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 1):
An apparatus for adjusting depth of focus in response to predicting future frames, comprising:\n (a) an image sensor configured for capturing digital images; (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, which is being tracked by a recognition process, at the current frame captured by said image sensor; \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 the 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): 0.6106314854102628
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.4458021195354
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.5941485488227766
- Mean Citation Score: 160.67146199999996
- Max Citation Score: 173.27358999999996
- Similarity Product: 159.36379451370237

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