PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15980495
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-05
Publication Date: 2019-11
Patent Classification: ["348", "345000"]

Abstract:
An apparatus and method for improving camera depth estimations for a moving subject in the camera field of view. The camera utilizes a generative adversarial network (GAN) to predict future frames from a current frame(s). These predicted future frames are then utilized as a target for determining a depth map from which lens focusing direction and distance are determined for moving the camera into proper focus and thus reducing focusing errors on captured frames as target and/or camera motion progresses.

Claim (Index 4):
An apparatus for adjusting depth of focus in response to predicting future frames, comprising:\n (a) an image sensor of an image capture device, said image sensor configured for capturing digital images; (b) wherein said image capture device is selected from a group of image capture devices consisting of camera systems, camera-enabled cell phones, and other image-capture enabled electronic devices; (b) a focusing device coupled to said image sensor for controlling focal length of a digital image being captured; (c) a processor configured for performing image processing on images captured by said image sensor, and for outputting a signal for controlling focal length set by said focusing device; and (d) a memory storing programming executable by said processor for estimating depth of focus based on blur differences between images in a blur matching process; (e) wherein said programming when executed by said processor performs enhanced passive depth estimation by steps comprising:\n (i) selecting a moving focus target region at the current frame captured by said image sensor which is being tracked by a recognition process; \n (ii) generating estimations of at least one future frame utilizing a generative adversarial network (GAN); \n (iii) generating a depth map between said current frame and said at least one future frame in predicting future depth information while taking into account a period of time required for moving the focusing device to the moving focus target; \n (iv) determining direction and distance for adjusting said focusing device coupled to said image sensor to auto focus on the moving focus target region; and \n (v) moving said focusing device toward achieving a proper focus at said at least one future frame to update focus position of the selected moving focus target region.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 15.0
- Percentile: 93.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.46667
- Patent Class: 348.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['14675287', '13077677', '13350285', '12643802', '13609155']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.6043321628143745
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.4709377560465552
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.5909927221375927
- Mean Citation Score: 160.67146199999996
- Max Citation Score: 173.27358999999996
- Similarity Product: 130.9380791131973

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 0
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test