16208 results about "Image pair" patented technology

Depth maps are generated from a monoscopic source images and asymmetrically smoothed to a near-saturation level. Each depth map contains depth values focused on edges of local regions in the source image. Each edge is defined by a predetermined image parameter having an estimated value exceeding a predefined threshold. The depth values are based on the corresponding estimated values of the image parameter. The depth map is used to process the source image by a depth image based rendering algorithm to create at least one deviated image, which forms with the source image a set of monoscopic images. At least one stereoscopic image pair is selected from such a set for use in generating different viewpoints for multiview and stereoscopic purposes, including still and moving images.

An object detection system for detecting instances of an object in a digital image includes an image integrator and an object detector, which includes a classifier (classification function) and image scanner. The image integrator receives an input image and calculates an integral image representation of the input image. The image scanner scans the image in same sized subwindows. The object detector uses a cascade of homogenous classification functions or classifiers to classify the subwindows as to whether each subwindow is likely to contain an instance of the object. Each classifier evaluates one or more features of the object to determine the presence of such features in a subwindow that would indicate the likelihood of an instance of the object in the subwindow.

A system and method for improving digital flash photographs. The present invention is a technique that significantly improves low-light imaging by giving the end-user all the advantages of flash photography without producing the jarring look. The invention uses an image pair—one taken with flash the other without—to remove noise from the ambient image, sharpen the ambient image using detail from the flash image, correct for color, and remove red-eye.

The focal length estimation method and apparatus claimed in this application aligns plural overlapping images with one another for constructing an image mosaic. This is accomplished by computing a planar perspective transformation between each overlapping pair of the images, computing from the planar perspective transformation a focal length of each image of the pair, computing from the focal length of each image a focal length transformation, computing a rotational transformation for each of the pair of images whereby a combination of the rotational transformation and the focal length transformation relates the respective image to a three-dimensional coordinate system. Registration errors between the pair of images are reduced by incrementally deforming the rotational transformation of one of the pair of images. The planar perspective transform is a matrix of warp elements, and the focal length is computed as a function of the warp elements, the function being derivable by constraining a first two rows or the first two columns of the matrix to have the same norm and to be orthogonal. The focal length of one image of a pair of images is found by applying the constraint on the matrix columns, while the focal length of the other image of the pair is found by applying the constraint on the matrix rows

<heading lvl="0">Abstract of Disclosure</heading> This invention relates to an electrophoretic display or a liquid crystal display and novel processes for its manufacture. The electrophoretic display (EPD) of the present invention comprises microcups of well-defined shape, size and aspect ratio and the microcups are filled with charged pigment particles dispersed in an optically contrasting dielectric solvent. The liquid crystal display (LCD) of this invention comprises well-defined microcups filled with at least a liquid crystal composition having its ordinary refractive index matched to that of the isotropic cup material. A novel roll-to-roll process and apparatus of the invention permits the display manufacture to be carried out continuously by a synchronized photo-lithographic process. The synchronized roll-to-roll process and apparatus permits a pre-patterned photomask, formed as a continuous loop, to be rolled in a synchronized motion in close parallel alignment to a web which has been pre-coated with a radiation sensitive material, so as to maintain image alignment during exposure to a radiation source. The radiation sensitive material may be a radiation curable material, in which the exposed and cured portions form the microcup structure. In an additional process step, the radiation sensitive material may be a positively working photoresist which temporarily seals the microcups. Exposure of a selected subset of the microcups via the photomask image permits selective re-opening, filling and sealing of the microcup subset. Repetition with additional colors permits the continuous assembly of a multicolor EPD or LCD display.

A “Keyframe Stitcher” provides an efficient technique for building mosaic panoramic images by registering or aligning video frames to construct a mosaic panoramic representation. Matching of image pairs is performed by extracting feature points from every image frame and matching those points between image pairs. Further, the Keyframe Stitcher preserves accuracy of image stitching when matching image pairs by utilizing ordering information inherent in the video. The cost of searching for matches between image frames is reduced by identifying “keyframes” based on computed image-to-image overlap. Keyframes are then matched to all other keyframes, but intermediate image frames are only matched to temporally neighboring keyframes and neighboring intermediate frames to construct a “match structure.” Image orientations are then estimated from this match structure and used to construct the mosaic. Matches between image pairs may be compressed to reduce computational overhead by replacing groups of feature points with representative measurements.

A stereoscopic image aligning apparatus (200) automatically aligns image pairs for stereoscopic viewing in a shorter amount of time than conventional apparatuses, which is applicable to image pairs captured by a single sensor camera or a variable baseline camera, without relying on camera parameters. The stereoscopic image aligning apparatus (200) includes: an image pair obtaining unit (205) obtaining an image pair including a left-eye image and a right-eye image corresponding to the left-eye image; a corresponding point detecting unit (252) detecting a corresponding point representing a set of a first point included in a first image that is one of the images of the image pair and a second point included in a second image that is the other of the images of the image pair and corresponding to the first point; a first matrix computing unit (254) computing a homography transformation matrix for transforming the first point such that a vertical parallax between the first and second points is smallest and an epipolar constraint is satisfied; a transforming unit (260) transforming the first image using the homography transformation matrix; and an output unit (210) outputting: a third image that is the transformed first image; and the second image.

The present invention relates to a system and method of viewing pairs of perspective images of 3-D objects (i.e. stereoscopic image pairs) displayed from a CRT display surface in a time-multiplexed or field-sequential manner, and more particularly to a universal method of generating control signals for synchronously changing the optical state of liquid crystal (LC) shutter panels through which the time-multiplexed perspective. images can be sequentially viewed in a substantially flicker-free manner by the left and right eyes of a human viewer, independent of whether the images are displayed on NTSC, PAL, VGA or SVGA styled CRT display devices.

The present invention is an imaging device which can be equipped with decode functionality and which can be configured to operate in at least one of four user selected modes. In a first, “message only” mode, the device stores into a designated memory location a decoded-out message corresponding to a decodable indicia. In a second, “image only” mode, the device stores into a designated frame storage memory location an image representation of a scene. In a third, “omage plu message” mode the device stores into a designated frame storage memory location an image representation comprising a representation of a decodable symbol and into the same or other memory location the decoded-out message decoded from the decodable indicia, or data corresponding to the same. In the fourth, “two-step message and image” mode, the device is controlled to capture an image a first time for decoding a decodable indicia and a second time for capturing an image that is associated with the decoded-out message corresponding to the decodable indicia.

Systems and methods in accordance with embodiments of this invention perform depth regularization and semiautomatic interactive matting using images. In an embodiment of the invention, the image processing pipeline application directs a processor to receive (i) an image (ii) an initial depth map corresponding to the depths of pixels within the image, regularize the initial depth map into a dense depth map using depth values of known pixels to compute depth values of unknown pixels, determine an object of interest to be extracted from the image, generate an initial trimap using the dense depth map and the object of interest to be extracted from the image, and apply color image matting to unknown regions of the initial trimap to generate a matte for image matting.

The method for on-screen animation includes providing a digital world including image object elements and defining autonomous image entities (AIE). Each AIE may represent a character or an object that is characterized by i) attributes defining the AIE relatively to the image objects elements of the digital world, and ii) behaviours for modifying some of the attributes. Each AIE is associated to animation clips allowing representing the AIE in movement in the digital world. Virtual sensors allow the AIE to gather data information about image object elements or other AIE within the digital world. Decision trees are used for processing the data information resulting in selecting and triggering one of the animation cycle or selecting a new behaviour. A system embodying the above method is also provided. The method and system for on-screen animation of digital entities according to the present invention can be used for creating animation for movies, for video games, and for simulation.

A system and method are provided for autonomously navigating a vehicle. The method captures a sequence of image pairs using a stereo camera. A navigation application stores a vehicle pose (history of vehicle position). The application detects a plurality of matching feature points in a first matching image pair, and determines a plurality of corresponding object points in three-dimensional (3D) space from the first image pair. A plurality of feature points are tracked from the first image pair to a second image pair, and the plurality of corresponding object points in 3D space are determined from the second image pair. From this, a vehicle pose transformation is calculated using the object points from the first and second image pairs. The rotation angle and translation are determined from the vehicle pose transformation. If the rotation angle or translation exceed a minimum threshold, the stored vehicle pose is updated.

A method of estimating three-dimensional camera position information from a series of two-dimensional images that form a panorama employs common features in adjoining image pairs in the series to estimate a transform between the images in the pairs. The common features are subsequently employed to adjust an estimated rotational component of each transform by reducing error between coordinates corresponding to the common features in three-dimensional space in image pairs, on a pair-by-pair basis. A global optimization of the position estimation, used for long sequences of images such as 360 degree panoramas, refines the estimates of the rotational and focal length components of the transforms by concurrently reducing error between all 3D common feature coordinates for all adjoining pairs.

Systems, methods and articles of manufacture are disclosed for stereoscopically editing video content. In one embodiment, image pairs of a sequence may be stereoscopically modified by altering at least one image of the image pair. The at least one image may be altered using at least one mapping function. The at least one image may also be altered based on a saliency of the image pair. The at least one image may also be altered based on disparities between the image pair. Advantageously, stereoscopic properties of video content may be edited more conveniently and efficiently.

A method for rectifying misalignment in a stereoscopic display system (140) comprises: providing a pair of input images to an image processor (120); creating an image source displacement map for the pair of input images; obtaining a display displacement map (150); and applying the image source displacement map and the display displacement map to the pair of input images to create a rectified stereoscopic image pair.

The invention discloses a method for recognizing a road traffic sign for an unmanned vehicle, comprising the following steps of: (1) changing the RGB (Red, Green and Blue) pixel value of an image to strengthen a traffic sign feature color region, and cutting the image by using a threshold; (2) carrying out edge detection and connection on a gray level image to reconstruct an interested region; (3) extracting a labeled graph of the interested region as a shape feature of the interested region, classifying the shape of the region by using a nearest neighbor classification method, and removing a non-traffic sign region; and (4) graying and normalizing the image of the interested region of the traffic sign, carrying out dual-tree complex wavelet transform on the image to form a feature vector of the image, reducing the dimension of the feature vector by using a two-dimension independent component analysis method, and sending the feature vector into a support vector machine of a radial basis function to judge the type of the traffic sign of the interested region. By using the method, various types of traffic signs in a running environment of the unmanned vehicle can be stably and efficiently detected and recognized.

Methods and Systems are provided for converting a two-dimensional image sequence into a three-dimensional image. In one embodiment, a method for converting a two-dimensional image sequence into a three-dimensional image includes determining camera motion parameters between consecutive images in a monoscopic sequence of reference 2D images, wherein the consecutive images comprise a current reference image and an adjacent image, determining a horizontal disparity map for a target image using the camera motion parameters, determining a disparity probability value for each disparity vector of the disparity map, and determining a target image as a weighted average of pixel values in the current reference image using the disparity probability values, such that the target image and current reference image comprise a stereoscopic image pair.

The invention discloses a thermal image device and a shooting method for the thermal image, and relates to the thermal image device and the field of application of infrared thermal imaging detection. According to the thermal device in the prior art, the shooting part, angle and distance of an object to be shot are selected according to subjective experience of a user during shooting; and the thermal device in the prior art is low in shooting speed, key shooting parts are missed, and the positions, sizes and angles of thermal images of similar objects which are to be shot and shot each time in infrared thermal images are almost different, so the effect of state estimation of the thermal image is influenced. According to the thermal image device and the shooting method, a specified position and size are displayed in the infrared thermal image, and the reference image of the predetermined morphological characteristics of the object to be shot is showed, expected thermal image quality of the object to be shot and the visual reference required by the shooting are provided for the user, the user is assisted in correctly grasping the imaging state and the shooting distance of the thermal image of the object to be shot, the technical requirement on the user is reduced, shooting speed is improved, and the estimation quality of the thermal image is improved.

An adaptive fill-flash technique for digital photography that employs flash and no-flash image pairs. A flash image, captured using a flash of known characteristics and ambient light, and an ambient light image, which is taken with only ambient light, of the same image subject matter are acquired. A flash only image, computed by subtracting the known ambient light image from the flash and ambient light image, is computed. The flash only image and the ambient light image are then each white balanced to the flash light and the ambient light, respectively, to form two white-balanced images. These two white-balanced images are then added to form a white balanced image, I, in which the flash and ambient light color agree. It is also possible to reduce the hot spots in image I, and adjust flash strength.

An apparatus, method, and medium for detecting a face in an image using classifiers generated by a boost algorithm are provided. The apparatus may include an image dividing unit dividing a black and white image into sub-windows; a sub-window detection unit detecting a sub-window corresponding to a face image in the divided sub-windows using the front part of the cascade of the classifiers and storing the sub-window detected as the face image; and a post-processing unit verifying whether each of sub-windows included in a group among a plurality of groups into which stored sub-windows are grouped is the face image using the number of child detections in each group and the latter part of the cascade of classifiers, integrating the sub-windows in the group according to the result of the verification, and outputting the result of the integration as the face image included in the black and white image, wherein the number of child detections is the number of sub-windows included in a group. Accordingly, a false detection rate can be decreased while a detection rate is increased. As a result, the accuracy of face detection can be increased.