Automatic Range Control (e.g., Agc, Automatic Contrast Control) Patents (Class 348/678)
  • Patent number: 11228426
    Abstract: A communication device includes: a counter, a pseudo-random number generator, a symbol generator, a modulator, and a controller. The counter counts symbols transmitted to a correspondent device. The pseudo-random number generator generates a pseudo-random number corresponding to a count value of the counter. The symbol generator generates a transmission symbol from a transmission signal and the pseudo-random number. The modulator generates a modulated signal from the transmission symbol. When a disruption of a communication with the correspondent device is detected, the controller selects, from among a plurality of restoring times determined in advance, a restoring time for resuming the communication, and gives the counter a count value assigned in advance to the selected restoring time. The counter resumes a counting operation from the count value given from the controller when the communication device resumes a communication with the correspondent device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2022
    Assignee: FUJITSU LIMITED
    Inventors: Shoichiro Oda, Setsuo Yoshida
  • Patent number: 11206160
    Abstract: A high bandwidth continuous time linear equalization (HBCTLE) circuit is disclosed. The HBCTLE circuit includes a continuous time linear equalization (CTLE) circuit and a gain circuit coupled with an output of the CTLE circuit. A feedback circuit is coupled between the output of the CTLE circuit and an output of the gain circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2021
    Assignee: NXP B.V.
    Inventors: Siamak Delshadpour, Tong Liu, Samuel Michael Palermo
  • Patent number: 11089224
    Abstract: An imaging apparatus having a plurality of video modes for capturing videos with respective video quality, the imaging apparatus comprising: a display that displays information indicating the plurality of video modes; an operation receiver that receives a user operation for designating a video mode in the plurality of video modes based on the displayed information; and a controller that sets the video mode designated via the operation receiver for the imaging apparatus. Each of the video modes has elements corresponding to items associated with the video quality. Combinations of the elements of different items are limited in the plurality of video modes. The controller receives, via the operation receiver, a user operation for setting a refining condition associated with at least one of the items, and refines, from the plurality of video modes, a video mode to be displayed on the display in accordance with the set refining condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2021
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Mitsuo Abe, Manabu Watanabe, Kyosuke Osuka
  • Patent number: 10892773
    Abstract: A sigma-delta analog-to-digital converter including a gain element connected to an integrator. The gain element switches between different gain values during consecutive phases of a clock signal having a different number of clock cycles. A counter is configured to count with a different increment step size dependent on the first and second gain values. The converter may be part of a sensor arrangement with a temperature sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2021
    Assignee: TDK ELECTRONICS AG
    Inventors: Henning Petersen, Lei Zou
  • Patent number: 10735113
    Abstract: A near-field measurement system includes a measurement probe 11 that receives a radio signal that is transmitted from an antenna under measurement 110 at a plurality of measurement positions included in a predetermined scan range, a frequency converter 13 that frequency-converts a frequency of the radio signal to a desired frequency, a timing processing unit 18 that generates a timing signal for starting measurement of an amplitude and a phase of the radio signal from a trigger signal output from a transmission device 100 in synchronization with transmission of the radio signal, and an amplitude and phase calculation unit 19 that acquires a radio signal frequency-converted by a frequency converter 13 and digitized by an A/D converter 14a on the basis of a timing signal for each measurement position and calculates an amplitude and a phase in a near field of the acquired radio signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2020
    Assignee: ANRITSU CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hanako Noda, Masaaki Fuse
  • Patent number: 10078250
    Abstract: A driving method for pixel is configured to drive a first pixel and a second pixel. The driving method includes that a first output gray value of the first pixel and a second output gray value of the second pixel are set according to saturation. The saturation is decided according to an input gray value. The first pixel and second pixel are driven according to the first output gray value and the second output gray value. When the saturation is within a first value range or a third value range, the difference between the first output gray value and the second output gray value is less than the difference between the first output gray value and the second output gray value, when the saturation is within a second value range. The second value range is between the first value range and the third value range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2018
    Inventors: Hung-Shiang Ruan, Chien-Wen Chen, Chen-Hsien Liao, Jenn-Jia Su
  • Patent number: 10051234
    Abstract: A conversion method for converting luminance of a video, including a luminance value in a first luminance range, to be displayed on a display apparatus includes: acquiring a first luminance signal indicating a code value obtained by quantization of the luminance value of the video; and converting the code value indicated by the acquired first luminance signal into a second luminance value determined based on a luminance range of the display apparatus, the second luminance value being compatible with a second luminance range with a maximum value smaller than a maximum value of the first luminance range and larger than 100 nit. This provides the conversion method capable of achieving further improvement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2018
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Tadamasa Toma, Kengo Terada, Masayuki Kozuka, Takahiro Nishi
  • Patent number: 10051233
    Abstract: A conversion method for converting luminance of a video, including a luminance value in a first luminance range, to be displayed on a display apparatus includes: acquiring a first luminance signal indicating a code value obtained by quantization of the luminance value of the video; and converting the code value indicated by the acquired first luminance signal into a second luminance value determined based on a luminance range of the display apparatus, the second luminance value being compatible with a second luminance range with a maximum value smaller than a maximum value of the first luminance range and larger than 100 nit. This provides the conversion method capable of achieving further improvement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2018
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Tadamasa Toma, Kengo Terada, Masayuki Kozuka, Takahiro Nishi
  • Patent number: 9947297
    Abstract: In a method of enhancing the appearance of a digital image on an electronic display, Ambient Light Sensor (ALS) and Screen Brightness (SB) inputs are combined with a calibration input 12 to generate a first strength parameter 22, including an alpha component that is dependent only upon the properties of the display. Then a further, content-based input 24 is also combined to generate a second strength parameter 26, including a beta component that is dependent only upon a content type, or a content quality, or both.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2018
    Assignee: Apical Ltd.
    Inventor: Michael Tusch
  • Patent number: 9947268
    Abstract: The display device includes an image display unit including a plurality of pixels each including first to third sub-pixels and a fourth sub-pixel for displaying an additional color component according to an amount of lighting of a self-emitting element; a conversion processing unit that receives a first input signal including first color information for display at a predetermined pixel, where the first input signal is obtained based on an input video signal, the conversion processing unit being configured to outputs a second input signal including second color information with a saturation reduced by an amount of saturation attenuation defined such that saturation variation falls within a predetermined range according to the first color information; and a fourth sub-pixel signal processing unit that outputs, to the image display unit, a third input signal including third color information with red, green, blue components and the additional color component that are converted based on the second color informati
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2018
    Assignee: Japan Display Inc.
    Inventors: Tatsuya Yata, Takayuki Nakanishi
  • Patent number: 9842385
    Abstract: An image processor receives an input image with enhanced dynamic range to be displayed on a target display which has a different dynamic range than a reference display. After optional color transformation (110) and perceptual quantization (115) of the input image, a multiscale mapping process (120) combines linear (125) and non-linear (130) mapping functions to its input to generate first (127) and second (132) output images, wherein the first and second output images may have a different dynamic range than the first image. A frequency transform (135, 140), such as the FFT, is applied to the first and second output images to generate first (137) and second (142) transformed images. An interpolation function (145) is applied to the first and second transformed images to generate an interpolated transformed image (147). An inverse transform function (150) is applied to the interpolated transformed image to generate an output tone-mapped image (152).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2017
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventor: Robin Atkins
  • Patent number: 9736419
    Abstract: In a converting method for converting luminance of an input video in order to display the video on a display device, the luminance of the video is a first luminance value in a first luminance range where a maximum luminance value is defined as a first maximum luminance value that exceeds 100 nit. The method includes acquiring a first luminance signal indicating a first luminance value of the video, selecting a luminance converting process to be executed from among a plurality of luminance converting processes based on a reference luminance value corresponding to reference reflectance included in first meta data of the acquired first luminance signal, converting the first luminance value indicated by the acquired first luminance signal into a second luminance value in a second luminance range where a maximum luminance value is defined as a second maximum luminance value that is smaller than the first maximum luminance value and larger than 100 nit based on the selected luminance converting process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2017
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Masayuki Kozuka, Tadamasa Toma, Kengo Terada, Takahiro Nishi
  • Patent number: 9531471
    Abstract: A filter is supplied with a waveform signal generated based on an output from the light receiving element. At a subsequent stage of the filter, a voltage generation circuit and a variable gain amplifier are provided. The voltage generation circuit generates a reference voltage to regulate a bias voltage for an output waveform. The variable gain amplifier amplifies a filter output waveform using a variable gain. The control circuit controls a reference voltage based on an output from the variable gain amplifier and performs automatic gain control for the variable gain amplifier. The control circuit boosts a bias voltage for a filter output waveform based on the reference voltage according to an unnecessarily dull output waveform from the variable gain amplifier. In addition, the control circuit performs control so that a gain of the variable gain amplifier is smaller than a present gain.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: RENESAS ELECTRONICS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Satoshi Inoue, Taiki Komori
  • Patent number: 9396526
    Abstract: A method for improving image quality for display device has steps of inputting an image; computing a probability density function based on the image; generating a first luminance histogram; computing a weighing distribution function based on the first luminance histogram; generating a second luminance histogram through pixel redistribution of the first luminance histogram; computing a cumulative density function based on the second luminance histogram; computing a gamma conversion function based on the cumulative density function based on the second luminance histogram; and adjusting luminance distribution of the input image based on the gamma conversion function.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2016
    Assignee: NATIONAL TAIPEI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Yi-Sheng Chiu, Shih-Chia Huang
  • Patent number: 9300714
    Abstract: Methods, apparatuses and program logic in storage media to process media data for quality enhancement. The media data is for rendering at a wireless device. Environmental quantities are accepted from one or more sensors located remote from the wireless device but sufficiently close to be indicative of similar quantities in the device's environment. The sensors at in or connected to a network node. At the network node, the method includes processing the media data using the environmental quantities to generate processed data, and wirelessly sending the processed output to the resource constrained device for rendering, such that the processed output is usable by the resource constrained device to render or to process and render the media data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2016
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Claus Bauer, Brett G. Crockett, Charles Q. Robinson
  • Patent number: 9251802
    Abstract: Methods, apparatuses and program logic in non-transitory media to process video data for quality enhancement. Information is accepted from a resource constrained device, e.g., a wireless portable device related to the quality enhancement and/or environmental quantities such as ambient lighting for the device. The video data is processed to achieve quality enhancement using at least some of the accepted information to generate processed output. The processing of the video data includes processing when or where one or more resources sufficient for the processing are available.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2016
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Brett Graham Crockett, Charles Quito Robinson, Claus Bauer
  • Patent number: 9225927
    Abstract: An automatic gain control (AGC) circuit based on a cascade of a step automatic gain control unit and a second automatic gain control unit connected to adjust their gain in a synchronized manner to result in a combined impulsive gain variation. Hereby it is possible, e.g. to use a step automatic gain control unit instead of a continuous automatic gain control unit in an RF part of a TV tuner without resulting in visual artifacts—this applies both for digital and analog TV tuners. According to a preferred embodiment, the synchronization between the two automatic gain control units may be achieved by the first automatic gain control unit generating a control signal upon gain adjustment, this control signal serving to speed up a loop bandwidth controlling gain change of the second automatic gain control unit. In another embodiment, the control signal generated by the first automatic gain control unit is used to control a gain step of the second automatic gain control unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2015
    Assignee: NXP, B.V.
    Inventors: Luca Lococo, Francois Pichon, Jan Van Sinderen
  • Patent number: 9224016
    Abstract: A method for processing baseband signals according to one embodiment includes receiving I and Q baseband signals; and selectively reducing an amount of samples of the baseband signals to be processed in a correlator, wherein the reduction rate is based on a data rate of the baseband signals. A preintegrator module according to one embodiment includes an automatic gain control section for performing automatic gain control on I and Q baseband signals; a first preintegrator coupled to an output of the automatic gain control section, the first preintegrator being for selectively reducing an amount of samples in the I baseband signal based on a data rate of the I baseband signal; and a second preintegrator coupled to an output of the automatic gain control section, the second preintegrator being for selectively reducing an amount of samples in the Q baseband signal based on a data rate of the Q baseband signal. Additional systems and methods are also presented.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2015
    Assignee: Intelleflex Corporation
    Inventor: Dean Kawaguchi
  • Patent number: 9135847
    Abstract: An image display apparatus, including: a light source which emits coherent light; a spatial modulation element which diffracts the coherent light by displaying a diffraction grating pattern corresponding to an input image and which displays a virtual image by the diffracted light; and a control unit which calculates a total brightness representing a sum total of brightnesses of all pixels of the input image, and controls at least one of the light source and the spatial modulation element in such a manner that, if the total brightness has decreased, the virtual image is displayed at a lower brightness than a reference virtual image displayed when the input image is used directly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2015
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kenichi Kasazumi, Keiji Sugiyama, Kakuya Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 9007527
    Abstract: An imaging device, an image system and an imaging method in which proper image correction processing is carried out on a video signal are provided. An imaging device includes: a video signal input unit which inputs a video signal; and an image processing unit to which the video signal is inputted and which carries out correction of the video signal and outputs a corrected video signal. The image processing unit includes a histogram detection unit which divides an image area termed by the acquired video signal into plural areas, acquires a per-area histogram that is a histogram or the video signal in each of the plural areas, and finds per-area histogram data for each area based on the per-area histogram. The image processing unit carries out correction of the video signal based on a cumulative value of the per-area histogram data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2015
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Masaki Ohtani, Shinichiro Hirooka, Makoto Asuka, Takeshi Asahi, Satoshi Nidaira
  • Patent number: 8998164
    Abstract: An insulated foot pad for a tripod has an insulated block sandwiched between two plates. The plates are made of a material that is a poor conductor of heat. Tripod legs placed on the foot pads will not sink into the snow on sunny days nor into warm asphalt on hot days.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2015
    Inventors: Sherman Marquardt, Gary Byers
  • Patent number: 8994883
    Abstract: A display apparatus includes a sight line detection unit that detects a line of sight of a user by analyzing user video information, an enhancement processing unit that detects an intersection point of the line of sight of the user detected by the sight line detection unit and a video display surface of a monitor as an attention point, which is a point on which the user focuses attention, and performs enhancement processing for the monitor by setting a higher gain amount in stages from a position of a longer distance from the attention point toward a position of a smaller distance, and a display video output control unit that outputs video via the monitor based on the gain amount set by the enhancement processing unit and display video information whose input is received by a display video information input unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Tsutomu Nagai
  • Patent number: 8964124
    Abstract: A video display device increases a feeling of brightness and expresses a video with high contrast by detecting a part of a video signal that emits light, enhancing the display luminance of the light-emitting part, and displaying the part. A light emission detection portion (1) uses a prescribed feature quantity related to the brightness of an input video signal, predetermines the light emission quantity for the video signal on the basis of the relationship with the feature quantity, and detects the light emission quantity for each input video signal frame from the feature quantity. A backlight luminance stretch portion (3) stretches the light source luminance of the backlight according to the light emission quantity detected. A video signal luminance stretch portion (6) stretches the video signal according to the light emission quantity or the luminance distribution of the input video signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2015
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Fujine, Tomoharu Noutoshi, Yoji Shiraya
  • Patent number: 8922720
    Abstract: A digital cinema signal is encoded to produce a resulting coded digital cinema bitstream. Decoding the resulting coded digital cinema bitstream allows backwards-compatible delivery of digital cinema content. A digital image or video signal is preprocessed to produce two normalized digital image or video signals of differing quality levels and forward and inverse mapping parameters, which relate the normalized digital image or video signals. The preprocessing can be used prior to the encoding of a digital cinema signal to enable backwards-compatible delivery of digital cinema content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 30, 2014
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Walter C. Gish, Christopher J. Vogt
  • Patent number: 8902364
    Abstract: An image display apparatus which divides the 1-frame period of input image data into a plurality of periods and displays image data in the respective divided periods separates high frequency component data by using the input image data, and distributes the amplitude of the high frequency component data for the image data in the respective divided periods to make the amplitude of the separated high frequency component data fall within a difference between the gradation of the input image data, and 0 gradation or the maximum gradation of an image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2014
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Akihiro Ouchi
  • Patent number: 8872981
    Abstract: A digital cinema signal is encoded to produce a resulting coded digital cinema bitstream. Decoding the resulting coded digital cinema bitstream allows backwards-compatible delivery of digital cinema content. A digital image or video signal is preprocessed to produce two normalized digital image or video signals of differing quality levels and forward and inverse mapping parameters, which relate the normalized digital image or video signals. The preprocessing can be used prior to the encoding of a digital cinema signal to enable backwards-compatible delivery of digital cinema content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 28, 2014
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Walter C. Gish, Christopher J. Vogt
  • Patent number: 8873880
    Abstract: A method for obtaining and/or enhancing local contrast differences (LD) in digital image input data (in), wherein a local contrast measure (SADap) approximating a two-dimensional sum of absolute difference (SAD) measure is obtained by obtaining a first-dimension sum of absolute difference measure (energyVk(m, n)) representing a sum of absolute difference (SAD) in a first dimension of at least one image region, and obtaining the local contrast measure (SADap) as a second-dimension convoluted first-dimension sum of absolute difference measure by convoluting the first-dimension sum of absolute difference measure (energyVk(m, n)) in a second dimension of the at least one image region, is proposed, wherein the step of obtaining the local contrast measure (SADap) as the second-dimension convoluted first-dimension sum of absolute differences measure further includes an addition step wherein an energy term (?lpfk(j)) representing a first-order difference on a distance (J) of a low pass filtered signal used in obtaini
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 28, 2014
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventors: Johan Schirris, Sasa Cvetkovic
  • Patent number: 8866975
    Abstract: Methods and systems for image processing and delivery of higher dynamic range cinema content are disclosed. A digital cinema signal with a lower dynamic range is obtained from a digital cinema signal with a higher dynamic range, for example through mapping. The lower dynamic range digital cinema signal is encoded and decoded at the transmitting end. The decoded lower dynamic range digital cinema signal is normalized to produce a set of normalization parameters which enable the mapping process at the receiving end to produce a final image with higher dynamic range that is of a higher quality. Alternatively, the higher dynamic range digital cinema signal is also encoded and decoded at the transmitting end, to produce a set of normalization parameters which enable the mapping process at the receiving end to produce a final image with higher dynamic range that is of a higher quality.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2014
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Tao Chen, Samir N. Hulyalkar
  • Patent number: 8848110
    Abstract: A receiver circuit includes an analog front-end and a digital processing unit. The analog front-end includes an input for receiving a radio frequency (RF) signal, a first control input for receiving a gain adjustment signal, a second control input for receiving a timing signal, and a signal output for providing a digital intermediate frequency (IF) signal. The analog front-end updates gains of a plurality of gain stages according to the gain adjustment signal and in synchronism with the timing signal. The digital processing unit is configured to produce at least one output signal derived from the digital IF signal. The digital processing unit includes a timing recovery circuit configured to generate the timing signal based on the digital IF signal to control timing of the updating gains of each of the plurality of adjustable gain stages.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 30, 2014
    Assignee: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
    Inventors: Ramin Khoini-Poorfard, Alan F. Hendrickson, Alessandro Piovaccari, David S. Trager, Aslamali A. Rafi, Abdulkerim L. Coban, David Le Goff
  • Patent number: 8837829
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes; a generation unit to generate a histogram of luminance values of a plurality of pixels included in an image; a luminance value calculation unit to calculate a first luminance value at which first ratio pixels of the plurality of pixels are present in descending order of the luminance values of the histogram, and a second luminance value at which second ratio pixels of the plurality of pixels are present, the second ratio pixels is larger than the first ratio pixels; a selection unit to compare the first luminance value and the second luminance value, and determine a third luminance value that is set a maximum luminance value in gradation correction; and a correction unit to perform the gradation correction that corrects the luminance values of the plurality of pixels on the basis of the third luminance value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 16, 2014
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventor: Masayoshi Shimizu
  • Patent number: 8817195
    Abstract: An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for digital television demodulation, comprising using adjacent-channel power dependent automatic gain control (AGC) for the digital television demodulation, wherein an AGC technique takes into account a total power as well as power of adjacent channels to control gain of a gain control amplifier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2014
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Parveen K. Shukla, Bernard Arambepola, Thushara Hewavithana, Sahan Gamage
  • Patent number: 8786784
    Abstract: A digital level control circuit, such as an Automatic Gain Control, includes a plurality of digitally selectable signal levels with transitions between levels gradually varied to avoid signal output level discontinuities. An up/down counter may be used to incrementally stepwise transition an output signal between the digitally selectable output levels. Stepwise application of a control signal to the appropriate switching elements (e.g., FETs) forming an attenuator circuit may be implemented to moderate a switching time of the switching elements to provide a more gradual transition between element operating states. A deglitch circuit may be employed to latch the switching elements to achieve the desired state at the end of a desired switching transition period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2014
    Assignee: CSR Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Timothy M. Magnusen
  • Patent number: 8786627
    Abstract: A method for displaying a video which is dithered using related masks and a video display apparatus applying the same, the video display apparatus dithering a video signal using a first mask, performing color-processing with respect to the video signal, and dithering the color-processed video signal using a second mask which is related to the first mask. Accordingly, dithering is performed using related masks, thus preventing poor gradation of video signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2014
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Ji-yong Park, Sang-kyun Im, Nam-kyun Beon
  • Patent number: 8781248
    Abstract: The appearance of image details can be preserved and/or enhanced by applying contrast adaptive gain to the high spatial frequency component of the luminance information. The image details in bright and/or dark regions can be further boosted by applying a local mean adaptive gain. The contrast transfer mapping curve for luminance contrast enhancement can be re-scaled to account for the applied gain. The re-scaling may be performed from frame to frame of displayed video. The re-scaling may be temporally controlled for subsequent frames to make the re-scaling change gradually to prevent flickering.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2014
    Assignee: STMicroelectronics Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd.
    Inventors: Haiyun Wang, Lucas Hui
  • Patent number: 8730399
    Abstract: A display apparatus includes one or more imaging channels, each imaging channel includes a polarized light source and a spatial light modulator that is actuable to modulate the polarized light and provide a modulated polarized light. A control logic processor is disposed to receive and analyze each frame of image data for the one or more imaging channels. A variable brightness attenuator in the path of the modulated polarized light and actuable under the control of the control logic processor to attenuate the modulated polarized light to one of a plurality of attenuation levels for the one or more imaging channels according to each frame of image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2014
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Michael A. Marcus, John A. Agostinelli, James G. Phalen, Marek W. Kowarz
  • Patent number: 8711288
    Abstract: An integrated communications system. A substrate having a receiver disposed on the substrate for converting a received signal to an IF signal, a digital IF demodulator disposed on the substrate and coupled to the receiver for converting the IF signal to a demodulated baseband signal, and a transmitter disposed on the substrate operating in cooperation with the receiver to establish a two way communications path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2014
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Pieter Vorenkamp, Myles H. Wakayama, Steven Jaffe, Frank Carr, Arnoldus Venes, Peter R. Kinget, Daniel J. Marz, Thinh Nguyen
  • Patent number: 8619196
    Abstract: In a channel search performed first after the installation of a broadcast receiver, a switch is switched to each of an attenuator side and an amplifier side to acquire reception state information (AGC, BER, C/N). The broadcast receiver is provided with a counter for counting the number of receivable channels on each of the amplifier and the attenuator. If image/voice can be normally received over the corresponding channel is determined based on the reception state information from reception state information detecting means. If it is determined that image/voice can be normally received, the counter of the attenuator side or the amplifier side is incremented by one. Upon termination of the channel search, the two counters are compared and the switch is fixed to the side on which more channels can be normally received. Accordingly, a wide range of signal power levels can be received in excellent condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 24, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2013
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Miki Uchida
  • Patent number: 8619195
    Abstract: A display apparatus includes a sight line detection unit that detects a line of sight of a user by analyzing user video information, an enhancement processing unit that detects an intersection point of the line of sight of the user detected by the sight line detection unit and a video display surface of a monitor as an attention point, which is a point on which the user focuses attention, and performs enhancement processing for the monitor by setting a higher gain amount in stages from a position of a longer distance from the attention point toward a position of a smaller distance, and a display video output control unit that outputs video via the monitor based on the gain amount set by the enhancement processing unit and display video information whose input is received by a display video information input unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Tsutomu Nagai
  • Patent number: 8587460
    Abstract: An A/D conversion apparatus includes first to M-th ADC connected in parallel converting an analog input signal to digital signals in response to M-phase sampling signals, a reference A/D conversion circuit that converts the analog input signal to a digital signal in response to a divided-by-(n×M+1) sampling signal; and a control unit that compares, for each period of (n×M+1) clock cycles, one of the digital signals from a corresponding one of first to M-th ADC with the digital signal from the reference ADC in a predetermined order of the first to M-th ADC, and generates a compensation control signal based on the comparison result for supply to the corresponding ADC.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2013
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventors: Hidemi Noguchi, Yasushi Amamiya
  • Patent number: 8582035
    Abstract: An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for digital television demodulation, comprising using adjacent-channel power dependent automatic gain control (AGC) for the digital television demodulation, wherein an AGC technique takes into account a total power as well as power of adjacent channels to control gain of a gain control amplifier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2013
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Parveen K Shukla, Bernard Arambepola, Thushara Hewavithana, Sahan S Gamage
  • Patent number: 8514166
    Abstract: A method of reducing power consumption in a liquid crystal display illuminated by a backlight device includes dimming the backlight and adjusting the intensity of the image to compensate for the dimmed backlight. A dimming factor for the backlight is based on a clipping point determining from the pixel intensity distribution of the image signal. The intensity of the image is adjusted based on the dimming factor, wherein a first tone mapping function is used to adjust pixel intensities below an intensity threshold and a second tone mapping function is used to adjust pixel intensities above the intensity threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2013
    Assignee: Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Company Limited
    Inventors: Min Chen, Huajun Peng, Guoping Qiu, Chun Kit Hung, Wei Zhang
  • Patent number: 8456579
    Abstract: This disclosure presents an apparatus and method for automatic gain control correction for a television signal in which the Radio Frequency (RF) and Intermediate Frequency (IF) power signal levels are collected for a band of channels, identifying a channel having a strong RF power signal level and an IF gain signal level that is lower than a nominal IF gain signal level, comparing the identified channel RF gain signal level with the RF gain signal level of adjacent channels to identify the relative power signal levels of the channel and associated adjacent channels, and applying correction to the channel wherein there is an imbalance in the RF and IF power signal levels of the identified channel. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2013
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Electronics Inc.
    Inventors: Hiromichi Sano, William Bennett, Liviu Burciu
  • Patent number: 8446532
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes an image receiving unit, and an image processing unit which allows luminance of an image to be within a preset range of luminance and adjusts sharpness of the image. Accordingly, the problem that the luminance exceeds a digital value may be prevented, and the sharpness of the image may be effectively improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2013
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Ki-deok Lee, Bo-gun Park, Youn-sook Jung
  • Publication number: 20130083248
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus includes a block feature amount calculator, a local contrast correction curve generator and a contrast correction module. The block feature amount calculator divides pixels in a video frame into blocks, and calculates feature amounts corresponding to the blocks using luminance values of pixels in each of the blocks. The local contrast correction curve generator generates local contrast correction curves corresponding to the blocks using the feature amounts. The contrast correction module generates a corrected video frame using the local contrast correction curves.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 7, 2012
    Publication date: April 4, 2013
    Applicant: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventor: Shingo Suzuki
  • Patent number: 8411202
    Abstract: In an automatic gain control circuit comprising a black level detecting unit which detects a black level from a video signal, a white level detecting unit which detects a white level from the video signal, and an analog-to-digital converter which adjusts a dynamic range of the video signal based on a difference value between the black level and the white level, a video signal for adjustment including a black level which indicates a minimum brightness of a video image and a white level which indicates a maximum brightness of the video image is input and the dynamic range is adjusted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2013
    Assignees: Sanyo Semiconductor Co., Ltd., Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC.
    Inventors: Hirotoshi Mori, Hiroyuki Ebinuma
  • Patent number: 8390742
    Abstract: In a semiconductor integrated circuit arranged to perform sag compensation for a video signal, an operational amplifier includes a non-inverted input terminal, an inverted input terminal, and an output terminal, in which a video signal is input to the non-inverted input terminal. A first resistor includes a first end connected to the inverted input terminal and a second end being grounded. The output terminal is connected to a first external terminal and the inverted input terminal is connected to a second external terminal. A second resistor includes a first end connected to the output terminal and a second end connected to the inverted input terminal. A first capacitor is disposed between the first external terminal and the second external terminal and connected in parallel to the second resistor, and the second resistor has a resistance value determined based on a capacitance value of the first capacitor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2013
    Assignee: Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shuhei Abe, Nagayoshi Dobashi, Yoshiaki Hirano
  • Patent number: 8368814
    Abstract: The invention achieves a visual processing device that can execute precise contrast adjustment on image signals that have been input and that does not cause discrepancies in the output timing of the image signals that are output. The visual processing device is provided with a gain-type visual processing portion that outputs a first gain signal having predetermined gain characteristics with respect to the input image signal, and a correction portion that corrects the input image signal based on the first gain signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2013
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Haruo Yamashita, Takeshi Ito, Yusuke Monobe, Tatsumi Watanabe, Yasuhiro Kuwahara
  • Patent number: 8330870
    Abstract: A method for improving image contrast for a display apparatus obtains a frame of image data having one or more code values for each pixel in the frame of image data, analyzes the frame of image data to identify a distribution of dark regions therein. The method further adjusts at least one of the one or more code values for the frame of image data according to the distribution of dark regions in the frame of image data and attenuates a brightness level available for the image frame according to the distribution of dark regions in the frame of image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2012
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Michael A. Marcus, John A. Agostinelli, James G. Phalen, Marek W. Kowarz
  • Patent number: 8279352
    Abstract: In a video display device of the present invention, a main control unit is equipped with a user interface for varying correction values set to a range correction unit and controls a range correction unit by acquiring the corresponding correction values from a storage unit in accordance with correction level information input by the user interface. The storage unit stores range correction values for the video display unit in correspondence with each piece of the correction level information input by the user interface. Thus, it is possible to correct luminance ranges to suit the user's preference without causing a large luminance reduction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2012
    Assignees: NEC Display Solutions, Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Control Software Corporation
    Inventors: Masatoshi Abe, Yutaka Arai, Hiroki Iwataka
  • Patent number: 8237867
    Abstract: A dynamic gain adjustment method and apparatus based on brightness are provided. The dynamic gain adjustment method and apparatus amplify or attenuate high frequency components of an input video signal by dynamically varying a gain that is applied to a peaking algorithm block for picture quality improvement in a video processing device, such as a digital television, based on an average picture level (APL) of the input video signal. The gain can be dynamically adjusted when the APL of the input video signal is high or low, and thus saturation of the video signal during the operation of the peaking block can be prevented.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2012
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Tae-hwan Cha