For Segmenting An Image Patents (Class 382/171)
  • Patent number: 10019848
    Abstract: Techniques are disclosed for noise reduction and color smoothing of scanned 3D models for 3D printing. An anisotropic box kernel variant of a bilateral filter is applied to each vertex of a 3D mesh model, where the vertices contain color information. With bilateral filtering, the color at a given vertex is, under certain conditions, replaced by a Gaussian weighted average of colors of neighboring vertices. The weighting is a function of a geometric distance between vertices. The direction of traversal is limited towards neighboring vertices where a color mismatch is a color difference larger than the threshold value. The color of a neighboring vertex is rejected if the vertex normals differ from by a large angle. The weighted average of colors of the neighboring vertices is also rejected if the given vertex lies in a region where the color match/mismatch ratio is low at the end of the traversal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2018
    Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated
    Inventors: Mayur Hemani, Kedar Vijay Bodas
  • Patent number: 9984287
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure disclose a method for performing Optical Character Recognition (OCR) of an article. The method comprises acquiring an image of the article. The image of the article is scanned using predetermined scan settings. Then, textual regions of the scanned image of the article are identified. The OCR of the at least one of the textual regions is performed using predetermined OCR settings. One or more textual regions of the textual regions are marked upon determining an error in performing the OCR of the one or more textual regions. The OCR of the one or more textual regions is iterated as per one or more predefined OCR scanning parameters based on an OCR quality of the one or more textual regions upon marking the one or more textual regions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2018
    Assignee: Wipro Limited
    Inventors: Tomson Ganapathiplackal George, Sudheesh Joseph
  • Patent number: 9972113
    Abstract: An image processing device classifies captured images into event images captured in each event duration corresponding to a predetermined event or usual-day images captured out of the event duration. The image processing device produces, for each duration, an event page in which event images of an event in the duration are inserted and a usual page in which usual-day images in the duration are inserted. The image processing device generates an album using the event page and the usual page produced for the duration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2018
    Assignee: FUJITSU LIMITED
    Inventors: Yasufumi Nakamura, Aki Kita
  • Patent number: 9965679
    Abstract: A device may obtain a document, of a document type, from which specific information is to be captured. The specific information to be captured may depend on a document class associated with the document. The device may identify the document class, associated with the document, based on a characteristic of the document. The document class may identify a category of document in which the document is included, and may be associated with multiple document types. The device may determine field information associated with the document class. The field information may include information that identifies a portion of the document where the specific information is located, or may include information that identifies a manner in which the specific information can be identified within the document. The device may analyze the document, based on the field information, in order to capture the specific information. The device may provide the captured specific information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2018
    Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited
    Inventors: Prakash Ghatage, Ramesh Jonnavithula, Sunil Balugari, Naveen Kumar Thangaraj, Satyendra S. Shinde
  • Patent number: 9898653
    Abstract: A method for image processing includes obtaining a mask of a stroke from an image; determining a plurality of cross edges for the stroke based on the mask; generating a histogram comprising a plurality of widths of the cross edges and a plurality of frequencies of the plurality of widths from the cross edges; estimating a lower bound of a width range for the stroke based on a mode width of the plurality of widths, a first subset of the plurality of widths below the mode width, and a first plurality of weights assigned to the first subset of the plurality of widths; and estimating an upper bound of the width range for the stroke based on the mode width, a second subset of the plurality of widths above the mode width, and a second plurality of weights assigned to the second subset of the widths.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 25, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2018
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Laboratory U.S.A. Inc.
    Inventor: Darrell Eugene Bellert
  • Patent number: 9865038
    Abstract: A method for image processing, including: obtaining an image including a table; identifying a first line corresponding to the table in the image, a first confidence value for the first line, and a first angle for the first line; initiating a plurality of angle bins corresponding to multiple angles; calculating, based on the first confidence value, a first plurality of bin values for a first subset of the plurality of angle bins within a window surrounding the first angle; adding the first plurality of bin values to the first subset of the plurality of angle bins; identifying an angle bin of the plurality of angle bins having a maximum bin value; and rotating the image based on the angle bin having the maximum bin value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2018
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Laboratory U.S.A., Inc.
    Inventor: Darrell Eugene Bellert
  • Patent number: 9854120
    Abstract: An optical scanning apparatus includes a deflector for scanningly deflecting a beam; a scanning lens for imaging the beam deflected by the deflector on a surface; a casing for a light source, the deflector and the lens; and an elastic member urging the lens toward the casing along an optical axis. The lens is provided with an abutment at a beam emergent side of the lens, the abutment abutting to the casing, and is provided with a limiting portion at a side opposite from the emergent side, the limiting portion limiting movement in the opposite direction. The elastic member and the limiting portion limits the movement of the lens in the direction opposite to the direction of the lens. When the lens contacts a positioning portion of the casing, a gap is provided between the elastic member and the limiting portion with respect to the direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2017
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yoshihiko Tanaka, Jun Nagatoshi, Tetsuya Nishiguchi
  • Patent number: 9852287
    Abstract: A method for determining a password strength is provided. The method may include receiving a user-entered password. The method may also include identifying a keyboard layout type associated with a keyboard utilized to enter the received user-entered password. The method may further include mapping each character within a plurality of characters in the received user-entered password to a corresponding location on a grid associated with the identified keyboard layout type. The method may also include determining a coordinate sequence associated with the received user-entered password based on the mapped plurality of characters. The method may further include applying a pattern recognition algorithm to the determined coordinate sequence. The method may also include determining a password strength based on the applied pattern recognition algorithm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2017
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Itzhack Goldberg, Harry R. McGregor, Christopher B. Moore, Shawn P. Mullen, Neil Sondhi
  • Patent number: 9843759
    Abstract: Detecting the start of a credit roll within video program may allow for the automatic extension of video recordings among other functions. The start of the credit roll may be detected by determining the number of text blocks within a sequence of frames and identifying a point in the sequence of frames where a difference between the number of text blocks in frames occurring before the point and the number of text blocks in frames occurring after the point is greatest and exceeds a specified threshold. Text blocks may be identified within each frame by partitioning the frame into one or more segments and recording the segments having a pixel of a sufficiently high contrast. Contiguous segments may be merged or combined into single blocks, which may then be filtered to remove noise and false positives. Additional content may be inserted into the credit roll frames.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2017
    Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications, LLC
    Inventors: Oliver Jojic, David F. Houghton
  • Patent number: 9842307
    Abstract: Methods and systems for creating one or more tasks. One or more electronic documents are clustered in one or more first groups based on a similarity of handwriting in the one or more electronic documents. Each electronic document of each of the one or more first groups is partitioned into one or more partitions. Each of the one or more partitions is assigned an area identification number. The one or more tasks are created such that each task of the one or more tasks includes a partition, from each electronic document of the one or more electronic documents, having same area identification number.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2017
    Assignee: XEROX CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shailesh Vaya, Akshayaram Srinivasan, Sai Praneeth Reddy K
  • Patent number: 9836595
    Abstract: A method for determining a password strength is provided. The method may include receiving a user-entered password. The method may also include identifying a keyboard layout type associated with a keyboard utilized to enter the received user-entered password. The method may further include mapping each character within a plurality of characters in the received user-entered password to a corresponding location on a grid associated with the identified keyboard layout type. The method may also include determining a coordinate sequence associated with the received user-entered password based on the mapped plurality of characters. The method may further include applying a pattern recognition algorithm to the determined coordinate sequence. The method may also include determining a password strength based on the applied pattern recognition algorithm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2017
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Itzhack Goldberg, Harry R. McGregor, Christopher B. Moore, Shawn P. Mullen, Neil Sondhi
  • Patent number: 9811505
    Abstract: Various embodiments include a system having interfaces, storage devices, memory, and processing circuitry. The system may include logic to render a portion of a first layer and a portion of a second layer for presentation, determine parameters of tokens for the second layer based a result of the rendering of the second layer, the parameters to include at least one of token width values, token offset values, line height values, and line top values. The system also to align the first layer and the second layer based on the parameters of the tokens for the second layer, and present the first layer and the second layer on a display, the first layer to present tokens and the second layer to receive events.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Assignee: SAS Institute Inc.
    Inventors: Tammy Gagliano, Yifei Li, Bin Zhou, Bo Wang, Wei Wu
  • Patent number: 9805010
    Abstract: A method for redacting related content in a document by executing a redaction manager process that searches for related content in at least one document and then provides a means for selecting instances of the content for redaction. The related content may include properties such as, for example, identical instances of a text string, instances of related graphics, instances of numeric values and/or numeric patterns, proper names, phone numbers, addresses and similar searchable data properties. Upon searching and retrieving the desired data, the redaction manager process displays a listing of the instances of content which affords a user the ability to select which particular instances of content to redact within the document.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2017
    Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated
    Inventors: Jason T. Pittenger, David Stromfeld
  • Patent number: 9767604
    Abstract: A method of object recognition and/or registration includes receiving a point cloud, arranging the points of the point cloud into a hierarchical search tree, and determining geometric information of the points located within a region, by identifying a highest level tree nodes where all of descendent leaf nodes are contained within the region and selecting the leaf nodes for the points where no sub-tree is entirely contained within the region, such that the points falling within the region are represented by the smallest number of nodes and performing statistical operations on the nodes representing the points in the region. The geometric information includes descriptors of features in the point cloud. The method further includes comparing the feature descriptors with a database of feature descriptors for a plurality of objects.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2017
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Minh-Tri Pham, Riccardo Gherardi, Frank Perbet, Bjorn Stenger, Sam Johnson, Oliver Woodford, Pablo Alcantarilla, Roberto Cipolla
  • Patent number: 9747051
    Abstract: A method includes, in a computing system that includes one or more compute nodes that run clients, defining memory chunks, each memory chunk including multiple memory pages accessed by a respective client. Respective similarity-preserving signatures are computed for one or more of the memory chunks. Based on the similarity-preserving signatures, an identification is made that first and second memory chunks differ in content in no more than a predefined number of memory pages with at least a predefined likelihood. Efficiency of access to the identified first and second memory chunks is improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2017
    Assignee: STRATO SCALE LTD.
    Inventors: Benoit Guillaume Charles Hudzia, Rom Freiman
  • Patent number: 9672629
    Abstract: A fluorescence image processing apparatus for enhancing a fluorescence image includes an image segmentation unit, a background determination unit a background reduction unit, and an image enhancement unit. The background and the area of interest of a glass slide are first segmented and then this segmentation is used to enhance the contrast between both areas.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.
    Inventors: Jelte Peter Vink, Marinus Bastiaan Van Leeuwen
  • Patent number: 9626754
    Abstract: Apparatus, system and method for detecting defects in an adhesion area that includes an adhesive mixed with a fluorescent material. One or more illumination devices may illuminate the fluorescent material in the adhesion area with a light of a predetermined wavelength. A camera may be configured to capture an image of the illuminated adhesion area. A processing device, communicatively coupled to the camera, may be configured to process the captured image by applying one or more boundary areas to the captured image and determining an image characteristic within each of the boundary areas, wherein the image characteristic is used by the processing device to determine the presence of a defect in the adhesive, such as an excess of adhesive or an insufficient application of adhesive.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2017
    Assignee: JABIL CIRCUIT, INC.
    Inventors: Quyen Duc Chu, Nazir Ahmad
  • Patent number: 9578203
    Abstract: A document production system having the capability of determining the printable area of a pre-printed media is disclosed. The system may include a scanner, which scans and analyzes a copy of the pre-printed media as a template. The system may determine the page margin of the template, including the side margin, the header or the footer. The system may determine the printable area of the template based on the page margin and adjust the content of the document to be printed to fit the printable areas by either scaling or cropping.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2017
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventor: Gopalan Mamandoor AnanthaNarayanan
  • Patent number: 9569428
    Abstract: A technique provides an electronic summary of source content. The technique involves performing, on the source content, a content recognition operation to electronically generate text output from the source content. The technique further involves electronically evaluating text portions of the text output based on predefined usability criteria to produce a respective set of usability properties for each text portion of the text output. The technique further involves providing, as the electronic summary of the source content, summarization output which summarizes the source content. The summarization output includes a particular text portion of the text output which is selected from the text portions of the text output based on the respective set of usability properties for each text portion of the text output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2017
    Assignee: GetGo, Inc.
    Inventor: Ashish V. Thapliyal
  • Patent number: 9519956
    Abstract: A method comprises estimating disparity values for pixels located in an occluded region of a first one of a defocused pair of stereo images using: a first set of blur map data corresponding to the first one of the defocused pair of stereo images; a first set of disparity map data corresponding to the first one of the defocused pair of stereo images; and a first set of occlusion map data corresponding to the first one of the defocused pair of stereo images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2016
    Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy
    Inventors: Ching-Hui Chen, Hui Zhou, Timo Ahonen
  • Patent number: 9462259
    Abstract: According to an aspect, an electronic device includes: an operating unit; a display unit for displaying a plurality of images in a superposed manner to display a three-dimensional image; a storage unit for storing a plurality of pieces of image data that form the three-dimensional image together with each other; and a control unit configured to determine a correction value for stereoscopic effect of an object of the three-dimensional image based on an operation detected by the operating unit, correct a position of the object in at least one of the plurality of images that form the three-dimensional image based on the correction value for the stereoscopic effect of the object, and superpose the plurality of images including the corrected image on the display unit to display the object as a three-dimensional image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
    Assignee: KYOCERA CORPORATION
    Inventor: Yoshikazu Adachi
  • Patent number: 9442901
    Abstract: From among a plurality of character code groups, a resemblance determining apparatus searches for a character code group resembling a character code group specified by the user. At that time, when each character code included in the specified character code group is within a predetermined numerical range, the resemblance determining apparatus excludes character code groups having character codes outside of the predetermined numerical range and extracts the remaining character code groups.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2016
    Assignee: FUJITSU LIMITED
    Inventors: Takashi Furuta, Isamu Ooishi
  • Patent number: 9437008
    Abstract: Enhancing segmentation of objects within an image by utilizing an error cost value. Each error cost value comprises a cost value Cfb if segmentation decides on foreground for an element that should be background, and a cost value Cbf if segmentation decides on background for an element that should be in the foreground. Different areas of an image are estimated and error cost values assigned for a definite foreground (very high Cbf and very low Cfb), a definite background (very high Cfb and very low Cbf), an initial foreground (high Cbf and low Cfb), and an initial background (high Cfb and low Cbf). These error costs are utilized in combination with conventional segmentation decisions to modify those segmentation decisions and thus enhance segmentation accuracy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2016
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Takeda, Mohammad Gharavi-Alkhansari
  • Patent number: 9430703
    Abstract: A word segmentation method for segmenting a text line into word segments, which is particularly advantageous for processing italic text but can also be used for regular text. A horizontal center zone of the text line, corresponding to the vertical center parts of the characters, is used to generate a center-zone-only vertical projection profile. The center zone is determined using a horizontal projection profile, by locating the two major peaks of that profile and defining the two major peak positions as the upper and lower boundaries of the center zone. Spacing segments (white gaps) in the vertical projection profile are identified, and classified into two classes, namely character spacing (gap between characters with a word) and word spacing (gap between words). The word spacings are used to segment the text line into word segments.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2016
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA LABORATORY U.S.A., INC.
    Inventor: Wei Ming
  • Patent number: 9384391
    Abstract: Methods and systems for classifying a region of interest in an electronic document. A first region from the electronic document is extracted. The first region includes at least the region of interest. A first projection profile of pixels is determined in the region of interest. The first projection profile of pixels is indicative of a presence of a content in the region of interest. The region of interest is classified in at least one category based on a comparison of the first projection profile with a predetermined projection profile associated with the region of interest.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2016
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Sainarayanan Gopalakrishnan, Rajasekar Kanagasabai, Vignesh Doss, Sudhagar Subbaian, Xing Li
  • Patent number: 9380218
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer readable media for the use of a metric whose value is especially sensitive to the information lost when an image's pixels are clipped are disclosed. The metric may be used as an image's score, where higher values are indicative of lost highlight information (more clipped pixels). One use of the disclosed metric would be to determine when the use of high dynamic range (HDR) techniques are appropriate. The disclosed metric may also be used to bias a scene's exposure value (EV) such as to a lower or underexposed value (EV?) so that the scene may be captured with no more than an acceptable number of clipped pixels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2016
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Juanqing Chen, Xuemei Zhang, Yingjun Bai
  • Patent number: 9361531
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide concepts for correcting optical character recognition (OCR) errors from and OCR scan result by sequentially applying an anagram hash (AH) and Levenshtein-Distance (LD) measurement for concurrent character identity-based (machine code) and character shape-based (OCR-Key) corrections. The OCR-Key classifies characters by shape into one or more disjoint and overlapping classes. Similar shaped-based classes appearing in consecutive characters are appended to a cardinality term, a repetition count of the class. The LD measurement groups OCR-Keys and differentiates on both class and cardinality to arrive at a shape-based mismatch error between competing candidate words from an associated dictionary and a target word from the OCR scan.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2016
    Assignee: Optum, Inc.
    Inventor: Casey Stella
  • Patent number: 9330311
    Abstract: Systems and methods for analyzing letters in an image of text are described. For each letter, a number of properties are determined and the letters are classified into letterform classes. The properties may include independent letter properties based on only the letter itself, such as a slanted bounding box encompassing the letter. The properties may also include dependent letter properties that are based, in part, on other letters, such as adjacent letters or letters in the same word or line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Vasanth Elancheralathan
  • Patent number: 9307949
    Abstract: It is an object to prevent a poor X-ray CT image due to scattered X-rays. An X-ray CT scanner (100) uses an X-ray detector (4), etc., to scan (F1) an object (3) to obtain X-ray transmission image data, and estimate (F3) an X-ray absorption coefficient distribution inside the object (3) based on the scanned X-ray transmission image data. Next, the X-ray CT scanner (100) performs a Monte Carlo simulation on a simulated object (3) having the X-ray absorption coefficient distribution estimated, and estimates (F4 and F7) a point spread function or scattered X-ray distribution derived from the object. Then, the X-ray CT scanner (100) corrects (F5 and F8), based on the point spread function or scattered X-ray distribution estimated, the X-ray transmission image data, and finally creates (F6 and F9) an image of the X-ray absorption coefficient distribution of the object (3).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2016
    Assignee: HITACHI MEDICAL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yushi Tsubota, Fumito Watanabe, Hironori Ueki, Yasutaka Konno, Shinichi Kojima
  • Patent number: 9299008
    Abstract: An automatic image classification method applying an unsupervised adaptation method is provided. A plurality of non-manually-labeled observation data are grouped into a plurality of groups. A respectively hypothesis label is set to each of the groups according to a classifier. It is determined whether each member of the observation data in each of the groups is suitable for adjusting the classifier according to the hypothesis label, and the non-manually-labeled observation data which are determined as being suitable for adjusting the classifier are set as a plurality of adaptation data. The classifier is updated according to the hypothesis label and the adaptation data. The observation data are classified according to the updated classifier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2016
    Assignee: INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE
    Inventors: Tai-Hui Huang, Ming-Yu Shih
  • Patent number: 9256949
    Abstract: A region growing apparatus using multi-core includes a plurality of cores, each core including an operation controller configured to perform an operation for region growing of a 2D pixel region or 3D pixel region and an inner memory configured to store a queue associated with a seed pixel as a target of the operation; and a shared memory connected to the plurality of cores over a network and shared by the plurality of cores.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2016
    Assignees: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD., SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY R&DB FOUNDATION
    Inventors: Sang-Heon Lee, Soo-Jung Ryu, Yeon-Gon Cho, Do-Hyun Kim, Yeong-Gil Shin, Byeong-Hun Lee
  • Patent number: 9118917
    Abstract: The image coding method according to the present invention includes the following steps. At a histogram calculation step, a histogram of pixel values included in a block image is calculated. At a plane region detection step, a size of a plane region included in the block image is detected. At an orthogonal transformation size selection step, (i) a first processing size is selected as a processing size of orthogonal transformation for the block image when the histogram is bimodal and the size of the plane region is equal to or greater than the first threshold value, and (ii) a second processing size greater than the first processing size is selected as the processing size, when that the histogram is not bimodal or the size of the plane region is smaller than the first threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2015
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Megumi Sakai, Toshihiko Kusakabe, Shinji Kitamura, Yasuharu Tanaka
  • Patent number: 9042647
    Abstract: Methods, systems and processor-readable media for adaptive character segmentation in an automatic license plate recognition application. A region of interest can be identified in an image of a license plate acquired via an automatic license plate recognition engine. Characters in the image with respect to the region of interest can be segmented using a histogram projection associated with particular segmentation threshold parameters. The characters in the image can be iteratively validated if a minimum number of valid characters is determined based on the histogram projection and the particular segmentation threshold parameters to produce character images sufficient to identify the license plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Vladimir Kozitsky, Aaron Burry, Claude Fillion
  • Patent number: 9025872
    Abstract: Segments included in an image I are each classified as one of object (i.e., person) segments OS1 and OS2 and foreground segments FS1 and FS2. With respect to each of the foreground segments FS1 and FS2, an importance degree is calculated based on a composition of the image I and relations between the foreground segment of the image I and a foreground segment of an image other than the image I.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America
    Inventor: Hiroshi Yabu
  • Patent number: 9025883
    Abstract: What is disclosed is a system and method which reconstructs an N-pixel image of a scene such that Q pixel locations associated with identified regions of interest in a scene have a higher image quality when rendered relative to other pixels in the image. Acquisition and adaptive-quality compression are performed simultaneously by semi-synchronously or asynchronously temporally modulating an ordered set of sampling functions used to spatially modulate a pattern of light. The teachings hereof improve compression efficiency of a compressed sensing framework while improving encoding efficiency with respect to traditional compressed sensing techniques.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Edgar A. Bernal, Xuejin Wen, Wencheng Wu, Lalit Keshav Mestha
  • Patent number: 9014475
    Abstract: An image synthesis apparatus acquires one or plural images including one or plural pictures of one person or plural people as an object, determines an aspect of the one or plural pictures, extracts a part of the one or plural pictures in accordance with the aspect of the one or plural pictures and synthesizes the extracted one or plural images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2015
    Assignee: Olympus Imaging Corp.
    Inventor: Satoshi Hara
  • Publication number: 20150104101
    Abstract: An application that receives and edits image data from a light field camera. The application determines a distance from the light field camera for each portion of the image. The application of some embodiments uses the depth information to break the image data down into layers based on the depths of the objects in the image. In some embodiments, the layers are determined based on a histogram that plots the fraction of an image at a particular depth against the depths of the image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 14, 2013
    Publication date: April 16, 2015
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew E. Bryant, Daniel Pettigrew
  • Patent number: 9008392
    Abstract: Various embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to medical imaging and related methods. More specifically, particular embodiments of the present disclosure relate to systems and methods for visualizing elongated structures.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2015
    Assignee: HeartFlow, Inc.
    Inventors: Ying Bai, Jonathan Tang, Razik Yousfi
  • Publication number: 20150098648
    Abstract: An image processing device of the present invention determines the pixel values of background pixels based on a pixel value histogram of a target image to be segmented into a foreground and a background, determines pixels of the target image having pixel values equivalent to the pixel values of these background pixels, as a portion of the background pixels, and determines other background pixels and foreground pixels in the target image by use of the pixel value of each pixel in the target image and the positional information of this portion of the background pixels.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 8, 2014
    Publication date: April 9, 2015
    Applicant: CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Katsunori ISHII
  • Patent number: 8989437
    Abstract: A computing device configured to determine, for each of a plurality of locations in an image, a saliency measure based at least on a cost of composing parts of the image in the location from parts of the image outside of the location is described herein. The computing device is further configured to select one or more of the locations as representing salient objects of the image based at least on the saliency measures.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2015
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Yichen Wei, Jie Feng, Litian Tao, Jian Sun
  • Patent number: 8982237
    Abstract: A portable electronic device with camera function and an image capture method with auto exposure control. The disclosed method comprises the following steps: obtaining a pre-view frame from a camera module; dividing the pre-view frame into a plurality of blocks and calculating representative brightness values of the blocks; assigning weight values to the blocks according to the representative brightness values; obtaining a weighted brightness value by performing a weighted operation on the representative brightness values based on the weight values of the blocks; setting an auto exposure parameter of the camera module based on the weighted brightness value; and controlling the camera module for capturing images based on the auto exposure parameter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: HTC Corporation
    Inventor: Wan-Yi Chen
  • Patent number: 8965123
    Abstract: A system and a method for identification of alphanumeric characters present in a series in an image are disclosed. The system and method captures the image and further processes it for binarization by computing a pattern of the image. The generated binarized images are then filtered for removing unwanted components. Candidate images are identified out of the filtered binarized images. All the obtained candidate images are combined to generate a final candidate image which is further segmented in order to recognize a valid alphanumeric character present in the series.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2015
    Assignee: Tata Consultancy Services Limited
    Inventors: Tanushyam Chattopadhyay, Ujjwal Bhattacharya, Bidyut Baran Chaudhuri
  • Publication number: 20150049944
    Abstract: Techniques are described for memory-efficient spatial histogram construction. A hierarchical spatial index has leaf nodes and non-leaf nodes, each leaf node representing a bounding region containing a spatial object, each non-leaf node representing a bounding region at least partially containing one or more spatial objects. A plurality of selected nodes is selected from the plurality of non-leaf nodes. The plurality of selected nodes includes an ancestor of each leaf node. For each particular node in the plurality of selected nodes, a weight is determined. The weight is based on the number of spatial objects contained within the bounding region of the particular node. A spatial partitioning of the plurality of selected nodes is determined. A spatial histogram is generated based on the spatial partitioning of the weights of the plurality of selected nodes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 14, 2013
    Publication date: February 19, 2015
    Applicant: Oracle International Corporation
    Inventors: Bhuvan Bamba, Siva Ravada, Ying Hu, Richard J. Anderson
  • Patent number: 8958633
    Abstract: An input image is partitioned into a plurality of image regions based on color and color differences. The partitioning comprises assigning a color difference value to plurality of locations within the input image. The partitioning further comprises assigning each of the plurality of locations to an image region of the plurality of image regions, where the assigning occurs according to a particular order. The particular order is based at least in part on color difference values associated with the plurality of locations. The input image may comprise markup. Data representing at least a particular portion of the markup in the input image based on the partitioning is identified. Data representing at least the portion of the markup may be used in a visualization of a customizable product or a manufacturing control associated with a customizable product.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2015
    Assignee: Zazzle Inc.
    Inventor: Young Harvill
  • Patent number: 8958642
    Abstract: Disclosed are a method and a device for processing an image by using image division capable of simultaneously minimizing deterioration of an image quality due to an error in a transmission line and further improving compression efficiency in performing compression and restoration of an image signal by using multiple processors. The method of processing an image by using image division according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure includes dividing an image frame into multiple subblocks having a predetermined pixel size; constituting multiple macroblocks by sampling respective pixels positioned at an identical position within a predetermined number of subblocks; and constituting multiple slices by dividing the multiple macroblocks based on the positions of the sampled pixels within the subblock.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2015
    Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
    Inventors: Seunghyun Cho, Nak Woong Eum
  • Patent number: 8958599
    Abstract: A method may involve analyzing eye-image data to determine observed movement of a reflected image over a predetermined period, using head-movement data to determine a first eye-movement component corresponding to head movement during the predetermined period, determining a first expected movement of the reflected image corresponding to the first eye-movement component, determining a second eye-movement component based on a difference between the observed movement and the first expected movement, determining a second expected movement of the reflected image based on the combination of the first eye-movement component and the second eye-movement component, determining a difference between the observed movement and the second expected movement, if the difference is less than a threshold, setting eye-movement data for the predetermined period based on the second eye-movement component; and if the difference is greater than the threshold, adjusting the first eye-movement component and repeating the method with the
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2015
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventor: Thad Eugene Starner
  • Patent number: 8934733
    Abstract: The present invention describes enhancing image contrast comprising the following steps: determining a segmentation point according to at least one segmentation threshold and pixel statistical data of a picture, wherein the segmentation point is utilized to divide the pixel statistical data into a first partial statistical data and a second partial statistical data; and determining a first partial brightness conversion function and a second partial brightness conversion function according to the first and the second partial statistical data, respectively. The first partial brightness conversion function is used to adjust brightness values of multiple pixels in the picture corresponding to the first partial statistical data, and the second partial brightness conversion function is used to adjust brightness values of multiple pixels in the picture corresponding to the second partial statistical data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 13, 2015
    Assignee: MStar Semiconductor, Inc.
    Inventors: Hsin-Chuan Lin, Hsin-Chun Chiang
  • Patent number: 8934716
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method of sequencing character information in order to increase precision of character recognition. The method includes: a pre-processing that extracts character information from an image to binarize the extracted character information through a predetermined threshold and extracts and thins a center line of the binarized character information; normalizing the pre-processed character information to character information according to a predetermined criteria; and sequencing the normalized character information using structural features including an end point or a divergence point of the character information. The present invention suggests an angle normalization method of input character information, a structural feature position determining method, and a structural feature numeral string generating method to strongly recognize characters configured by various fonts obtained from a natural scene regardless of an angle or a size of the characters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 13, 2015
    Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
    Inventors: Ho Sub Yoon, Ji Eun Kim, Kyu Dae Ban, Dong Jin Lee, Jae Hong Kim, Joo Chan Sohn
  • Patent number: 8928485
    Abstract: The present invention relates to the acquisition of tilted series images of a minute sample in a short time. The present invention relates to: measuring in advance the relation between an amount of focus shift and a degree of coincidence at the time of acquiring tilted series images; calculating backwards a focus shift from the degree of coincidence on the basis of this relation; correcting the focus shift by controlling a stage, an objective lens, and the like; and thus acquiring the tilted series images. In addition, the present invention relates to: acquiring a reference image in advance at the time of photographing the tilted series images; obtaining the correlation between an acquired image and the reference image; and performing, if the degree of coincidence is equal to or smaller than a set value, processing such as the transmission of a warning message and the stop of an image acquisition sequence.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2015
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Hideki Kikuchi, Isao Nagaoki, Katsuyuki Minakawa
  • Publication number: 20150003727
    Abstract: Methods and systems are provided allowing for background identification and gesture recognition in video images. A computer-implemented image processing method includes: receiving, using at least one processing circuit, a plurality of image frames of a video; constructing, using at feast one processing circuit, a plurality of statistical models of the plurality of image frames at a plurality of pixel granularity levels; constructing, using at least one processing circuit, a plurality of probabilistic models of an input image frame at a plurality of channel granularity levels based on the plurality of statistical models; merging at least some of the plurality of probabilistic models based on a weighted average to form a single probability image; determining background pixels, based on a probability threshold value, from the single probability image; and determining whether the plurality of image frames, when examined in a particular sequence, conveys a gesture by the object.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 12, 2014
    Publication date: January 1, 2015
    Inventors: Thor Carpenter, Frank Petterson, Janahan Vivekanandan