Raising Or Lowering The Image Resolution (e.g., Subpixel Accuracy) Patents (Class 382/299)
  • Patent number: 9253129
    Abstract: The invention enables collaboration between first and second users at first and second workstations having first and second browsers, respectively. A page is loaded into the first browser. An instant messaging connection is established between the first workstation and the second workstation. Then an address of the page loaded at the first browser is sent to the second browser via the instant messaging connection. At the second browser the page is loaded in response to receipt of the page address. A network connection is then established between the first browser and the second browser. Thereafter, messages are sent from the first browser to the second browser via the network connection responsive to screen events by a user at the first workstation to control screen events at the second workstation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2016
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard Tuthill Bassemir, Ismael Numitor Castillo
  • Patent number: 9251565
    Abstract: Methods and a computer program product for deriving a super-resolution image of a physical object by fusing cameras of multiple resolutions (spatial, temporal, or spectral), the super-resolution image characterized by a resolution exceeding a “camera imaging resolution” associated with each of a sequence of lower-resolution images of the physical object. The sequence of images of the physical object is obtained at a plurality of relative displacements with respect to the object by a hybrid camera system comprising at least two imaging systems. The imaging systems are characterized by respective temporal and spatial resolution and by spectral sensitivity, and may be distinct from one another in one or more of the foregoing dimensions. The imaging systems are either fixed, or subject to know motion, relative to each other. Image sequences derived by each imaging system are coregistered and deconvolved to solve for a resultant sequence of images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2016
    Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Long N. Phan, Jonathan Lee Jesneck, Sanjay Sarma
  • Patent number: 9245326
    Abstract: The invention relates to the improvement of the resolution of regularly sampled multi-dimensional signals, where a single low-resolution signal is available. These methods are generically referred to as example-based super-resolution or single-image super-resolution. The method for super-resolving a single image comprises three stages. First, an interpolation-based up-scaling of the input image is performed, followed by an equivalent low-pass filtering operation on the low-resolution image. The second stage comprises a search for low-frequency matches between an inspected patch in the high-resolution image and patches in a local neighborhood in the low-resolution low-frequency image, including partly overlapping patches, and accumulating the high-frequency contribution obtained from the low-resolution image. The third stage comprises adding the contributions of the low-frequency band of the high-resolution image and the extrapolated high-frequency band.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2016
    Assignee: Thomson Licensing
    Inventors: Jordi Salvador, Axel Kochale, Malte Borsum
  • Patent number: 9245194
    Abstract: An efficient line detection technique pre-processes an image to remove edge pixels that are not on straight lines, before performing line detection. By removing edge pixels not on straight lines, the complexity of the task of line detection can be significantly reduced, while increasing the accuracy. Various embodiments preprocess the edge maps of an image by anisotropic line filtering, kernel density estimation-based edge pruning, and connected component analysis. The resulting pruned edge map may then be processed using a Hough transform to detect straight lines in the image, having removed much of the noise in the edge map.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2016
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Zehang Sun
  • Patent number: 9230058
    Abstract: An image processing device includes: a first feature amount extraction unit configured to extract a first feature amount from an image; a position detection unit configured to detect observation positions from the image based on a position detection dictionary, and the first feature amount extracted from the image; a second feature amount extraction unit configured to extract a second feature amount from the observation position; an observation-order determining unit configured to determine the order of observing the observation positions based on an order generation dictionary, and respective second feature amounts of the observation positions; and an image generation unit configured to generate observation images for displaying the observation positions in the observation order based on the image, the detected observation positions and the determined observation order.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2016
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventor: Takeshi Ohashi
  • Patent number: 9218645
    Abstract: An image processing method includes: storing a threshold matrix for quantization processing of input image data, applying mask processing to an abnormal recording element based on abnormal recording element information, correcting a correspondence relationship between a recording element and a threshold such that processing of a pixel to be formed by the abnormal recording element subjected to mask processing is excluded and the continuity of a pattern of the threshold matrix is maintained, and performing quantization processing using a corrected threshold matrix.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 22, 2015
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Corporation
    Inventor: Hiroyuki Shibata
  • Patent number: 9214015
    Abstract: A system for image enhancement includes a computer receiving an input image, and modifies the entire range of frequencies of the image, wherein the modifying is greater for the lower frequency aspects of the input image relative to the higher frequency aspects of the input image based upon a brightening process that is based upon a brightening selection, where the brightening selection is based upon a backlight level of a display to display the input image. The computer modifies the higher frequency aspects of the input image based upon an enhancement process that is based upon the brightening selection which is based upon the backlight level of the display. The computer combines the modifies image based upon the brightening process and the modified image based upon the enhancement process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2015
    Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America, Inc.
    Inventors: Xinyu Xu, Louis Joseph Kerofsky
  • Patent number: 9208747
    Abstract: In a control method and a control unit for context-specific determination of at least one DESIRED perspective upon rendering of medical image data at a monitor, a graphical symbol is generated at a user interface dynamically and depending on an image status in order to detect a perspective control signal, and is used to control the rendering.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2015
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Jens Guehring, Stephan Nufer
  • Patent number: 9196021
    Abstract: A method and systems of enhancing a video using a related image are provided. One or more patches are identified in the video, with each patch identifying a region that is present in one of the frames of the video that can be mapped to a similar region in at least one other frame of the video. For each identified patch in the video, a best matching patch in the related image is found. The video is enhanced using the best matching patch in the related image for each identified patch in the video.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2015
    Inventors: Hailin Jin, Scott David Cohen, Zhe Lin
  • Patent number: 9196025
    Abstract: In an image processing apparatus, a conditional probability calculating element calculates the probability of existence of an attribute as to each region in an input degraded image, for each attribute. Optimization function determining element uses a conditional probability calculated by the conditional probability calculating element with regard to each region in the degraded image for each attribute, a-priori knowledge defined as a conditional probability of appearance of an attribute in a region of a candidate of a restored image when there is the attribute in the region, and the input degraded image to determine an optimization function using the candidate of the restored image as a variable and yielding a smaller value as the candidate of the restored image is closer to a true restored image. Restored image determining element adopts the candidate of the restored image with which the optimization function yields a minimum value as the restored image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2015
    Assignee: NEC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takashi Shibata, Akihiko Iketani, Shuji Senda
  • Patent number: 9185437
    Abstract: Computer program products and a mobile terminal for transmitting and receiving video data. Image data of first and second frames of a video signal captured by a camera is used to determine encoded first spatial units of the first frame and encoded second spatial units of the second frame at lower spatial resolution, which are transmitted to the receiver terminal. The second spatial units are unaligned with the first spatial units due to rotation of the camera between the first and second frames, such that each of the second spatial units partially overlaps with at least one first spatial unit. An indication of the angle of rotation of the camera between the first and second frames is detected using a rotational motion sensor and transmitted to the receiver terminal. The receiver terminal combines the first and second spatial units using the indication to reconstruct an image of higher spatial resolution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2015
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventor: Lazar Bivolarsky
  • Patent number: 9179077
    Abstract: Aspects of the disclosed technology relate to an imaging system and method in which an array camera is employed along with an image processor to make use of parallax convergence differences between different cameras or groups of cameras within an array camera to provide improved super resolution performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2015
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Mobile Communications AB
    Inventors: Jonas Gustavsson, Henrik Heringslack, Daniel Linaker, Mats Wernersson
  • Patent number: 9179039
    Abstract: Methods and systems for processing a low resolution image via a low resolution error diffusion algorithm. A low resolution binary output pixel can be generated utilizing a general error diffusion algorithm. The low-resolution binary output pixel can be converted to a predetermined number of interpolated sub-pixel values and each interpolated sub-pixel values can be compared with a threshold in order to generate a scaled slow-scan output pixel utilizing the low resolution error diffusion algorithm. The low resolution error diffusion algorithm includes a highlight threshold adjustment module that adjusts level in order to prevent the scaled slow-scan output pixel from firing around the low resolution binary output pixel within a highlight region. A slow scan error with respect to the scaled slow-scan output pixel can be distributed and stored via error diffusion filter coefficients within an error buffer without additional memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2015
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: David J. Metcalfe, Ryan D. Metcalfe
  • Patent number: 9172896
    Abstract: An intelligent television can provide various interfaces for navigating processes associated with providing content. The user interfaces include unique visual representations and organizations that allow the user to utilize the intelligent television more easily and more effectively. Particularly, the user interfaces' layout, aspect ratio of elements, display of elements, and size of selectable images are dependent on the type of content presented. Further, the user interfaces provide unique process of transitioning between the content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2015
    Assignee: Flextronics AP, LLC
    Inventors: Alexander de Paz, Sanjiv Sirpal, Mohammed Selim, Karina A. Limongi
  • Patent number: 9160963
    Abstract: A terminal for generating a live image includes a memory for storing video content, and a live image generator for selecting a number of original frames from original frames constituting the video content in a standby mode, generating a new live image by interpolating the number of selected original frames, and outputting the generated live image as live wallpaper for the standby mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2015
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd
    Inventors: Maksym Koshel, Sergey Pometun, Dmytro Dorogovtsev, Mykola Raievskyi
  • Patent number: 9159121
    Abstract: A method for removing noise from a noisy image includes a few important steps. The noise level of the noisy image is first estimated based on the smooth blocks of the image. The original image is divided into many small blocks. Each of these blocks is then converted from a two dimensional matrix to vector, which is a one dimensional array. The converted vectors are next grouped and then a matrix recovery process based on a principal component analysis (PCA) has been performed in order to remove the noise, wherein the key is to determine the number of principal components to retain during the denoising process. Next, the denoised vectors are converted back to the denoised blocks, and the denoised blocks are used to reconstruct a denoised image with a better image quality.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2015
    Assignee: SIGNAL PROCESSING, INC.
    Inventors: Chiman Kwan, Jin Zhou
  • Patent number: 9123140
    Abstract: A method of generating a super-resolution image from a single frame of image data, includes receiving, at a processor, a frame of image data have a first resolution as an original image layer, generating an estimated super-resolution image as a high resolution image layer, the estimated super-resolution image having a second resolution, the second resolution being higher than the first resolution from the frame of original image data, generating a low resolution image layer by down sampling the frame of image data, the low resolution image layer having a resolution lower than the first resolution, down sampling the estimated super-resolution image to produce an intermediate image layer having an intermediate resolution between the first resolution and the second resolution, and selectively copying image data from the original image layer to the super-resolution image layer to produce a final super-resolution image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2015
    Assignee: Pixelworks, Inc.
    Inventors: Guodong Liu, Bob Zhang, Junhua Chen, Yue Ma
  • Patent number: 9117372
    Abstract: A system and method collects transit vehicle arrival and departure data sent from the transit vehicle to a stationary control center. The stationary control center continuously calculates, a medial time table, a medial travel time to a destination on a transit route and a medial travel time between transit stops on the route. The medial values may be calculated differently for rush hour, holiday, or certain weather conditions to increase the accuracy of the schedule forecast. Actual position and time information of a transit vehicle may be transmitted via wireless communication from a transit vehicle to the stationary control center. The position and time information is transmitted at least when the transit vehicle arrives and departs each transit stop on the transit route. The medial values can be displayed to transit vehicle users.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2015
    Assignee: Lawo Informationssysteme GMBH
    Inventor: Karsten Daniel Köth
  • Patent number: 9117293
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes: a high-pass filter that extracts a high-frequency component of an input image; an edge judgment unit that judges whether there is an edge based on the high-frequency component and estimates an edge position when there is an edge; a coordinate conversion unit that obtains an edge position in an enlarged image corresponding to the estimated edge position; an interpolation unit that obtains, regarding a position where an edge position of the high-frequency component and the edge position of the enlarged image overlap, a pixel value at each pixel position of an edge circumference of the enlarged image using a pixel value of the high-frequency component; a first enlargement processing unit that generates the enlarged image by enlarging by a desired enlargement factor; and a synthesis unit that synthesizes the interpolated pixel value of the high-frequency component and the pixel value of the enlarged image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2015
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Naoki Kuzuya
  • Patent number: 9111367
    Abstract: The present invention relates to the field of digital image enhancement technologies, and more particularly to a non-locality-based super-resolution reconstruction method and device, so as to solve the problem of relatively low resolution of an image after non-locality-based super-resolution reconstruction in the prior art.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2015
    Assignees: Peking University, Peking University Founder Group Co., Ltd., Beijing Founder Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Jiaying Liu, Yue Zhou, Jie Ren, Zongming Guo
  • Patent number: 9094540
    Abstract: Panoramic and spherical cameras often currently capture respective portions of a scene using a set of lenses that focus images on imagers for sampling by photosensitive elements. Because the images are often circular and imagers are often rectangular, the orientation of the lenses may be selected as a tradeoff between capturing capture the entire image while leaving unused portions of the imager, and maximizing imager coverage to increase resolution while creating cropped image portions that extend beyond the edges of the imager. The techniques presented herein involve displacing the image from the imager center in order to increase a first cropped area and reduce or eliminate a second cropped area. The lenses may also be oriented such that the first cropped area comprises a portion of the composite image that may be acceptable to omit from the composite image (e.g., the user's hand or a camera mounting apparatus).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2015
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Morgan Venable, Joe Corkery
  • Patent number: 9087390
    Abstract: A method, system, and computer-readable storage medium are disclosed for upscaling an image sequence. An upsampled frame is generated based on an original frame in an original image sequence comprising a plurality of frames. A smoothed image sequence is generated based on the original image sequence. A plurality of patches are determined in the upsampled frame. Each patch comprises a subset of image data in the upsampled frame. Locations of a plurality of corresponding patches are determined in a neighboring set of the plurality of frames in the smoothed image sequence. A plurality of high-frequency patches are generated. Each high-frequency patch is based on image data at the locations of the corresponding patches in the original image sequence. The plurality of high-frequency patches are added to the upsampled frame to generate a high-quality upscaled frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 25, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2015
    Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated
    Inventors: Hailin Jin, Alper Ayvaci, Zhe Lin, Scott D. Cohen
  • Patent number: 9076232
    Abstract: An image interpolation apparatus is provided which includes an edge area distinguishing part configured to distinguish an edge area including an edge from an image; an edge area classifying part configured to classify the edge area into a plurality of regions; and an interpolation part configured to perform interpolation the regions in different manners.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2015
    Assignee: INDUSTRY-ACADEMIC COOPERATION FOUNDATION, YONSEI UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Jaeseok Kim, Yujin Yun, Jonghyun Bae
  • Patent number: 9064349
    Abstract: A computer-implemented image composition method and apparatus, wherein, after a user selects a base image from a plurality of sequential images, and specifies an area to be modified, the content of the specified area in the base image is replaced with the content of a corresponding area in the remaining images one by one, and the base image after the replacement is output for a user's previewing and determination. It is possible to improve the quality of the images sequentially captured by applying the present disclosure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2015
    Assignee: TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) COMPANY LIMITED
    Inventors: Difei Zou, Jun Huang, Xuehui Wang, Shengwei Lin, Deliang Zhu, Yusheng Zhong
  • Patent number: 9060121
    Abstract: A camera array, an imaging device and/or a method for capturing image that employ a plurality of imagers fabricated on a substrate is provided. Each imager includes a plurality of pixels. The plurality of imagers include a first imager having a first imaging characteristics and a second imager having a second imaging characteristics. The images generated by the plurality of imagers are processed to obtain an enhanced image compared to images captured by the imagers. Each imager may be associated with an optical element fabricated using a wafer level optics (WLO) technology.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 16, 2015
    Assignee: Pelican Imaging Corporation
    Inventors: Kartik Venkataraman, Amandeep S. Jabbi, Robert H. Mullis
  • Patent number: 9036909
    Abstract: One exemplary embodiment involves receiving an image with a set of undefined pixels and a set of defined pixels and recursively modifying the image to generate a seamless composition comprising only defined pixels. Disclosed are embodiments for recursively modifying the image by recursively down sampling the image by a factor to generate a plurality of down sampled images until the down sampled image generated at each recursive down sampling lacks undefined pixels and then recursively up sampling each one of the down sampled images by the factor to generate an up sampled image from the respective down sampled image. Additionally, at each recursive up sampling instance, pasting the next recursively occurring down sampled image on the up sampled image to generate the next recursively occurring image for up sampling.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: Adove Systems Incorporated
    Inventors: Sylvain Paris, James McCann
  • Patent number: 9025910
    Abstract: A method of performing an image retargeting quality assessment comprising comparing an original image and a retargeted image in a frequency domain, wherein the retargeted image is obtained by performing a retargeting algorithm on the original image. The disclosure also includes an apparatus comprising a processor configured to perform an image retargeting quality assessment, and compare an original image and a retargeted image in a spatial domain, wherein the retargeted image is obtained by performing a retargeting algorithm on the original image, and wherein comparing the original image and the retargeted image in the spatial domain comprises comparing the original image and the retargeted image to determine an amount of shape distortion between the images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
    Assignees: Futurewei Technologies, Inc., Nanyang Technological University
    Inventors: Anmin Liu, Weisi Lin, Chen Hai, Chen-Xiong Zhang
  • Patent number: 9025173
    Abstract: An image display apparatus includes: a display device configured to display a plurality of images. At least one common setting is provided in common for the images, and an individual setting is allowed to be set individually for each image. A controller controls the display device to display the at least one common setting when the images displayed on the display device are being scrolled. When the images displayed on the display device are not being scrolled, the controller controls the display device to display at least one individual setting and at least one image of the images such that each of the at least one individual setting is displayed in association with a corresponding one of the at least one image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Yutaka Urakawa
  • Patent number: 9020265
    Abstract: A system and method is provided for automatically recognizing building numbers in street level images. In one aspect, a processor selects a street level image that is likely to be near an address of interest. The processor identifies those portions of the image that are visually similar to street numbers, and then extracts the numeric values of the characters displayed in such portions. If an extracted value corresponds with the building number of the address of interest such as being substantially equal to the address of interest, the extracted value and the image portion are displayed to a human operator. The human operator confirms, by looking at the image portion, whether the image portion appears to be a building number that matches the extracted value. If so, the processor stores a value that associates that building number with the street level image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2015
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Bo Wu, Alessandro Bissacco, Raymond W. Smith, Kong Man Cheung, Andrea Frome, Shlomo Urbach
  • Patent number: 9020302
    Abstract: A method and a digital filter, for use with photo and video images, includes using a camera or video camera equipped with sensors and an electronic shutter to capture a plurality of frames of low resolution and producing one frame of high resolution. A plurality of frames are exposed. Initial images are in the form of a continuous sequence of frames with high-speed capture. The frequency of the frames is inversely proportional to the magnitude of that part of the light-sensitive region of the sensor that is being scanned. The initial images are aligned and an enhanced image is produced. The enhanced image is filtered using a nonlinear filter which includes a neural network that is pretrained using a test image including radial and sinusoidal test charts, as well as reference points.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2015
    Inventor: Dmitry Valerievich Shmunk
  • Patent number: 9020299
    Abstract: Hybrid image format techniques are described in which multiple resolution images are concatenated to a standard bitmap image to create a hybrid image file. The hybrid image file is created through combining a relatively low resolution image with the additional images in a multi-frame format having higher resolution. The hybrid image file may contain data detectable to signal that higher resolution images are available in the hybrid image file. A hybrid aware application may be configured to detect and output a higher resolution image from the hybrid image file based on detection of the data. A legacy application that is not configured to detect the data may be unaware of higher resolution images contained in the hybrid image file, and accordingly outputs the relatively low resolution image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2015
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Kenneth W. Sykes
  • Patent number: 9007389
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention are directed towards increasing texture filtering performance for texel components represented by more than 8 bits. As the number of bits per component increases, the number of texels that are processed each clock cycle decreases since more bits need to be processed to produce each filtered result. A filtered result may be accumulated over two or more iterations, with each iteration producing a portion of the filtered result. When only a portion of the components for each texel are used, the unused texel components are not processed. Elimination of unnecessary texel processing for unused texel components may improve texture filtering performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2015
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventor: Paul S. Heckbert
  • Patent number: 9007395
    Abstract: Devices, systems, apparatuses, methods, and other embodiments associated with bit resolution enhancement are described. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes logic configured to produce a high-resolution pixel from a low-resolution pixel. The apparatus includes logic configured to classify the high-resolution pixel as being in a smooth region of an image based on at least one of a gradient value and a variance value associated with the low-resolution pixel. The apparatus includes logic configured to selectively re-classify the high-resolution pixel as not being in the smooth region of the image based on a set of neighboring high-resolution pixels associated with high-resolution pixel. The apparatus includes logic configured to selectively filter the high-resolution pixel based on whether the high-resolution pixel remains classified as being in the smooth region of the image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2015
    Assignee: Marvell World Trade Ltd.
    Inventors: Vasudev Bhaskaran, Nikhil Balram, Sujith Srinivasan, Sanjay Garg
  • Publication number: 20150093046
    Abstract: An image processing unit of an image processing apparatus includes: a pixel value acquiring part that acquires pixel values of new pixels obtained by increasing resolution of a first image, using pixel values of multiple original pixels, of the first image, around a position at which each of the new pixels is disposed; a representative value acquiring part that acquires a representative value of the pixel values of the multiple new pixels arranged in an area in which each of the original pixels is disposed; a correction value acquiring part that acquires a correction value using the pixel value of each of the original pixels and the representative value; and a pixel value correcting part that corrects the pixel value of each of the original pixels using the correction value. The image processing unit performs correction processing for correcting the original pixels is repeated once or at least twice.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 5, 2013
    Publication date: April 2, 2015
    Applicant: National University Corporation ASAHIKAWA MEDICAL UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Atsutaka Okizaki, Tamio Aburano
  • Publication number: 20150093045
    Abstract: Super-resolution refers to a process of recovering the missing high-frequency details of a given low-resolution image. Known single image SR algorithms are often computationally intractable or unusable for most of the practical applications. The invention relates to a method for performing hierarchical super-resolution based on self content neighboring patches information is based on pyramidal decomposition. The intrinsic geometric property of an input LR patch neighborhood is obtained from the input LR patch and its K nearest neighbors taken from different down-scaled versions of the LR image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 4, 2013
    Publication date: April 2, 2015
    Inventors: Mehmet Turkan, Dominique Thoreau, Philippe Guillotel
  • Patent number: 8995787
    Abstract: Reference-free compensated imaging makes an estimation of the Fourier phase of a series of images of a target. The Fourier magnitude of the series of images is obtained by dividing the power spectral density of the series of images by an estimate of the power spectral density of atmospheric turbulence from a series of scene based wave front sensor (SBWFS) measurements of the target. A high-resolution image of the target is recovered from the Fourier phase and the Fourier magnitude.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC
    Inventors: Lisa A Poyneer, Brian J Bauman
  • Patent number: 8995793
    Abstract: In some approaches, super-resolution of static and moving objects can be performed. Results of moving object super-resolution may be improved by means of performing image co-registration. The quality of images of moving objects in an automated form may be improved. A sequence of images may be processed wherein objects can be detected and tracked in succeeding frames. A small region around a tracked object may be extracted in each frame. These regions may be co-registered to each other using frequency domain techniques. A set of co-registered images may be used to perform super-resolution of the tracked object. Also described are image processing systems and articles of manufacture having a machine readable storage medium and executable program instructions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation
    Inventors: John Brandon Laflen, Glen William Brooksby, Christopher Greco
  • Patent number: 8989519
    Abstract: A method implementable on a computing device includes exploiting data redundancy to combine high frequency information from at least two different scales of an input signal to generate a super resolution version of said input signal. An alternative method includes exploiting recurrence of data from an input signal in at least two different scales of at least one reference signal to extract and to combine high frequency information from a plurality of scales of said at least one reference signal to generate a super resolution version of said input signal. An alternative method includes generating a super resolution version of a single input video sequence in at least the temporal dimension by exploiting data recurrence within the input video sequence or with respect to an external database of example video sequences. A signal may be an image, a video sequence, an audio signal, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2015
    Assignee: Yeda Research & Development Co. Ltd.
    Inventors: Michal Irani, Daniel Glasner, Oded Shahar, Shai Bagon
  • Patent number: 8983236
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and devices for up-scaling a source input video from a lower, first resolution to a desired output video having a higher, second resolution, using fractal zooming techniques to replace each individual source pixel of each respective frame of the source input video with a multiple of proposed replacement pixels in the vertical and horizontal dimensions having similar characteristics as the individual source pixel, reducing noise associated with each respective frame of the desired output video, re-sizing, as necessary, each respective replacement frame to the second resolution, and outputting each zoomed replacement frame to generate the desired output video having a higher, second resolution, which is the up-scaled version of the source video. The fractal zooming techniques include identifying a plurality of candidate pixels from the source video and selecting a group of pixels from the candidate pixels that best matches the individual source pixel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: Dimension, Inc.
    Inventors: Lyman P. Hurd, John H. Elton, Carlos M. Diaz-Perez
  • Patent number: 8981310
    Abstract: A radiation detection device 80 according to an embodiment is a radiation detection device for a foreign substance inspection using a subtraction method, and includes a first radiation detector 32 that detects radiation in a first energy range transmitted through a specimen S and generates a first image, a second radiation detector 42 that detects radiation in a second energy range higher than the radiation in the first energy range and generates a second image, a first image processing section 34 that applies image processing to the first image, and a second image processing section 44 that applies image processing to the second image, wherein a first pixel width in an image detection direction of each pixel of the first radiation detector 32 is smaller than a second pixel width in the image detection direction of each pixel of the second radiation detector 42, and the first image processing section 34 and the second image processing section 44 carry out pixel change processing to make the number of pixels o
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: Hamamatsu Photonics K.K.
    Inventor: Toshiyasu Suyama
  • Patent number: 8983221
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus which estimates a point spread function (PSF) of at least one input image, and the image processing apparatus includes: an S/N ratio estimation unit which estimates an S/N ratio of the input image at each spatial frequency; a restricted range calculation unit which calculates a restricted range that is a range of the spatial frequency in which the frequency component of the input images are restricted and that more likely includes a spatial frequency in which the S/N ratio is lower; a frequency restriction unit which generates a restricted image by restricting a frequency component of the input image within the restricted range; and a PSF estimation unit which estimates the PSF of the input image, using the restricted image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takashi Fujii, Yusuke Monobe
  • Patent number: 8983222
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for automatically retrieving information regarding optical properties of a scattering medium including receiving a first digital image and a first image quality value associated with the first digital image and sharpness of an edge of the first digital image, producing an optimized image, transforming the optimized image into an optimized optical transfer function, receiving a second digital image and a second image quality value associated with the second digital image and sharpness of an edge of the second digital image, identifying either the first or second digital image as an optimized digital image, and transforming the optimized optical transfer function into an optimized value of the optical parameter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: The United States of America, as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Weilin Hou, Alan Weidemann
  • Patent number: 8981970
    Abstract: A binary allocation in a hierarchical coding/decoding comprising a coding/decoding of a digital signal enhancement layer. The signal comprises a succession of L samples, each sample being represented by a mantissa and an exponent. The method comprises the allocation of a predetermined number Nb of enhancement bits to a part at least of the L samples of highest exponent values. In particular, the method comprises the steps: a) enumerating the exponents of the L samples each having a given value, b) calculating at least one aggregate of enumerations of exponents by decreasing values of exponent until the predetermined number Nb is approximated from above, for c) determining a threshold value of largest exponent iexp0 of sample for which no more enhancement bit is available, and allocating the Nb enhancement bits, according to chosen rules, to the samples whose exponent is greater than the aforesaid threshold value iexpo.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: Orange
    Inventor: Claude Lamblin
  • Publication number: 20150071533
    Abstract: A method of increasing resolution of an image includes generating vector contours associated with a first image and scaling the vector contours to a second resolution. The first image has a first resolution, and the second resolution is greater than the first resolution. The vector contours are rendered to generate a guiding image at the second resolution, and a second image is generated from the first image based on the guiding image, by using joint upsampling. The second image is generated at the second resolution. The vector contours can be generated by bitmap tracing binary images at different quantization levels. An apparatus and computer readable device implementing the method of increasing the resolution of an image are also provided.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 12, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY I, L.P.
    Inventors: Shankar KRISHNAN, James Klosowski
  • Publication number: 20150071567
    Abstract: There is provided an image processing device including: a motion vector acquirer, a position generator, a weight calculator and an image generator. The acquirer acquires motion vectors with respect to a reference frame for pixels of an input frame. The position generator generates first position information indicating a position on a first frame on a basis of position information in the input frame and the motion vector of the pixel, for each pixel of the input frame. The calculator calculates a weight depending a distance from the position indicated by first position information to a pixel of the first frame, for each pixel of the first frame. The generator calculates an output pixel value, for each pixel of the first frame, on a basis of the weight and a pixel value of the pixel in the input frame, to generate an output frame.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 5, 2014
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Nao MISHIMA, Toshimitsu KANEKO, Takashi IDA
  • Patent number: 8976223
    Abstract: A method, computer program product, and computer system for sending, by a first computing device, a video feed with a pre-determined quality level to a second computing device. The first computing device determines that a volume level associated with the video feed reaches a threshold. The first computing device sends the video feed with a higher quality level to the second computing device based upon, at least in part, determining that the volume level associated with the video feed reaches the threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventor: Matthew John Leske
  • Patent number: 8977069
    Abstract: Provided are an apparatus and method of obtaining a high resolution image using multi-band combination filters. The apparatus includes a high frequency extraction unit to extract a high frequency image from a low resolution input image through filtering operations performed in parallel, a high frequency expansion unit to expand the high frequency image to generate an expanded high frequency image, an image expansion unit to expand the low resolution input image to generate an expanded input image, and an image combination unit to combine the expanded high frequency image and the expanded input image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kyu Young Hwang, Ho Young Lee, Du-Sik Park
  • Patent number: 8977076
    Abstract: An input image (7) having a first pixel resolution is acquired from an image capture system (2). A respective characterization of each of at least one visual quality feature of the input image (7) is determined. An output thumbnail image (9) is produced from the input image (7). The output thumbnail image (9) reflects the respective characterization of each visual quality feature. The output thumbnail image (9) has a second pixel resolution lower than the first pixel resolution. The output thumbnail image (9) is output in association with operation of the image capture system (2).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Ramin Samadani, Daniel R. Tretter, Keith Moore
  • Patent number: 8971640
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for graphical overlay object translation. One of the methods includes receiving a first plurality of first feature points, each first feature point being associated with a plurality of feature descriptors and a respective location on the first digital image. The method includes receiving a second plurality of second feature points, each second feature point being associated with a plurality of feature descriptors and a respective location on the second digital image. The method includes determining the translation offset for the second digital image from the first digital image by matching locations of the first feature points with locations of the second feature points without regard to the feature descriptors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2015
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventor: Keir B. Mierle
  • Patent number: 8965064
    Abstract: The present disclosure is directed towards methods and systems for capturing artifact-free biometric images of an eye. The eye may be in motion and in the presence of partially-reflective eyewear. The method may include acquiring, by a first sensor, a first image of an eye while the eye is illuminated by a first illuminator. The first image may include a region of interest. The first sensor may be disposed at a fixed displacement from the first illuminator and a second sensor. The second sensor may acquire, within a predetermined period of time from the acquisition of the first image, a second image of the eye. The second image may include the region of interest. An image processor may determine if at least one of the first and second images include artifacts arising from one or both of the first illuminator and eyewear, within the region of interest.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2015
    Assignee: EyeLock, Inc.
    Inventor: Keith J. Hanna