FUSING RFID AND VISION FOR SURFACE OBJECT TRACKING

• US 20100026470A1
• Filed: 08/04/2008
• Published: 02/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Olwal, Alex, Wilson, Andrew D.
• Granted Patent: US 8,847,739 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/10.520
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/25 Fusion techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/046 by electromagnetic means
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/24 Aligning, centring, orientation detection or correction of the image
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/80 Fusion, i.e. combining data from various sources at the sensor level, preprocessing level, feature extraction level or classification level multimodal speaker identification or verification G10L17/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13095 PIN / Access code, authentication

Abstract

The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates detecting and identifying objects within surface computing. An interface component can receive at least one surface input, the surface input relates to at least one of an object, a gesture, or a user. A surface detection component can detect a location of the surface input utilizing a computer vision-based sensing technique. A Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag can transmit a portion of RFID data, wherein the RFID tag is associated with the surface input. A Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) fusion component can utilize the portion of RFID data to identify at least one of a source of the surface input or a portion of data to associate to the surface input.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates detecting and identifying objects within surface computing, comprising:

an interface component that receives at least one surface input, the surface input relates to at least one of an object, a gesture, or a user;

a surface detection component that detects a location of the surface input utilizing at least one of a computer vision-based sensing technique or a non-RFID localization technique;

a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag that transmits a portion of RFID data, the RFID tag is associated by application semantics with the surface input; and

a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) fusion component that utilizes the portion of RFID data to identify at least one of a source of the surface input or a portion of data to associate to the surface input.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising an RFID component that receives, translates, and communicates the portion of RFID data to the RFID fusion component, the RFID component is at least one of an RFID reader, an RFID writer, an RFID printer, a printer, a reader, a writer, an RFID transmitter, an antenna, a sensor, a real-time device, an RFID receiver, a real-time sensor, a device extensible to a web service, and a real-time event generation system.

3. The system of claim 1, the surface detection component utilizes a Frame Difference Algebra (FDA) in order to detect a change between a first still frame and a still second frame.

4. The system of claim 3, the FDA is a set of image processing operations in which at least one of an addition, a removal, or a movement of the surface input is detected.

5. The system of claim 4, the surface detection component corresponds a vision time stamp to the at least one of detected addition, removal, or movement of the surface input.

6. The system of claim 5, the RFID fusion component matches an RFID time stamp to a detected RFID tag.

7. The system of claim 6, at least one of the vision time stamp and the RFID time stamp are matched based at least in part upon a correlation in time, the correlation relates to closeness in detection times for the RFID time stamp and the vision time stamp.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a real time tracking component that employs a frame-to-frame correspondence tracking for the surface input between a previous frame and a subsequent frame, the surface input detected is tagged with an identification (ID).

9. The system of claim 8, the real time tracking component ascertains the frame-to-frame correspondence by at least one of computing a time-based correlation or computing a distance of the surface input to a disparate surface input, wherein a shape in the subsequent frame inherits the ID of a closest shape in the previous frame.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising an image network that provides a portion of data to associate with the surface object identified based upon the portion of RFID data communicated by the RFID tag.

11. The system of claim 10, the portion of data is at least one of an image, a photo, a portion of audio, a portion of video, a portion of a graphic, a portion of text, or a function.

12. The system of claim 1, the RFID data defines the surface input as at least one of a query object, a container object, or an operator object.

13. The system of claim 12, the query object is a detected surface input that utilizes a pre-stored parameter value, the pre-stored parameter is a keyword.

14. The system of claim 12, the container object is a detected surface input that is a physical handle to a collection of data.

15. The system of claim 12, the operator object is a detected surface input that executes a function upon activation.

16. The system of claim 1, the surface detection component is at least one of a table top interactive surface, a tangible user interface, an interface related to surface computing, a surface computing system, a rear-projection surface detection system, a front-projection surface detection system, or a graphical user interface that enables physical interaction with a portion of data.

17. A computer-implemented method that facilitates identifying a surface input in connection with vision-based user interfaces, comprising:

utilizing a vision-based detection system to sense an object on a surface;

ascertain at least one of a shape or a location of the object with the vision-based detection system;

detect an RFID tag within a pre-defined range on the surface associated with the vision-based detection system;

receiving a portion of data from the RFID tag; and

utilizing the portion of data received from the RFID tag for at least one of object identification or data association for the object.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

encoding the RFID tag with the portion of data, the portion of data relates to identifying the object or associating at least one of an image to the object, a portion of video to the object, a portion of text to the object, a document to the object, or a data file to the object; and

coupling the RFID tag to the object.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising utilizing the portion of data communicated from the RFID tag to detect at least one of a shape of the object or a location of the object on the surface.

20. A computer-implemented system that facilitates detecting and identifying objects within surface computing, comprising:

means for physically interacting with displayed data with a surface input, the displayed data is rendered on a surface;

means for receiving at least one surface input, the surface input relates to at least one of an object, a gesture, or a user;

means for detecting a location of the surface input;

means for detecting a change between a first frame and a second frame related to the displayed data rendered on the surface, the change is at least one of an addition of a surface input, a removal of a surface input, or a movement of a surface input;

means for encoding a Radio Frequency Identification tag with a portion of RFID data, the RFID data correlates to a surface input;

means for communicating the portion of RFID data;

means for utilizing the portion of RFID data to identify at least one of a source of the surface input, the identification is based at least in part upon the RFID data correlated surface input;

means for utilizing the portion of RFID data to define a portion of data to associate to the surface input, the definition is based at least in part upon the RFID data correlated surface input; and

means for displaying at least one of the received surface input or the received surface input and associated portion of data.