Did You Know...
...that while attempting to develop a super strong glue, 3M employee Spencer Silver accidentally developed a glue that was so weak it would barely hold two pieces of paper together? However, his colleague Art Fry needed the glue. Fry sang with his church choir and marked the pages of his hymnal with small scraps of paper that often fell out. He used Silver's glue to hold the papers in place. Today we call this invention Post-it Notes.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7433531 | Image pickup apparatus and method The present invention relates to an image capturing apparatus and method in which the image recording time is reduced and the memory capacity required for compression is also reduced. A number-of-bytes calculation unit 302 determines the number of bytes after... | 10/07/2008 |
| 7376280 | Video encoding and decoding A method for encoding video with a two-dimensional (2D) transform separable to two one-dimensional (1D) transforms. The method receives an array of values for a sub-section of an image, performs a first 1D-transform of the array, transposes the resulting array, and ... | 05/20/2008 |
| 7372600 | Color facsimile device with data recompressing capability JPEG data is efficiently recompressed and transmitted to a remote color facsimile device. Before transmission of recompressed JPEG data, an anticipated transmission time is displayed for enabling the user to easily select the desired compression ratio. To generate r... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7369709 | Conditional lapped transform A digital media content (e.g., image, video, audio, etc.) encoder/decoder employs a spatially varying parameter to condition the application of an overlap pre-process and post-process to adjacent transform block edges for the spatial-domain lapped transform. This co... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7326900 | Two-dimensional weak radiation detector with a detection means based on orthogonal modulation A weak light detector (40) which can detect two-dimensional weak radiation at a high speed with high precision. The fluorescence from the DNA chip (46) is incident on a detection part (56) of a detection unit (52). The detection unit (... | 02/05/2008 |
| 7315648 | Digital signal coding with division into tiles A method of dividing a digital signal representing physical quantities, including the step of determining an initial partitioning of the signal, displaying representation of the signal and the previously determined signal partitioning, acquiring at least one partiti... | 01/01/2008 |
| 7302107 | JPEG encoding for document images using pixel classification The invention provides a system and method for JPEG encoding an image that includes variable quantization for each block, depending upon the classification of each block, which is dependent on the classification of pixels in that block. ... | 11/27/2007 |
| 7254275 | Method and system for image compression using image symmetry An image compression system and method is described, which makes use of the symmetry found in faces and heads to perform the compression. The image is divided along the line of symmetry, and pairs of corresponding pixels on the two divided sides are determined. A we... | 08/07/2007 |
| 7228000 | Image data generation with reduced amount of processing An image data generator for generating data on a size reduced image of an original image. In one embodiment, the image data generator includes: an inverse wavelet transform unit to perform on inverse wavelet transform on wavelet coefficients; and a coefficient selec... | 06/05/2007 |
| 7228002 | Inverse halftoning process Performing inverse halftoning on a halftoned image includes smoothing the halftoned image using a two-dimensional filter to produce a smoothed image, detecting edge areas in the smoothed image, performing lowpass filtering on non-edge areas of the smoothed image, an... | 06/05/2007 |
| 7221761 | Error resilient digital video scrambling A method and an apparatus for error resilient, digital image scrambling are disclosed. Error resilience scrambling is produced by shuffling transform coefficients between arrays of coefficients arranged along an axis substantially orthogonal to the axis along which ... | 05/22/2007 |
| 7218789 | Method for lossless encoding of image data by approximating linear transforms and preserving selected properties for image processing A method for generating a first plurality of output data values and the matrix factors used to generate an approximation to an image processing transform is disclosed. The first plurality of output data values are generated by transforming a plurality of input data ... | 05/15/2007 |
| 7206098 | Method for avoiding print buffer underrun In order to avoid print buffer under-run a printing method involves a printer printing a rendered first page of print data while another page is rendered in a connected computer. Simultaneously, a previously rendered page of print data is transmitted from the comput... | 04/17/2007 |
| 7164767 | Data transfer system, data transfer apparatus, data recording apparatus, and data transfer method It is an object to provide an efficient transfer of content data. In a case of transferring the content data from a data transfer device on a primary recording medium side to a data recording device to record the content data in a secondary recording medium, a data ... | 01/16/2007 |
| 7155067 | Adaptive edge detection and enhancement for image processing The present invention improves image quality by detecting and enhancing edges in an image. Images often include blurry or fuzzy edges that can obscure an image. An edge is a portion of an image separating two regions of substantially constant image intensity. An ima... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7145696 | Print data compression method and printer driver A printer driver software product is provided for execution by a computer to produce compressed page data corresponding to a page layout. The driver includes instructions to generate continuous-tone data and bi-level text and black graphics data from print data corr... | 12/05/2006 |
| 7139794 | System and methods for network image delivery with dynamic viewing frustum optimized for limited bandwidth communication channels Dynamic visualization of image data provided through a network communications channel is performed by a client system including a parcel request subsystem and a parcel rendering subsystem. The parcel request subsystem includes a parcel request queue and is operative... | 11/21/2006 |
| 7136534 | Quality based image compression A system and method for quality-based image compression utilizing adaptively sized blocks and sub-blocks of discrete cosine transform coefficient data and a quality based quantization scale factor is claimed. A block size assignment element in an encoder element sel... | 11/14/2006 |
| 7130074 | Image encoding and recording apparatus An image recording apparatus is provided. The image recording apparatus includes a generator that generates information of recordable capacity of a storage and a holder for holding in advance data to be stored in the storage. A signal generator generates a signal in... | 10/31/2006 |
| 7130475 | Apparatus and method of encoding/decoding a coded block pattern The present invention selectively applies one of VLC tables stored in a memory for encoding a coded block pattern of a macroblock according to the number of blocks having an object within the macroblock, the number of blocks obtained using shape information, thereby... | 10/31/2006 |
| 7119854 | Method for deriving an objective sharpness metric A method is provided for deriving an objective sharpness metric for objectively determining the level of image sharpness of many and unspecific images having different degrees of sharpness. The method for deriving the objective sharpness metric utilizes sub-band fre... | 10/10/2006 |
| 7099040 | Method for enabling a client to specify the characteristics of an image to be downloaded from a server A method for serving an image from a server to a client, e.g., a computer having a browser or other graphics viewing engine. The user of the client first specifies a set of one or more bitmap characteristics for an image transfer, with at least one of the bitmap cha... | 08/29/2006 |
| 7079695 | Digital image coding system having self-adjusting selection criteria for selecting a transform function In a digital signal processing system, a method for selecting a transform function to apply to an input signal based on characteristics of the signal, and for self-adjusting criteria which are used in selecting a transform function to apply to a subsequent signal. C... | 07/18/2006 |
| 7068398 | System and method for efficient tile generation from complex raster data A system and method for accepting raster data from a Postscript or equivalent image data generator, identifying portions of the raster image which contain continuous tone data and linework data, dividing those portions into separate tiles and compressing the data wi... | 06/27/2006 |
| 7065252 | System and method providing improved data compression via wavelet coefficient encoding A data compression system is provided in accordance with the present invention. The system includes a scanning component which scans at least a portion of a transformed image. The scan is performed substantially in a horizontal direction on a first section of the po... | 06/20/2006 |
| 7062088 | Variable lossy compression Methods and apparatus for generating a compressed image from a source image by compressing the source image using a dictionary based lossy compression algorithm that regionally varies the amount of information loss from the source image based on regional image quali... | 06/13/2006 |
| 7050645 | Image processing apparatus and image processing method The image processing apparatus transforms orthogonal transform coefficients into a predetermined number of bits for each spatial frequency, rearranges quantized data for each spatial frequency to an arrangement with spatial frequency band portions, thereby generates... | 05/23/2006 |
| 7035468 | Methods and apparatus for archiving, indexing and accessing audio and video data Archival storage and retrieval of audio/video information is described. Audio and/or video information is digitized, compressed and stored in an intermediate archive format (IAF), which preserves the content at a high-enough quality for subsequent retrieval and conv... | 04/25/2006 |
| 7031546 | Noise reduction method, noise reducing apparatus, medium, medium and program A noise reduction apparatus in accordance with the present invention is configured to reduce mosquito noise while retaining edges by calculating the maximum value Y of the difference values of adjacent pixels in an area of M×N around a notice pixel by using a diffe... | 04/18/2006 |
| 7023915 | Adaptive rate control for digital video compression A system and method for adaptively controlling the encoded data rate in a data compression system. The system and method sets up alternative encoded bit streams for each segment of data and selects the alternative that would produce the bit rate closest to a predete... | 04/04/2006 |
| 7006255 | Adaptive image filtering based on a distance transform A method for reducing visual artifacts in reconstructed images. One embodiment of the method determines edge energy for each pixel in the image and then compares the edge energy for each pixel to a threshold, producing an edge map. A distance transform is then used ... | 02/28/2006 |
| 7003173 | Filter for combined de-ringing and edge sharpening A filter for post-processing digital images and videos, having an edge mapper, a pixel sorter, and an adaptive filter that simultaneously performs de-ringing and edge sharpening. The combined filter is computationally simpler than known methods and can achieve remov... | 02/21/2006 |
| 6999630 | Method of processing, and corresponding filtering device The invention relates to a method of processing data, which may be pixels (P[i,j]) representing a sequence of pictures, previously encoded and decoded. The method comprises at least in series a first step (ED) of detecting edge pixels within a picture, followed by a... | 02/14/2006 |
| 6996283 | Block size assignment using local contrast ratio An apparatus and method for determining a block size assignment for a block of pixels is claimed. A mean for a given block of pixels and a neighborhood mean for adjacent blocks of pixels is determined. A contrast ratio is then determined, as a function of the mean a... | 02/07/2006 |
| 6992788 | Image processing apparatus and method, and storage medium The present invention efficiently compresses image data, and stores and manages the compressed data. Image data is compressed in tile unit having predetermined pixels and data packing is performed. The compressed data is compared with compressed data of a preceding ... | 01/31/2006 |
| 6993191 | Methods and apparatus for removing compression artifacts in video sequences Techniques for removing ringing artifacts from video data. A deringing filter in accordance with the present invention preserves real image edges in a video frame, while smoothing out the interiors of objects. In one aspect, a 9-tap low-pass filter is applied to an ... | 01/31/2006 |
| 6985635 | System and method for providing a single-layer video encoded bitstreams suitable for reduced-complexity decoding A method and system of reducing the computation load of an MPEG decoder by changing the encoding algorithms in a video-processing system are provided. During an encoding mode, a stream of data blocks is received and at least one motion vector and one motion compensa... | 01/10/2006 |
| 6975773 | Parameter selection in data compression and decompression Apparatus and method for selecting an appropriate parameter at decompression are disclosed. In particular, when adaptive block size discrete cosine transform compression is used to compress data, different combinations of sub-blocks can be generated. To decompress t... | 12/13/2005 |
| 6968090 | Image coding apparatus and method The image input from the image inputting portion 10 are DCT-converted by the DCT portion 20, then the converted result is quantized by the quantizing portion 40, then the quantized result is entropy-coded by the entropy coding portion 50,... | 11/22/2005 |
| 6961475 | Context model access to memory based on run and skip counts and context model skipping A method and apparatus for coding and decoding information is described. In one embodiment, the apparatus comprises a memory and decoding hardware. The memory stores run counts and/or skip counts and the decoding hardware decodes a run count and/or a skip count obta... | 11/01/2005 |
