| Patent application number | Description | Published |
|---|
| 20090161953 | Method of high dynamic range compression with detail preservation and noise constraints - A method for high dynamic range compression uses a modified cumulative histogram as a compression curve. This curve is computed from the cumulative histogram of the image with constraints that the local derivative on the curve does not exceed a certain limit. The limit is fixed along the curve or the limit is variable, taking into account noise characteristics at various pixel values. To provide appropriate detail preservation, a smoothing filter is used to separate the image into an illumination image, referred to as a base image, and a detail image, and the compression curve is applied to the base image only. The compression method provides high dynamic range compression of the image while preserving the global contrast perception. Conventional global algorithms for high dynamic range compression are not capable of achieving this result. The proposed high dynamic range compression method also minimizes noise amplification while lightening the dark areas during image compression. | 06-25-2009 |
| 20090161983 | Method for automatic detection and correction of halo artifacts in images - A method of automatically detecting and correcting halo artifacts within a processed image is described. The method computes a two-dimensional (2D) gradient field of the original image and a 2D gradient field of the processed image. Each gradient field includes a gradient vector corresponding to each pixel. To detect halo artifacts, the gradient vector at each pixel of the original image is compared to the gradient vector at the corresponding pixel of the processed image. A halo artifact is determined to exist at a given pixel if a direction of the two corresponding gradient vectors differs by at least a specified threshold. To correct the halo artifacts, a composite gradient field is generated using one of three correction methods. A final image is generated by integrating the newly generated composite gradient field using known integration methods from a 2D gradient field such as ones based on the Fast Fourier Transform. | 06-25-2009 |
| 20090256947 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING TOUCH-BASED ADJUSTMENTS WITHIN IMAGING DEVICES - A camera and method which selectively applies image content adjustments to elements contained in the image material. By way of example, the method involves registration of user touch screen input and determination of the arbitrary extent of a specific element in the captured image material at the location at which touch input was registered. Once selected, the element can be highlighted on the display, and additional user input may be optionally input to control what type of adjustment is to be applied. Then the element within the captured image material is processed to apply automatic, or user-selected, adjustments to the content of said element in relation to the remainder of the captured image. The adjustments to the image element may comprise any conventional forms of image editing, such as saturation, white balance, exposure, sizing, noise reduction, sharpening, blurring, deleting and so forth. | 10-15-2009 |
| 20100238190 | JOINT HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE COMPRESSION AND NOISE REDUCTION - A high dynamic range (HDR) compression method and apparatus modeled after the heat equation describing temperature changes in a thin plate. This approach allows combining high dynamic range compression together with noise reduction in a single process, to be performed within the same iteration of the heat equation. Noise reduction is of particular concern while performing HDR compression because brightening of dark areas during high dynamic range compression has the potential to increase noise levels. Performing image processing techniques in combination according to the invention provides enhanced results while lowering the overall processing overhead. This innovation extends the heat equation analogy by adding anisotropic diffusion as an additional term, which allows joint operation of HDR and NR and mitigates noise enhancement within HDR compression during shadow enhancement. | 09-23-2010 |
| Patent application number | Description | Published |
|---|
| 20080201226 | MOBILE COUPON METHOD AND PORTABLE CONSUMER DEVICE FOR UTILIZING SAME - Embodiments of the present invention relate to systems and methods involving mobile coupons. In one embodiment, an indication of a prior purchase transaction over a payment processing network, serves as a trigger to generate and disseminate a mobile coupon for a subsequent transaction. By generating and promulgating the coupon within a limited time of the first transaction, the recipient is disposed to be receptive based upon his or her current shopping status and also possibly geographic location. According to another embodiment, information from a mobile coupon may be presented from the consumer to a merchant in a contactless manner, utilizing an antenna of a portable device operated by a consumer. Coupon information may be communicated to the merchant with the payment information, or prior to or subsequent to transmission of the payment information to the merchant. | 08-21-2008 |
| 20110035278 | Systems and Methods for Closing the Loop between Online Activities and Offline Purchases - In one aspect, a computing apparatus is configured to facilitate the identification of a transaction resulting from an activity occurring in a substantially separate context or environment, such as an offline transaction in a “brick and mortar” retail store resulting from an online advertisement or an online search. The computing apparatus may match information about the activity and information about the transaction to correlate the online activity and the offline transaction. The matching process may involve the use of an offer for a discount, an incentive, a rebate, a reward, reward points, cash back, a gift, etc. The offer is to be provided in the advertisement associated with an online activity and redeemed in a payment transaction, processed via the transaction handler, to correlate the advertisement and the transaction. | 02-10-2011 |
| 20110047072 | Systems and Methods for Propensity Analysis and Validation - In one aspect, a computing apparatus includes: a transaction handler to process transactions; a data warehouse to store transaction data recording the transactions processed at the transaction handler; and a portal to receive a request from a client device over a network, the request including user data identifying at least one user. The client device has activity data recording activities of the user, and has the capability to determine from the activity data a first value for a first propensity score of the user. The computing apparatus further includes a score evaluator coupled to the data warehouse and the portal to determine a second value for the first propensity score based on transaction data recording payment transactions of the at least one user identified by the user data. The portal is configured to provide information based on the second value in response to the request. | 02-24-2011 |
