Devices, methods and systems for visual imaging arrays

• US 10,491,796 B2
• Filed: 08/27/2015
• Issued: 11/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Invention Science Fund II, L.L.C. (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: The Invention Science Fund II, L.L.C. (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Brav, Ehren, Hannigan, Russell, Hyde, Roderick A., Ishikawa, Muriel Y., Johanson, 3ric, Kare, Jordin T., Pan, Tony S., Rutschman, Phillip, Tegreene, Clarence T., Whitmer, Charles, Wood, Jr., Lowell L., Wood, Victoria Y. H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cutler, Albert H
• Application Number:
  US14/838,128
• Publication Number:
  US 20160227259A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,552 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30196 Human being; Person
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30221 Sports video; Sports image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/21805 enabling multiple viewpoints, e.g. using a plurality of cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2183 Cache memory caches in web servers or browsers G06F16/9574; intermediate storage and caching in data networks H04L67/568
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23418 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics television picture signal circuitry for scene change detection H04N5/147; filtering for image enhancement G06T5/00; methods or arrangements for recognising scenes G06V20/00; arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2393 involving handling client requests scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2662 Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/69 Control of means for changing angle of the field of view, e.g. optical zoom objectives or electronic zooming
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/80 Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

Computationally implemented methods and systems include acquiring a request for particular image data that is part of a scene, transmitting the request for the particular image data to an image sensor array that includes more than one image sensor and that is configured to capture the scene that is larger than the requested particular image data, receiving only the particular image data from the image sensor array, and transmitting the received particular image data to at least one requestor. In addition to the foregoing, other aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

a wireless communication link;

an image sensor array that includes more than one image sensor and that is configured to capture image data of a scene;

circuitry configured for transmitting via the wireless communication link a low resolution version of the image data for identifying a target;

circuitry configured for acquiring via the wireless communication link a request for a selected area that is part of the scene and that is associated with the target, at least partly in response to transmission of the lower resolution version of the image data;

circuitry configured for selecting at least some of the image data to obtain one or more pixels corresponding to the selected area at a resolution that is higher than the lower resolution; and

circuitry configured for transmitting via the wireless communication link the at least some of the image data corresponding to the selected area.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein said image sensor array that includes more than one image sensor and that is configured to capture image data of a scene comprises:

an image sensor array that includes more than one image sensor and that is configured to capture image data of a street scene.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein said circuitry configured for acquiring via the wireless communication link a request for a selected area that is part of the scene and that is associated with the target, at least partly in response to transmission of the lower resolution version of the image data comprises:

circuitry configured for acquiring via the wireless communication link a request for a selected area of a license plate, at least partly in response to transmission of the lower resolution version of the image data.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein said circuitry configured for acquiring via the wireless communication link a request for a selected area that is part of the scene and that is associated with the target, at least partly in response to transmission of the lower resolution version of the image data comprises:

circuitry configured for acquiring via the wireless communication link a request for a selected area of an object, at least partly in response to transmission of the lower resolution version of the image data.

5. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry configured for determining at least one portion of the scene that contains an object through identification of the object in cached scene data.

6. The device of claim 5, wherein said circuitry configured for determining at least one portion of the scene that contains an object through identification of the object in cached scene data comprises:

circuitry configured for determining at least one portion of the scene that contains an object through identification of the object in cached scene data that was previously transmitted.

7. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry configured for acquiring a second request for an at least partially overlapping area that is part of the scene.

8. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry configured for combining the request with at least one other request.

9. The device of claim 8, wherein said circuitry configured for combining the request with at least one other request comprises:

circuitry configured for combining the request with at least one other request to consolidate one or more overlapping areas.

10. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry configured for decimating at least some of the image data in an amount that is at least one hundred times less than the image data.

11. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry configured for removing at least some of the image data corresponding to an object.

12. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry configured for identifying at least one portion of the image data for removal that was previously stored in a memory.

13. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry configured for discarding at least some of the image data.

14. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry configured for storing at least some of the image data corresponding to other than the selected area.

15. The device of claim 1, wherein the an image sensor array that includes more than one image sensor and that is configured to capture image data of a scene comprises:

an image sensor array that includes more than one image sensor and that is configured to capture image data of a scene in near-real-time or real-time.

16. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry configured for transmitting unrequested image data from the scene corresponding to other than the selected area at a time at which bandwidth is available.

17. The device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry configured for transmitting via the wireless communication link the at least some of the image data corresponding to the selected area comprises:

circuitry configured for transmitting via the wireless communication link the at least some of the image data corresponding to the selected area without other image data corresponding to outside the selected area to reduce bandwidth load on the wireless communication link.

18. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry configured for adding supplemental data to the at least some of the image data corresponding to the selected area.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein said circuitry configured for adding supplemental data to the at least some of the image data corresponding to the selected area comprises:

circuitry configured for adding advertisement data to the at least some of the image data corresponding to the selected area.

20. The device of claim 19, wherein said circuitry configured for adding advertisement data to the at least some of the image data corresponding to the selected area comprises:

circuitry configured for adding context-based advertisement data to the at least some of the image data corresponding to the selected area.

21. The imago device of claim 18, wherein said circuitry configured for adding supplemental data to the at least some of the image data corresponding to the selected area comprises:

circuitry configured for adding supplemental visual data to the at least some of the image data corresponding to the selected area.

22. The imago device of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry configured for transmitting at least some additional image data from the scene corresponding to other than the selected area.

23. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry configured for storing at least some static image data to satisfy one or more subsequent requests.

24. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry configured for transmitting at least some additional image data from the scene corresponding to other than the selected area to reduce latency associated with a subsequent request.

25. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry configured for transmitting at least some additional image data from the scene at one or more specified intervals.

26. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry configured for transmitting non-live image data of the scene.

27. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry configured for trashing unselected image data corresponding to other than the selected area.

28. The imago device of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry configured for decimating at least some of the one or more pixels corresponding to the selected area based at least partly on a bandwidth capacity of the wireless communication link and/or a screen resolution of a requesting device.

29. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry configured for comparing the image data of the scene to previously captured image data to identify one or more unchanged pixels.

30. The device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry configured for transmitting via the wireless communication link a low resolution version of the image data for identifying a target comprises:

circuitry configured for transmitting via the wireless communication link a low resolution version of the image data associated with an entirety of the scene for identifying a target.

31. The device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry configured for transmitting via the wireless communication link a low resolution version of the image data for identifying a target comprises:

circuitry configured for transmitting via the wireless communication link a low resolution version of the image data associated with one or more regions surrounding one or more potential targets.

32. The device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry configured for transmitting via the wireless communication link a low resolution version of the image data for identifying a target comprises:

circuitry configured for transmitting via the wireless communication link a plurality of different low resolution versions of the image data for identifying a target.

33. The device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry configured for transmitting via the wireless communication link a low resolution version of the image data for identifying a target comprises:

circuitry configured for transmitting via the wireless communication link a low resolution version of the image data for identifying at least one of the following types of targets;

address, person, point-of-interest, or number.

34. The device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry configured for transmitting via the wireless communication link a low resolution version of the image data for identifying a target comprises:

circuitry configured for transmitting via the wireless communication link a low resolution version of the image data for computer-identification of a target.

35. The device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry configured for transmitting via the wireless communication link a low resolution version of the image data for identifying a target comprises:

circuitry configured for transmitting via the wireless communication link a low resolution version of the image data for user-selection of a target.

36. The device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry configured for acquiring via the wireless communication link a request for a selected area that is part of the scene and that is associated with the target, at least partly in response to transmission of the lower resolution version of the image data comprises:

circuitry configured for acquiring via the wireless communication link a request for a selected area that is part of the scene and that is surrounds the target, at least partly in response to transmission of the lower resolution version of the image data.

37. A system comprising:

a wireless communication link;

an image sensor array that includes more than one image sensor and that is configured to capture image data of a scene;

circuitry configured for transmitting via the wireless communication link a low resolution version of the image data for identifying a target;

circuitry configured for acquiring via the wireless communication link a request for a selected area that is part of the scene and that is associated with the target, at least partly in response to transmission of the lower resolution version of the image data;

circuitry configured for selecting at least some of the image data to obtain one or more pixels corresponding to the selected area at a resolution that is higher than the lower resolution; and

circuitry configured for transmitting via the wireless communication link the at least some of the image data corresponding to the selected area.

38. A system comprising:

a wireless communication link;

an image sensor array that includes more than one image sensor and that is configured to capture image data of a scene; and

at least one processing component configured to perform operations including at least;

transmitting via the wireless communication link a low resolution version of the image data for identifying a target;

acquiring via the wireless communication link a request for a selected area that is part of the scene and that is associated with the target, at least partly in response to transmission of the lower resolution version of the image data;

selecting at least some of the image data to obtain one or more pixels corresponding to the selected area at a resolution that is higher than the lower resolution; and

transmitting via the wireless communication link the at least some of the image data corresponding to the selected area.