Minimize Discontinuities At Boundaries Of Image Blocks (i.e., Reducing Blocking Effects Or Effects Of Wrap-around) Patents (Class 382/268)
  • Patent number: 8116584
    Abstract: The present invention discloses an adaptively de-blocking circuit and associated method. A mean is derived according to the neighboring pixels surrounding a central pixel of an image. A blending factor is determined according to a flatness of the image. An updated pixel value of the central pixel is determined by blending the original pixel value of the central pixel and the mean according to the blending factor. Finally, alternatively output the updated pixel value and the original pixel value of the central pixel in response to a block border signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2008
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2012
    Assignee: Mstar Semiconductor, Inc.
    Inventors: Wei-Kuo Lee, Chien-Chih Chen, Shih-Chang Lai, Hsiang-Chun Lin
  • Patent number: 8116379
    Abstract: A parallel deblocking filtering method, and deblocking filter processor performing such deblocking, for removing edge artifacts created during video compression. The method includes loading luma samples for a macroblock. Filtering is performed on a set of vertical edges of the macroblock using information in the luma samples, with vertical edge filtering occurring concurrently with the loading of the luma samples. The method also includes filtering a set of horizontal edges of the macroblock using information in the luma samples. The horizontal edge filtering occurs in parallel with vertical edge sampling and with loading operations. The use of parallel and concurrent operations significantly enhances the efficiency of the deblocking method. Storing of filtered samples is also performed in the method, and this storing is performed concurrently with some loading operations as well as filtering operations. Edge filtering includes performing filtering to the H.264 standard and its deblocking filtering algorithm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2012
    Assignee: STMicroelectronics, Inc.
    Inventor: Philip P. Dang
  • Patent number: 8116583
    Abstract: A light modulation panel is inserted into an optical path of an imaging lens composed of an image-forming optical system to make the imaging lens function as a depth-of-field-extended optical system. The light modulation panel has power that makes a peak position of defocus MTF when the imaging lens is used alone to function as the image-forming optical system and a peak position of defocus MTF when the imaging lens functions as the depth-of-field-extended optical system by insertion of the light modulation panel into the optical path of the imaging lens coincide with each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2012
    Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation
    Inventor: Kenichi Sato
  • Patent number: 8111939
    Abstract: An image processing device includes: an estimating module configured to estimate boundaries of blocks in an input image; a characteristic value calculating module configured to calculate a characteristic value of a subject pixel group having constituent pixels including a pixel in the frame and at least one pixel that is adjacent to the pixel by calculating a degree of pixel value dispersion between the constituent pixels of the subject pixel group if all the constituent pixels belong to the same block; an strength value calculating module configured to calculate, from the characteristic value, a strength value to be used in performing pixel value smoothing; and a smoothing module configured to perform the pixel value smoothing according to the strength value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2012
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hidenori Takeshima, Toshimitsu Kaneko, Nao Mishima
  • Patent number: 8107761
    Abstract: A method for determining the boundary strengths of edges in a block-based digitally encoded image is disclosed. The method includes setting the boundary strength of two adjacent blocks in an Inter macroblock to a first strength value if any one of the two adjacent blocks contains non-zero prediction residual in the encoding data and setting the boundary strength thereof to a second strength value if the two adjacent blocks are located in the same motion compensation block. An edge with boundary strength equal to the second strength value will be skipped in a deblocking process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2012
    Assignee: Via Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Eric Chuang
  • Patent number: 8085442
    Abstract: In a method of producing a tiled print product, the print product is composed of a plurality of print substrates that are printed separately and are disposed adjacent to one another in at least one row. Each substrate is printed by means of a print process that creates a gloss gradient in a characteristic direction of production that is parallel to the row. The characteristic direction of production is inverted for every second substrate in the row.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2011
    Assignee: OCE-Technologies B.V.
    Inventor: Cornelis A. De Waal
  • Patent number: 8077774
    Abstract: A system and method for detecting video stream macroblock errors and pixelation by detecting macroblock artifacts in analog television signals from a conventional set top box.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2011
    Assignee: Volicon, Inc.
    Inventor: Benjamin Dawson
  • Patent number: 8068690
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a first enhancement degree calculation unit and a color contour enhancement unit. The first enhancement degree calculation unit calculates a contour intensity of a color component of an input color image and calculates an enhancement degree for a color contour, based on the contour intensity of the color component. The color contour enhancement unit performs an enhance process for a lightness component of the color image in accordance with the enhancement degree for the color contour calculated by the first enhancement degree calculation unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2011
    Assignee: Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Atsushi Itoh
  • Patent number: 8064718
    Abstract: Electronic images that are degraded by noise and data reduction, such as MPEG encoding, display artifacts in the reproduced image, such as ringing (“ripples”) and blocks (“huge pixels”), and noise in the image may be apparent as graininess. By performing image analysis, both on a frame-by-frame and pixel-by-pixel basis it is possible to identify and separate edges in the image, ringing artifacts and the boundaries between block transitions. By applying noise reduction according to the analysis, followed by sharpness enhancement, it is possible to clean up the image for further utilization.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2011
    Assignee: Bang & Olufsen A/S
    Inventor: Jesper Meldgaard Pedersen
  • Patent number: 8045821
    Abstract: A coding method conversion apparatus converts the first coded data coded by the first coding method into the second coded data. The coding method conversion apparatus includes: an H.264 decoder which decodes the first coded data; a deblocking filter strength calculation unit which calculates a filter strength of deblocking filtering of a second coding method, using at least one piece of decoding information except a coding type of the first coded data, the decoding information being obtained by decoding the first coded data; and a deblocking filter which performs the deblocking filtering to reduce noise in a boundary of blocks according to the filter strength calculated by the deblocking filter strength calculation unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2011
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Kei Tasaka, Tatsuro Juri, Katsuo Saigo, Hideyuki Ohgose, Koji Arimura, Hiroshi Arakawa, Yuki Maruyama
  • Patent number: 8036485
    Abstract: Picture quality measurement systems and methods are provided for measuring DC blockiness within video blocks. Block boundaries are located within a test video frame. The relative AC differences within each block are measured using a reference video frame, a statistically estimated reference or a default value of the white video level divided by two. An objective DC blockiness map, a subjective DC blockiness map or both may be generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2011
    Assignee: Tektronix, Inc.
    Inventors: Kevin M. Ferguson, Jiuhuai Lu
  • Patent number: 8031935
    Abstract: A method for removing color noise on a slowly varying component contained in color difference component image data of image data which is imported from an image sensor and converted to brightness and the color difference component image data, includes the steps of: sampling pixels of said color difference component image data by thinning out according to a first defined sampling format when not performing a color noise removal process on the slowly varying component; determining if the color noise removal process is necessary to be performed or not; producing the color difference component image data, corresponding to a compressed image data size smaller than an image data size without said color noise removal process, by thinning out according to a second defined sampling format when performing said color noise removal process; and recording the color difference and brightness component image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2011
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventor: Kenji Shiraishi
  • Patent number: 8031945
    Abstract: An image-processing device including a pulverization-core unit configured to divide input-image data into blocks, generate basic blocks by reducing each of the blocks in size, and arrange the basic blocks into the blocks so that processed-image data including at least one noise particle of the input-image data is generated, where the noise particle included in the processed-image data is reduced in size, an edge-detection unit configured to detect an edge degree from the input-image data, and an edge-blend unit configured to subject a pixel value of the input-image data and a pixel value of the processed-image data to load addition and output output-image data based on the detection result so that a weight to the pixel value of the input-image data increases as the edge degree increases is provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2011
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Shinichiro Gomi, Yusuke Nakamura, Masami Ogata
  • Patent number: 8023559
    Abstract: Techniques for minimizing blocking artifacts in video images or frames are disclosed. In general, these blocking artifacts are the result of block-based compression standards, such as MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.261, H.263, and H.264. According to one aspect of the present invention, a blurring process is configured to replace pixels on the blocking boundaries with randomly selected pixels within respective regions, each of the regions is predefined with respect to a pixel being replaced. In a certain perspective, a blocking boundary is diffused without introducing blurring to other than the blocking artifacts. According to another aspect to the present invention, pixels in an image or frame are sequentially processed by a moving average process that is configured to smooth only those pixels that may cause subjective perception of the blocking artifacts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2011
    Assignee: Vudu, Inc.
    Inventors: Sumankar Shankar, Prasanna Ganesan
  • Publication number: 20110222127
    Abstract: An image processing system, apparatus and method are disclosed for corner enhancing a digital image for rendering on an image output device. According to one exemplary method, pixels associated with corner regions of the digital image are determined using a plurality of vector windows. Subsequently, one or more corner pixels are modified to sharpen the rendering of the digital image on the image output device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 9, 2010
    Publication date: September 15, 2011
    Applicant: XEROX CORPORATION
    Inventors: Robert P. Loce, Edgar A. Bernal
  • Patent number: 7983505
    Abstract: In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for receiving pixel data for a portion of an image including a blocking artifact, calculating an artifact strength based on a difference between a two pixels on opposite sides of the blocking artifact, performing a local adaptability check using the artifact strength and values multiple pixels on the opposite sides, performing deblocking based on a result of the local adaptability check, applying a soft threshold to the artifact strength to adjust a value of the artifact strength, and re-aligning one or more pixels on the opposite sides based on the original value of the pixels and a pixel index value. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2011
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Mahesh M. Subedar, Jorge E. Caviedes
  • Patent number: 7974491
    Abstract: A block noise removal device calculates a block boundary correction value which indicates a correction amount for a pixel sample value immediately before a block boundary position and a correction amount for a pixel sample value immediately after the block boundary position for each block boundary position in a pixel sample value sequence. The block noise removal device obtains the block boundary correction value based on at least two consecutive pixel sample values immediately before the block boundary position and at least two consecutive pixel sample values immediately after the block boundary position. The block noise removal device generates a block noise correction signal representing a correction amount for the pixel sample values corresponding to respective pixels in the pixel block by performing interpolation computations based on the block boundary correction value found for each two adjacent block boundary positions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2011
    Assignee: Pioneer Corporation
    Inventors: Kenji Okumichi, Hirofumi Honda
  • Patent number: 7965900
    Abstract: In a method for processing an input image to reduce compression-related artifacts, a plurality of block transforms of the input image having respective plurality of block-grid locations are generated, where each of the block-grid locations is shifted with respect to the block-grid locations in each of the other block transformed images. In addition, a plurality of respective intermediate transform domain filtered images having modified transform coefficients are generated. Per-pixel relative weights are assigned to each of the intermediate transform domain filtered images, where each of the intermediate transform domain filtered images has different contexts, and where the per-pixel relative weights are adaptive to the local context in each of the intermediate transform domain filtered images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2011
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Ron Maurer, Carl Staelin
  • Patent number: 7957607
    Abstract: There is provided a decoding apparatus that decodes data encoded by transform coding in units of predefined image areas, including a coefficient setting unit that sets modification coefficients for each of the image areas; and a dequantized value generating unit that generates a dequantized value corresponding to a first quantized index value of a target area which is an image area to be modified, based on the first quantized index value of the target area, a second quantized index value of other image area in predetermined relative position to the target area, and the modification coefficients set by the coefficient setting unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2011
    Assignee: Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Shunichi Kimura
  • Publication number: 20110129160
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, an image processing apparatus includes a block boundary detection module which detects a block boundary in input image data. The block boundary detection module includes a first calculator, a second calculator, and a determination module. The first calculator calculates a first value which is an absolute value of an adjacent pixel value difference between two adjacent pixels in the image data. The second calculator calculates a second value which is a value obtained by multiplying, by a predetermined coefficient, a sum value of absolute values of adjacent pixel value differences between pixels positioned in a direction in which the two adjacent pixels are aligned, the two adjacent pixels being excluded from calculation of the second value. The determination module determines that a block boundary exists between the two pixels when the first value is larger than the second value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 27, 2010
    Publication date: June 2, 2011
    Inventor: Eiki Obara
  • Publication number: 20110116714
    Abstract: Provided is an image interpolation method and apparatus using a reference block depending on a direction. The image interpolation method may generate a horizontal reference block and a vertical reference block each with respect to an inputted image, and determine interpolation directivity with respect to the inputted image using the generated horizontal reference block and vertical reference block, thereby performing an interpolation on an image based on accurate interpolation directivity. In particular, the image interpolation method may determine whether to verify interpolation directivity depending on an edge intensity of an inputted image, thereby performing a color filter array (CFA) interpolation on an image based on an edge direction without determining the interpolation directivity, when the edge intensity is strong.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2010
    Publication date: May 19, 2011
    Applicant: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Ho Jin Lee, Young Su Moon, Shi Hwa Lee
  • Patent number: 7916368
    Abstract: In an image processing device, from an object image, an area reproduced by K component only and having at least a prescribed density is extracted as a gray area to be replaced, and a color of an area neighboring the gray area is extracted. When the neighboring area contains a color other than the K component, a replacing color is calculated based on the amount of K component (luminance) of the gray area and the color of the neighboring area, and the color of the gray area is replaced by the replacing color.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2011
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Naoko Hiramatsu
  • Patent number: 7911538
    Abstract: A method and apparatus estimates the strength of block artifacts in compressed video is described. Block artifacts are associated with the block-based image/video compression schemes. The block artifacts deteriorate the quality of compressed image and video, especially at low bit rates. A deblocking method measures the strength of the block artifacts at each block boundary and adjusts the deblocking parameters accordingly to improve the performance of the overall deblocking process. A method and device to measure the strength of block artifacts based on the global and local edge information of the current picture is provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2011
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Victor Hyeong-Seok Ha, Yeong-Taeg Kim, Sangkeun Lee
  • Patent number: 7907789
    Abstract: A method of processing block-based image information including up sample filtering pixels located along boundaries of image blocks using a first filter strength and up sample filtering at least a portion of the pixels that are not located along boundaries of the image blocks using a second filter strength. The method may alternatively include up sample filtering pixels located along boundaries of image blocks and image sub-blocks using the first filter strength. An up sample filter system which includes a first up sample filter which filters pixels located along boundaries of the image blocks using a first filter strength and a second up sample filter which filters pixels that are not located along boundaries of the image blocks using a second filter strength.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2011
    Assignee: Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.
    Inventor: Yan Yong
  • Patent number: 7868901
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention sets forth a method and system for reducing memory bandwidth requirements for an anti-aliasing operation. The first virtual coverage information for a pixel involved in an anti-aliasing operation is maintained in memory. If a certain operating condition of the anti-aliasing operation deterministically implies the second virtual coverage information for this pixel, the second virtual coverage information, as opposed to the first virtual coverage information, is used in the anti-aliasing operation. In such situations, since the virtual coverage information is implied, it does not have to be accessed from memory, thereby improving overall system performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2011
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: John H. Edmondson, Steven E. Molnar, Bengt-Olaf Schneider, Gary C. King, Michael J. M. Toksvig, Peter B. Holmqvist, James M. O'Connor
  • Patent number: 7864867
    Abstract: A video encoding method and apparatus is shown wherein image information is represented as a plurality of pixels, the pixels are organized into blocks, pixels transposition is performed on image information at the boundaries of the blocks, the blocks are transform coded and quantized. Pixel transposition involves transposition of alternate pixels at the boundaries of blocks with pixels of neighboring blocks found in a pre-determined direction. The pre-determined direction may be fixed by a system or may be applied on an image by image basis. In the event that the pre-determined direction is not established by a system, a pixel transposition circuit includes a transposition keyword in the output bit stream which is used by a decoded to determine the direction of pixel transposition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2011
    Inventors: Barin Geoffry Haskell, Atul Puri, Robert Louis Schmidt
  • Patent number: 7864857
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for calculating the quantized difference between a pixel in a current frame and a pixel in a reference frame is disclosed. The apparatus of the present invention generates a “1 of n” significant difference bit output which may easily be logically OR'd with the difference values from other comparisons to determine the maximum difference over an area of pixels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2011
    Assignee: Teradici Corporation
    Inventor: David V. Hobbs
  • Patent number: 7844130
    Abstract: The present invention discloses a method of volume-panorama imaging processing, which generates a volume-panorama image by subsequently splicing respective image frames from an image sequence obtained in a real-time way or stored in a medium based upon the fact that the immediately adjacent image frames have the largest correlation. The method comprises the steps of: reading the image sequence, and firstly initializing an aligned image and a spliced image; dividing the i-th image frame Fi into a plurality of sub-regions; calculating a motion vector of the i-t image frame with respect to the aligned image; fitting the motion vector to calculate a transform coefficient; splicing the Fi to the current spliced image based upon the transform coefficient, and updating the aligned image; entering into a self-adaptive selection of a next image frame until the end of the splicing; and outputting the current spliced image as a resultant image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2010
    Assignee: Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Jian Dong, Dong Ni, Bin Yao
  • Patent number: 7822286
    Abstract: A method filters pixels in a sequence of images. Each image in the sequence is partitioned into blocks of pixels, and the images are processed sequentially. The energy is determined for each block of pixels in each image. The energy of each block is based on variances of intensities of the pixels in the sequence of images. A 3D fuzzy filter is applied to each current pixel in each current block during the sequential processing. The 3D fuzzy filter considers the energy of the block, and the intensities of pixels spatially adjacent and temporally adjacent to the current pixel to remove blocking and ringing artifacts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2010
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Sehoon Yea, Dung Trung Vo, Anthony Vetro
  • Publication number: 20100246990
    Abstract: Embodiments include systems and methods of measuring a blockiness level in video data that has been encoded and decoded. In one embodiment, a Q-value is calculated that indicates the blockiness level of a decompressed image. The Q-value can be based on a block map having indicators corresponding to each of a plurality of pixels in an input image, each indicator signaling if a block edge is present at the corresponding pixel location in the input image, and also based on block locations indicative of the alignment block edge locations in the input image. The Q-value can be calculated in a vertical direction and a horizontal direction with respect to the input image. The Q-value is determined based on a flatness measurement of pixel values around certain considered pixels in the input image. The Q-value can be provided to a deblocking filter to improve the performance of deblocking the input image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 24, 2009
    Publication date: September 30, 2010
    Applicant: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Surapong Lertrattanapanich, Yeong-Taeg Kim
  • Patent number: 7805016
    Abstract: A decoding apparatus having a de-ringing filter to filter image data decoded from encoded image data by orthogonal transformation encoding. In the de-ringing filter, a subtracter generates an absolute value of difference between a value of a filter object pixel and a value of at least one pixel selected from pixels surrounding the filter object pixel on the image data. A comparator compares the absolute value with a threshold. A selector outputs the value of the at least one pixel if the absolute value is less than the threshold, and outputs the value of the filter object pixel if the absolute value is not less than the threshold. A convolution operator convolutes a filter coefficient with the value output from the selector, and outputs a convolution result as a filtered value of the filter object pixel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2010
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Noboru Yamaguchi, Tomoya Kodama
  • Patent number: 7801216
    Abstract: A signal adaptive filtering method for reducing blocking effect and ringing noise, a signal adaptive filter, and a computer readable medium. The signal adaptive filtering method capable of reducing blocking effect and ringing noise of image data when a frame is composed of blocks of a predetermined size includes the steps of: (a) generating blocking information for reducing the blocking effect and ringing information for reducing the ringing noise, from coefficients of predetermined pixels of the upper and left boundary regions of the data block when a frame obtained by deconstructing a bitstream image data for inverse quantization is an intraframe; and (b) adaptively filtering the image data passed through inverse quantization and inverse discrete cosine transform according to the generated blocking information and ringing information. Therefore, the blocking effect and ringing noise can be eliminated from the image restored from the block-based image, thereby enhancing the image restored from compression.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2010
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yung-lyul Lee, Hyun-wook Park
  • Publication number: 20100232697
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a gradient calculator that calculates a direction and a magnitude of a gradient of each pixel in an input image using neighboring pixel values; a histogram calculator that calculates a Histogram of Oriented Gradients containing plural sampled directions from the directions and the magnitudes of the gradients calculated for the pixels in a region including the pixel being processed; a storing unit that stores plural smoothing filters and associated Histograms of Oriented Gradients; a search unit that calculates errors between Histogram of Oriented Gradients calculated for the pixel being processed and the Histograms of Oriented Gradients stored in the storing unit and searches the Histogram of Oriented Gradients that has the minimum error; and a filter processing unit that acquires one of the smoothing filters stored in association with the Histogram of Oriented Gradients having the minimum error and determines a corrected pixel value of the pixel being processed by filte
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 16, 2009
    Publication date: September 16, 2010
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Nao Mishima, Goh Itoh
  • Patent number: 7796834
    Abstract: A new post-processing methodology reduces the unwanted noise artifacts present in the output images of DCT-based compressed signals. The method determines noise intensity in the region of each pixel of an image and filters each pixel corresponding to this noise intensity. This noise intensity includes ringing intensity and block noise intensity. Determining the noise intensity includes calculating a short range power spectrum and a long range power spectrum. A spectrum is identified as ringing if the short range power spectrum is negative and the long range long range power spectrum is positive. A spectrum is identified as block noise if the short range autocorrelation coefficient is positive and the long range autocorrelation coefficient is positive.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2010
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventors: Munenori Oizumi, Naito Tomoyuki
  • Patent number: 7792385
    Abstract: A video processing apparatus and methodology are implemented as a combination of a processor and a video decoding hardware block to decode video data by providing the video decoding block with an in-loop filter and a scratch pad memory, so that the in-loop filter may efficiently perform piecewise processing of overlap smoothing and in-loop deblocking in a macroblock-based fashion which is a much more efficient algorithm than the frame-based method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2010
    Assignee: GlobalFoundries Inc.
    Inventors: Bill Kwan, Erik Schlanger, Raquel Rozas, Casey King
  • Patent number: 7782403
    Abstract: Four high-frequency components are extracted from video signals: the first from a blanking interval; the second from an image-carrying period between blanking intervals; and the third and fourth from the video and one-line and -frame delayed signals, respectively. Statistical processing is performed to obtain absolute values of the second to fourth component levels per pixel and the number of pixels of the components per image per absolute level. A noise detecting signal is generated based on the first component level irrespective of the processing when the level is higher than a predetermined level, if not, first to third levels are obtained for the first to third components, respectively, each having the smallest number of pixels among levels other than zero each having a larger number of pixels than zero for the components. The detecting signal is generated based upon the lowest or second lowest level among the first to third levels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2010
    Assignee: Victor Company of Japan, Ltd.
    Inventor: Kenji Kubota
  • Patent number: 7778480
    Abstract: A method includes identifying a pair of image data blocks separated by a boundary. The image data blocks include image information defining multiple pixels in at least one image. The method also includes identifying at least one filter length based on edge contents of at least some of the pixels in the at least one image. In addition, the method includes filtering at least some of the pixels in the pair of image data blocks along the boundary using the at least one identified filter length.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2004
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2010
    Assignee: STMicroelectronics Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd.
    Inventors: Yong Huang, Patricia Chiang, Lucas Y. W. Hui
  • Patent number: 7769548
    Abstract: A technique is provided for analyzing image data for biological microarrays. Images are made of multiple swaths in multiple passes of an imaging system. Sites encoded by the image data are assigned a value and these values are indexed by site location. An overlapping region of the swaths may be identified by analysis of the indexed site values. The site values for all image sites are then stitched and the data is integrated and stored for later analysis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2010
    Assignee: Illumina, Inc.
    Inventor: Francisco Jose Garcia
  • Patent number: RE41526
    Abstract: The present invention relates to an image processing technique, and in particular to a method for restoring a compressed image by using a hybrid motion compensation discrete cosine transform (hybrid MC/DCT) mechanism, including: a step of defining a smoothing functional having a smoothing degree of an image and reliability for an original image by pixels having an identical property in image block units; and a step of computing a restored image by performing a gradient operation on the smoothing functional in regard to the original image, thereby preventing the blocking artifacts and the ringing effects in regard to the pixels having an identical property in image blocks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2010
    Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc.
    Inventor: Min-Cheol Hong
  • Patent number: RE41776
    Abstract: A method and apparatus to remove a block effect and a ring effect appearing in a compression-coded image is disclosed. The present invention is especially applicable to an image compression-coded at a low bit rate. In particular, the present invention includes a variety of masks for the removal of the block/ring effect. Thus, one mask is select for a pixel to be filtered. Moreover, candidate pixels to be averaged with the pixel to be filtered is selected from the pixels of the selected mask to better maintain the details of the image, and a weight is applied to improve the calculation speed of the averaging operation. More particularly, the masks according to the present invention have longer tabs toward adjacent blocks at boundaries of the given block to remove the block and ring effect. In one embodiment, the filtering unit is configured to select at least four pixels of successive pixels according to a position of a pixel to be filtered. The four pixels include the pixel to be filtered.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2010
    Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc.
    Inventor: Jae Min Kim
  • Patent number: RE41907
    Abstract: The present invention relates to an image processing technique, and in particular to a method for restoring a compressed image by using a hybrid motion compensation discrete cosine transform (hybrid MC/DCT) mechanism, including: a step of defining a smoothing functional having a smoothing degree of an image and reliability for an original image by pixels having an identical property in image block units; and a step of computing a restored image by performing a gradient operation on the smoothing functional in regard to the original image, thereby preventing the blocking artifacts and the ringing effects in regard to the pixels having an identical property in image blocks. In one embodiment, the method includes obtaining a pixel value in a current block and at least one adjacent pixel value according to a smoothing direction, and obtaining a smoothing value of the current image based on the obtained pixel value in the current block and the adjacent pixel value according to the smoothing direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2010
    Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc.
    Inventor: Min-Cheol Hong
  • Patent number: RE41909
    Abstract: A method and apparatus to remove a block effect and a ring effect appearing in a compression-coded image is disclosed. The present invention is especially applicable to an image compression-coded at a low bit rate. In particular, the present invention includes a variety of masks for the removal of the block/ring effect. Thus, one mask is select for a pixel to be filtered. Moreover, candidate pixels to be averaged with the pixel to be filtered is selected from the pixels of the selected mask to better maintain the details of the image, and a weight is applied to improve the calculation speed of the averaging operation. More particularly, the masks according to the present invention have longer tabs toward adjacent blocks at boundaries of the given block to remove the block and ring effect. In the method, a value of a pixel of an image is determined according to a filtering methodology.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2010
    Assignee: LG Electronics Inc.
    Inventor: Jae Min Kim
  • Patent number: RE41910
    Abstract: A method and apparatus to remove a block effect and a ring effect appearing in a compression-coded image is disclosed. The present invention is especially applicable to an image compression-coded at a low bit rate. In particular, the present invention includes a variety of masks for the removal of the block/ring effect. Thus, one mask is select for a pixel to be filtered. Moreover, candidate pixels to be averaged with the pixel to be filtered is selected from the pixels of the selected mask to better maintain the details of the image, and a weight is applied to improve the calculation speed of the averaging operation. More particularly, the masks according to the present invention have longer tabs toward adjacent blocks at boundaries of the given block to remove the block and ring effect. In the method, a value of a pixel of an image is determined according to a filtering methodology.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2010
    Assignee: LG Electronics Inc.
    Inventor: Jae Min Kim
  • Patent number: RE41932
    Abstract: A method and apparatus to remove a block effect and a ring effect appearing in a compression-coded image is disclosed. The present invention is especially applicable to an image compression-coded at a low bit rate. In particular, the present invention includes a variety of masks for the removal of the block/ring effect. Thus, one mask is select for a pixel to be filtered. Moreover, candidate pixels to be averaged with the pixel to be filtered is selected from the pixels of the selected mask to better maintain the details of the image, and a weight is applied to improve the calculation speed of the averaging operation. More particularly, the masks according to the present invention have longer tabs toward adjacent blocks at boundaries of the given block to remove the block and ring effect. A decoding apparatus including a filtering unit configured to filter an image by selecting a filter mask extending either horizontally or vertically.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2010
    Assignee: LG Electronics Inc.
    Inventor: Jae Min Kim
  • Patent number: RE41953
    Abstract: A method and apparatus to remove a block effect and a ring effect appearing in a compression-coded image is disclosed. The present invention is especially applicable to an image compression-coded at a low bit rate. In particular, the present invention includes a variety of masks for the removal of the block/ring effect. Thus, one mask is select for a pixel to be filtered. Moreover, candidate pixels to be averaged with the pixel to be filtered is selected from the pixels of the selected mask to better maintain the details of the image, and a weight is applied to improve the calculation speed of the averaging operation. More particularly, the masks according to the present invention have longer tabs toward adjacent blocks at boundaries of the given block to remove the block and ring effect. In an embodiment, the decoding apparatus includes a filtering unit configured to determine a value of a pixel of an image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2010
    Assignee: LG Electronics Inc.
    Inventor: Jae Min Kim
  • Patent number: RE42516
    Abstract: A method of coding a moving picture reduces blocking artifacts. The method includes defining pixel sets S0, S1, S2 around a block boundary, selectively determining a deblocking mode as a default mode or a DC offset mode depending on the degree of blocking artifacts. If the default mode is selected, frequency information is obtained around the block boundary per pixel using a 4-point DCT kernel, for example, a magnitude of a discontinuous component belonging to the block boundary is replaced with a minimum magnitude of discontinuous components belonging to the surroundings of the block boundary in the frequency domain and the replacing step is applied to the spatial domain. If the DC offset mode is selected and a determination is made to perform DC offset mode, the blocking artifacts in a smooth region are removed in the DC offset mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2011
    Assignee: Video Enhancement Solutions, LLC
    Inventors: Hyun Mun Kim, Jong Beom Ra, Sung Deuk Kim, Young Su Lee
  • Patent number: RE42660
    Abstract: A method of coding a moving picture reduces blocking artifacts. The method includes defining pixel sets S0, S1, S2 around a block boundary, selectively determining a deblocking mode as a default mode or a DC offset mode depending on the degree of blocking artifacts. If the default mode is selected, frequency information is obtained around the block boundary per pixel using a 4-point DCT kernel, for example, a magnitude of a discontinuous component belonging to the block boundary is replaced with a minimum magnitude of discontinuous components belonging to the surroundings of the block boundary in the frequency domain and the replacing step is applied to the spatial domain. If the DC offset mode is selected and a determination is made to perform DC offset mode, the blocking artifacts in a smooth region are removed in the DC offset mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2011
    Assignee: Video Enhancement Solutions LLC
    Inventors: Hyun Mun Kim, Jong Beom Ra, Sung Deuk Kim, Young Su Lee
  • Patent number: RE42693
    Abstract: A method of coding a moving picture reduces blocking artifacts. The method includes defining pixel sets S0, S1, S2 around a block boundary, selectively determining a deblocking mode as a default mode or a DC offset mode depending on the degree of blocking artifacts. If the default mode is selected, frequency information is obtained around the block boundary per pixel using a 4-point DCT kernel, for example, a magnitude of a discontinuous component belonging to the block boundary is replaced with a minimum magnitude of discontinuous components belonging to the surroundings of the block boundary in the frequency domain and the replacing step is applied to the spatial domain. If the DC offset mode is selected and a determination is made to perform DC offset mode, the blocking artifacts in a smooth region are removed in the DC offset mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2011
    Assignee: Video Enhancement Solutions LLC
    Inventors: Hyun Mun Kim, Jong Beom Ra, Sung Deuk Kim, Young Su Lee
  • Patent number: RE42713
    Abstract: A method of coding a moving picture reduces blocking artifacts. The method includes defining pixel sets S0, S1, S2 around a block boundary, selectively determining a deblocking mode as a default mode or a DC offset mode depending on the degree of blocking artifacts. If the default mode is selected, frequency information is obtained around the block boundary per pixel using a 4-point DCT kernel, for example, a magnitude of a discontinuous component belonging to the block boundary is replaced with a minimum magnitude of discontinuous components belonging to the surroundings of the block boundary in the frequency domain and the replacing step is applied to the spatial domain. If the DC offset mode is selected and a determination is made to perform DC offset mode, the blocking artifacts in a smooth region are removed in the DC offset mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2011
    Assignee: Video Enhancement Solutions LLC
    Inventors: Hyun Mun Kim, Jong Beom Ra, Sung Deuk Kim, Young Su Lee
  • Patent number: RE42851
    Abstract: A method of coding a moving picture reduces blocking artifacts. The method includes defining pixel sets S0, S1, S2 around a block boundary, selectively determining a deblocking mode as a default mode or a DC offset mode depending on the degree of blocking artifacts. If the default mode is selected, frequency information is obtained around the block boundary per pixel using a 4-point DCT kernel, for example, a magnitude of a discontinuous component belonging to the block boundary is replaced with a minimum magnitude of discontinuous components belonging to the surroundings of the block boundary in the frequency domain and the replacing step is applied to the spatial domain. If the DC offset mode is selected and a determination is made to perform DC offset mode, the blocking artifacts in a smooth region are removed in the DC offset mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2011
    Assignee: Video Enhancement Solutions LLC
    Inventors: Hyun Mun Kim, Jong Beom Ra, Sung Deuk Kim, Young Su Lee