Nikhil Balram

US Patent:

7664337, Feb 16, 2010

Filed:

Dec 20, 2005

Appl. No.:

11/313577

Inventors:

Nikhil Balram - Mountain View CA, US
Bharat Pathak - Bangalore, IN
Uma Jayaraman - Koramangala, IN

Assignee:

Marvell International Ltd. - Hamilton

International Classification:

G06K 9/40

US Classification:

382268, 348241

Abstract:

High-frequency noise is generated that approximates the appearance of traditional “film grain” for a digital video signal. By adding a relatively small amount of film grain noise, the video can be made to look more natural and more pleasing to the human viewer. The digital film grain generation can be used to mask unnatural smooth artifacts in digital video such as “blockiness” and “contouring” in the case of compressed video and/or used to provide visual enhancements or special effects to any digital video stream. The digital film grain generator can control grain size and the amount of film grain to be added.

US Patent:

7733421, Jun 8, 2010

Filed:

Dec 5, 2005

Appl. No.:

11/294709

Inventors:

Shilpi Sahu - Bangalore, IN
Nikhil Balram - Mountain View CA, US

Assignee:

Marvell International Ltd.

International Classification:

H04N 7/01
H04N 11/20

US Classification:

348452, 348451, 348699, 348448, 348441, 382300

Abstract:

A vector interpolator optimizes the conversion of an interlaced signal to a non-interlaced signal. The vector interpolator improves the visual clarity of slanted features in a displayed image by adjusting the luminance value of each pixel such that the appearance of “steps” or “jaggies” in the features is reduced. For each pixel, the vector interpolator determines a similarity measure for the pixels within a predetermined area around the pixel. From the similarity measure, an angle for interpolation is selected. The luminance value is then interpolated along the selected vector corresponding to the angle and applied to the pixel.

US Patent:

7734114, Jun 8, 2010

Filed:

Dec 7, 2005

Appl. No.:

11/295882

Inventors:

Sujith Srinivasan - Bangalore, IN
Nikhil Balram - Mountain View CA, US

Assignee:

Marvell International Ltd. - Hamilton

International Classification:

G06K 9/40
G06K 9/00
G03F 3/08
H04N 7/01
H04N 11/20
H04N 9/64
H04N 9/68

US Classification:

382274, 382162, 348453, 348256, 348645, 358520

Abstract:

The intelligent saturation controller calculates the exact maximum saturation any valid YCbCr pixel can undergo before it becomes invalid in RGB space. The controller models the saturation operation in RGB color space and calculates the maximum saturation level at which the RGB values falls outside the valid range. The saturation operation is performed independently for every pixel of the incoming video frame and ensures that each output pixel is a valid. The controller finds the maximum saturation for each input pixel and checks whether it is less than the input saturation factor. If so, then this calculated maximum saturation value is applied. If not, the input saturation factor is applied. Accordingly, the output RGB pixels are valid and no clamping is necessary if no other video processing is done in YCbCr space. Increasing the saturation of the video signal results in a more vivid and more colorful picture.

US Patent:

7746411, Jun 29, 2010

Filed:

Dec 7, 2005

Appl. No.:

11/296185

Inventors:

Nikhil Balram - Mountain View CA, US
Sujith Srinivasan - Bangalore, IN
Bipasha Ghosh - Bangalore, IN
Sanjay Garg - Bangalore, IN

Assignee:

Marvell International Ltd. - Hamilton

International Classification:

H04N 5/45
H04N 5/52
G09G 5/02
H04N 9/67
H04N 9/73

US Classification:

348649, 348656, 348657, 348661, 348672, 348673, 345589, 345603, 345604, 382167, 382171

Abstract:

A color management unit is architected to achieve higher-quality appearance used in various video formats and to enable improvements in picture contrast and colorfulness. The color management unit comprises an optional input color space converter to convert the input digital video to a desired color space, an adaptive contrast enhancer to apply contrast improvement algorithms in response to different scenes in either manual or automatic modes, intelligent color remapping for enhancing selected colors, sRGB compliance to produce a video display that is uniform over different monitors, global color and brightness controls to combine global processing and color conversion, gamut compression to maintain pixel validity in color space conversion, and gamma correction to compensate for nonlinear characteristics of an output display.

US Patent:

7821578, Oct 26, 2010

Filed:

Apr 7, 2006

Appl. No.:

11/400505

Inventors:

Bharat Pathak - Bangalore, IN
Nikhil Balram - Mountain View CA, US

Assignee:

Marvell World Trade Ltd. - St. Michael

International Classification:

H04N 5/21

US Classification:

348607, 348701, 348627, 348610, 348620

Abstract:

A video noise reducer reduces the noise artifacts in a video signal. The video noise reducer is reconfigurable to provide spatial noise reduction and temporal noise reduction in either a parallel or cascade architecture. The video noise reducer is self-calibrating by providing estimation modules that estimate the amount of noise in the video signal and a noise injector that confirms the measurement against a known quantity of noise. The video noise reducer is adaptive to solutions in hardware or a combination of hardware and firmware. The video noise reducer is also optimized for efficient memory usage in interlaced video signal processing applications.

US Patent:

7889940, Feb 15, 2011

Filed:

Dec 18, 2009

Appl. No.:

12/642440

Inventors:

Nikhil Balram - Mountain View CA, US
Bharat Pathak - Bangalore, IN
Uma Jayaraman - Koramangala, IN

Assignee:

Marvell World Trade Ltd. - St. Michael

International Classification:

G06K 9/40

US Classification:

382254, 348622, 358447

Abstract:

High-frequency noise is generated that approximates the appearance of traditional “film grain” for a digital video signal. By adding a relatively small amount of film grain noise, the video can be made to look more natural and more pleasing to the human viewer. The digital film grain generation can be used to mask unnatural smooth artifacts in digital video such as “blockiness” and “contouring” in the case of compressed video and/or used to provide visual enhancements or special effects to any digital video stream. The digital film grain generator can control grain size and the amount of film grain to be added.

US Patent:

7903178, Mar 8, 2011

Filed:

May 25, 2010

Appl. No.:

12/787142

Inventors:

Nikhil Balram - Mountain View CA, US
Sujith Srinivasan - Bangalore, IN
Bipasha Ghosh - Bangalore, IN
Sanjay Garg - Bangalore, IN

Assignee:

Marvell International Ltd. - Hamilton

International Classification:

H04N 5/45
H04N 5/52
H04N 5/14
H04N 5/57
H04N 9/67
H04N 9/73
G09G 5/02
G09K 9/00
G09K 9/34

US Classification:

348649, 348656, 348657, 348661, 348672, 348673, 348678, 348687, 345589, 345603, 345604, 382167, 382171

Abstract:

A color management unit is architected to achieve higher-quality appearance used in various video formats and to enable improvements in picture contrast and colorfulness. The color management unit comprises an optional input color space converter to convert the input digital video to a desired color space, an adaptive contrast enhancer to apply contrast improvement algorithms in response to different scenes in either manual or automatic modes, intelligent color remapping for enhancing selected colors, sRGB compliance to produce a video display that is uniform over different monitors, global color and brightness controls to combine global processing and color conversion, gamut compression to maintain pixel validity in color space conversion, and gamma correction to compensate for nonlinear characteristics of an output display.

US Patent:

7907148, Mar 15, 2011

Filed:

Dec 7, 2005

Appl. No.:

11/296163

Inventors:

Sujith Srinivasan - Bangalore, IN
Nikhil Balram - Mountain View CA, US

Assignee:

Marvell International Ltd. - Hamilton

International Classification:

G09G 5/02

US Classification:

345589, 382167, 345590

Abstract:

The color remapping system places axes on the Cb-Cr color plane to differentiate and isolate colors of interest. Each axis has a programmable position, hue change value and saturation change value. Input pixels from the video data stream are calibrated with respect to the axes and enhanced based upon the two neighboring axes adjacent to the input pixels. The system can be reconfigured in real time by repositioning the axes and changing their hue and saturation change values. The system is easy to program and reconfigure and provides visually pleasing enhancements to the digital video.