Dilation Or Erosion (e.g., Opening Or Closing) Patents (Class 382/257)
  • Patent number: 11947736
    Abstract: A controller-tracking system includes: camera(s) arranged on head-mounted display (HMD); one or more light sources arranged on controller(s) to be tracked, and controller(s) being associated with the HMD. The light sources provide light having wavelength(s). The processor(s) are configured to receive image(s) representing controller(s); identify image segment(s) in image(s) that represents light source(s); determine level of focussing of light source(s) in image(s), based on characteristics associated with pixels of image segment(s); determine distance between camera(s) and light source(s), based on level of focussing, intrinsic parameters of camera(s), and reference focussing distance corresponding to wavelength of light provided by light source(s); and determine pose of controller(s) in global coordinate space of real-world environment, using distance between camera(s) and light source(s).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2024
    Assignee: Varjo Technologies Oy
    Inventors: Mikko Strandborg, Mikko Ollila
  • Patent number: 11941903
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus that generates an image for character recognition from a read image includes at least one memory that stores instructions, and at least one processor that executes the instructions to perform extracting of an area of handwritten character information and an area of printed character information from the read image, clipping of a partial image of the area of handwritten character information and a partial image of the area of printed character information out of the read image, and generating of the image for character recognition by combining the partial image of the area of handwritten character information and the partial image of the area of printed character information being associated with each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2024
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Katsuyuki Takahashi
  • Patent number: 11915443
    Abstract: An image processing method includes searching for a next pixel of a skeleton branch of a target image based on an already-searched current pixel of the skeleton branch, and determining whether the skeleton branch is a burr branch based on a number of already-searched pixels of the skeleton branch.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2023
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: CONTEMPORARY AMPEREX TECHNOLOGY CO., LIMITED
    Inventors: Qiangwei Huang, Guannan Jiang, Zhiyu Wang
  • Patent number: 11669964
    Abstract: Apparatus, systems, and methods to process an interior region of interest in an anatomy image via a user interface are disclosed. An example apparatus is to at least: process an image to reduce noise in the image; identify at least one of an organ of interest or a region of interest in the image; analyze values in at least one of the organ of interest or the region of interest; process the at least one of the organ of interest or the region of interest based on the analyzed values to provide a processed object in the at least one of the organ of interest or the region of interest; and display the processed object for interaction via an interface, the display to include exposing at least one of the organ of interest or the region of interest.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2023
    Assignee: GE Precision Healthcare LLC
    Inventors: Jerome Knoplioch, Jean-Marc Treutenaere
  • Patent number: 11570310
    Abstract: An inspection device includes a processor configured to display at least one of plural pieces of read image data on a display unit in a state where a defective portion is recognizable, and set reception of a correction instruction of the defective portion to be enabled, the plural pieces of read image data being obtained by reading image-formed matters obtained by forming original image data on plural recording media, and correct read image data that does not satisfy a predetermined criterion, and then register the corrected read image data as reference image data used for inspecting the image-formed matter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2023
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp.
    Inventor: Yosuke Tashiro
  • Patent number: 11531200
    Abstract: A logic circuit that can output a stream of sequential values, representing pixel position values, for a pixelated display device such as a spatial light modulator. The logic circuit may comprise an advanced integrated circuit such as a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The stream of sequential values that is output by the logic circuit can be used by another logic circuit to calculate corresponding values of a software function, for populating those pixels of the pixelated display device. The software function can be, for example, a lens function or a grating function, which might be combined with a hologram, such as a computer-generated hologram (CGH), for display on the pixelated display device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2022
    Assignee: DUALITAS LTD
    Inventor: Stig Mikael Collin
  • Patent number: 11465232
    Abstract: A laser patterning alignment method provides a way to position a target at a working distance in a laser patterning system such that fiducial marks on the target are positioned in view of at least three laser patterning system cameras, and with each laser patterning system camera, to locate a fiducial mark on the target and sending location data of the located fiducial mark to a controller, to determine corrections required to align expected fiducial mark locations with the sent fiducial mark location data, and to adjust the laser patterning system with the determined corrections.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2022
    Assignee: nLIGHT, Inc.
    Inventors: Vito P. Errico, Roger C. Shipman
  • Patent number: 11086451
    Abstract: An electronic apparatus and an object information recognition method by using touch data thereof are provided. A current touch sensing frame is obtained through a touch panel. The current touch sensing frame includes a plurality of frame cells respectively corresponding to a plurality of touch sensing units, and each of the frame cells has touch raw data. The frame cells include a target frame cell. A new cell value corresponding to the target frame cell is generated according to touch raw data of a plurality of adjacent frame cells adjacent to the target frame cell in the current touch sensing frame, so as to generate a transformation frame according to the new cell value. The transformation frame is transformed into a touch sensing image, and the touch sensing image is analyzed to recognize object information of a touch object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2021
    Assignee: Acer Incorporated
    Inventors: Chih-Wen Huang, Eric Choi, Wen-Cheng Hsu, Chao-Kuang Yang, Yen-Shuo Huang, Ling-Fan Tsao
  • Patent number: 11074693
    Abstract: An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus, which transmits an ultrasonic wave toward a subject by an ultrasound probe, produces ultrasound image data based on obtained reception data by a diagnostic apparatus body, and displays an ultrasound image, includes a dilation processor which performs dilation processing on the ultrasound image data based on a dilation radius to produce dilated image data, an erosion processor which performs erosion processing on the ultrasound image data based on an erosion radius different in magnitude from the dilation radius to produce eroded image data, a difference processor which calculates difference between the dilated image data and the eroded image data to produce difference image data, and an edge enhancer which performs edge enhancement processing on the ultrasound image data based on the difference image data to produce edge enhanced image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2021
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Corporation
    Inventor: Masafumi Noguchi
  • Patent number: 10726540
    Abstract: A method for object defect detection includes receiving digital data representing an image of an object with a repeated pattern. The method identifies a part of the image of the object as defined by a sample window of the digital data. The method generates one or more functions from at least the part of the image, wherein each of the one or more functions corresponds to one component of a pixel contained in the part of the image. Responsive to performing self-similarity analytics on the one or more functions, the method identifies a defect area of the object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2020
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Jing Chang Huang, Wei Sun, Jun Chi Yan, Ren Jie Yao, Jun Zhu
  • Patent number: 10484660
    Abstract: An image processing method to obtain a high sense of depth or high stereoscopic effect for an image and a display device utilizing the method are provided. Image data of an image is separated into image data of a plurality of objects and a background. A feature amount is obtained from the image data of each object, so that the objects are identified. The relative distance between viewer's eye and any of the objects is determined by the data of the sizes of the objects in the image and the sizes of the objects stored in the database. The image data of each object is processed so that an object with a shorter relative distance is enlarged. The image data of each object after image processing is combined with the image data of the background, so that a sense of depth or stereoscopic effect of an image is increased.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Jun Koyama, Mai Akiba
  • Patent number: 10181183
    Abstract: An image processing system and method for determining an intrinsic color component of one or more objects for use in rendering the object(s) is described herein. One or more input images are received, each representing a view of the object(s), wherein values of each of the input image(s) are separable into intrinsic color estimates and corresponding shading estimates. A depth image represents depths of the object(s). Coarse intrinsic color estimates are determined using the input image(s). The intrinsic color component is determined by applying bilateral filtering to the coarse intrinsic color estimates using bilateral filtering guidance terms based on depth values derived from the depth image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2019
    Assignee: Imagination Technologies Limited
    Inventors: James Imber, Adrian Hilton, Jean-Yves Guillemaut
  • Patent number: 10115016
    Abstract: A system and method having a number of technological elements, one of which being a controller, which causes improvements to the controller and creates significantly more than the original default controller functionality. The elements collaborating to cause the controller to operate a camera to record images of a visual content; store the recorded images to a memory, the recorded images being in a digital form as digital images; perform a visual recognition module to identify at least one targeted object within at least one digital image; produce the identification results of the visual recognition module; compare the identification results to the vehicle-reservation information; generate reservation information derived from the comparison outcome of the identification results to the vehicle-reservation information; and operate the display to exhibit the reservation information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2018
    Inventors: Donald K. Grimm, Christopher L. Oesterling, Amy E. Hurley, Aditya S. Kamini
  • Patent number: 9948943
    Abstract: A combination of image data and depth data is supplied defining luminance and/or color for image positions in an image and distance to objects visible at said image positions respectively. The image data and the depth data are compressed by a compressor (120) and decompressed by a decompressor (16). The depth data is dilated before said compressing, to move an edge between a region of image positions with a relatively smaller distance and a region of image positions with a relatively greater distance towards the region of image positions with a relatively greater distance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2018
    Assignee: KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.
    Inventors: Reinier Bernardus Maria Klein Gunnewiek, Christiaan Varekamp
  • Patent number: 9865086
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides systems and methods for generating a multi-dimensional surface model of a geometric structure. The system includes a device including at least one sensor configured to collect a set of location data points corresponding to respective locations on or enclosed by a surface of the geometric structure, and a computer-based model construction system coupled to the device. The computer-based model construction system is configured to generate a working volume based on the set of location data points, calculate a dilated field for the working volume, define a dilated surface based on the dilated field, calculate an eroded field for the working volume based on the dilated surface, and define an eroded surface based on the eroded field.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2018
    Assignee: ST. JUDE MEDICAL, CARDIOLOLGY DIVISION, INC.
    Inventors: Cable Patrick Thompson, Daniel Richard Starks
  • Patent number: 9832456
    Abstract: To extend the working range of depth from defocus (DFD) particularly on small depth of field (DoF) images, DFD is performed on an image pair at multiple spatial resolutions and the depth estimates are then combined. Specific implementations construct a Gaussian pyramid for each image of an image pair, perform DFD on the corresponding pair of images at each level of the two image pyramids, convert DFD depth scores to physical depth values using calibration curves generated for each level, and combine the depth values from all levels in a coarse-to-fine manner to obtain a final depth map that covers the entire depth range of the scene.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2017
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Ernest Yiu Cheong Wan
  • Patent number: 9786055
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide systems, methods, and computer storage media directed to operations to facilitate real-time matting using local color estimation and propagation. In accordance with embodiments described herein, an unknown region is estimated based on a set of received boundary points (a zero-level contour that separates the foreground object from the background) and additional contours based on increasing distances from the zero-level contour. The background and foreground colors for each pixel in the unknown region can be estimated and utilized to propagate the foreground and background colors to the appropriate contours in the unknown region. The estimated background and foreground colors may also be utilized to determine the opacity and true background and foreground colors for each pixel in the unknown region which results in an image matted in real-time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated
    Inventors: Renzil Leith Dsouza, Siddhant Jain
  • Patent number: 9258460
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to method and apparatus for image recovery and image correction. In an embodiment, the present disclosure relates to recovering images that are occluded due to some material in the optical path while capturing the images. The detection of noisy region is performed by taking the residual image between the images yielded by large sized and small sized Gaussian window smoothening filters on red, green and blue channels. The recovery of the image that alleviates the noise is obtained by point-wise multiplication of the above said residue image with a suitably synthesized Gaussian distributed co-efficient of same size.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2016
    Assignee: FORUS HEALTH PVT. LTD.
    Inventors: Shyam Vasudeva Rao, Mahabaleswara Ram Bhatt, Sriram Padmanavhan
  • Patent number: 9202285
    Abstract: The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, method, and program that can extract an object from an input image more easily and more accurately. A face detecting unit (31) detects a face from an input image, a mask area setting unit (33) sets a mask area which masks a person in the input image based on a position of the face detected by the face detecting unit (31), a background model updating unit (51) updates a background image by learning areas other than the mask area in the input image as the background image, and a separating unit (54) separates the input image into the background image and a foreground image which is an area of the person in the input image based on the background image updated by the background model updating unit (51) and the input image. The present invention can be applied to, for example, an image processing apparatus that extracts a person from an input image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2015
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventor: Jun Kimura
  • Patent number: 9161734
    Abstract: A method for filtering image data having at least three types of distinct regions from a selected type of region, each of the at least three types of distinct regions being characterized by a plurality of unitary image elements, the method comprising providing the image data; selecting a portion of the image data comprising at least a corresponding portion of each of the at least three types of regions; determining at least one distribution for each of the at least three types of regions in the selected portion; determining at least one function for associating each unitary image element of the selected type of region in the selected portion to another type of region of the at least three types of regions such that the at least one distribution of the selected type of regions in the selected portion is transposed into a corresponding distribution of the another type of region; and applying the at least one function to each unitary image element of the selected type of region of the selected portion to thereby
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2015
    Assignee: CADENS MEDICAL IMAGING INC.
    Inventors: Thomas Bernard Pascal Vincent, Florent Andre Robert Chandelier
  • Patent number: 9043349
    Abstract: Various embodiments enable a device to perform tasks such as processing an image to recognize and locate text in the image, and providing the recognized text an application executing on the device for performing a function (e.g., calling a number, opening an internet browser, etc.) associated with the recognized text. In at least one embodiment, processing the image includes substantially simultaneously or concurrently processing the image with at least two recognition engines, such as at least two optical character recognition (OCR) engines, running in a multithreaded mode. In at least one embodiment, the recognition engines can be tuned so that their respective processing speeds are roughly the same. Utilizing multiple recognition engines enables processing latency to be close to that of using only one recognition engine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: A9.com, Inc.
    Inventors: Xiaofan Lin, Arnab Sanat Kumar Dhua, Douglas Ryan Gray, Yu Lou
  • Patent number: 9025853
    Abstract: A method of determining relief markings on a tire's sidewall surface includes assigning, to each pixel of a three-dimensional image of the surface, a grey-level value proportional to an elevation point corresponding to the pixel, to obtain a starting image. Using linear structuring elements of successively increasing sizes and oriented circumferentially, a series of successive morphological openings is performed iteratively on the starting surface. An image value obtained after a morphological opening using a structuring element is subtracted from an image value obtained after a morphological opening using a structuring element of an immediately lower size, to obtain a succession of images flattened by differencing. A thresholding operation is performed on the images flattened by differencing, to obtain binary images. A set-theoretic union of values of each of the binary images is performed, to obtain a final binary image in which markings appear in relief.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
    Assignees: Compagnie Generale des Establissements Michelin, Michelin Recherche et Technique S.A.
    Inventors: Guillaume Noyel, Jean-Paul Zanella, Alexandre Joly
  • Patent number: 8995780
    Abstract: A method for creating a binary mask image from an inputted digital image of a scanned document, including the steps of creating a binarized image by binarizing the inputted digital image, detecting first text regions representing light text on a dark background, and inverting the first text regions, such that the inverted first text regions are interpretable in the same way as dark text on a light background. A method for comparing in a binary image a first pixel blob with a second pixel blob to determine whether they represent matching symbols, including the steps of detecting a line in one blob not present in the other and/or determining if one of the blobs represents an italicized symbol where the other does not.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: I.R.I.S.
    Inventors: Michel Dauw, Pierre De Muelenaere
  • Patent number: 8989467
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a reference surface generating unit that generates a reference surface indicating a reference value of each of a plurality of color elements of pixels constituting an intraluminal image at a pixel position of the each color element by performing a morphology process using pixel values of the color elements; and an abnormal area detecting unit that detects an abnormal area from the intraluminal image based on a difference for each of the color elements between the pixel value of each pixel and the reference surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2015
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Masashi Hirota, Yamato Kanda, Makoto Kitamura, Takehiro Matsuda, Takashi Kono
  • Patent number: 8953900
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and software for operating an image processing system are provided herein. In a first example, a method of operating an image processing system is provided. The method includes identifying object pixels associated with an object of interest in a scene, identifying additional pixels to associate with the object of interest, and performing an operation based on a depth of the object in the scene on target pixels comprised of the object pixels and the additional pixels to change a quality of the object of interest.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 10, 2015
    Assignee: Verint Americas Inc.
    Inventors: Oren Golan, Itshak Horovitz
  • Patent number: 8948510
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for merging regions in the image/video, capable of merging plural of image regions into an image merging region. In the disclosed method, these image regions are first sequenced basing on their compactness value. Then, one of these image regions is designated as a reference image region, and a merging test process is executed by merging the reference image region with one of the nearby image regions thereof in sequence, for forming a temporal image merging region. Later, the compactness value of the temporal image merging region is compared with the compactness value of the two consisting image regions thereof, respectively. When the compactness value of the temporal image merging region is larger than either one of the compactness value of the two consisting image regions thereof, the temporal image merging region is designated as an image merging region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 3, 2015
    Assignee: National Cheng Kung University
    Inventors: Gwo Giun (Chris) Lee, He-Yuan Lin, Chun-Fu Chen, Ping-Keng Jao
  • Patent number: 8948533
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and software for operating an image processing system are provided herein. In a first example, a method of operating an image processing system is provided. The method includes identifying object pixels associated with an object of interest in a scene, identifying additional pixels to associate with the object of interest, and performing an operation based on a depth of the object in the scene on target pixels comprised of the object pixels and the additional pixels to change a quality of the object of interest.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 3, 2015
    Assignee: Verint Americas Inc.
    Inventors: Oren Golan, Itshak Horovitz
  • Patent number: 8897833
    Abstract: A system and method for distributing at least one digital photographic image is presented, the system and method comprising at least one capturing device and at least one receiving device disposed in a communicative relation with one another via at least one wireless network. In particular, the capturing device is structured to capture the at least one digital photographic image via, for example, a capture assembly, whereas the receiving device is cooperatively structured to receive the digital photographic image via, for example, the at least one wireless network. In addition, the capturing device(s) and receiving device(s) may be disposed in a selectively paired relationship via one or more common pre-defined pairing criteria. Further, the at least one digital photographic image may be filtered via at least one pre-defined transfer criteria disposed on the capturing device and/or receiving device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 25, 2014
    Assignee: Rothschild Storage Retrieval Innovations, LLC
    Inventor: Leigh M. Rothschild
  • Patent number: 8885969
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method and a corresponding apparatus for detecting coding artifacts in an image. The proposed apparatus comprises an edge position detector that detects an edge position of an edge in said image, a border position detector that detects a border position of a border between a texture area and a flat area in said image, and an artifact position defining unit that defines the area between said edge position and said border position as artifact area potentially comprising coding artifacts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2014
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Paul Springer, Frank Moesle, Zhichun Lei, Matthias Brueggemann
  • Patent number: 8879819
    Abstract: An improved histopathological score is obtained by generating image objects from images of tissue containing stained epithelial cells. First objects are generated that correspond to basal cells stained with a first stain, such as p63. Second objects are generated that correspond to luminal cells stained with a second stain, such as CK18. If the same tissue is not stained with both stains, then the images of differently stained tissue are co-registered. Third objects are defined to include only those second objects that have more than a minimum separation from any first object. A scoring region includes the third objects, and the histopathological score is determined based on tissue that falls within the scoring region. For example, a Gleason score of prostate tissue is determined by classifying tissue patterns in the scoring region. Alternatively, a Gleason pattern is assigned by counting the number of third objects that possess a predetermined form.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2014
    Assignee: Definiens AG
    Inventors: Maria Athelogou, Thomas Kirchner, Harald Hessel, Gerd Binnig
  • Patent number: 8867836
    Abstract: According to some aspects, a computer-implemented method of registering a first image and a second image is provided. The method comprises computer-implemented acts of logically dividing the first image into a first plurality of regions, logically dividing the second image into a second plurality of regions, projecting the first plurality of regions and the second plurality of regions into a lower dimensional space using random projections, determining, for each of the projected first plurality of regions, at least one of the projected second plurality of regions that is closest according to first criteria, and determining a transform that brings each of the projected first plurality of regions into a closest correspondence with the respective at least one of the projected second plurality of regions according to second criteria, the transform indicating the registration of the first image and the second image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2014
    Assignee: Children's Medical Center Corporation
    Inventors: Simon Warfield, Ayelet Akselrod-Ballin
  • Patent number: 8824823
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and software for operating an image processing system are provided herein. In a first example, a method of operating an image processing system is provided. The method includes identifying object pixels associated with an object of interest in a scene, identifying additional pixels to associate with the object of interest, and performing an operation based on a depth of the object in the scene on target pixels comprised of the object pixels and the additional pixels to change a quality of the object of interest.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 2, 2014
    Assignee: Verint Americas Inc.
    Inventors: Oren Golan, Itshak Horovitz
  • Patent number: 8798344
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes: a candidate point extraction unit which extracts, from an image, candidate points which are candidates for points constituting a circular region that represents a bubble; and a circular-region detecting unit which detects a circular region in the image on the basis of information belonging to the candidate points.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 5, 2014
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Makoto Kitamura, Yamato Kanda, Takashi Kono, Masashi Hirota
  • Patent number: 8774453
    Abstract: A method of retrieving information comprised in a barcode is disclosed. The method comprises detecting that the barcode is present in a first image having a first image quality and capturing a first region, acquiring, when it is detected that the barcode is present, a second image having a second image quality and capturing a second region, wherein the second image quality is higher than the first image quality, and wherein the second region at least partly overlaps the first region, and decoding the barcode based on the second image to retrieve the information. A corresponding program product and a corresponding arrangement are also disclosed along with a communication device comprising the arrangement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2014
    Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (Publ)
    Inventors: Joakim Söderberg, Jacob Ström, Jonas Alfthan
  • Patent number: 8755563
    Abstract: Target detecting method and apparatus are disclosed. In the target detecting method, edges in a first direction in an input image may be detected to obtain an edge image comprising a plurality of edges in the first direction; and one or more candidate targets may be generated according to the plurality of edges in the first direction, a region between any two of the plurality of edges in the first direction in the input image corresponding to one of the candidate targets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2014
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventors: Qiong Cao, Rujie Liu, Hao Yu
  • Patent number: 8718352
    Abstract: A computer-aided method, system and computer program product are provided for optical testing of a rope. Such method includes: providing an image data set for at least one portion of the rope; providing target values of a pictorial longitudinal extension of the representation of wires relative to a pictorial longitudinal extension of the rope in the image data set; determining a pictorial longitudinal extension of the wires in the image data set, including adapting an estimated longitudinal extension to the image data set; determining at least one quality value using a quality norm as a function of the determined pictorial longitudinal extension of the wires and the target values of the pictorial longitudinal extension of the wires; discriminating pictorial positions within the image data set of the rope, where at least one quality value exceeds or falls below a predetermined, assigned quality threshold value; and providing the discriminated pictorial positions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2014
    Assignee: Winspect GmbH
    Inventors: Sven Winter, Dirk Moll, Ralf Eisinger, Konstantin Kuehner, Egon Guttengeber, Andreas Proehl, Markus Eichinger
  • Patent number: 8666185
    Abstract: A first aspect of the invention relates to a method for creating a binary mask image from an a inputted digital image of a scanned document, comprising the steps of creating a binarized image by binarizing the inputted digital image, detecting first text regions representing light text on a dark background, and inverting the first text regions, such that the inverted first text regions are interpretable in the same way as dark text on a light background. A second aspect of the invention relates to a method for comparing in a binary image a first pixel blob with a second pixel blob to determine whether they represent matching symbols, comprising the steps of detecting a line in one blob not present in the other and/or determining if one of the blobs represents an italicized symbol where the other does not.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2014
    Assignee: I.R.I.S.
    Inventors: Michel Dauw, Pierre Demuelenaere
  • Patent number: 8666190
    Abstract: The system and method of use are provided for correcting digital images based on the notions of local black points. The system and method are based on determining local black points in a digital image and correcting the intensities of nearby pixels so as to remove bias in the image introduced by atmospheric conditions. By sampling only localized land imagery the claimed method computes black points that are more robust against the localized effects of atmospheric and land reflection effects than black points computed from wider areas. The result of the method is that images corrected by this method are robust to atmospheric conditions that vary with time and viewing angle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2014
  • Publication number: 20140023289
    Abstract: Provided is an image processing apparatus and method for filling a hole area in an image. The image processing apparatus may include a candidate pixel setting unit to set a plurality of candidate pixels corresponding to at least one hole pixel in a hole area using neighboring pixels around the hole area, and a pixel value determining unit to determine a pixel value of the hole pixel using the plurality of candidate pixels.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 19, 2013
    Publication date: January 23, 2014
    Applicant: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Seung Won JUNG, Kee Chang Lee
  • Patent number: 8594722
    Abstract: A system and method for distributing at least one digital photographic image is presented, the system and method comprising at least one capturing device and at least one receiving device disposed in a communicative relation with one another via at least one wireless network. In particular, the capturing device is structured to capture the at least one digital photographic image via, for example, a capture assembly, whereas the receiving device is cooperatively structured to receive the digital photographic image via, for example, the at least one wireless network. In addition, the capturing device(s) and receiving device(s) may be disposed in a selectively paired relationship via one or more common pre-defined pairing criteria. Further, the at least one digital photographic image may be filtered via at least one pre-defined transfer criteria disposed on the capturing device and/or receiving device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2013
    Assignee: SRR Patent Holdings, LLC
    Inventor: Leigh M. Rothschild
  • Patent number: 8577162
    Abstract: An output apparatus determines pixels that form an area equal to or greater than a predetermined size and whose pixel values are not different from pixel values of neighboring pixels, and pixels that form an area not equal to or greater than the predetermined size. The apparatus reduces the pixel values of the determined pixels and outputs a binary image formed by the determined pixels with the reduced pixel values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2013
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventor: Shouichi Kuboyama
  • Patent number: 8553928
    Abstract: The present invention relates to an image processing method and image inspecting method with high versatility which enable efficient and highly accurate proof of authenticity of a digital image. The image processing method subjects at least a part of a digital image which can exist temporarily or continuously in a falsification-vulnerable environment, to a first morphology operation using a predetermined structuring element, to process the digital image. The image inspecting method subjects the digital image thus processed, to a second morphology operation using the same structuring element as in the first morphology operation. The morphology operations have the idempotent and the presence or absence of falsification can be detected by determining identity of images before and after the second morphology operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2013
    Assignees: Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd., Tokyo Metropolitan University
    Inventors: Hitoshi Kiya, Kiyoshi Nishikawa, Masaaki Fujiyoshi, Yoichi Hata, Toshiaki Kakii, Yoshimitsu Goto
  • Patent number: 8538163
    Abstract: A method for detecting edges within an image. An edge strength indicator for each pixel within the image is determined and the edge strength indicator is classified into at least three classes to generate a map having one value associated to each class. The classified map is then separated into individual maps depending on the classification. A dilation process is applied to at least a part of the individual maps. The processed and/or individual maps are finally combined by logical operation to obtain a final map indicating edges without nearby texture.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Frank Moesle, Paul Springer
  • Patent number: 8463054
    Abstract: A pattern recognition process, a non-transitory computer program product, and a mobile terminal for pattern recognition. An input pattern is normalized and a reliable pattern is generated from the normalized pattern by using at least one morphological operator. The distance between the reliable pattern and selected templates which are selected from a template library using a decision tree, is calculated. The reliable patterns are classified into at least one of the classes of the selected templates by at least one non-parametric classification method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 11, 2013
    Assignee: I.R.I.S.
    Inventors: Pierre De Muelenaere, Michel Dauw, Olivier Dupont, Patrick Verleysen
  • Patent number: 8437797
    Abstract: A system and method for distributing at least one digital photographic image is presented, the system and method comprising at least one capturing device and at least one receiving device disposed in a communicative relation with one another via at least one wireless network. In particular, the capturing device is structured to capture the at least one digital photographic image via, for example, a capture assembly, whereas the receiving device is cooperatively structured to receive the digital photographic image via, for example, the at least one wireless network. In addition, the capturing device(s) and receiving device(s) may be disposed in a selectively paired relationship via one or more common pre-defined pairing criteria. Further, the at least one digital photographic image may be filtered via at least one pre-defined transfer criteria disposed on the capturing device and/or receiving device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2013
    Assignee: SRR Patent Holdings, LLC
    Inventor: Leigh M. Rothschild
  • Patent number: 8437570
    Abstract: A method of geodesic image and video processing is proposed. In an embodiment, the method uses a geodesic distance transform to construct an image filter. The filter can be used in a variety of image editing operations such as segmentation, denoising, texture smoothing, image stitching and cartooning. In one embodiment, the method may be made efficient by utilizing parallelism of the algorithm to carry out processing steps on at least two processing cores concurrently. This efficiency may enable high-resolution images and video to be processed at ‘real time’ rates without the need for specialist hardware.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Antonio Criminisi, Toby Sharp
  • Patent number: 8433104
    Abstract: An image processing method includes: receiving an input image; referring to a first threshold value to compare a reference background image and the input image to determine a first foreground image within the input image; referring to the first foreground image to determine a second foreground image, which is different from the first foreground image, within the input image; and referring to a second threshold value, which is different from the first foreground image, to compare the reference background image and the second foreground image to determine a third foreground image within the input image. In addition, when generating the foreground image, a shadow effect is removed via a shadow removal method according to the present invention, and a better output image can thereby be derived.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2013
    Assignee: Primax Electronics Ltd.
    Inventor: Ting-Yuan Cheng
  • Patent number: 8411997
    Abstract: An image capture device includes a capture unit configured to capture an image of an object, an object detection unit configured to detect the object in the image captured by the capture unit, an angle detection unit configured to detect an angle of the object detected by the object detection unit, and a control unit configured to perform a predetermined control operation for the image capture device based on the angle of the object detected by the angle detection unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2013
    Assignee: Casio Computer Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Kenji Iwamoto
  • Publication number: 20130064468
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for image analysis and modification using a fast sliding parabola erosion. The methods include selecting a scan line in an image and performing a unidirectional left-hand pass followed by a unidirectional right-hand pass. The unidirectional passes are performed as loops with increasing distance. By utilizing simple unidirectional left-hand and right-hand passes along a scan line in an image, the erosion procedure is greatly simplified and computation times are significantly reduced.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 12, 2011
    Publication date: March 14, 2013
    Applicant: PerkinElmer Cellular Technologies Germany GmbH
    Inventors: Peet Kask, Kaupo Palo
  • Patent number: 8374456
    Abstract: A virtual image is synthesized from a reduced resolution depth image storing depth values at each pixel location. The reduced resolution depth image is scaled up to produce an up-scaled depth image. Then, at least one filter is applied to the up-scaled depth image to produce a reconstructed depth image, and the virtual image is synthesized using the reconstructed depth image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2013
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Anthony Vetro, Sehoon Yea, Kwan-Jun Oh