Noise Component Generator, Limiter, Subtractor Type Patents (Class 348/622)
  • Patent number: 11502762
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a signal processing apparatus and an image display apparatus including the same. The signal processing apparatus for processing a baseband signal demodulated from an RF signal, includes: a synchronizer; a channel estimator; an equalizer; an error corrector to perform error correction based on a signal output from the equalizer; and a mean square error calculator to calculate a mean square error based on a difference between an input signal from the equalizer and a reference signal, wherein when the RF signal includes a co-channel interference signal, the error corrector performs error correction by using a mean square error in a time domain or mean square errors in a time domain and a spatial domain. Accordingly, a baseband signal, from which a defect is removed, may be obtained in response to various communication channels or broadcast channels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: LG ELECTRONICS INC.
    Inventors: Jaeshin Han, Sukbum Lee, Sangchae Lim, Youngjin Hong
  • Patent number: 10245491
    Abstract: An inflatable device designed as a martial arts training and/or educational device. The inflatable device includes an inflatable structure and at least one interactive device connected to the inflatable structure. The inflatable structure includes a floor that is at least partially inflatable, a plurality of inflatable columns extending upwardly from the floor and a plurality of inflatable beams connected to a top or top portion of the columns. The at least one interactive device includes a target, an inflatable target, punching or kicking target, inflatable punching or kicking target, an object in the form of a person or ninja, an inflatable in the form of person or ninja, an object in the form of a person or ninja with a target, and/or an inflatable in the form of a person or ninja with a target.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2019
    Assignee: Scherba Industries, Inc.
    Inventor: Robert Scherba
  • Patent number: 10033658
    Abstract: Apparatus and methods for a Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) media transport (MMT) device for sending or receiving media content is provided. The MMT device comprises a memory unit and a controller. The controller is configured to measure an available bandwidth, receive fragments of a first encoded stream of the media content and fragments of a second encoded stream of the same media content based on the available bandwidth and a current transmission bandwidth. A mixed encoded stream comprises the fragments received from the first encoded stream and the fragments received from the second encoded stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2018
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Imed Bouazizi, Meng Xu, Zhan Ma
  • Patent number: 9727952
    Abstract: A control device includes a flatness calculator and control-value logic. The flatness calculator calculates flatness of an image corresponding to an image signal. The control-value logic determines a control value based on the flatness. The control value controls a size of an operation region on which a first-order infinite impulse response (IIR) filter is to process the image signal to reduce noise.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2017
    Assignee: Samsung Display Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takashi Nakano, Mitsuharu Baba
  • Patent number: 9671328
    Abstract: A system for classifying different types of sheeting materials of road signs depicted in a videostream compares estimated retroreflectivity values against known minimum retroreflectivity values for each of a plurality of colors. Once a road sign has been identified in the videostream, the frames associated with that road sign are analyzed to determine each of a plurality of colors present on the road sign. An estimated retroreflectivity for each of the plurality of colors present on the road sign is then determined. By comparing the estimated retroreflectivity for each of the plurality of colors against known minimum retroreflectivity values for the corresponding color for different types of sheeting materials, an accurate determination of the classification of the sheeting material of the road sign is established. Preferably, certain conditions of gross failure of the sheeting material are filtered out before classification of the sheeting material is determined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Facet Technology Corp.
    Inventors: James E. Retterath, Robert A. Laumeyer
  • Patent number: 9165350
    Abstract: An image sharpening method and an image processing device are provided. The method includes: obtaining a plurality of pixels in an image; calculating a first weight of a high pass filter and a second weight of a first filter according to the pixels, and the first filter is a convolution of the high pass filter and a low pass filter; generating a sharpening filter according to the high pass filter, the first weight, the first filter and the second weight; and executing a sharpening operation on the pixels according to the sharpening filter. Accordingly, a sharpened image has better vision effects.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2015
    Assignee: Novatek Microelectronics Corp.
    Inventors: Chih-Kai Chang, Chih-Yuan Yang
  • Patent number: 8872978
    Abstract: Provided herein are methods and systems that provide automatic compensation for frequency attenuation of a video signal transmitted over a cable. In accordance with an embodiment, a system includes an equalizer and a compensation controller. The equalizer receives a video signal that was transmitted over a cable, provides compensation for frequency attenuation that occurred during the transmission over the cable, and outputs a compensated video signal. The compensation controller automatically adjusts the compensation provided by the equalizer based on comparisons of one or more portions of the compensated video signal to one or more reference voltage levels. One or more values indicative of one or more levels of compensation provided by the equalizer are stored in memory and/or registers for each time, of a plurality of times. A monitor monitors for changes in the cable and/or the video signal transmitted over the cable based on the stored values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 28, 2014
    Assignee: Intersil Americas LLC
    Inventors: David W. Ritter, Kathryn M. Tucker
  • Publication number: 20140247395
    Abstract: A processing chain for a digital image signal applies a dither pattern, having a first spectrum, to the image signal at a point in the processing chain. A further noise pattern is applied to the image signal during the processing chain. The noise pattern has a second spectrum which is configured such that the combination of the first spectrum and second spectrum results in a more continuous spectrum. Another aspect describes a noise pattern which can be used as an offset dither pattern for digital images, especially before colour bit depth reduction. The noise pattern has an array of values which are linearly distributed across a range, with each value in the range occurring an equal number of times.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 12, 2014
    Publication date: September 4, 2014
    Applicant: BARCO N.V.
    Inventor: Ronny VAN BELLE
  • 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: 8699816
    Abstract: A method to enhance detail of an image based on noise elimination includes calculating a noise weight corresponding to a probability that a center pixel, located in a block of pixels of a region of the image, is noise by using a difference between the center pixel and a surrounding pixel located in the block of pixels, calculating a first substitution value for the center pixel based on the noise weight; and calculating a second substitution value for the center pixel by using the noise weight and a sharpen filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2014
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Young Ran Han, Du-Sik Park, Seung Sin Lee, Kwon Ju Yi
  • Patent number: 8659705
    Abstract: In a noise reducer, a first subtractor 101 generates a difference N1 between an input video signal Ynow and a delayed video signal Ypre output from a frame memory 104 and obtained by delaying an output video signal Yout by a time corresponding to one screen. An amplitude adjuster 102 adjusts the amplitude of an output signal of the first subtractor 101 based on a motion signal MV. A second subtractor 103 subtracts an output N2 of the amplitude adjuster 102 from the input video signal Ynow. A motion detector 2 calculates the amount of change in the input video signal Ynow with respect to the delayed video signal Ypre for each of pixels constituting one screen, and generates, as the motion signal MV, a signal determining, as “moving,” a predetermined proportion of pixels for which the amount of change is smaller than a predetermined threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2014
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventor: Katsuyuki Fukui
  • Patent number: 8503820
    Abstract: Provided are a method and apparatus for removing image noise. The method includes: separating an input image signal into a signal component and a noise component; converting the noise component into a decorrelated noise component that is spatiotemporally decorrelated from neighboring pixels; and generating an image signal by adding the decorrelated noise component to the signal component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2013
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Mi-yeon Lee, Seung-hoon Han
  • Patent number: 8487950
    Abstract: An overflow suppression technique that is effective for avoiding degradation in image quality is provided. A fundamental waveform and detail is extracted out of an input RGB signal. A suppression gain generation unit 614 generates a suppression gain from the extracted fundamental waveform. Multipliers 612a and 612b multiply the detail and the fundamental waveform by the generated suppression gain, respectively. Then, an adder 626 combines them together for a mixed output. Alternatively, equalization processing is performed as follows. A low frequency component fundamental waveform is obtained as a result of the passing of an input RGB signal through a low pass filter 622. A suppression gain is generated from the low frequency component fundamental waveform. Then, the input itself is multiplied by the suppression gain to obtain an output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2013
    Assignees: Taiyo Yuden Co. Ltd., Microspace Corporation
    Inventors: Masato Tanaka, Kazuo Asanuma, Mamoru Sakamoto, Yasuo Hosaka, Akinobu Maekawa, Hidehumi Nakagome
  • Patent number: 8406547
    Abstract: A visual processing device inhibits artifacts, even when a special image is input. The visual processing device includes a spatial processing portion extracting surrounding image information from an input image signal, and a special image detection portion outputting a special image effect adjustment signal according to a degree of a statistical bias of the input image signal. The visual processing device also includes a continuous changing portion outputting an effect adjustment signal in which the special image effect adjustment signal is continuously changed between frames, an effect adjustment portion outputting a synthesized signal in which the effect of the visual processing differs depending on the effect adjustment signal, and a visual processing portion outputting a processed signal obtained by visually processing the image signal based on the image signal and the synthesized signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2013
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Yusuke Monobe, Haruo Yamashita, Takeshi Ito
  • Patent number: 8401324
    Abstract: It is possible to inhibit side effects even when an image that has sharp edge regions has been input, using a spatial processing portion (10) outputting surrounding image information US from an input image signal, a control signal generation portion (40) outputting an effect adjustment signal MOD according to a degree of flatness of an edge proximal region, and an effect adjustment portion (20) outputting a synthesized signal MUS that is synthesized by changing a ratio of the image signal IS and the surrounding image information US according to the effect adjustment signal MOD. Further, the side effects are inhibited using a visual processing portion (30) visually processing the image signal IS based on the synthesized signal MUS and the image signal IS.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Takeshi Ito, Haruo Yamashita, Yusuke Monobe
  • Patent number: 8311357
    Abstract: A visual processing device, display device, visual processing method, program, and integrated circuit that change a strength of visual processing of an image in real-time. A spatial processing portion (2) creates an unsharp signal US from an input signal IS. A target level setting portion (4) sets a predetermined target level value L for setting a range according to which the strength of the visual processing is adjusted. An effect adjustment portion (5) creates a synthesized signal MUS by synthesizing the predetermined target level value L and the unsharp signal US in accordance with an effect adjustment signal MOD that has been set externally. A visual processing portion (3) outputs an output signal OS in accordance with the input signal IS and the synthesized signal MUS, making it possible to change the strength of the visual processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2012
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Haruo Yamashita, Takeshi Ito, Yusuke Monobe
  • Patent number: 8295628
    Abstract: An inventive method obtaining film grains from a picture and processing the obtained film grains using a statistical distribution to determine new film grains. Preferably, a histogram of obtained film grain is subjected to the statistical distribution, which can be a normal distribution. Parameters of the normal distribution are controlled to determine the new film grains.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 23, 2012
    Assignee: Thomson Licensing
    Inventor: Shu Lin
  • 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: 8174624
    Abstract: An apparatus outputs an image signal for each frame, divides a frame into sub-frames, acquires a first signal of high frequency components and a second signal of low frequency components of a sub-frame, and generates a third signal by multiplying the second signal by K. If a fourth signal obtained by adding the third signal to the first signal falls within a predetermined range, the apparatus outputs the third signal, whereas if the fourth signal includes a portion exceeding the range, the apparatus outputs a signal obtained by correcting the third signal. The apparatus also generates a composition signal of the output signal and the first signal and a fifth signal by multiplying the third signal by a correction amount y of the third signal. As a sub-frame of interest, either the composition signal or the fifth signal is output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Yukihiko Sakashita
  • Patent number: 8155476
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a noise reduction unit configured to nonlinearly convert a signal obtained by subtracting a value of a subtraction image signal, which is read from a memory, from that of a current-frame image signal, to generate a noise-reduced signal by subtracting the nonlinearly converted signal from the current-frame image signal, and to store the noise-reduced signal in the memory, a read unit configured to read the subtraction image signal from the memory at a moment between a moment, at which the subtraction image signal read from the memory is stored in the memory, and a moment at which the subtraction image signal is read from the memory, and a generation unit configured to generate an image based on the subtraction image signal read by the read unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Tadayoshi Nakayama
  • Patent number: 8144252
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, an input image signal is passed through a plurality of first high pass filters having different passing frequency band to generate level histograms. High frequency component noise reduction processing is applied to the output of one of the first high pass filters selected based on one of the generated histograms that satisfies a predetermined threshold, low frequency component noise reduction processing is applied to a result obtained by subtracting the output of the selected first high pass filter from the input image signal, and outputs obtained by both the noise reduction processing are added.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2012
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventor: Himio Yamauchi
  • Patent number: 8111332
    Abstract: An apparatus for suppressing noise of a video signal. The apparatus includes: a difference-signal generation section generating a difference signal being a field or frame difference between the input and the output video signals; a noise compensation-signal generation section generating a noise compensation signal; a noise-compensation signal subtraction section; and a feedback-ratio control section, wherein the feedback-ratio control section includes a signal-level determination section determining a signal level of the difference signal for each area and detecting an abrupt change in an input signal, a count section counting the number of input fields or frames from the time of an abrupt change in a signal level to the subsequent abrupt change, and a feedback-ratio setting section setting a feedback ratio for the area in accordance with a count value, wherein the feedback-ratio setting section sets the feedback ratio such that the ratio gradually increases as the count value increases.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Seiji Kimura, Masami Ogata
  • Patent number: 8059203
    Abstract: Provided is a moving picture processing method which prevents degradation of subjective image quality caused by a motion of a moving picture. The moving picture processing method includes the following steps: a motion compensation step (S116) of shifting a noise indicated by a stored noise signal (FMN) according to a motion of a moving picture indicated by an input image signal (VIN), by performing motion compensation on the stored noise signal (FMN) that is used for superimposition on a picture indicated by an input image signal (VIN) and is stored in a noise frame memory (102); and a superimposition step (S120) of superimposing the shifted noise, as a superimposition noise signal SN, onto a current picture to be processed which is indicated by an input image signal (VIN) and is a moving picture that appears after the motion has occurred.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2011
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Hisao Sasai, Satoshi Kondo
  • Patent number: 8040437
    Abstract: A method and system for analog video noise detection are provided. A motion metric (MM) value may be determined for pixels in a video image. The MM values may be collected and accumulated for a number of noise level intervals to determine average noise levels for each interval. An early-exit algorithm (EEA) or an interpolation estimate algorithm (IEA) may be utilized to determine the noise level. The EEA may select the noise level based on a first noise level interval with a number of collected samples larger than a threshold. The IEA may determine the noise level based on an average of a plurality of noise levels associated with consecutive noise level intervals with collected samples that are larger than the threshold. A noise level indicator (NLI) may be the noise level of the current image or an average based on noise levels from the current and previous images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2011
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Sheng Zhong
  • Patent number: 7932955
    Abstract: A method and system for content adaptive analog video noise detection are provided. A motion metric (MM) value, an edge detection value, and a content detection value may be determined for pixels in a video image. The MM values of pixels with edge detection values smaller than an edge threshold value and with content detection values smaller than a content threshold value may be collected and accumulated for a portion of the noise level intervals when the MM values fall in this interval. The MM values collected and accumulated may be utilized to determine an average noise level for each of the intervals. A noise level indicator (NLI) for the current video image may be determined based on the noise level of the current image or on the noise levels of the current and at least one previous video images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2011
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Sheng Zhong, Darren Neuman
  • Patent number: 7903898
    Abstract: It is possible to inhibit side effects even when an image that has sharp edge regions has been input, using a spatial processing portion (10) outputting surrounding image information US from an input image signal, a control signal generation portion (40) outputting an effect adjustment signal MOD according to a degree of flatness of an edge proximal region, and an effect adjustment portion (20) outputting a synthesized signal MUS that is synthesized by changing a ratio of the image signal IS and the surrounding image information US according to the effect adjustment signal MOD. Further, the side effects are inhibited using a visual processing portion (30) visually processing the image signal IS based on the synthesized signal MUS and the image signal IS.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2011
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Takeshi Ito, Haruo Yamashita, Yusuke Monobe
  • Patent number: 7894684
    Abstract: In order to inhibit artifacts (even when a special image has been input) a visual processing device is provided with a spatial processing portion extracting surrounding image information US from an input image signal IS, and a special image detection portion outputting a special image effect adjustment signal DS according to a degree of a statistical bias of the image signal IS. The visual processing device also includes a continuous changing portion outputting an effect adjustment signal MOD in which the special image effect adjustment signal DS is continuously changed between frames, an effect adjustment portion outputting a synthesized signal MUS in which the effect of the visual processing differs depending on the effect adjustment signal MOD, and a visual processing portion outputting a processed signal OS obtained by visually processing the image signal IS based on the image signal IS and the synthesized signal MUS.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2011
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Yusuke Monobe, Haruo Yamashita, Takeshi Ito
  • Patent number: 7889940
    Abstract: High-frequency noise is generated that approximates the appearance of traditional “film grain” for a digital video signal. By adding a relatively small amount of film grain noise, the video can be made to look more natural and more pleasing to the human viewer. The digital film grain generation can be used to mask unnatural smooth artifacts in digital video such as “blockiness” and “contouring” in the case of compressed video and/or used to provide visual enhancements or special effects to any digital video stream. The digital film grain generator can control grain size and the amount of film grain to be added.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2011
    Assignee: Marvell World Trade Ltd.
    Inventors: Nikhil Balram, Bharat Pathak, Uma Jayaraman
  • Patent number: 7881550
    Abstract: It is possible to inhibit side effects, even when an image that has sharp edge regions has been input, using a spatial processing portion (10) outputting surrounding image information US from an input image signal, a control signal generation portion (40) outputting an effect adjustment signal MOD according to a degree of flatness of an edge proximal region, and an effect adjustment portion (20) outputting a synthesized signal MUS that is synthesized by changing a ratio of the image signal IS and the surrounding image information US according to the effect adjustment signal MOD. Further, the side effects are inhibited using a visual processing portion (30) visually processing the image signal IS based on the synthesized signal MUS and the image signal IS.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2011
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Takeshi Ito, Haruo Yamashita, Yusuke Monobe
  • Patent number: 7881549
    Abstract: A visual processing device, display device, visual processing method, program, and integrated circuit that change a strength of visual processing of an image in real-time. A spatial processing portion (2) creates an unsharp signal US from an input signal IS. A target level setting portion (4) sets a predetermined target level value L for setting a range according to which the strength of the visual processing is adjusted. An effect adjustment portion (5) creates a synthesized signal MUS by synthesizing the predetermined target level value L and the unsharp signal US in accordance with an effect adjustment signal MOD that has been set externally. A visual processing portion (3) outputs an output signal OS in accordance with the input signal IS and the synthesized signal MUS, making it possible to change the strength of the visual processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2011
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporaiton
    Inventors: Haruo Yamashita, Takeshi Ito, Yusuke Monobe
  • Patent number: 7825992
    Abstract: A video signal processing apparatus and video processing method are provided, which can reduce an influence of noise and enhance fineness of the image. A signal division unit divides a video signal into a low frequency component and a high frequency component of the video signal. A signal eliminating unit eliminates a component within a magnitude range of noise from the high frequency component of the video signal output from the signal division unit. A signal combining unit combines the low frequency component of the video signal output from the signal division unit and the high frequency component of the video signal from which the component within the magnitude range of noise is eliminated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2010
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Byung-jo Jun, Tae-hwan Cha
  • Patent number: 7782402
    Abstract: The present invention provides an apparatus and corresponding method for reducing temporal noise of a target frame and enhancing the motion of the target frame. The apparatus includes a storage device, a temporal noise reducing circuit, and a motion enhancing circuit. The storage device stores a first filtered signal of a previous frame. The previous frame is previous to the target frame. The temporal noise reducing circuit reduces temporal noise of the target frame according to the first filtered signal and an image signal of the target frame. The temporal noise reducing circuit then generates a second filtered signal of the target frame, which is stored in the storage device. The motion enhancing circuit enhances the motion of the target frame according to the first and the second filtered signals, and generates a motion-enhanced signal of the target frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2010
    Assignee: MStar Semiconductor, Inc.
    Inventors: Wei-Kuo Lee, Shih-Chung Wang, Yi-Fan Chen
  • Patent number: 7738043
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a noise reducing circuit includes a frame memory configured to frame-delay a video signal, a first arithmetic unit configured to subtract the frame-delayed video signal given by the frame memory from the video signal to output a first frame difference signal, a first rectangular wave removing unit configured to remove a rectangular wave component from the first frame difference signal to generate a second frame difference signal, a first pulse discriminating unit configured to receive the second frame difference signal, remove a continuous pulse component from the second frame difference signal, and output a single pulse component, and a second arithmetic unit configured to subtract the single pulse component from the video signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2010
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventor: Yuichi Honda
  • Patent number: 7705918
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a noise reduction apparatus includes a frame delay module, first and second impulse noise detectors, first and second impulse noise reducers, a motion detector, and a noise reducer. The frame delay module delays a video signal by one frame to obtain a frame delay video signal. The first and second impulse noise detectors detect impulse noise in the video signal and the frame delay video signal. The first impulse noise reducer generates a current frame video signal by reducing the impulse noise in the video signal. The second impulse noise reducer generates a previous frame video signal by reducing the impulse noise in the frame delay video signal. The motion detector detects motion amount from the current and previous frame video signals. The noise reducer reduces noise other than the impulse noise in the current frame video signal based on the motion amount.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2010
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventor: Himio Yamauchi
  • Patent number: 7538822
    Abstract: An apparatus and method of filtering a digital image signal. The apparatus includes: a noise reduction filter which selectively outputs one of results obtained by temporally and spatially filtering pixel values of pixels of each of frames of an image as a temporal or spatial filtering value in response to magnitudes of the results of temporal and spatial filtering; and a sharpness enhancement filter which highlights and outputs a high pass component of the temporal or spatial filtering value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2009
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hoyoung Lee, Vladimar Kim, Changyeong Kim, Dusik Park
  • Patent number: 7466364
    Abstract: The invention relates to a device for reducing flicker disturbances in a video signal having a temporal median filter and a filter connected downstream. The temporal median filter serves for compensating for brightness fluctuations in the video signal. The filter connected downstream separates high-frequency signal components from the output signal of the temporal median filter and suppresses high-frequency signal components with a high amplitude.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 4, 2001
    Date of Patent: December 16, 2008
    Assignee: Thomson Licensing
    Inventor: Gerhard Wischermann
  • Patent number: 7453523
    Abstract: A noise reduction apparatus includes a subtracter receives a motion video signal and finds a difference signal indicative of a difference from a motion video signal preceding by 1 frame and from which noise is removed, a first multiplier executes multiplication so as to increase/decrease the difference signal corresponding to the motion video signal, a second multiplier detects an mount of motion of the motion video signal and executes multiplication so as to increase/decrease the difference signal from the subtracter in accordance with the amount of motion, an arithmetic unit subjects the increased/decreased difference signal from the second multiplier to addition/subtraction with the motion video signal, and a memory unit stores the noise-free motion video signal in a memory area and supplies to the subtracter as a 1-frame-preceding noise-free motion video signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 18, 2008
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventor: Himio Yamauchi
  • Patent number: 7375741
    Abstract: A circuit and a method for eliminating interference introduced from an image channel into a desired channel is described. The circuit includes a splitter and an adder. The splitter generates signals split from a received signal having frequency components within the desired and image channel. The adder adds together the signals output from the splitter. The circuit can be used in an TV tuner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2008
    Assignee: Himax Technologies Limited
    Inventors: Jian-Jiang Huang, Yuan-Kai Chu
  • Patent number: 7185242
    Abstract: Disclosed are a digital display apparatus and method. The digital display apparatus includes a signal intensity detect unit, a tuner unit, a control unit, and a digital signal process unit. The signal intensity detect unit divides a digital input signal received through an antenna into a strong signal and a weak signal based on a predetermined level. The tuner unit amplifies the weak signal, bypasses the strong signal, demodulates each signal and outputs a digital stream. The control unit receives the digital stream and determines whether an error is generated, and if the error is generated, outputs a conversion signal to reverse a working state of the tuner unit. The digital signal process unit receives the digital stream and converts it to a signal type that can be outputted if the error is not generated. Accordingly, breaking or freezing of a video on the digital display apparatus can be compensated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2007
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Kwung-pil Chun
  • Patent number: 7139035
    Abstract: A method of detecting both linear and non linear noise in video data. Linear noise is detected on a line-by-line basis, by blocks within each line. Non linear noise is detected during horizontal blanking periods. The method provides a noise floor value for linear noise and an impulse noise flag for non linear noise, both of which are delivered to a noise reduction filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2002
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2006
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventor: Jeffrey Kempf
  • Patent number: 7130433
    Abstract: An apparatus for reducing noise component contained in an input signal has: a detecting device for detecting a level of the noise component; an adjusting device for adjusting a level of the input signal so as to make the level of the noise component equal to or lower than a predetermined threshold level; a reducing device for reducing a signal component of the adjusted input signal whose level is equal to and lower than the predetermined threshold level; and a restoring device for restoring a level of the adjusted input signal to the level of the input signal that has not been adjusted by the adjusting device yet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 1998
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2006
    Assignee: Pioneer Electronic Corporation
    Inventor: Shirou Suzuki
  • Patent number: 7106385
    Abstract: On a line scanned video display, the frequency of an artifact producing signal within the video passband is selected to be an odd harmonic of one half the horizontal line scan frequency so that adjacent scan lines of the artifact are 180 degrees out of phase with each other. Thus, the artifact is rendered largely visually canceled when viewed due to the integrating characteristics of the eye of the viewer, even though the artifact is still there.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2006
    Assignee: Thomson Licensing
    Inventor: Ronald Thomas Keen
  • Patent number: 7098963
    Abstract: A method of attenuating noise contained in an image signal according to the extent of the movement of the image signal based on the amount of noise, and an apparatus therefor are provided. This method includes measuring the amount of noise in an image signal by accumulating an offset between an input image signal and a delayed output image signal for a predetermined time, detecting the extent of the movement of the input signal based on the amount of noise measured, and forming an output image by controlling the specific weight of the input image signal and the delayed output image signal according to the detected movement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2002
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2006
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Pil-ho Yu
  • Patent number: 7009662
    Abstract: An electronic circuit 100 and method for enhancing an image, in particular, for use in TV-applications, includes a N-dimensional image enhancement filter 130 for receiving an image signal and at least one further image signal, all image signals representing different pixels of said image. An intermediate signal output from the N-dimensional image enhancement filter 130 is combined with a high-frequency component of the image signal in order to generate an enhanced image output signal. The electronic circuit also includes at least one adjusting element 140-1, 140-2 for adjusting the intermediate signal and/or said high-frequency component in response to a determined amount of image enhancement applied to the image signal in the image enhancement filter 130 before being combined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2001
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2006
    Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
    Inventors: Olukayode Anthony Ojo, Tatiana Georgieva Kwaaitaalspassova, Gerard De Haan
  • Patent number: 6947661
    Abstract: To eliminate unnaturalness in the display of video signals that are intermittently updated. Video signals recorded in a disk 1 in a compressed manner are reproduced through a pickup 2. The reproduced signals are fed to a reproduction processing unit 3 from where a bit stream is fetched which is then fed to a decoder circuit 4. The decoder circuit 4 produces video signals reconstructed from the compression. The signals from the decoder circuit 4 are fed to an adder 12 which is an adder means through an amplifier 11 which is a weighting circuit having a coefficient of, for example, 0.5. The added signal from the adder 12 is fetched to an output terminal 13, and is fed to a frame memory 14 which is a storage means of, for example, one frame. The signal stored in the frame memory 14 is fed to an adder 12 through an amplifier 15 which is a second weighting circuit having a coefficient of, for example, 0.5.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2005
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Kagawa, Koji Inoue
  • Patent number: 6784944
    Abstract: A method and system of noise filtering is provided. The pixels of a first filter mask are separated into groups based on luminance . . . The sizes of each group is determined and a largest group is selected. The distance of each group of pixels from the largest group is also calculated. Pixels in groups that are small compared to the largest group and far from the largest group are tagged as noisy. After tagging the noisy pixels, additional filtering can be applied to the pixels of first filter mask without degradation from the tagged pixels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2004
    Assignee: SmartASIC, Inc.
    Inventors: Biao Zhang, Jin Ji
  • Patent number: 6760067
    Abstract: An imaging apparatus includes a CCD for accumulating an image signal by an n-times long-time-accumulation (n is an integer of “1” or more); a timing control circuit for controlling to read out the image signal accumulated in the CCD according to the n-times long-time-accumulation; a memory for storing the read-out image signal for one frame period or more; and a recursive noise reduction circuit for performing a noise reduction process on the basis of the image signal read out from the CCD and the one-frame-period-or-more delayed image signal read out from the memory. In case of the 2n-times long-time-accumulation, in a vertical scanning period in which the image signal is output from the CCD, the image signal from the recursive noise reduction circuit is written to the memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2000
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2004
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Sano, Makoto Sube
  • Patent number: 6728381
    Abstract: Predetermined frequency components contained in a luminance signal are extracted by BPF (12a)-(12n), and amplified by limited amplifiers (16a)-(16n). As a result, an addition signal, including a luminance signal component amplified and suppressed and a noise component amplified, is obtained from an adder (20a). The luminance signal is also supplied through an HPF (14) and adjusted in level by an amplifier (18). Therefore, a noise component is obtained from a subtracter (20b) by subtracting an amplified signal from the addition signal by a subtracter (20b). A subtracter (20c) subtracts this noise component from the luminance signal supplied from a delay circuit (22a), thereby outputting a luminance signal reduced of noise through an output terminal (S2). Because the luminance signal is separated into a plurality of bands by the plurality of BPFs, there is no possibility of saturating in noise component by the limiters, thus fully removing noise.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 1998
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2004
    Assignee: Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Nobukazu Hosoya
  • Patent number: 6724437
    Abstract: In a display driving method, noise is added (NG, AD) to a video signal before the video signal is subjected to a dithering operation (DC). The invention is preferably applied to render non-moving dither patterns invisible in a plasma display panel driving method in which the display signal is subjected to a (Floyd-Steinberg) dithering.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 1998
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2004
    Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
    Inventors: Eric P. Funke, Jeroen H. C. J. Stessen, Age J. Van Dalfsen
  • Patent number: 6711280
    Abstract: A method and system for ranging an object are disclosed. The method includes illuminating a field of view potentially including the object, synchronously receiving reflected signals from the field of view with and without illumination, capturing first and second images within an array, and generating a subtraction image using the images. One image is captured in the array while the other image is in the array. The first and second images include reflected signals from the field of view with and without illumination, respectively. The array includes first and second groups of lines that are unmasked and masked, respectively. In one exposure, the first group of lines is loaded with the first or second image. The image in the first group of lines is shifted into the second group. In another exposure, the first group of lines is loaded with the other image, which is shifted into the second group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 25, 2001
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2004
    Inventors: Oscar M. Stafsudd, Ioannis Kanellakopoulos, Phyllis R. Nelson, Nicholas Bambos