Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.p.

Hewlett-packard Company

Other

David W Boyd

Steven L Webb

K Douglas Gennetten

Greg A Degi

Thomas W Holmquist

Irene F Stein

Ron L King

Harry Boyd

Dean J Geilenkirchen

John T Meredith

Walter M Wang

Paul M Hubel

Kurt Eugene Spears

Kelly John Reasoner

Gregg S Schmidtke

Kirk Steven Tecu

Andrew Clark Goris

Robin Pierce Yergenson

Robert E Sobol

William Robert Haas

Robert Gregory Gann

Eugene Arthur Miksch

Kevin J Youngers

Theodore B Ziemkowski

Mark D Seaman

Edward S Beeman

Stephen J Cook

Michael D Erickson

James J Graham

Jerry L Bybee

David Branson

Gerald L Meyer

C William Elder, Jr

Peter J Lange

Gene Pien

John S Deutschbein

Gregory L Wolf

Bruce G Williams

An improved court perimeter boundary for volleyball or other sports comprises at least one indicator that indicates a hypotenuse distance to be used in squaring the court delimited by the boundary. Optionally, the perimeter boundary may be separated, facilitating the setup of the court and the winding of the boundary for storage. A method of setting up a volleyball court is also described.

Sport court perimeter boundary

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for guiding a camera user to take an appropriate set of component photographs to be stitched into a stitched panoramic photograph of a scene. In one example embodiment, the camera constructs and displays a video mosaic while the user sweeps the field of view of the camera over the scene. The camera computes the number and locations of a set of component photographs that will tile the scene, and then guides the user to sweep field of view of the camera over the scene a second time, visiting each component photograph location. A high-resolution component photograph may be taken at each location. Optionally, the camera gathers information from frames used to construct the video mosaic and uses the information to select settings for focus, exposure, or both to be used during the taking of the component photographs.

Method and apparatus for composing a panoramic photograph

An illumination system for illuminating a scan region on an object may comprise a hollow reflector having an interior reflective surface and an exit aperture. A light source positioned within the hollow reflector produces a plurality of light rays, some of which are reflected by the interior reflective surface of the hollow reflector before passing through the exit aperture. First and second reflectors positioned adjacent respective first and second sides of the exit aperture of the hollow reflector at least partially collimate light passing through the exit aperture of the hollow reflector to form a collimated beam.

Illumination system for illuminating a scan region on an object

A method is disclosed for achieving correct exposure, focus, or both in a panoramic photograph that is stitched together from component photographs. In one example embodiment, a camera user sweeps the camera across the scene to be photographed, at least two measurements of scene portion brightness are made during the sweep, the brightness measurements are combined, and camera exposure settings are chosen based on the combination.

Method for achieving correct exposure of a panoramic photograph

A method is disclosed for measuring distance from a camera to parts of a scene using a characterization of perspective distortion in a photograph of the scene. In one example embodiment, a first distance measurement is obtained from the camera to a first point in the scene, the perspective distortion is characterized, and the distance to at least one other point on a plane in the scene is computed based on the first distance measurement and the perspective characterization.

Measuring distance using perspective

An image scanner has a movable photosensor array that can be moved in two dimensions in a plane. Two dimensional movement is provided using a single motor.

Image scanner with a single motor providing two-dimensional movement of photosensors

A method removes distortion induced by camera tilt from a digital representation of a photograph taken with a rotational or swing-lens panoramic camera.

Method and apparatus for correcting camera tilt distortion in panoramic images

A transparent media adapter for scanning transmissive media on a flatbed scanner comprises a fiber optic face plate. The fiber optic face plate translates the image from the media to the scanner focal plane.

Scanner transparent media adapter using fiber optic face plate

A scanner is provided with a variable aperture lens system. High resolution scans use a relatively small aperture size, and scanning speed is relatively slow. Low resolution scans use a relatively large aperture size, and scanning speed is increased. Fast scans are limited to lower sampling rates, which in turn permit more optical blurring relative to high sampling rates. Accordingly, the incremental cost of the larger aperture is minimized by permitting the lens aberrations specifications to be relaxed at larger apertures. Preferably, an electronic variable aperture is provided, for example, by use of electronically controlled polarization plates or by use of electrochromic substances.

Digital image scanner with a variable aperture lens and multiple scanning speeds

A system and method are disclosed for distributing and presenting preferred data from a host server to a display device located at a predetermined remote premise through a communications network. The method involves identifying a user preference, providing at least one data feed containing information related to the user preference, selecting preferred data from the data feed corresponding to the user preference, pre-loading information that matches the preferred data from the host server to the display device, and presenting the preferred data through the display device.

Systems and methods for displaying images

A light emitter is disclosed herein. An embodiment of the light emitter comprises a tube, a first aperture, a second aperture, a lens, a base mechanism, and a light path. The tube has a first end and a second end. The first aperture is located proximate the tube first end and the second aperture is located proximate the tube second end. The lens is located within the tube. The base mechanism is attached to the tube first end and has a cavity formed therein. The light path extends between the cavity and the second aperture and passes through the first aperture and through the lens.

Light emitting device providing a collimated light beam

An apparatus for mounting an object precisely in a specific plane. An object is mounted on small support points rather than flat pads or other flat surfaces. The support points are stiff but not completely rigid. Exactly four support points are used. Mechanical forces are sufficient to slightly compress the two higher support points on a diagonal and to slightly compress the object so that the object presses against all the support points, with a higher amount of compression for one pair of diagonal points relative to the other two points. In an example embodiment, the support points are formed at the intersection of curved surfaces or at the intersection of multiple planar surfaces. In a specific example embodiment, the points are formed at the intersection of cylindrical surfaces. The points are fabricated by a cylindrical cutting bit that has partial-cylinder grooves formed circumferentially in the bit. The outer surface of the bit is used to mill two intersecting planes, and the grooves result in cylindrical surfaces intersecting at the same angle as the intersecting planes. The resulting support points are true singular points, but with limited compressibility because of the shallow angle of the material just below the points.

Four-point planar mechanical mount with high precision

An image capture device, such as a scanner, is built including hardware necessary to capture both reflective and transmissive image data from a transparency. The device may associate the two types of data internally or rely on other hardware, such as a controlling computer, to do the association of the two quantities of data. In one possible embodiment, the device would include the ability to perform optical character recognition (OCR) of the reflective data (or the transmissive data, if desired), converting to a type of text format any printing on the transparency.

Device for scanning reflective and transmissive data from a photographic image

By scanning both sides of a photographic print, data from the back of the print may be associated with the image. If the backside data includes text, optical character recognition (OCR) techniques optionally may be used to convert the image of the back of the photo into text that may be included in a database or other data structure allowing the text to be associated with the photographic image. This allows the user to quickly and easily search a large database of images for either a specific image or a group of images according to some set of search criteria.

Device that scans both sides of a photo and associates information found on the back of the photo with the photo

A motion control system comprises both a stepper motor and a DC motor. The motors are coupled, and may be operated independently or in concert for various scan types. The stepper motor may be used as an encoder for measuring the position of the mechanism.

Growing community of inventors

Greeley, CO, United States of America

David W Boyd