METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REDUCING RECOGNITION TIMES IN AN IMAGE-BASED PRODUCT RECOGNITION SYSTEM
First Claim
1. A product recognition system comprising:
- a product image data collector arranged to capture image data which is representative of an image of a product item;
an acoustic energy source arranged to emit acoustic energy towards the product item; and
a product acoustic data collector arranged to (i) capture acoustic energy deflected from the product item, (ii) process the captured acoustic data which has been deflected from the product item to provide product acoustic data which is representative of one or more characteristics of the product item, and (iii) compare the product acoustic data with a store of reference acoustic data to provide one or more subsets of items against which the captured image data can be compared to identify the product item.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A product recognition system comprises a product image data collector arranged to capture image data which is representative of an image of a product item. The product recognition system also comprises an acoustic energy source arranged to emit acoustic energy towards the product item. The product recognition further comprises a product acoustic data collector arranged to (i) capture acoustic energy deflected from the product item, (ii) process the captured acoustic data which has been deflected from the product item to provide product acoustic data which is representative of one or more characteristics of the product item, and (iii) compare the product acoustic data with a store of reference acoustic data to provide one or more subsets of items against which the captured image data can be compared to identify the product item.
37 Citations
18 Claims
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1. A product recognition system comprising:
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a product image data collector arranged to capture image data which is representative of an image of a product item; an acoustic energy source arranged to emit acoustic energy towards the product item; and a product acoustic data collector arranged to (i) capture acoustic energy deflected from the product item, (ii) process the captured acoustic data which has been deflected from the product item to provide product acoustic data which is representative of one or more characteristics of the product item, and (iii) compare the product acoustic data with a store of reference acoustic data to provide one or more subsets of items against which the captured image data can be compared to identify the product item. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. An apparatus for reducing recognition times in an image-based product recognition system, the apparatus comprising:
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at least one acoustic energy source arranged to emit acoustic energy towards the product item; a store of reference acoustic data which is representative of a relatively large database of product items; an acoustic energy capture device arranged to capture acoustic data which is representative of deflected acoustic energy from the product item; and control circuitry arranged to (i) compare the captured acoustic data with the store of reference acoustic data, (ii) identify a relatively small subset of items from the relatively large database of items based upon the comparison of the captured acoustic data with the store of reference product acoustic data, and (iii) provide the relatively small subset of product items to the image-based product recognition system to allow the product recognition system to identify the product item based upon the relatively small subset of the relatively large database of items and thereby to assist the image-based product recognition system in identifying the product item. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of reducing recognition times in an image recognition system to identify a product item, the method comprising:
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emitting acoustic energy towards the product item to be identified; capturing acoustic energy deflected from the product item; processing the captured acoustic energy to provide acoustic data which is representative of one or more characteristics of the product item; comparing the acoustic data which is representative of one or more characteristics of the product item with a store of reference acoustic data which is representative of characteristics of a relatively large database of product items to provide a relatively small one or more subsets of the relatively large database of product items; and providing the relatively small one or more subsets of items to the image recognition system to allow the image recognition system to process the one or more subsets of items to identify the product item. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification