The disclosure relates to a method, apparatus and system for detecting and reducing the effects of color fringing in digital video acquired by a camera comprising an iris. The method comprises: acquiring, by the camera, a first digital image frame using a first camera setting, including a first iris aperture size; acquiring, by the camera, a second digital image frame using a second camera setting, including a second iris aperture size, wherein the second aperture size is smaller than the first aperture size; comparing the first and the second digital image frame, at least a specific color component thereof; localizing regions having a disproportional intensity ratio in the specific color component between the first digital image frame and the second digital image frame; and reducing the specific color component in the localized regions for subsequently acquired digital image frames.

Disclosed are methods of inspecting semiconductor wafers, inspection systems for performing the same, and methods of fabricating semiconductor devices using the same. A method of inspecting a semiconductor wafer including preparing a wafer including zones each having patterns, obtaining representative values for the patterns, scanning the patterns under an optical condition to obtain optical signals for the patterns, each of the optical signals including optical parameters, selecting a representative optical parameter that is one of the optical parameters that has a correlation with the representative values, obtaining a reference value of the representative optical parameter for a reference pattern, and obtaining a defect of an inspection pattern by comparing the reference value with an inspection value of the representative optical parameter for the inspection pattern.

Various methods and systems are provided for guiding maneuvering of a needle with automatic ultrasound beam steering. As one example, the ultrasound beam transmitted from a probe is steered automatically in response to a location of a tissue motion detected from ultrasound images acquired by the probe.

A blood sample processor for imaging a centrifuged blood sample is provided including a transparent container with the centrifuged blood sample therein. An illumination source is positioned to illuminate the centrifuged blood sample at a non-right angle to the transparent container. A digital camera disposed opposite the transparent container images the centrifuged blood sample and the image is processed to determine the relative locations of component layers of the centrifuged blood sample.

A bottle storage includes: a housing portion that houses a bottle therein; a cooling-warming portion (cooling-warming devices) that is provided around the housing portion; a rotation portion (rotation motor) that rotates the bottle housed in the housing portion; an image capture portion that captures an image of the bottle housed in the housing portion; a controller that controls the bottle rotation performed by the rotation portion and the image capture performed by the image capture portion, based on the bottle image captured by the image capture portion; an information manager (storage manager) that identifies at least a brand of the bottle, based on the bottle image captured by the control of the controller; and an output portion (display portion) that outputs at least one of the brand identified by the information manager and relevant information regarding the identified brand.

A method of processing an image is disclosed. The method comprises decomposing the image into a plurality of channels, each being characterized by a different depth-of-field, and accessing a computer readable medium storing an in-focus dictionary defined over a plurality of dictionary atoms, and an out-of-focus dictionary defined over a plurality of sets of dictionary atoms, each set corresponding to a different out-of-focus condition. The method also comprises computing one or more sparse representations of the decomposed image over the dictionaries.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for depth imaging. In one aspect, a method includes obtaining, by an image sensor that includes infrared pixels and color pixels, a first image of a scene while the image sensor is in a first position, moving the image sensor to a second position, wherein, in the second position, a particular infrared pixel is located where a particular color pixel was previously located when the image sensor was in the first position, obtaining, by the image sensor, a second image of the scene while the image sensor is in the second position, generating a composite image based on the first image and the second image, and determining an estimated distance to an object within the scene based on the composite image.

A system for determining a distance to an object comprises an image capture device (101) which has a coded aperture and an image sensor which is positioned out of a focus plane of the coded aperture. A receiver (103) receives an image of a scene from the image sensor and a detector (105) detects at least two image objects of the image corresponding to ghost images of the object resulting from different openings of the coded aperture in response to an optical characteristic of the object. A distance estimator (107) then determines a distance to the object in response to a displacement in the image of the at least two image objects. The distance may be to a person and the image may be a bright pupil image wherein pupils are enhanced by reflection of light by the retina. The image may be compensated by a dark pupil image of the scene.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for depth imaging. In one aspect, a method includes obtaining, by an image sensor that includes infrared pixels and color pixels, a first image of a scene while the image sensor is in a first position, moving the image sensor to a second position, wherein, in the second position, a particular infrared pixel is located where a particular color pixel was previously located when the image sensor was in the first position, obtaining, by the image sensor, a second image of the scene while the image sensor is in the second position, generating a composite image based on the first image and the second image, and determining an estimated distance to an object within the scene based on the composite image.

The runway illumination light inspection apparatus includes: an illumination light detection unit; an image capturing unit; and a determination unit. The illumination light detection unit detects an illumination light embedded in a runway the image capturing unit captures, when the illumination light detection unit has detected the illumination light, an image of the illumination light, and the determination unit determines whether or not the illumination light is abnormal, based on the captured image of the illumination light.