Audio

  • Adding imperceptible noise to audio and other types of signals to cause significant degradation when compressed and decompressed

    WO2001088915

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    Primarily in order to discourage compression of data of signals intended for interfacing with humans, such as those containing audio content, particularly music, and thus to discourage the unauthorized reproduction and distribution of such content, such as over the Internet, the signal data is modified in a manner that is normally not perceptible to humans when the signal is reproduced but which causes the signal to be significantly degraded in a manner that is perceptible if the signal is later compressed and decompressed. In one embodiment, an audio signal is modified directly in a manner that causes significant degradation of the signal if it is compressed and subsequently decompressed. In another embodiment, a compressed version of an audio signal is modified, as part of a process of compressing the signal, in a manner that allows a good quality signal to result from a subsequent decompression but which results in a significant, perceptible degradation if this decompressed signal is again compressed and decompressed.


  • Method and apparatus for embedding digital watermarking into compressed multimedia signals

    US7114071

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    A method and apparatus for adding watermark data to an input signal is provided. For this method watermark data is embedded into the input signal by modulating elements of the input signal to predefined relationships in reference to other elements of the input signal. By using referential relationships and by using patterned sequences, one or more bits of data can robustly be embedded. Further, a method and apparatus for recovering data embedded by the method and apparatus of the present invention, are also provided. To recover the embedded data, differences between elements of the input signal to reference elements of the signal are calculated and checked against predefined relationships. Predefined relationships thus found are used to recover pieces of the embedded information.


  • Modular scalable compressed audio data stream

    US7333929

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    Methods and apparatus are provided for the creation and utilization of unique compressed data stream compositions, structures and formats which allow for the alteration of the data stream's data rate without first decoding the data stream back to its uncompressed form and then re-encoding the resulting uncompressed data at a different data rate. Such methods and apparatus perform this data rate alteration, known as scaling, such that optimal quality is maintained at each scaled data rate, while performing said scaling with low computational complexity. In addition, the present invention provides for data rate alteration in small increments. A unique application for the disclosed bit rate scaling method and apparatus is also described.


  • Scalable compressed audio bit stream and codec using a hierarchical filterbank and multichannel joint coding

    WO2007074401

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    A method for compressing audio input signals to form a master bit stream that can be scaled to form a scaled bit stream having an arbitrarily prescribed data rate. A hierarchical filterbank (2100) decomposes the input signal into a multi-resolution time/frequency representation from which the encoder can efficiently extract both tonal (2106) and residual components (2117). The components are ranked and then quantized with reference to the same masking function or different psychoacoustic criteria. The selected tonal components are suitably encoded using differential coding extended to multichannel audio. The time-sample and scale factor components that make up the residual components are encoded using joint channel coding (JCC) extended to multichannel audio. A decoder uses an inverse hierarchical filterbank to reconstruct the audio signals from the tonal and residual components in the scaled bit stream.


  • Neural network filtering techniques for compensating linear and non-linear distortion of an audio transducer

    WO2008016531

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    Neural networks provide efficient, robust and precise filtering techniques for compensating linear and non-linear distortion of an audio transducer such as a speaker, amplified broadcast antenna or perhaps a microphone. These techniques include both a method of characterizing the audio transducer to compute the inverse transfer functions and a method of implementing those inverse transfer functions for reproduction. The inverse transfer functions are preferably extracted using time domain calculations such as provided by linear and non- linear neural networks, which more accurately represent the properties of audio signals and the audio transducer than conventional frequency domain or modeling based approaches. Although the preferred approach is to compensate for both linear and non-linear distortion, the neural network filtering techniques may be applied independently.


  • System and method for compensating memoryless non-linear distortion of an audio transducer

    WO2008048413

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    A low-cost, real-time solution is presented for compensating memoryless non-linear distortion in an audio transducer (154) The playback audio system estimates signal amplitude and velocity, looks up a scale factor from a look¬ up table (LUT) (158) for the defined pair (amplitude, velocity) (or computes the scale factor for a polynomial approximation to the LUT), and applies the scale factor to the signal amplitude The scale factor is an estimate of the transducer's memoryless nonlinear distortion at a point in its phase plane given by (amplitude, velocity), which is found by applying a test signal having a known signal amplitude and velocity to the transducer, measuring a recorded signal amplitude and setting the scale factor equal to the ratio of the test signal amplitude to the recorded signal amplitude Scaling can be used to either pre- or post-compensate the audio signal depending on the audio transducer.


  • Compression of audio scale-factors by two-dimensional transformation

    WO2010011249

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    Digital audio samples are represented as a product of scale factors codes and corresponding quantity codes, sometimes referred to as exponent/mantissa format. To compress audio data, scale factors are organized by sample time and frequency either by filtering or frequency transformation, into a two-dimensional frame. The frame may be decomposed into "tiles" by partition. One or more such scale factor tiles are compressed by transformation by a two-dimensional, orthogonal transformation such as a two dimensional discrete cosine transform. Optional further encoding is applied to reduce redundancy. A decoding method and an encoded machine readable medium complement the method of encoding.


  • Reconstruction of a high frequency range in low-bitrate audio coding using predictive pattern analysis

    WO2014081736

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    A predictive pattern high-frequency reconstruction system and method that finds patterns in high-frequency components of an audio signal, encodes the audio signal into an encoded bitstream along with pattern information, and then uses the patterns to reconstruct the high-frequency components during decoding. The high- frequency components can be reconstructed using the pattern information alone. Embodiments of the system and method map normalized subband signals of the audio signal to a scaled representation of a time-frequency grid containing multiple tiles and perform statistical analysis on each tile to estimate subband parameters and determine whether a pattern exists. If a pattern does exist, it can be encoded in the encoded bitstream, transmitted, and used to reconstruct the high-frequency components at the decoder. A direct search technique and a fast Fourier transform (FFT) technique may be used to perform the statistical analysis.


  • Scalable code excited linear prediction bitstream repacked from a higher to a lower bitrate by discarding insignificant frame data

    US10199043

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    The present invention provides for methods and apparatuses for processing audio data. In one embodiment, there is provided a method for achieving bitstream scalability in a multi-channel audio encoder, said method comprising receiving audio input data; organizing said input data by a Code Excited Linear Predictor (CELP) processing module for further encoding by arranging said data according to significance of data, where more significant data is placed ahead of less significant data; and providing a scalable output bitstream; a higher bitrate bitstream is scaled to lower bitrate by discarding less significant data from frame ends. The organized CELP data comprises of a first part and a second part. The first part comprises a frame header, sub frame parameters and innovation vector quantization data from the first frame from all channels. The innovation vector quantization data from the first frames from all channels is arranged according to channel number.


Imaging

  • Method for improving images

    WO2011010949

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    The method according to the present invention can be used for producing high-quality images in photography in low-light conditions and in the absence of large-aperture optics. The method comprises, upon photographing, first obtaining a plurality of frames of the image with exposures which either partially overlap in time or with an insignificant pause between them. The best result can be obtained in the case when the pause between the exposures represents less than 1/20 of the overall exposure time. The method further comprises separating out the initial images from a group of exposures and filtering the images having the smallest exposure interval using the images having the largest exposure interval. The final image is obtained by combining initial images having different exposure intervals from the same group.


  • Method for producing super-resolution images and nonlinear digital filter for implementing same

    WO2012018282

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    The invention relates to the field of photo and video images and can be used for producing high-quality images of visually close objects using a camera or video camera equipped with sensors with an electronic shutter. The technical result consists in increasing the resolution of an image when a plurality of frames of low resolution are used for producing one frame of high resolution (i.e. super-resolution), as well as the possibility of high-speed capture of a plurality of frames of an image while scanning only part of the sensor. The result is achieved in that a plurality of frames is exposed, initial images are produced by means of a reading from the sensor in the form of a continuous sequence of frames with high-speed capture, during which the frequency of the frames is inversely proportional to the magnitude of that part of the light-sensitive region of the sensor which is being scanned, said initial images are aligned, an enhanced image is produced and this image is filtered using a nonlinear filter, which comprises a neural network which is pretrained using a test image comprising radial and sinusoidal test charts, as well as reference points. Furthermore, the filtration comprises supplying premodified digitized data to the neural network, wherein the modification of said data comprises: isolating the low-frequency component, arranging the pixels element-by-element, reading the low-frequency component from the arranged pixels, and subsequently standardizing said pixels. Then, the data at the output of the neural network are subjected to inverse standardization, and the low-frequency component is added to the value at the output of the neural network.


  • Method of image segmentation

    WO2013025123

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    The invention relates to the processing of photo and video images. A search for a minimum of cost functions is carried out at an N-number of image detail levels, from coarser to finer, and at each image detail level the image is divided into regions; each region is assigned a single segmentation value by means of an η-number of successive iterations, thereafter the value of the cost function for the seams at the region boundaries is calculated with different types of image segmentation, and for every region a segmentation value is chosen which minimizes the sum of the cost functions of the seams and data. Moreover, to avoid a pause (freeze) in the search for the global minimum in one of the local minimums created by the high cost of a seam around any local region as a result of noise in the image, several reference iterations at every detail level are executed with a reduced input of seam functions in the sum of the cost functions. The technical result is the segmentation of an image with little use of the memory resources of a mobile device while maintaining both resistance to image noise and operating speed.


Optics

  • Optical imaging systems with algorithmic aberration corrections

    US10334192

    • Read Abstract

    Optical imaging systems are presented with high performance physical optics in conjunction with advanced image processing technique specifically tuned with respect to those physical optics to realize compact, very high resolution imaging systems. Clever geometric arrangements of lens elements and translation systems to effect motion between those arrangements support very compact storage modes and high performance imaging modes in the same device. As such, these imaging systems disclosed are particularly useful for photography and videography applications where highly portable and compact platforms are in demand. Systems which are small enough to be integrated with a common smartphone computing platform can produce very high resolution images comparable to those of high end digital single lens reflex DSLR systems.


  • Collapsible lens mount systems

    WO2011010949

    • Read Abstract

    The method according to the present invention can be used for producing high-quality images in photography in low-light conditions and in the absence of large-aperture optics. The method comprises, upon photographing, first obtaining a plurality of frames of the image with exposures which either partially overlap in time or with an insignificant pause between them. The best result can be obtained in the case when the pause between the exposures represents less than 1/20 of the overall exposure time. The method further comprises separating out the initial images from a group of exposures and filtering the images having the smallest exposure interval using the images having the largest exposure interval. The final image is obtained by combining initial images having different exposure intervals from the same group.


  • Mobile device with folding optical elements

    WO2016053140

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    The invention relates to the field of producing photo-images and video-images. A device is provided with a camera module, installed on the housing of the device such that the position of the camera module relative to the housing can be changed. One of the positions, an exposure position, involves optical elements which are oriented so as to be able to project light onto light-sensitive elements in order to produce an image on one or more sensors; a second position involves being flush against, and as close as possible to, the housing of the mobile device, by means of folding. The overall thickness of the camera module is structurally limited by the thickness of the thickest optical or light-sensitive element. The device contains structural elements for processing a digital representation of an image obtained from the light-sensitive elements. The camera module includes optical elements in the form of a set of thin lenses and/or mirrors, and one or a plurality of light-sensitive elements, namely sensors consisting of light-sensitive pixels. If the camera module is comprised of a plurality of sensors and a plurality of groups of lenses, separate light flows are directed onto corresponding sensors, wherein means for processing the digital representation of the image unite the images obtained from the sensors so as to produce a single image of increased quality. The use of a mobile device having such a camera module allows for producing high-quality images, especially in low-light conditions, while maintaining small device dimensions.


  • Collapsible imaging systems having lens arrays

    WO2017142674

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    Optics systems presented are arranged as high-performance imagers particularly characterized by their exceptional compactness in view of image quality. A plurality of lens and let's and or doublets are configured to cooperate with related mount systems optimized for compactness. To achieve very high resolution imaging despite somewhat abbreviated compound lens design, these systems include use of lens array elements proximate to an imaging plane. So placed lens array devices may be designed with lens elements which invariably operate on incident wave planes with radial dependence. That is, the focusing strength of lenses from which these lens arrays are comprised may depend upon its distance from system optic axis. This enables an imaging correction function that counters distortion and other undesirable imaging errors typically present in a simplified compound lens systems. When used together and in conjunction with special-purpose collapsing lens mounting systems, an imaging system of very high fidelity and very compact weight size is achieved to great advantage in system when a premium on lens size is necessitated.


  • Digital correction of optical system aberrations

    WO2018102302

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    A digital method for removing optical aberrations from the image is disclosed. The method includes the initial profiling of an optical system and using the obtained information to correct the optical aberrations introduces to the image by the same or identical optical system.


  • Optical hybrid reality system having digital correction of aberrations

    WO2019207350

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    The claimed invention describes a head-mounted display system for virtual and augmented reality, and a method of correcting optical aberrations. The system includes an initial profiling of the head-mounted display system, and eye tracking means.