Peter Liao
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Grow-Up Declarative Memory Task
19-0068 – It is difficult to test a cognitive ability across development, because tasks needed to test cognitive ability evolve as the child grows. To solve this problem, UNC has designed and developed events for testing infant and toddler declarative memory that grow with the child. This product consists of 3-D printed objects and can be as simple as assembling a box and hammering a nail into the... Read More
Enhanced Virtual Crossmatch
20-0038 – In the field of organ transplant matching, UNC has developed algorithms using data-driven mathematical models to predict flow cytometric crossmatch outcomes. If the virtual crossmatch is determined to be likely positive, indicating likely reactivity between recipient and donor, the organ offer is typically declined and issued to another potential recipient. This process is lengthy and delays... Read More
Muscle Vibration Stimulator
19-0114 – This device provides vibration designed to stimulate skeletal muscle and sensory neurons during rehabilitation of orthopaedic injuries and disease (initially demonstrated in quadriceps and knees). The device is patient-portable, has a large contact area, provides localized effect, and is variably adjustable. UNC has also recently demonstrated that this device improves gait biomechanics... Read More
Advanced Disinfectant Formulations
18-0097 – The Water Institute at UNC has developed novel chemical disinfectant formulations to enhance inactivation of protozoan cysts and other chlorine-resistant pathogens with particular emphasis on improving water safety in emergencies and low and middle income settings. Based on the results of this work to date, UNC has developed at least three paths to rapidly achieving significant reduction in... Read More
Hogel-free Holography
18-0160 – UNC has developed a software simulation (novel algorithmic method) and benchmarking for production of holographic (3D) images in an augmented reality environment. Near-eye displays using holographic projection are emerging as an exciting display approach for virtual and augmented reality at high-resolution without complex optical setups — shifting optical complexity to computation. The UNC... Read More
Advanced Colonoscopy Imaging Technology
19-0148 – Colonoscopy reduces the rate of colorectal cancers following colonoscopy (interval cancers) by 50-60%. However, colonoscopy fails to find at least 20% of polyps, especially “flat” polyps. Polyps are missed because not all of the colon surface is effectively surveyed by current visualization systems or the polyps were seen but not effectively recognized by the current imaging technology. This... Read More
Hydrogen-bond Enriched Ion Exchange Membranes
19-0027 – The UNC innovation is polymer chemistry for synthesizing ion-selective membranes (anion and cation exchange membranes) that increase the number of hydrogen bonding sites inside the polymer. The addition of hydrogen bonding sites can dramatically increase the conductivity of the membrane without substantially changing its selectivity. This behavior is in contrast to conventional membranes,... Read More
Rate Sorted Entropy Coding
19-0098 – Entropy coding techniques such as arithmetic coding are well-known and commonly used in many compression algorithms including all modern video coding standards. UNC is developing rated sorted entropy coding that improves upon existing methods. The UNC approach can be applied to existing standardized video compression schemes that rely on arithmetic encoding without having to fully decode and... Read More
Assessing Lower Extremity Movement Quality
18-0003 – Clinical assessment tools can provide a simple and efficient method for identifying problems in the musculoskeletal system that may result in athletic injury. Sports medicine clinicians can often use the results of such assessment tools to develop effective intervention programs for injury prevention and rehabilitation. This innovation provides an objective and autonomous system to classify... Read More
Dynamic Vision Correction for In-focus Viewing of Real and Virtual Objects
18-0094 – The UNC invention provides a system that corrects dynamically for the focus of the real world surrounding a near-eye display of an augmented reality user, simultaneously with the internal display of augmented synthetic imagery, with an aim of completely replacing the user’s prescription eyeglasses. The ability to adjust focus for both real and virtual stimuli will be useful for a wide variety... Read More
Novel Estimation of Pose Configuration
18-0112 – It is well understood that high tracking rates are critical for AR/VR systems for immersive experiences, yet there currently exists no practical, portable system that comes close to next-generation tracking performance. This UNC innovation utilizes rolling shutter and radial distortion – two image features typically treated as camera artifacts to be corrrected – and leverages them to... Read More
Reconstructing Detailed Textured Surface Models from Endoscopic Videos
18-0149 – A method has been developed for constructing an accurate three-dimensional textured surface from an endoscopic video, and for transferring information from the reconstruction onto images gathered through other modalities such as computed tomography (CT). This technology facilitates more efficient and thorough review by clinicians and researchers and has demonstrated usefulness in planning... Read More
Interactive Sound Propagation in Virtual Environments
13-0038 – This technology provides an efficient technique for modeling sound propagation effects in indoor and outdoor scenes for interactive applications. The technique generates immersive directional reverberation and reflection effects, and can easily scale to multi-channel speaker configurations. It is easy to implement and can be easily integrated into any modern game engine without significantly... Read More
Interactive Wave-Based Sound Propagation
13-0080 – This technology provides a novel approach for incorporating dynamic source and listener directivity in a general frequency-domain, wave-based sound propagation technique. The UNC approach can automatically model wave-effects from low-frequency directional sources and can handle analytical, data-driven, rotating or dynamic directivity at runtime. The spatial sound based on listener directivity... Read More
Direct-to-Indirect Acoustic Radiance Transfer
11-0048 – This invention provides an efficient algorithm for simulating diffuse reflections of sound in a static scene. The UNC approach is built on advances in precomputed light transport techniques for visual rendering and uses them to develop an improved acoustic radiance transfer technique. It precomputes a direct-to-indirect acoustic transfer operator for a scene, and uses it to map direct sound... Read More
Camera Control Unit Communications Breakout Box
18-0145 – In broadcast video technology, a camera control unit is an electronic device, usually in the form of a rack-mounted box, that connects to a video camera and to external video recording, display, and control devices. One problem with connectors provided on camera control units is that many external intercom, program voice, and tally systems require other types of connectors, such as XLR... Read More
Side-car Bassinet to Improve Mother and Baby Development Post-delivery
17-0003 – A side-car bassinet particularly designed for U.S. maternity beds may improve mother-baby development post-delivery. The bassinet locks into maternity beds, when proximity to mother is warranted, but can be disengaged, and converted to a stand-alone bassinet. To promote breast-feeding in the hours after delivery, it is understood that keeping mother and baby together is important. Stand-alone... Read More
Real-time, Automated Software for the Reduction of Ionizing Radiation Dosage for Angiography and Perfusion Analysis
18-0002 – This software reduces the amount of ionizing radiation required for digital subtraction angiography (DSA), computed tomography perfusion (CTP), and computed tomography angiography, reducing the risk of cancer and other injuries while still maintaining high-resolution capture of blood flow dynamics when imaging internal organs and tissues. Current applications include stroke diagnostics, tumor... Read More
Improved Image and Video Decompression
17-0108 – A technique for image and video decompression has been developed that respects intensity and spatial uncertainty in the encoded stream to significantly improve the perceived quality of final image or video output. This technique avoids spatial and intensity thresholding artifacts by adding noise and spatial blurring into the data stream during the decompression process; these decrease... Read More
Diabetes Education Board Game
17-0138 – This educational board game leverages expertise from diabetes education, serious gaming, and pediatric endocrinology to create a game designed to teach and assess diabetes care knowledge. The game is designed to be played with a “diabetes master/educator,” patients, and parents. Via gaming, a diabetes educator is able to assess diabetes knowledge and thus tailor further education specific to... Read More
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Database
16-0174 – The UNC Innovation and Entrepreneurship Database, built on the Salesforce.com platform, is a shared database for information gathering from stakeholders and for report generation for metrics, including being used to produce impact reports. Database capabilities include: This system provides a robust database infrastructure for recording, analyzing, and reporting metrics on innovation,... Read More
COLMAP: Image-based 3D Reconstruction
17-0157 – COLMAP is a general-purpose Structure-from-Motion (SfM) and Multi-View Stereo (MVS) pipeline with a graphical and command-line interface. It offers a wide range of features for reconstruction of ordered and unordered image collections. Image-based 3D reconstruction from images traditionally first recovers a sparse representation of the scene and the camera poses of the input images using... Read More
Physics-Inspired Garment Recovery from a Single-View Image
16-0167 – Most recent garment capturing techniques rely on acquiring multiple views of clothing, which may not always be readily available, especially in the case of pre-existing photographs from the web. This technology provides a method that is able to compute a rich and realistic 3D model of a human body and its outfits from a single photograph with little human interaction. The algorithm is not... Read More
Efficient Digital Forensics Support Using a Virtualized Environment
11-0094 – This technology provides a forensic platform that transparently monitors and records data access events within a virtualized environment. It accomplishes this using an architecture for efficiently and transparently recording the accesses to monitored objects – the approach monitors accesses to objects on disk and follows the causal chain of these accesses across processes, even after the... Read More
Acoustic Classification and Optimization for Multi-Modal Rendering of Real-World Scenes
17-0090 – In order to create realistic augmented, mixed, or virtual reality experiences for applications such as computer aided design, teleconferencing, training, or gaming, 3D models of indoor and outdoor scenes must be augmented with realistic synthetic sound effects. To this end, a novel technique for automatic acoustic material classification and optimization for 3D reconstructions of real-world... Read More
Diagnostic Test for Autism in Infancy
16-0180 – The invention utilizes structural brain characteristics from MRI images for diagnosis of a neurobehavioral disorder and is initially applied to autism. This approach uses imaging data from presymptomatic time points before two years of age, along with preprocessing of data and a machine learning algorithm. Using these elements, clinicians could better identify pediatric patients for whom they... Read More
Diagnostic Test for Autism in Infancy
16-0185 – The invention utilizes functional connectivity brain imaging from MRI images for diagnosis of a neurobehavioral disorder and is initially applied to autism. This approach uses imaging data from presymptomatic time points before two years of age, along with preprocessing of data and a machine learning algorithm. Using these elements, clinicians could better identify pediatric patients for whom... Read More
Wide Field of View Augmented Reality Head-Mounted Display with Distance Accommodation
16-0189 – Provides a variety of designs for achieving a wide field of view head mounted display with optical see-through capability and also dynamically adaptive distance accommodation. This capability would most likely be used to match the optical distance of the computer-generated image to the optical distance of the wearer’s current gaze (the wearer’s current target of interest). The design approach... Read More
Topology Aware Geographic Routing
16-0194 – Increasing global internet access is an important goal with both humanitarian and market-growth implications, and much attention has been paid to recent efforts to promote large-scale commercial airborne networks. The major challenge with such networks is the highly dynamic movement of nodes within them, including movement of nodes through varied topologies as well as entry and exit of... Read More
Interactive Sound Propagation and Rendering for Scenes with High Aural Complexity
15-0003 – Advances in visual rendering have made the generation of extremely complex virtual environments possible. These environments may contain thousands of sound sources (i.e. cars, crowds, machines, etc.) and hundreds or thousands of static and dynamic objects. The scenes may span from a few meters (i.e. a room) to thousands of meters (i.e. an architectural model or outdoor scene). In order to... Read More
A Parallel ARD-based Wave Simulator for Distributed Memory Architectures
14-0093 – Accurate modeling and simulation of indoor (i.e. multi-room environments, automobiles, or aircraft cabins) and outdoor (i.e. urban areas and open landscapes) acoustic spaces is vital to numerous applications spanning from gaming and virtual reality to architectural design and engineering. A new, distributed time-domain simulator has been developed that performs fast, accurate acoustic... Read More
High-Order Diffraction and Diffuse Reflections For Interactive Sound Propagation in Large Environments
14-0094 – Virtual environments such as cities, auditoriums, offices, and factories can span extremely large areas and may be composed of many moving sources and objects. Accurate sound propagation in these environments requires modeling complex acoustic effects such as reflections, scattering between objects, high-order diffractions, late reverberation, echoes, etc. New algorithms to enable interactive... Read More
Optical See-Through Near-Eye Display Using Point Light Source Backlight
13-0120 – The invention is a design for a near-eye display that allows direct viewing through the device (i.e. optical see-through). The near-eye display uses a series of point light sources to direct light through a spatial light modulator into the eyes. The geometry of the light sources, spatial light modulator, and viewer are arranged so that each pixel on the spatial light modulator is illuminated... Read More
Sound Propagation in Large Scenes using Equivalent Sources
12-0052 – Interactive, wave-based sound propagation that captures important acoustic phenomena (i.e. interference, diffraction, scattering, sound focusing, and high-order wave effects) for large, open virtual environments or scenes found in simulation and training systems or in video games can take hours of computation and gigabytes of memory even while using state-of-the-art wave simulation methods. A... Read More
Example-Guided Sound Synthesis
12-0086 – In order to create truly immersive and compelling virtual environments, high-quality, true-to-life synthesized sound must be generated and closely synchronized with visual renderings. Methods are needed to produce sound effects that precisely capture complex interactions that are not predetermined. To this end, a new method for sound synthesis using estimated material parameters has been... Read More
Fast Geometric Sound Propagation using Visibility Computations
11-0047 – In order to create immersive, multimodal virtual reality for use in interactive applications, geometric acoustic algorithms that can quickly and efficiently compute sound propagation paths for complex 3D models and virtual environments at high frame rates on commodity hardware are needed. A new method for simulation of sound propagation has been developed that harnesses geometric acoustics... Read More
Predicting Maximum Heart Rate and Maximum Oxygen Uptake from Submaximal Exercise
16-0007 – A new method has been developed for accurately estimating maximum heart rate and maximal oxygen uptake from data collected at submaximal intensities. This method accounts for the personal physiology and fitness of an individual and can make predictions with a level of precision and accuracy that is unavailable through conventional submaximal estimation methods. The invention can easily be... Read More
Cache, Trigger, Impersonate: Enabling Context-Sensitive Honeyclient Analysis On-the-Wire
16-0031 – A novel framework has been developed for adapting honeyclient-based systems (for identifying attacks) to operate on-the-wire at scale. It analyzes web-based exploits inline with network traffic using a cache and replay system, utilizing behavioral-based features. Current techniques only analyze behavioral based features in an offline fashion. The innovation would be used to protect enterprise... Read More
No-Execute-After-Read: Preventing Code Disclosure in Commodity Software
16-0058 – A novel memory permission primitive, dubbed No-Execute-After-Read (NEAR), has been developed that thwarts just-in-time code reuse attacks by adversaries taking advantage of memory disclosures. Unlike Execute-no-Read, which fails to prevent such attacks, NEAR provides strong security guarantees against just-in-time attacks in commodity binaries. Specifically, NEAR allows the disclosure of all... Read More
Scientifically-Lossless Video Microscopy Compression
15-0004 – A novel compression method has been developed based upon Pearson’s correlation coefficient and mathematical morphology that, for certain data sets, compresses much better than lossless compression with no impact on analysis results. It is “scientifically lossless.” The compressed size scales with the video’s scientific data content, while existing lossy algorithms greatly impacted data... Read More
Web Page Classification using Anonymized TCP/IP Headers
15-0015 – A method has been developed that classifies web pages based only on anonymized TCP/IP headers of traffic generated when a web page is visited. The framework can work for a variety of classification labeling schemes including video and mobile. ISPs and Internet measurement companies, as well as academia may have an interest in the procedure. Commercial uses include (1) Behavioral ad-targeting... Read More
Streaming-connected Large-scale Structure-from-Motion
15-0088 – A novel large-scale structure from motion framework advances the state of the art in data scalability from city-scale modeling (millions of images) to world-scale modeling (several tens of millions of images) using just a single computer. The main enabling technology is the use of a streaming-based framework for connected component discovery. Moreover, the system employs an adaptive online... Read More
Multi-stage Robot for Transoral Peripheral Lung Access
15-0106 – A robotic approach has been developed for image-guided trans-bronchoscopic lung access. The multi-stage robotic system can bring the benefits of transoral access to patients with difficult-to-access peripheral lung nodules, avoiding the drawbacks of percutaneous and transoral bronchoscopic biopsy. It offers the potential to steerably biopsy peripheral lung regions deep in the parenchyma, via... Read More
Automatic Obstacle Avoidance During Tentacle-like Robot Teleoperation
15-0107 – A motion planning approach for concentric tube robot teleoperation that enables a tentacle-like robot to interactively maneuver its tip to points selected by a user while automatically avoiding sensitive anatomical obstacles (e.g., critical vessels, nerves, and organs) along its shaft. The user specifies goal positions by clicking with a 3D mouse on an augmented reality interface, and the... Read More
Gaze-controlled Photo Taking System
14-0028 – A gaze-controlled photo taking system allows the photographer to take a clear, focused image while still participating in the photo-scene experience and avoiding the “observer through the viewfinder” feeling. By augmenting currently existing autofocus algorithms and zoom/cropping mechanisms with gaze detection and pose estimation techniques, this “smarter camera” is adapted to observe the... Read More
Improved Illumination of Spatial Augmented Reality Objects
14-0051 – This methodology improves upon current spatial augmentation reality techniques, where the object of augmentation appears to glow unnaturally, through a combination of an improved projection surface and more accurate calibration for ambient illumination. Advantages: • More realistic images of live humans, recorded humans, or virtual characters into human-size mannequins • Applicable to... Read More
Minimal-latency Tracking and Display for Matching Real and Virtual Worlds in Head-worn Displays
14-0139 – Methods, systems, and computer readable media have been developed for minimal-latency tracking and display for matching real and virtual worlds in head-worn displays (i.e., opitical see-through glasses). The system includes a display module, a rendering module, and a processing module. This also offers a new method of reducing latency that takes advantage of the principles of bufferless... Read More
Cloud-Scale Image Compression through Redundancy Reduction
14-0142 – An efficient cloud-scale digital image compression scheme has been developed for use in cloud image storage systems that leverages pixel-wise redundancy between images to minimize each photo’s memory footprint. This novel image compression technique takes full advantage of redundant image data in the cloud by independently compressing each newly uploaded image with its GIST nearest neighbor... Read More
IMAGIN: High-definition High-Dynamic-Range Camera Sensor
14-0143 – A novel image sensing architecture has been developed that boosts the dynamic range as well as the definition of camera images. The innovation lies not in the design of the photodetector (sensor), but in the data encoding and the communication and processing architecture. Tradeoffs between frame rates, electronic shutter speeds, dark current and bright saturation are optimized for various... Read More
Optical See-Through Head Worn Display Using Multiple Light Attenuating Layers
13-0039 – New optical see-through glasses have been developed that integrate virtual imagery with high visual fidelity into a compact slim display that supports a wide field of view. The use of multiple imaging masking layers allows for simultaneous viewing of real-world objects and virtual objects that can be implemented for several purposes in the realm of augmented reality. Companies engaged in... Read More