Sony Broadcast & Professional Research Laboratories

About: Sony Broadcast & Professional Research Laboratories is a company organization based out in Taipei, Taiwan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Signal & Layer (electronics). The organization has 38708 authors who have published 63864 publications receiving 865637 citations.

Motion dependent video signal processing

Abstract: In, for example, a motion compensated video standards converter (Figure 1) blocks in a first field or frame of a video signal are each compared (3) with a plurality of blocks in the following field or frame of the video signal for deriving motion vectors representing the motion of the content of respective blocks between the first field or frame and the following field or frame, a correlation surface is generated (3) for respective blocks in the first field or frame, the correlation surface representing the difference between the content of the block in the first field or frame and the content of each block in the following field or frame with which it has been compared, the correlation surface is tested (21, 22, 23) for a clear minimum, the size of the blocks is increased (20) to generate new correlation surfaces, each new correlation surface is tested (21, 22, 23) for a clear minimum, and motion vectors are derived (27) in dependence on the clearest minimum so found

Method of and client device for interactive television communication

Abstract: An interactive television system includes a plurality of client devices connected to a server through a network. The client devices display broadcast contents based on received broadcast data. Icon buttons are displayed superimposed on the displayed broadcast contents. Each icon button represents a different icon. When one of the displayed icon buttons is selected at one of the client devices, then the client device sends a request to the server, asking to execute, at another client device, an icon represented by the selected icon button. When the server receives the request over the network, the server sends icon identification data that corresponds to the icon over the network to the other client device. The other client device executes the icon based on the received icon identification data.

Display apparatus, display method, and program

Abstract: A display method including the steps of displaying document data and/or content data including a plurality of objects, controlling an arrangement position of a translucent focus area on a display unit, where the focus area is provided to make the object enter a selection state, detecting a position on the display unit, where a user contacts the display unit at the position, and moving the focus area as the contact position is moved when the detected arrangement position of the focus area is approximately equivalent to the detected contact position is provided.

Video from a single coded exposure photograph using a learned over-complete dictionary

Abstract: Cameras face a fundamental tradeoff between the spatial and temporal resolution - digital still cameras can capture images with high spatial resolution, but most high-speed video cameras suffer from low spatial resolution. It is hard to overcome this tradeoff without incurring a significant increase in hardware costs. In this paper, we propose techniques for sampling, representing and reconstructing the space-time volume in order to overcome this tradeoff. Our approach has two important distinctions compared to previous works: (1) we achieve sparse representation of videos by learning an over-complete dictionary on video patches, and (2) we adhere to practical constraints on sampling scheme which is imposed by architectures of present image sensor devices. Consequently, our sampling scheme can be implemented on image sensors by making a straightforward modification to the control unit. To demonstrate the power of our approach, we have implemented a prototype imaging system with per-pixel coded exposure control using a liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) device. Using both simulations and experiments on a wide range of scenes, we show that our method can effectively reconstruct a video from a single image maintaining high spatial resolution.

Development of an Autonomous Quadruped Robot for Robot Entertainment

Abstract: In this paper, we present Robot Entertainment as a new field of the entertainment industry using autonomous robots. For feasibility studies of Robot Entertainment, we have developed an autonomous quadruped robot, named MUTANT, as a pet-type robot. It has four legs, each of which has three degree-of-freedom, and a head which also has three degree-of-freedom. Micro camera, stereo microphone, touch sensors, and other sensor systems are coupled with newly developed behavior generation system, which has emotion module as its major components, and generates high complex and interactive behaviors. Agent architecture, real-world recognition technologies, software component technology, and some dedicated devices such as Micro Camera Unit, were developed and tested for this purpose. From the lessons learned from the development of MUTANT, we refined the design concept of MUTANT to derive requirements for a general architecture and a set of interfaces of robot systems for entertainment applications. Through these feasibility studies, we consider entertainment applications a significant target at this moment from both scientific and engineering points of view.