1748 results about "Sharpening" patented technology

A portable, lightweight digital imaging device uses a slit scanning arrangement to obtain an image of the eye, in particular the retina. The scanning arrangement reduces the amount of target area illuminated at a time, thereby reducing the amount of unwanted light scatter and providing a higher contrast image. A detection arrangement receives the light remitted from the retinal plane and produces an image. The device is operable under battery power and ambient light conditions, such as outdoor or room lighting. The device is noncontact and does not require that the pupil of the eye be dilated with drops. The device can be used by personnel who do not have specialized training in the eye, such as emergency personnel, pediatricians, general practitioners, or volunteer or otherwise unskilled screening personnel. Images can be viewed in the device or transmitted to a remote location. The device can also be used to provide images of the anterior segment of the eye, or other small structures. Visible wavelength light is not required to produce images of most important structures in the retina, thereby increasing the comfort and safety of the device. Flexible and moderate cost confocal and fluorescent imaging, multiply scattered light images, and image sharpening are further functionalities possible with the device.

An “Image Denoiser” provides a probabilistic process for denoising color images by segmenting an input image into regions, estimating statistics within each region, and then estimating a clean (or denoised) image using a probabilistic model of image formation. In one embodiment, estimated blur between each region is used to reduce artificial sharpening of region boundaries resulting from denoising the input image. In further embodiments, the estimated blur is used for additional purposes, including sharpening edges between one or more regions, and selectively blurring or sharpening one or more specific regions of the image (i.e., “selective focus”) while maintaining the original blurring between the various regions.

A knife-edge conditioning apparatus comprises at least one precision angled knife guide with one face of the knife blade maintained in sustained sliding or rolling contact and which guides the elongated edge of the blade into sustained contact with the hardened surface of an object and positions the plane of the adjacent edge facet at a precise predetermined angle relative to the contact plane of the hardened surface made of a material of equal or greater hardness than the metal of the knife blade without any tendency to abrade as the blade face is moved along the guide with its elongated edge in sustained contact with the hardened surface.

Image sharpening is performed by applying variable contrast stretching to pixels of interest in a digital image. For each pixel of interest, the amount of contrast stretching is a function of minimum and maximum intensity values in a local pixel neighborhood.

A method of automatically capturing images with precision uses an intelligent mobile device having a camera loaded with an appropriate image capture application. When a user initializes the application, the camera starts taking images of the object. Each image is qualified to determine whether it is in focus and entirely within the field of view of the camera. Two or more qualified images are captured and stored for subsequent processing. The qualified images are aligned with each other by an appropriate perspective transformation so they each fill a common frame. Averaging of the aligned images reduces noise and a sharpening filter enhances edges, which produces a sharper image. The processed image is then converted into a two-level, black and white image which may be presented to the user for approval prior to submission via wireless or WiFi to a remote location.

A pocket abrasive sharpener having a housing formed with a pair of upper slots and a lower open compartment. A pair of abrasive ceramic stones is mounted in one of the slots to form a V-shaped sharpening slot. Each ceramic stone has at least one flat face to abut an adjacent reversed stone to form the V-shaped sharpening slot. The stone has an abrasive cutting edge formed with a radius for sharpening serrated edges and having abrasive surfaces on both sides of the radius. A pair of abrasive blades having V-shaped carbide cutting edges is mounted in the other of the slots to also form a V-shaped sharpening slot. A tapered abrasive rod is pivotally mounted on the housing and is moveable from the compartment to an extended position for sharpening knives and removing pins in certain military and civilian rifles.

A multi-stage sharpener includes at least one motor driven abrasive sharpening stage and one non-motor driven conditioning stage. The conditioning stage has a non-abrasive hardened surface and at least one precision knife guide which has a planar guide surface for creating a microscopic serration along the edge of a blade which had been sharpened in the first stage sharpening station. The sharpener may also include a third stage motor driven finishing stage. Alternatively, the conditioning stage can be incorporated as the knife edge modifying stage of a manual sharpener.