IMAGE PROCESSING ARCHITECTURES AND METHODS

• US 20130217440A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 08/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Lord, John D., Rhoads, Geoffrey B., Rodriguez, Tony F.
• Granted Patent: US 8,855,712 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/556.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/50 of still image data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/40 Software arrangements specially adapted for pattern recognition, e.g. user interfaces or toolboxes therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/44 Local feature extraction by analysis of parts of the pattern, e.g. by detecting edges, contours, loops, corners, strokes or intersections; Connectivity analysis, e.g. of connected components
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/462 Salient features, e.g. scale invariant feature transforms [SIFT]
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/507 Summing image-intensity values; Histogram projection analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/56 relating to colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/945 User interactive design; Environments; Toolboxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/80 Recognising image objects characterised by unique random patterns
• 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: H04M 1/0202 Portable telephone sets, e.g. cordless phones, mobile phones or bar type handsets constructional features of telephone transmitters or receivers, e.g. of speakers or microphones H04M1/03
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0264 for a camera module assembly
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00307 with a mobile telephone apparatus constructional features of portable telephone sets H04M1/0202; mobile radio systems H04W84/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2133 Recording or reproducing at a specific moment, e.g. time interval or time-lapse
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32101 Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2101/00 Still video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3225 of data relating to an image, a page or a document
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3274 Storage or retrieval of prestored additional information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3278 Transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/611 where the recognised objects include parts of the human body
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/64 : Computer-aided capture of images, e.g. transfer from script file into camera, check of taken image quality, advice or proposal for image composition or decision on when to take image
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 : Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

Cell phones and other portable devices are equipped with a variety of technologies by which existing functionality is improved, and new functionality is provided. Some aspects relate to imaging architectures, in which a cell phone'"'"'s image sensor is one in a chain of stages that successively act on instructions/data, to capture and later process imagery. Other aspects relate to distribution of processing tasks between the device and remote resources (“the cloud”). Elemental image processing, such as filtering and edge detection—and even some simpler template matching operations—may be performed on the cell phone. Other operations are referred out to remote service providers. The remote service providers can be identified using techniques such as a reverse auction, though which they compete for processing tasks. Other aspects of the disclosed technologies relate to visual search capabilities, and determining appropriate actions responsive to different image inputs. Still others concern metadata generation, processing, and representation. A great number of other features and arrangements are also detailed.

Claims

1. A cell phone comprising:

an image sensor portion that outputs frames of image data;

a processing system coupled to the image sensor portion, the processing system including plural processing units;

a memory containing instructions that cause the processing system to configure a pipelined arrangement in which one of said processing units processes one frame of image data while another of said processing units processes a different frame of image data; and

a radio interface coupled to the processing system to enable wireless transmission of one or more frames of processed image data from the cell phone;

wherein said instructions cause a first processing unit to process a first frame of data at a first time, and cause the same first processing unit to process said same first frame of data at a second, later time.

2. The cell phone of claim 1 in which said instructions cause a second processing unit to process the first frame of data between the first and second times that said frame of data is processed by the first processing unit.

3. The cell phone of claim 1 in which the first processing unit is reconfigurable by said instructions, so that it performs a first function said first time, and performs a second, different, function said second time.

4. The cell phone of claim 1 in which one of said processing units comprises a programmable processor whose function can be changed by said instructions, and another of said processing units comprises a dedicated purpose processor whose function is fixed.

5. The cell phone of claim 1 in which said processing units are coupled to an interconnection arrangement that permits a frame of data output by a first processing unit to be input to a second processing unit for further processing, and also permits a frame of data output by the second processing unit to be input to the first processing unit for further processing.

6. The cell phone of claim 1 in which one of said processing units is arranged to receive both image data, and instructions about processing the received image data, from a packet data structure.

7. The cell phone of claim 1 in which said image sensor outputs a first frame of data captured with a first exposure time, and a second frame of data captured with a second exposure time, and the instructions cause the processing system to process said frames to yield a high dynamic range image.

8. The cell phone of claim 1 that further includes a pipe manager module configured to negotiate with other services in the cell phone to access wireless channel bandwidth for transmitting the processed image data, said pipe manager module both specifying an expected size of the image data to be transmitted, and also specifying when the image data is expected to be ready for transmitting.

9. The cell phone of claim 8 in which the pipe manager module is further configured to send information enabling a remote processing service to prepare for its processing of the transmitted image data by retrieving facial recognition features that may be used in said processing.

10. A cell phone comprising:

an image sensor portion that outputs frames of image data;

a processing system coupled to the image sensor portion, the processing system including plural processing units;

a memory containing instructions that cause the processing system to configure a pipelined arrangement in which one of said processing units processes one frame of image data while another of said processing units processes a different frame of image data; and

a radio interface coupled to the processing system that enables wireless transmission of one or more frames of processed image data from the cell phone;

wherein said processing units are coupled to an interconnection arrangement that permits a frame of data output by a first processing unit to be input to a second processing unit for further processing, and also permits a frame of data output by the second processing unit to be input to the first processing unit for further processing.

11. The cell phone of claim 10 wherein said instructions cause a first processing unit to process a first frame of data at a first time, and cause the same first processing unit to process said same first frame of data at a second, later time.

12. The cell phone of claim 11 wherein the first processing unit is reconfigurable by said instructions, so that it performs a first function when it processes the first frame of data the first time, and performs a second, different function when it processes the first frame of data the second time.

13. A method comprising:

capturing first and second frames of image data, and providing each frame of image data to an image processing system of a cell phone;

the image processing system comprising plural processing units operating in a pipelined arrangement in which one of said processing units processes one frame of image data while another of said processing units processes a different frame of image data, said pipelined image processing system also performing acts including;

at a first time, processing one of said frames of image data with a dedicated purpose processing unit whose function is fixed, while also processing the other of said frames of image data with a programmable processing unit that has been configured to perform a first function; and

at a second, later, time, again processing said other frame of image data with said programmable processing unit, said programmable processing unit this second time having been configured to perform a second function different than the first function;

wherein said programmable processing unit in said pipelined image processing system is used plural times to perform plural different functions on a single frame of image data.

14. The method of claim 13 that includes:

capturing the first frame of image data with a first exposure time;

capturing the second frame of image data with a second, different exposure time; and

processing the two frames of image data to yield a high dynamic range image.

15. The method of claim 13 that further includes wirelessly transmitting processed imagery resulting from said processing, from said cell phone.

16. The method of claim 13 that further includes:

wirelessly transmitting processed image data resulting from said processing, from said cell phone to a remote processing service;

wirelessly receiving data produced by said remote processing service from its processing of said transmitted image data; and

further processing said received data by said pipelined image processing system of the cell phone.

17. The method of claim 16 that includes negotiating with other services in the cell phone to access wireless channel bandwidth for transmitting the processed image data, said negotiating occurring before the processed image data is ready for transmitting, said negotiating including specifying an expected size of the image data to be transmitted, and specifying when the image data is expected to be ready for transmitting.

18. The method of claim 17 that further includes sending information that enables the remote processing service to prepare for its processing of the transmitted image data by retrieving facial recognition features that may be used in said processing.

19. The method of claim 16 that further includes receiving information indicating that there will be a delay in receiving the data produced by the remote processing service, and alerting a user regarding the delay.

20. The method of claim 13 that further includes conveying both image data and processing unit instructions together, between processing units, in the form of a packet data structure.