A method for searching an image database includes capturing an image of a photograph and a background, determining a boundary of the photograph in the image, cropping the photograph from the image, correcting the perspective of the photograph, compensating colors of the photograph, and matching the photograph with an image in the image database.

An image matching method for matching a first image and an overlapping second image includes generating a first set of working layers of the first image and a second set of working layers of the second image. The method determines an overlap between an initial working layer of the first image and an initial working layer of the second image where the initial working layers have a smaller pixel array size and a lower image resolution than the other working layers. The method selects a feature poi...

An automated picture montage method (10) and associated apparatus computer system (12) for accepting an original image (40) and a picture database (28) for creating a montage image (58) from a plurality of pictures (46) to approximate the original image (40). In a pre-index database operation (36), the database (28) is indexed so as to minimize the computational power required. In order to maximize the quality of image, tile regions (42) are analyzed beginning at a center tile region (54) in an ...

For a portable video player to encode MP3 audio, a first digital signal processor (DSP) encodes digital signals from an analog/digital (A/D) converter into MP3 data, and a controller reads the MP3 data into a nonvolatile memory. To decode MP3 or MP2 audio, the controller reads MP3/2 data from the nonvolatile memory into the first DSP, and the first DSP decodes the MP3/2 data into digital signals that are provided to a digital/analog (D/A) converter. For the portable video player to encode a diff...

A method for enhancing an image includes applying an auto-level transformation to an original image to form a first image, applying an auto-contrast transformation to the original image to form a second image, and applying an auto-brightness transformation to the original image to form a third image. The method further includes applying a color cast correction to the first, the second, and the third images to generate a first group of images, applying a gamma correction to the first group of ima...

A method is provided for determining fill styles for pixels. A parameter "sum fill" is calculated for each pixel. Parameter sum fill is the sum of the difference between the right fill style and the left fill style of each edge that touches the bottom border of a pixel. A parameter "fa" is then calculated for each pixel. Parameter fa is the sum of the parameters sum fill of the current pixel and the preceding pixels. The fill style of a pixel that is untouched by any edges is set equal to the pa...

A method for rasterizing an edge includes determining an area projected by the edge in a pixel it touches. The projected area is first set equal to a unit area projected by the edge in one unit step. If a starting point of the edge is located in the pixel, an excessive projected area attributed to the edge before the starting point is subtracted from the projected area. If an end point of the edge is located in the pixel, another excessive projected area attributed to the edge after the end poin...

A video segment is processed to identify frames representing shot boundaries in the video segment. Initially, a partial block-based comparison technique is used to determine the amount of change (i.e., a first difference) that occurs between a pair of distant (i.e., not consecutive) frames. Additionally, edge and/or color differences are computed between the pair of frames to confirm that a change has occurred. If the change is confirmed, a step variable technique is used to locate the change be...

A method for improving image resolution includes (a) selecting a low-resolution pixel in a low-resolution image; (b) generating a vector that characterizes a low-resolution patch about the low-resolution pixel; (c) classifying the low-resolution patch into one of a plurality of possible patterns; (d) if said one pattern is one of a plurality of top ranking patterns having filters, applying a filter of said one of the top ranking patterns to the low-resolution patch to generate high-resolution pi...

A method for indexing minimum coded units (MCUs) in a Joint Photographic Expert Group (JPEG) bit stream includes (1) entropy decoding a first MCU to determine a bit offset of a second MCU and a DC coefficient of the first MCU, wherein the first MCU immediately precedes the second MCU in the bit stream, and (2) indexing the second MCU by storing the bit offset and the DC coefficient in an index. The method may further include (3) receiving a request for the second MCU, (4) reading the index to de...