and fourth signals in the first and second frequency bands; a first inverse frequency transform processing unit; and a second
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2017
    Assignee: NEC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Eita Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 9495731
    Abstract: A method for attenuating banding in image data may involve receiving a stream of input pixels. The method may then include applying a bi-lateral filter to a first portion of the stream of input pixels to generate a first filtered output and applying a high pass filter to a second portion of the stream of input pixels to generate a second filtered output. The method may then determine a local activity and a local intensity associated with the first portion of the stream. The method may then include blending the first filtered output with the first portion of the stream of input pixels based at least in part on the local activity and the local intensity to generate a third filtered output. Afterward, the method may combine the third filtered output with the second filtered output to generate a fourth filtered output that may be output as the image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2016
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jim C. Chou, Guy Cote, Haiyan He
  • Patent number: 9417156
    Abstract: A method and device for assessing damage to a rolling bearing caused by bearing currents, in particular high-frequency bearing currents, in an electric machine which is electrically connected to an inverter, in particular to an inverter having a DC voltage link circuit, is described. The rolling bearing has a lubrication gap between an inner bearing ring and a rolling body and between an outer bearing ring and the rolling body. The method includes detecting the energy of an electric discharge event in the lubrication gaps, searching for a coincident event having a frequency above one GHz indicative of a damaging bearing current event, detecting a frequency of occurrence of discharge events, and evaluating the discharge events by correlating the frequency of occurrence and the energy of the discharge events.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2016
    Assignee: SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
    Inventors: Sven Gattermann, Ralf Kowalewski, Carsten Probol, Arno Steckenborn, Oliver Theile, Hans Tischmacher
  • Patent number: 9288089
    Abstract: Using a transformation based at least in part on a non-simple orthogonal or unitary matrix, data may be transmitted over a data bus in a manner that is resilient to one or more types of signal noise, that does not require a common reference at the transmission and acquisition points, and/or that has a pin-efficiency that is greater than 50% and may approach that of single-ended signaling. Such transformations may be implemented in hardware in an efficient manner. Hybrid transformers that apply such transformations to selected subsets of signals to be transmitted may be used to adapt to various signal set sizes and/or transmission environment properties including noise and physical space requirements of given transmission environments.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)
    Inventors: Harm Cronie, Amin Shokrollahi
  • Patent number: 9094077
    Abstract: A receiver for receiving digital data after transmission through a channel which produces inter-symbol interference or other distortion. In one embodiment, a received signal is differentiated before being digitized to form an output digital bit stream, to reduce the effects of inter-symbol interference and other distortion in the channel. The differentiated signal is compared to two threshold values, a first threshold value, and a second threshold value, the first threshold value being greater than the second threshold value. When the differentiated signal exceeds the first threshold, the output bit is 1, when the differentiated signal is less than the second threshold value, the output bit is 0, and when the differentiated signal is between the first threshold value and the second threshold value, the output bit is the same as the previous output bit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2015
    Assignee: Samsung Display Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Nasrin Jaffari
  • Patent number: 9007395
    Abstract: Devices, systems, apparatuses, methods, and other embodiments associated with bit resolution enhancement are described. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes logic configured to produce a high-resolution pixel from a low-resolution pixel. The apparatus includes logic configured to classify the high-resolution pixel as being in a smooth region of an image based on at least one of a gradient value and a variance value associated with the low-resolution pixel. The apparatus includes logic configured to selectively re-classify the high-resolution pixel as not being in the smooth region of the image based on a set of neighboring high-resolution pixels associated with high-resolution pixel. The apparatus includes logic configured to selectively filter the high-resolution pixel based on whether the high-resolution pixel remains classified as being in the smooth region of the image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2015
    Assignee: Marvell World Trade Ltd.
    Inventors: Vasudev Bhaskaran, Nikhil Balram, Sujith Srinivasan, Sanjay Garg
  • Patent number: 8860885
    Abstract: The display apparatus includes a video receiver which receives a video signal from an external source; a video processor which processes the video signal received in the video receiver to be displayable on a display unit; and a noise processor which determines frequency position information of an interference signal component from a frequency domain of sync sections extracted from the video signal with regard to the interference signal component mixed in a predetermined frequency band of the video signal and causing noise in a display image displayed on the display unit, and compensates the display image based on the determined frequency position information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Young-ho Choi
  • Patent number: 8797462
    Abstract: A band processing circuit which generates image signals corresponding to different frequency bands from an image signal in which signals corresponding to different colors are arranged and which suppresses noise by synthesizing the image signals of the different frequency bands, a sampling circuit which generates image signal corresponding to the colors by sampling the image signal input from the band processing circuit in accordance with a predetermined arrangement, and a luminance/color generation circuit which generates a luminance signal in which aliasing is suppressed using an image signal output from the sampling circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 5, 2014
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Shinya Hirai
  • Patent number: 8675137
    Abstract: An apparatus and a method for adaptive filtering includes an antenna that receives analog video broadcast signal data; an analog-to-digital converter coupled to the antenna and converting the received analog video broadcast signal data to digital video signal data; a frame buffer memory storing the digital video signal data; an instruction memory storing adaptive filtering instructions; and an adaptive filter coupled to the memory and the analog-to-digital converter, wherein the adaptive filter: reads the adaptive filter instructions from the memory; executes the adaptive filter instructions; averages an input pixel with a corresponding pixel stored in the frame buffer memory; calculates a forgetting factor for each pixel in the plurality of pixel values stored in the frame buffer memory; and filters noise from each pixel of the plurality of pixel values stored in the frame buffer memory based on the forgetting factor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 18, 2014
    Assignee: Newport Media, Inc.
    Inventors: Ahmed Ragab Elsherif, Mohamed Abd El-Salam Ali, Nabil Yousef Wasily
  • Patent number: 8654257
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes an image signal input unit that receives an input of an image signal representing an image to be displayed, a noise reduction unit that performs noise reduction for reducing the noise contained in the image signal, and an image quality adjustment unit that performs image quality adjustment for adjusting the displayed image quality of the image on the image signal that has undergone the noise reduction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2008
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2014
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Katsuya Ota
  • Patent number: 8654258
    Abstract: A method and system for detecting and estimating noise in a video signal. For example, detail edges may be identified in a plurality of pixels, wherein each detail edge has an edge magnitude value. The detail edges in the plurality of pixels may be identified by: determining one or more directionality values for the plurality of pixels by passing the input video signal through at least one directional filter, and identifying the detail edges by assigning edge magnitude values based on whether the one or more directionality values exceed predetermined threshold levels. An edge map of the detail edges may be created, where the edge map is configured to indicate areas of the plurality of pixels to be considered or ignored in estimating the noise in the input video signal. The noise in the input video signal may then be estimated based on the indicated areas of the edge map.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2014
    Assignee: Marvell International Ltd.
    Inventors: Ankit Ghiya, Shilpi Sahu
  • Patent number: 8654259
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display device (101) of the present invention includes an NR circuit (106) for carrying out a signal processing process in which a predetermined noise amount is added to or subtracted from data of a target pixel in accordance with a result of a comparison of signal levels between the target pixel and at least two surrounding pixels which are beside the target pixel, the NR circuit (106) adding or subtracting the predetermined noise amount to or from data of respective pixels adjacent to each other temporally or positionally in respective different signal processing processes. This allows providing a liquid crystal display device having a noise reduction effect. It is thus possible to provide a liquid crystal display device enabling less blur of an image after a noise reduction process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2014
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takaji Numao, Seiichi Gohshi, Takashi Mine
  • Patent number: 8610800
    Abstract: An image processing device is comprised of: a frequency component resolution section for resolving an image obtained from an image sensor having a light-shielded pixel area and a non-light-shielded pixel area into two or more frequency components; a noise amount calculation section for calculating a noise amount for the frequency component based on the frequency component in the light-shielded pixel area; a noise suppression section for suppressing the noise component for the frequency component in the non-light-shielded pixel area according to the noise amount that has been calculated by the noise amount calculation section; and a frequency component synthesis section for synthesizing the frequency component that has been resolved by the frequency component resolution section to thereby form an image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2013
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hideki Ikedo
  • Publication number: 20130265497
    Abstract: Provided are a filtering method and apparatus for removing blocking artifacts and ringing noise. The filtering method includes transforming video data on a block-by-block basis, and detecting the presence of an edge region in the video data by checking the distribution of values obtained by the transformation. Accordingly, it is possible to completely remove blocking artifacts and/or ringing noise by more effectively detecting the presence of an edge region in video data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 3, 2013
    Publication date: October 10, 2013
    Inventors: Jeong-Hoon PARK, Yong-je KIM, Yung-lyul LEE
  • Publication number: 20130242198
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for reducing noise of a video image are provided. The method includes: reducing noise in a difference between a current frame and a previous frame in which temporal noise is reduced; detecting motion information about the current frame based on the difference in which the noise is reduced; reducing temporal noise in the current frame via a weighted sum of the current frame and the previous frame in which the temporal noise is reduced, according to the motion information; and reducing spatial noise in the current frame based on an edge direction of the current frame in which the temporal noise is reduced.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 14, 2013
    Publication date: September 19, 2013
    Applicants: Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation, Yonsei University, SAMSUNG TECHWIN CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Chang-min LEE, Moon-gi KANG, Sang-wook PARK, Min-seok LEE
  • Patent number: 8363166
    Abstract: A Gaussian filter 2 having a first cutoff frequency extracts a low frequency component signal of a video signal. A subtracter 3 extracts a high frequency component signal by subtracting the low frequency component signal from the video signal. A low pass filter 5 having a second cutoff frequency higher than the first cutoff frequency extracts a lower high frequency component signal, which is a low-frequency-side signal of the high frequency component signal. A multiplier 6 generates a corrected component signal by multiplying the lower high frequency component signal by a predetermined gain G1. An adder 7 adds the corrected component signal to the video signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2013
    Assignee: JVC Kenwood Corporation
    Inventors: Sachiko Nakatsuka, Kenji Kubota, Hideki Aiba, Junichi Hasegawa, Satoshi Toyoshima
  • Patent number: 8358871
    Abstract: A skewed image data detecting and correcting device includes a skew angle detecting module, and an image rotating correction module. A skewed image data detecting and correcting method includes the following steps. Firstly, a binary digitizing operation is performed to obtain a binary image data. The binary image data is rotated by multiple different rotating angles, thereby obtaining multiple rotated binary image data. The pixel numbers of all horizontal rows of the rotated binary image data are totalized, thereby obtaining multiple horizontal pixel number distribution curves. A high-pass filtering procedure is performed to filter off low-frequency noise, thereby obtaining multiple high-frequency signal curves. The square sums of respective high-frequency signal curves are calculated, thereby obtaining multiple index values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 22, 2013
    Assignee: AVerMedia Information, Inc.
    Inventors: Chien-Hui Tu, Cheng-Yueh Lo, De-Wei Huang, Yung-Hsi Wu
  • Patent number: 8334932
    Abstract: An image processing device includes a target correction amount calculating unit operable to calculate a target correction amount based on input image signals, a frame memory operable to store the input image signals, and a scene change amount calculating unit operable to calculate a scene change amount based on an input image signal of a present frame and an input image signal of a previous frame. Moreover, the image processing device includes a correction amount calculating unit operable to calculate a correction amount for the input image signal of the present frame, based on the target correction amount and the scene change amount, and a correcting unit operable to perform image quality correction to the input image signal of the present frame to generate a corrected input image signal, thereby outputting a corrected input image signal as an output image signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2012
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Shinya Kiuchi, Jun Ikeda, Shuichi Ojima, Tsuyoshi Hirashima, Ryouta Hata
  • Patent number: 8335392
    Abstract: A method for reducing image artifacts in an image that includes a number of pixels each of which includes at least one video information value, includes generating a plurality of filter coefficients for at least some of the pixels of the image, on the basis of which the video information values of the pixels can be reconstructed. Artifact detection is performed to detect artifact regions within the image. At least some filter coefficients of those pixels that lie within the artifact regions are modified to generate modified filter coefficients. The video information values are synthesized using the filter coefficients, the modified filter coefficients being employed for the synthesis for pixels lying within the artifact regions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2012
    Assignee: Entropic Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Ulrich Niedermeier, Peter Rieder
  • Patent number: 8289451
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for automatic reduction of noise in video signals transmitted over conductors is presented. The present invention provides an adjustable amount of noise filtering matched to the amount of gain provided by an adjustable gain amplifier to a received video signal. One or more stages of a multi-stage discrete gain amplifier is provided with a corresponding noise filter circuit. The filter circuit is matched to the frequency response of and the amount of gain provided by the discrete gain amplifier stage. When the amplifier stage is applied to the received signal, the corresponding noise filter for that stage is invoked as well. In that manner, the amount of noise filtering applied to a video signal automatically varies with the amount of amplification provided to that signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2012
    Assignee: RGB Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: Raymond William Hall
  • Patent number: 8284313
    Abstract: A noise determining apparatus is provided. The noise determining apparatus includes a video determiner which determines type of video according to a pre-set criterion, a noise level determiner which determines a level of noise with reference to output from the video determiner, and a noise determiner which determines presence or absence of noise with reference to output from the noise level determiner. Accordingly, incorrect discrimination between a texture area of low level which is similar to noise and noise having a great level difference with respect to neighboring pixels is reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2012
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Mi-yeon Lee, Seung-hoon Han
  • Patent number: 8279345
    Abstract: A system and method for estimating random noise in an image frame or a sequence of image frames are presented. In some embodiments, the method includes performing Global Noise Estimation by comparing current and past filtered frames; converting global noise estimates into local noise estimates using estimated noise parameters based on current input image's local mean intensity; and providing local noise estimates to an adapted generic spatio-temporal filter. A parameter-based noise model is applied in the noise calculation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Incorporated
    Inventors: Francois Rossignol, Chon Tam Ledinh
  • Patent number: 8270756
    Abstract: An image noise detection method is disclosed. The image noise detection method includes the following steps: obtaining a spatial information of an image; obtaining a temporal information of the image; and determining a spatial noise or a temporal noise of the image according to both the spatial information, and the temporal information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2012
    Assignee: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
    Inventors: Hsin-Ying Ou, Po-Wei Chao
  • Patent number: 8264614
    Abstract: A method for video processing based on motion-aligned spatio-temporal steering kernel regression may include estimating local spatio-temporal steering parameters at pixels in input video data. The method may also include using the local spatio-temporal steering parameters to apply motion-aligned spatio-temporal steering kernel regression to the input video data to perform at least one of upscaling and noise smoothing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2012
    Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America, Inc.
    Inventors: Petrus J. L. Van Beek, Hiroyuki Takeda
  • Patent number: 8237870
    Abstract: Disclosed is a receiver system, capable of receiving RF signals on television channels of multiple bandwidths. The receiver system includes a tuner, an analog IF filter, an ADC, a mixer module, one or more digital filters, an AGC module and a controller. The tuner converts an RF signal into an IF signal using a mixer frequency. The analog IF filter filters out a fixed band signal from the IF signal. The ADC module converts the fixed band signal into a digital signal, which is filtered by digital filters. The output of the digital filters is converted to a base band signal and the power level of the base band signal is controlled by the AGC module. The controller selects a mixer frequency from a group of mixer frequencies based on a function of power of the output of the AGC module by applying each mixer frequency to the tuner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2012
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Parveen K Shukla, Bernard Arambepola, Thushara Hewavithana
  • Patent number: 8212932
    Abstract: A method and system for detecting and estimating noise in a video signal. For example, with a video signal containing low power Gaussian noise, identifying a low-activity region in the input video signal, in which the pixels in the identified region have magnitude values within a range, and creating a histogram from the pixels in the identified region. Once a minimum number of pixels have been sorted into the histogram, estimating the standard deviation on the magnitude values of the pixels to estimate the noise that should be removed from the signal. An edge map or a binary map indicating pixels for inclusion in the estimation may be used to aid in the detection of low-activity regions of the input video signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2012
    Assignee: Marvell International Ltd
    Inventors: Ankit Ghiya, Shilpi Sahu
  • Patent number: 8180169
    Abstract: A first sigma filtering circuit sigma filters an image to produce a filtered image. An analysis circuit processes the sigma filtered image to produce an approximation part and a detail part. A second sigma filter circuit filters the approximation part to produce a sigma filtered approximation part. Another analysis circuit process the sigma filtered approximation part to produce a second approximation part and a second detail part. A third sigma filter circuit sigma filters the second approximation part to produce a sigma filtered second filtered approximation part. A first synthesizer synthesizes the sigma filtered second filtered approximation part and the second detailed part to produce a first reconstructed image, and a second synthesizer synthesizes the first reconstructed image and the first detail part to produce a final filtered image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2012
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventor: Stuart A. Schweid
  • Patent number: 8169546
    Abstract: A technique for providing stable tracking performance to an AGC loop circuit comprises amplifying a wideband radio frequency signal; detecting signals and blockers adjacent to the radio frequency signal; lowering a gain of the radio frequency signal; mixing a local oscillator signal with the radio frequency signal; shifting a frequency of the radio frequency signal from a radio frequency to an intermediate frequency; continuously varying a gain of the intermediate frequency signal; converting the intermediate frequency signal into a digital output signal; comparing the digital output signal with predefined thresholds comprising an upper threshold and a lower threshold; switching a post mixer amplifier (PMA) to a high gain state when an input of a variable gain amplifier (VGA) is greater than the upper threshold, and switching the PMA to a low gain state when an input of the VGA is lower than the lower threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2012
    Assignee: Newport Media, Inc.
    Inventors: Xiaoyu Fu, Jun Ma, Waleed M. Younis, Nabil Yousef, Janakan Sivasubramaniam, Edward Youssoufian
  • Patent number: 7995149
    Abstract: Subjectively weighting noise measurements for multiple video formats based upon a defined standard for a standard definition video format uses a ratio between the active line time for the standard definition video format and the active line time for another video format to be measured in order to rescale a unified weighting filter for the standard definition video format for the another video format.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2004
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2011
    Assignee: Tektronix, Inc.
    Inventor: Kevin M. Ferguson
  • Patent number: 7970234
    Abstract: A post-processing circuit for processing an image signal according to frequency components of an image signal includes: a low-frequency extracting unit outputting a low-frequency image component of the image signal as a low-frequency signal; a high-frequency extracting unit multiplying a high-frequency image component of the image signal by a first gain and outputting the multiplication product as a high-frequency signal; an intermediate-frequency extracting unit multiplying an intermediate-frequency image component of the image signal by a second gain and outputting the multiplication product as an intermediate-frequency signal; and an adder adding the low-frequency signal, the high-frequency signal, and the intermediate-frequency signal and outputting the addition sum as a post-processed signal, wherein the first gain and the second gain are differently set according to a pixel location in a spatial domain.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2011
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Sung-cheol Park, Jae-hong Park, E-woo Chon, Mi-kyoung Seo
  • Patent number: 7808557
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for automatic reduction of noise in video signals transmitted over conductors is presented. The present invention provides an adjustable amount of noise filtering matched to the amount of gain provided by an adjustable gain amplifier to a received video signal. One or more stages of a multi-stage discrete gain amplifier is provided with a corresponding noise filter circuit. The filter circuit is matched to the frequency response of and the amount of gain provided by the discrete gain amplifier stage. When the amplifier stage is applied to the received signal, the corresponding noise filter for that stage is invoked as well. In that manner, the amount of noise filtering applied to a video signal automatically varies with the amount of amplification provided to that signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2010
    Assignee: RGB Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: Raymond William Hall
  • Publication number: 20100238356
    Abstract: Low frequency components are extracted from a video signal for pixels in a specific area of an image carried by the signal. The low frequency components are allocated, based on luminance components of the signal, to gradations ranging from maximum to minimum levels exhibited by the luminance components, luminance histogram data being produced indicating the frequency of gradations for the pixels. The gradations are allocated to the pixels based on the luminance components to produce high-frequency component histogram data indicating the frequency of gradations for specific pixels each carrying a high frequency component. The luminance histogram data is corrected in accordance with the frequency of gradations in the high-frequency component histogram data to produce corrected luminance histogram data. A gradation correction curve is produced for correcting the gradations exhibited by the signal using the corrected data. The luminance components are corrected based on the correction curve.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 15, 2010
    Publication date: September 23, 2010
    Applicant: Victor Company of Japan, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shingo Kida, Kenji Kubota
  • Patent number: 7724307
    Abstract: Aspects of noise reduction in digital video may comprise monitoring at least one of memory usage and memory bandwidth usage of memory utilized to process video data. The aspect may further comprise adaptively adjusting filtering of the video data according to the monitoring. At least one of impulse filtering, temporal filtering, and spatial filtering may be utilized for the filtering of the video data. At least one of the impulse filtering, the temporal filtering, and the spatial filtering may be adaptively adjusted based on the monitoring. Furthermore, at least one of motion information and edge information may be estimated from the video data for utilizing in at least one of the impulse filtering, the temporal filtering, and the spatial filtering. At least one of the estimated motion information and the estimated edge information may be adaptively adjusted based on the monitoring.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Wade K. Wan, Jason C. Demas, Darren Neuman
  • Patent number: 7663701
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and apparatus for noise reduction include noise estimation from blanking interval information. Such systems, methods, and apparatus may also include temporal filtering, scene change detection, inverse telecine, and/or DC preservation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2010
    Assignee: ATI Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Diego P. de Garrido, Paul Gehman, Jon McAllister
  • Patent number: 7657113
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for denoising digital images or videos, which is an extension of the spatial varying filter (SVF) by using a past filtered pixel, instead of the current pixel itself as the input for producing an output for the current pixel. Based on this concept, a number of denoising filters are provided, including Auto-regressive Spatial Varying Filter (ARSVF), Modified Auto-regressive Spatial Varying Filter (MARSVF), Auto-Regressive Spatiotemporal Varying Filter (ARSTVF) which is an extension of Spatiotemporal Varying Filter (STVF), Auto-regressive Motion Compensated Spatiotemporal Varying Filter (ARMCSTVF) which is extension of Motion Compensated Spatiotemporal Varying Filter (MCSTVF), and Selective Auto-regressive Motion Compensated Spatiotemporal Varying Filter (SARMCSTVF).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2010
    Assignee: Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hon Wah Wong, Andy Chang
  • Publication number: 20090051816
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes an image signal input unit that receives an input of an image signal representing an image to be displayed, a noise reduction unit that performs noise reduction for reducing the noise contained in the image signal, and an image quality adjustment unit that performs image quality adjustment for adjusting the displayed image quality of the image on the image signal that has undergone the noise reduction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 23, 2008
    Publication date: February 26, 2009
    Applicant: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Katsuya Ota
  • Patent number: 7471344
    Abstract: An image display apparatus has a control circuit that periodically varies a characteristic, such as an amplitude characteristic or timing characteristic, of the displayed image signal. Periodic variations may be produced by passing the image signal through a variable inductance element, for example, or by alternately selecting two amplifier circuits with different gain characteristics, or by periodically delaying the image signal. The periodic variations reduce peaks in the spectrum of unintended radiation emissions, and suppress undesired moire patterns in the displayed image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2000
    Date of Patent: December 30, 2008
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki K.K.
    Inventor: Toshitsugu Wakabayashi
  • Patent number: 7450181
    Abstract: A method for extending bit-depth of display systems. The method includes creating pseudo-random noise from human visual system noise. When applied to the image data, the noise causes spatiotemporal dithering. The pseudo-random noise is combined with image data, producing noise-compensated image data. The noise-compensated image data is them quantized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2002
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2008
    Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America, Inc.
    Inventor: Scott James Daly