Smartphone-Based Methods and Systems

• US 20120282911A1
• Filed: 07/18/2012
• Published: 11/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Bruce L. Davis, Robert Craig Brandis, Tony F. Rodriguez
• Original Assignee: Bruce L. Davis, Robert Craig Brandis, Tony F. Rodriguez
• Inventors: Davis, Bruce L., Rodriguez, Tony F., Brandis, Robert Craig
• Application Number:
  US13/552,319
• Publication Number:
  US 20120282911A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/418
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/21 Design or setup of recognition systems or techniques; Extraction of features in feature space; Blind source separation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1443 locating of the code in an image
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0021 Image watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0064 Geometric transfor invariant watermarking, e.g. affine transform invariant
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0052 Embedding of the watermark in the frequency domain
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0264 for a camera module assembly
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/635 Region indicators; Field of view indicators
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/70 Circuitry for compensating brightness variation in the scene
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/22 Processing or transfer of terminal data, e.g. status or physical capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/11 by determining the brightness or colour temperature of ambient light
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/12 by detecting audible sound
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/40 Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection

Abstract

Arrangements involving portable devices (e.g., smartphones and tablet computers) are disclosed. One arrangement enables a content creator to select software with which that creator'"'"'s content should be rendered—assuring continuity between artistic intention and delivery. Another utilizes a device camera to identify nearby subjects, and take actions based thereon. Others rely on near field chip (RFID) identification of objects, or on identification of audio streams (e.g., music, voice). Some technologies concern improvements to the user interfaces associated with such devices. Others involve use of these devices in connection with shopping, text entry, sign language interpretation, and vision-based discovery. Still other improvements are architectural in nature, e.g., relating to evidence-based state machines, and blackboard systems. Yet other technologies concern use of linked data in portable devices—some of which exploit GPU capabilities. Still other technologies concern computational photography. A great variety of other features and arrangements are also detailed.

Claims

1-21. -21. (canceled)

22. A computer readable storage medium having operating system (OS) software stored thereon, the operating system software serving to configure a processor to provide OS services to requesting application programs through defined interfaces, wherein said OS services include deriving content identification data from signal data representing visual or auditory information, and publishing same for use by one or more application programs that subscribe to same through a defined interface.

23. The computer readable storage medium of claim 22 wherein the deriving comprises applying a processing algorithm to the signal data, to yield reduced-bit content identification data therefrom.

24. The computer readable storage medium of claim 22 wherein the deriving comprises applying a processing algorithm to the signal data, to yield reduced-bit content identification data therefrom, and accessing a data store to obtain further identification information corresponding to said reduced-bit content identification data.

25. An apparatus including a processing device and a memory, the memory containing operating system (OS) instructions configuring the processing device to provide OS services to requesting application programs through defined interfaces, the apparatus further includes a sensing system for sensing ambient visual and/or sonic stimulus from an environment of the device and for producing content data corresponding thereto, wherein one of said OS services derives content identification data from said produced content data, and publishes same to requesting application programs that subscribe through a defined interface.

26. An apparatus including a processing device and a memory, the memory containing operating system (OS) instructions configuring the processing device to provide OS services to requesting application programs through defined interfaces, wherein one of the defined interfaces provides a content identification message queue that publishes content identification data corresponding to visual or sonic stimulus processed by the device, to which queue one or more application programs can subscribe.

27. The apparatus of claim 26 that further includes a sensing system for sensing ambient visual and/or sonic stimulus from an environment of the apparatus and for producing content data corresponding thereto, wherein the content identification message queue provides messages that comprise content identification data corresponding to visual or sonic stimulus sensed from the environment of the apparatus.

28. A method comprising:

background-sensing sonic or visual stimuli from a user'"'"'s ambient environment for a prolonged period, thereby noting content to which the user has been exposed during said period;

by reference to the background-sensed stimuli, using a configured hardware processor to generate content identification data corresponding to several different items of content to which the user has been exposed during said period; and

in the course of a subsequent user interaction with a user interface, identifying to the user, by title, plural different items of content noted from the user'"'"'s environment, and enabling the user to select among plural different actions with respect to at least one of said identified items of content.

29. A method comprising:

sensing sonic or visual stimuli from a user'"'"'s ambient environment, thereby noting content to which the user has been exposed;

by reference to the sensed stimuli, using a configured hardware processor to generate content identification data corresponding to at least one item of content to which the user has been exposed; and

priming two or more different software applications with information based, at least in part, on said generated content identification data;

wherein when the user next utilizes each of said different software applications, the user will find that it already reflects the user'"'"'s exposure to said item of content.

30. The method of claim 29 that includes priming three or more different software applications with information based, at least in part, on said generated content identification data.

31. The method of claim 29 that includes priming four or more different software applications with information based, at least in part, on said generated content identification data.

32. The method of claim 29 in which the priming includes caching an audio or video clip, or imagery.

33. A smartphone including a processor and a memory, the memory containing operating system software and plural application programs;

a first of said application programs serves to analyze data representing sonic or visual content to produce corresponding identification data, and to publish results of such analysis to an output; and

a second of said application programs serves to monitor the output of the first application program for certain content to which the second application program is attuned, and take action when said certain content is noted.

34. The smartphone of claim 33 in which a third of said application programs serves to monitor the output of the first application program for certain content to which the third application program is attuned, and take action when said certain content is noted.

35. The smartphone of claim 34 in which the third application program monitors the output of the first application program for the same content for which the second application program monitors said output.

36. The smartphone of claim 34 in which the third application program monitors the output of the first application program for different content than that for which the second application program monitors said output.