Patents Assigned to Sarnoff Corporation
  • Vertically coupled large area amplifier
    Patent number: 7376319
    Abstract: A monolithic light amplification system including: an un-doped waveguide; a ridge waveguide positioned over the un-doped waveguide; and, at least a doped layer between the un-doped waveguide and ridge waveguide; wherein, the un-doped waveguide and ridge waveguide cooperate to amplify light input to the un-doped waveguide.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2008
    Assignee: Sarnoff Corporation
    Inventors: Hooman Mohseni, Joseph H. Abeles, Martin H. Kwakernaak, Viktor Borisovitch Khalfin
  • Electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device with simultaneous and distributed self-biasing for multi-finger turn-on
    Patent number: 7372681
    Abstract: An electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit for a semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) that protects core circuitry of the IC during normal operations, and shunts ESD events during non-powered mode of the IC. The ESD protection circuitry includes a multi-fingered MOS transistor, each finger respectively adapted for coupling between an I/O pad and a first supply line of the IC. An ESD detector is coupled to the I/O pad via a first terminal, and a second terminal is adapted for coupling to a second supply line potential of the IC. A parasitic capacitance is formed between the second supply line potential of the IC and the first supply line potential. A transfer circuit is coupled to a third terminal of the ESD detector and is adapted for biasing at least one gate respectively associated with at least one finger of the multi-fingered MOS transistor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2008
    Assignees: Sarnoff Corporation, Sarnoff Europe
    Inventors: John Armer, Markus Paul Josef Mergens, Phillip Czeslaw Jozwiak, Cornelius Christian Russ
  • Methods and devices using high efficiency alkaline earth metal thiogallate-based phosphors
    Patent number: 7368179
    Abstract: The present invention provides a light emitting device comprising: a light output; a light source that produces light having a wavelengths of 530 nm or less; and a wavelength transformer located between the light source and the light output, where the wavelength transformer comprises Sr1-xCaxGa2S4: yEu2+·zGa2S3, where x is 0.0001 to 1, y is a value defining sufficient Eu2+ to provide luminescent emission, and z is 0.0001 to 0.2 based on the mole amount of SrxCa1-xGa2S4, and where the wavelength transformer effectively increases the light at the light output, the light having a wavelength between 535 nm and 560 nm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2008
    Assignee: Sarnoff Corporation
    Inventors: Yongchi Tian, Diane Zaremba, Perry Niel Yocom
  • Semiconductor based broad area optical amplifier
    Patent number: 7369585
    Abstract: An optical amplifier including: a photonic gain clement; and, a transistor electromagnetically coupled to the gain element to inject current into the gain element responsively to the internal optical intensity of the gain element. The coupling of the transistor and the photonic gain element is such that as the optical intensity within the photonic gain element increases, the current injected by the transistor increases, thereby preventing filamentation in the photonic gain element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2008
    Assignee: Sarnoff Corporation
    Inventor: Martin H. Kwakernaak
  • Video registration based on local prediction errors
    Patent number: 7366361
    Abstract: A processed (e.g., captured) video sequence is temporally, spatially, and/or histogram registered to the corresponding original video sequence by generating, for each set of one or more processed frames, a mapping from a selected set of one or more original frames to the processed set, wherein (1) each selected set depends on the selected set corresponding to a previous processed set, (2) each mapping minimizes a local prediction error between the original set and the corresponding processed set, and (3) the accumulated prediction error for the entire processed video sequence is minimized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2008
    Assignee: Sarnoff Corporation
    Inventor: Hui Cheng
  • Method and apparatus for performing wide area terrain mapping
    Patent number: 7363157
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for performing wide area terrain mapping. The system comprises a digital elevation map (DEM) and mosaic generation engine that processes images that are simultaneously captured by an electro-optical camera (RGB camera) and a LIDAR sensor. The image data collected by both the camera and the LIDAR sensor are processed to create a geometrically accurate three-dimensional view of objects viewed from an aerial platform.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2008
    Assignee: Sarnoff Corporation
    Inventors: Barbara Hanna, Bing-Bing Chai, Stephen Hsu
  • Method and apparatus for determining camera pose from point correspondences
    Patent number: 7359526
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for determining camera pose from point correspondences. Specifically, an efficient solution to the classical five-point relative pose problem is presented. The problem is to find the possible solutions for relative camera motion between two calibrated views given five corresponding points. The method consists of computing the coefficients of a tenth degree polynomial and subsequently finding its roots. The method is well suited for numerical implementation that also corresponds to the inherent complexity of the problem. The method is used in a robust hypothesize- and-test framework to estimate structure and motion in real-time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2008
    Assignee: Sarnoff Corporation
    Inventor: David Nister
  • Semiconductor device based on a SCR
    Patent number: 7352014
    Abstract: The present invention provides a semiconductor structure device having a first and a second semiconductor devices with a silicon controlled rectifier (SCR) formed between the two devices with advantages to couple the devices to provide more design flexibility and enhanced triggering in order to improve the ESD performance of the device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 1, 2008
    Assignees: Sarnoff Corporation, Sarnoff Europe
    Inventor: Benjamin Van Camp
  • Method and apparatus for film anti-piracy
    Patent number: 7324646
    Abstract: A method and apparatus is disclosed for introducing alterations or distortions in projected images. The distortions on the projected image are imperceptible to a human viewer. The distortions are recorded on recording devices and observable upon viewing the recorded images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2008
    Assignee: Sarnoff Corporation
    Inventors: Herschel Clement Burstyn, George Herbert Needham Riddle, Leon Shapiro, David Lloyd Staebler
  • Segmented character display
    Patent number: 7324071
    Abstract: A character display comprises fifty-nine segments arranged into rows and columns. Twenty eight of the fifty-nine segments define a periphery of the display, eleven additional segments define horizontal and vertical dividers that define four quadrants, and five additional segments are disposed in each of the four quadrants to define diagonals thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2008
    Assignee: Sarnoff Corporation
    Inventors: Joseph M Carpinelli, George Herbert Needham Riddle, Ian Gregory Hill
  • Method and apparatus for refining target position and size estimates using image and depth data
    Patent number: 7321669
    Abstract: A vehicle vision system that uses a depth map, image intensity data, and system calibration parameter to determine a target's dimensions and relative position. Initial target boundary information is projected onto the depth map and onto the image intensity. A visibility analysis determines whether the rear of a target is within the system's field of view. If so, the mapped image boundary is analyzed to determine an upper boundary of the target. Then, vertical image edges of the mapped image boundary are found by searching for a strongest pair of vertical image edges that are located at about the same depth. Then, the bottom of the mapped image boundary is found (or assumed from calibration parameters). Then, the target's position is found by an averaging technique. The height and width of the target are then computed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2003
    Date of Patent: January 22, 2008
    Assignees: Sarnoff Corporation, Ford Motor Company
    Inventors: John Benjamin Southall, David Hirvonen, Theodore Armand Camus
  • Method and system for improving video metadata through the use of frame-to-frame correspondences
    Patent number: 7313252
    Abstract: A method and system for improving the accuracy and timeliness of video metadata by incorporating information related to the motion of the camera as derived from the video imagery itself. Frame-to-frame correspondences are used to accurately estimate changes in camera pose. While the method and system do not require geo-registration, geo-registration results, if available, may be considered in processing the video images and generating improved camera pose estimates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2007
    Assignee: Sarnoff Corporation
    Inventors: Bogdan Calin Mihai Matei, Clay Douglas Spence, Arthur Robert Pope, Barbara Viviane Hanna, Michael Wade Hansen
  • Electrical power source designs and components
    Patent number: 7309540
    Abstract: Provided, among other things, is ion-conductive membrane assembly comprising: a porous core; and sandwiching the porous core therebetween, two ion-conductive membranes; wherein the porous core is adapted to retain a ion-conductive liquid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2007
    Assignee: Sarnoff Corporation
    Inventor: Conghua Wang
  • Automated Video-To-Text System
    Publication number: 20070273696
    Abstract: A method for transforming Video-To-Text is disclosed that automatically generates text descriptions of the content of a video. The present invention first segments an input video sequence according to predefined semantic classes using a Mixture-of-Experts blob segmentation algorithm. The resulting segmentation is coerced into a semantic concept graph and based on domain knowledge and a semantic concept hierarchy. Then, the initial semantic concept graph is summarized and pruned. Finally, according to the summarized semantic concept graph and its changes over time, text and/or speech descriptions are automatically generated using one of the three description schemes: key-frame, key-object and key-change descriptions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 3, 2007
    Publication date: November 29, 2007
    Applicant: SARNOFF CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hui Cheng, Darren Butler
  • Secure robust high-fidelity watermarking
    Patent number: 7298865
    Abstract: For each small image region (in space and time), a measure of perceptual transparence of each of a set of possible watermark carrier modulations is used to choose a subset of such modulations, from which a secure random number generator selects, for each image region, a single carrier, modulations of which carry the watermark data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2002
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2007
    Assignee: Sarnoff Corporation
    Inventors: Jeffrey Lubin, Jeffrey Adam Bloom
  • Methods and apparatus for aurally presenting notification message in an auditory canal
    Patent number: 7295121
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for aurally presenting predefined notification messages within an auditory canal of a user are disclosed. Aural notification is provided by positioning a device at least partially within the auditory canal, processing a digitized notification signal at the device, and aurally presenting a predefined notification message from the device responsive to the processed digitized notification signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2007
    Assignee: Sarnoff Corporation
    Inventor: John Gregory Aceti
  • Method and apparatus for providing improved workflow for digital watermarking
    Patent number: 7295681
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for providing an improved workflow for digital watermarking during a production process. The invention provides a content tracking authority facility that forms a centralized location for storing and distributing watermarks and locations within a payload to place the watermarks. All post-production facilities that are involved in processing a particular payload (e.g., any content that can be watermarked, including video content) connect to the content tracking authority facility to receive watermarks for the content they are processing as well as locations within the content to use to place the watermark.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2007
    Assignee: Sarnoff Corporation
    Inventors: Jeffrey Lubin, Thomas Catanese, Christos Polyzois, Jayakrishnan Eledath
  • BATCH-FABRICATED, RF-INTERROGATED, END TRANSITION, CHIP-SCALE ATOMIC CLOCK
    Publication number: 20070247241
    Abstract: A chip scale atomic clock is disclosed that provides a low power atomic time/frequency reference that employs direct RF-interrogation on an end-state transition.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 18, 2007
    Publication date: October 25, 2007
    Applicant: SARNOFF CORPORATION
    Inventors: Alan Michael Braun, Joseph Hy Abeles, Winston Kong Chan, Martin Kwakernaak, Timothy James Davis
  • ESD CLAMP CONTROL BY DETECTION OF POWER STATE
    Publication number: 20070247772
    Abstract: The present invention provides an improvement on ESD protection circuitry by controlling the trigger circuit to prevent the unwanted triggering of the device. The circuitry includes an ESD clamp with a trigger circuit coupled to the clamp. Both the clamp and the trigger circuit are coupled to a first reference potential. The circuitry also includes a control line coupled to the trigger circuit. The control line is coupled to a second reference potential to further control the behavior of the trigger circuit such that when the power is supplied to the second reference potential, the control line disables the trigger circuit, and when power is not supplied to the second reference potential, the control line enables the trigger circuit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 19, 2007
    Publication date: October 25, 2007
    Applicants: SARNOFF CORPORATION, SARNOFF EUROPE BVBA
    Inventors: Bart Keppens, Benjamin Van Camp, Aagje Bens, Pieter Vanysacker, Steven Thijs
  • Metal silicate-silica-based polymorphous phosphors and lighting devices
    Patent number: 7276183
    Abstract: Provided, among other things, is a phosphor according to the formula: [(BvSiO3)x(Mv2SiO3)y(Tv2(SiO3)3)z]m•(SiO2)n: R?, X??(I) wherein x, y and z are any value such that x+y+z=1; Bv is one or more divalent alkaline earth metals; Mv is one or more monovalent alkaline metals; Tv is one or more trivalent metal ions; R? is one or more activators selected from Eu2+ and Mn2+; X is one or more halides; m is 1 or 0; and (i) n>3 if m=1 and provides an amount of silica effective to host useful luminescence or (ii) n=1 if m=0.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2007
    Assignee: Sarnoff Corporation
    Inventor: Yongchi Tian