IMAGE PROCESSING ARCHITECTURES AND METHODS
First Claim
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.
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Accused Products
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.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A cell phone comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A cell phone comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
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13. A method comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification