Methods and Systems for Content Processing

• US 20110143811A1
• Filed: 08/13/2010
• Published: 06/16/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Rodriguez, Tony F.
• Granted Patent: US 8,768,313 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/556.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/955 using specific electronic processors
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/142 using hand-held instruments; Constructional details of the instruments
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/172 Classification, e.g. identification
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00127 Connection or combination of a still picture apparatus with another apparatus, e.g. for storage, processing or transmission of still picture signals or of information associated with a still picture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00244 with a server, e.g. an internet server fax-servers or the like for store and forward H04N1/324
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00328 with an apparatus processing optically-read information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00331 with an apparatus performing optical character recognition character recognition G06V30/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00336 with an apparatus performing pattern recognition, e.g. of a face or a geographic feature image or video recognition or understanding of scenes G06V20/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0084 Digital still camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/16 Communication-related supplementary services, e.g. call-transfer or call-hold
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/02 Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

Many of the detailed technologies are useful in enabling a smart phone to respond to a user'"'"'s environment, e.g., so it can serve as an intuitive hearing and seeing device. A few of the detailed arrangements involve optimizing division of shared processing tasks between the phone and remote devices; using a phone GPU for exhaustive speculative execution and machine vision purposes (including facial recognition); novel device architectures involving abstraction layers that facilitate substitution of different local and remote services; interactions with private networks as they relate to audio/image processing; adapting the orders in which operations are executed, and the types of data that are exchanged with remote servers, in accordance with current context; reconfiguring networks based on sensed social affiliations among users and in accordance with predictive models of user behavior; etc. A great variety of other features and arrangements are also detailed.

Claims

1. A system including a cell phone, a camera, a microphone, one or more memories, and one or more processors, at least one of the memories having non-transitory software instructions stored therein configuring the system to function as one or more of the arrangements described in paragraphs (A)-(X), above, under the heading Selected Features.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as the portable device described in paragraph (A), above.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as one of the portable devices described in paragraph (B), above.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as one of the arrangements described in paragraph (C), above.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as one of the arrangements described in paragraph (D), above.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as one of the arrangements described in paragraph (E), above.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as one of the arrangements described in paragraph (F), above.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as the arrangement described in paragraph (G), above.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as the arrangement described in paragraph (H), above.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as one of the arrangements described in paragraph (I), above.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as one of the arrangements described in paragraph (J), above.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as one of the arrangements described in paragraph (K), above.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as one of the arrangements described in paragraph (L), above.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as one of the arrangements described in paragraph (M), above.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as one of the arrangements described in paragraph (N), above.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as one of the arrangements described in paragraph (O), above.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as one of the arrangements described in paragraph (P), above.

18. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as one of the arrangements described in paragraph (Q), above.

19. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as one of the arrangements described in paragraph (R), above.

20. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as one of the arrangements described in paragraph (S), above.

21. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as the arrangement described in paragraph (T), above.

22. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as the arrangement described in paragraph (U), above.

23. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as one of the arrangements described in paragraph (V), above.

24. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as the arrangement described in paragraph (W), above.

25. The system of claim 1 wherein the software instructions configure the system to function as the arrangement described in paragraph (X), above.

26. A method of processing image data captured using an image sensor in a cell phone, comprising:

performing a first image processing operation on the captured image data using a processing module in the cell phone, yielding internally-processed image data;

evaluating a competition between two or more external service providers, and sending the internally-processed image data to a winner of said competition for further processing, the winning service provider delivering externally-processed image data; and

taking an action based on the externally-processed image data.