METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR CONTENT PROCESSING

• US 20140080428A1
• Filed: 11/12/2013
• Published: 03/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Rhoads, Geoffrey B., Rhoads, Nicole
• Granted Patent: US 8,929,877 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/88
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5846 using extracted text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5854 using shape and object relationship
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5862 using texture
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5866 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time information
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/587 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9554 by using bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/40 Software arrangements specially adapted for pattern recognition, e.g. user interfaces or toolboxes therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/945 User interactive design; Environments; Toolboxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/10 Terrestrial scenes scenes under surveillance with static cameras G06V20/52; scenes perceived from the exterior of a vehicle G06V20/56; scenes perceived from the interior of a vehicle G06V20/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• 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 2101/00 : Still video cameras
• 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 23/661 : Transmitting camera control signals through networks, e.g. control via the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 : using location based information parameters
• 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 4/70 : Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]

Abstract

Mobile phones and other portable devices are equipped with a variety of technologies by which existing functionality can be improved, and new functionality can be provided. Some aspects relate to visual search capabilities, and determining appropriate actions responsive to different image inputs. Others relate to processing of image data. Still others concern metadata generation, processing, and representation. Yet others concern user interface improvements. Other aspects relate to imaging architectures, in which a mobile phone'"'"'s image sensor is one in a chain of stages that successively act on packetized instructions/data, to capture and later process imagery. Still other aspects relate to distribution of processing tasks between the mobile device and remote resources (“the cloud”). Elemental image processing (e.g., simple filtering and edge detection) can be performed on the mobile phone, while other operations can be referred out to remote service providers. The remote service providers can be selected using techniques such as reverse auctions, through which they compete for processing tasks. A great number of other features and arrangements are also detailed.

Claims

1. A method employing a portable apparatus, comprising the acts:

responsive to user action indicating desire to interact with a first device, initiating a first interaction session between the portable apparatus and the first device, using a first user interface presented on a display of the portable apparatus that corresponds to the first device, said interaction session enabling data exchange back and forth between the portable apparatus and a transceiver portion of the first device, to control an operation of the first device;

responsive to user action indicating desire to interact with a second device, initiating a second interaction session between the portable apparatus and the second device, using a second user interface presented on a display of the portable apparatus that corresponds to the second device, said interaction session enabling data exchange back and forth between the portable apparatus and a transceiver portion of the second device, to control an operation of the second device;

presenting, on the display of the portable apparatus, a menu identifying pending interaction sessions, including said first interaction session and said second interaction session, from which the user can select to recall a corresponding user interface, allowing the user to continue an earlier interaction session with a particular device;

wherein said acts of initiating the interaction sessions employ a hardware processor in the portable apparatus.

2. The method of claim 1 that further includes:

responsive to user action indicating desire to interact with a third device, initiating a third interaction session between the portable apparatus and the third device, using a third user interface presented on a display of the portable apparatus that corresponds to the third device, said interaction session enabling data exchange back and forth between the portable apparatus and a transceiver portion of the third device, to control an operation of the third device;

wherein said menu also identifies said third interaction session.

3. The method of claim 1 in which a user interface presented on the display of the portable apparatus, corresponding to the first device, provides plural graphical controls corresponding to plural physical controls accessible to the user from the exterior of said first device.

4. The method of claim 1 in which the first device comprises a parking meter.

5. The method of claim 1 that further includes:

using a camera of the portable apparatus to capture imagery depicting the first device;

performing an object-recognition operation on the captured imagery to obtain device identification information that identifies the first device, said operation being performed—

at least in part—

using a hardware processor in the portable apparatus;

through use of the device identification information, obtaining user interface information corresponding to the first device from a remote system, and employing said user interface information to present the user interface for the first device on the display of the portable apparatus;

receiving user input responsive to presentation of the user interface on the display of the portable apparatus; and

as a consequence of said received user input, sending control data from the portable apparatus for reception by the transceiver portion of the first device, to control the first device.

6. A cell phone including a processor, a wireless interface, a memory, a sensor, and a display, instructions in the memory configuring the phone to present a user interface that allows a user to select between several other device-specific user interfaces stored in memory, for enabling use of the mobile phone to both send information to, and receive information from, data transceiver portions of each of plural different physical devices, to enable control of said physical devices based on information sent from the cell phone, wherein at least one of said user interfaces provides plural graphical controls corresponding to plural physical controls accessible to the user from the exterior of one of said devices.

7. The cell phone of claim 6 in which said instructions in said memory further configure the phone to perform actions including:

using a camera of said phone to capture imagery depicting a first physical device;

performing an object-recognition operation on the captured imagery to obtain device identification information that identifies the first physical device;

through use of the device identification information, obtaining user interface information corresponding to the first device from a remote system, and employing said user interface information to present a first device-specific user interface on the display;

receiving user input responsive to presentation of the first device-specific user interface on the display; and

as a consequence of said received user input, sending data from the phone for reception by the transceiver portion of the first device, to control the first device.

8. The cell phone of claim 6 in which said instructions in said memory further configure the phone to perform actions including:

responsive to user action indicating desire to interact with a first physical device, initiating a first interaction session between the cell phone and the first physical device, using a first user interface presented on a display of the cell phone that corresponds to the first physical device, said interaction session enabling data exchange back and forth between the cell phone and a transceiver portion of the first physical device, to control an operation of the first physical device;

responsive to user action indicating desire to interact with a second physical device, initiating a second interaction session between the cell phone and the second physical device, using a second user interface presented on a display of the cell phone that corresponds to the second physical device, said interaction session enabling data exchange back and forth between the cell phone and a transceiver portion of the second physical device, to control an operation of the second physical device; and

presenting, on the display of the cell phone, a menu identifying pending interaction sessions, including said first interaction session and said second interaction session, from which the user can select to recall a corresponding user interface, allowing the user to continue an earlier interaction session with a particular physical device.

9. The cell phone of claim 6 in which one of said device-specific user interfaces stored in memory corresponds to a parking meter device.

10. A method comprising the acts:

capturing imagery depicting a first device, the first device including a transceiver portion for communicating with other devices;

performing an object-recognition operation on the captured imagery to obtain device identification information that identifies the first device, said operation being performed—

at least in part—

using a hardware processor in a portable apparatus that captured the imagery;

through use of the device identification information, obtaining user interface information corresponding to the first device from a remote system, and employing said user interface information to present a user interface for the first device on a display of the portable apparatus;

receiving user input responsive to presentation of the user interface on the display of the portable apparatus; and

as a consequence of said received user input, sending data from the portable apparatus for reception by the transceiver portion of the first device, to control the first device.

11. The method of claim 10 in which said presented user interface for the first display provides plural graphical controls corresponding to plural physical controls accessible to the user from the exterior of said first device.

12. The method of claim 10 that further includes, after said sending data act, receiving data at the portable apparatus sent from the first device.

13. The method of claim 12 that further includes changing information in the user interface presented on the display of the portable apparatus as a consequence of said received data.

14. The method of claim 10 that further includes:

using the camera of the portable apparatus to capture second imagery depicting a second device, the second device including a transceiver portion for communicating with other devices;

performing an object-recognition operation on the captured second imagery to obtain second device identification information that identifies the second device;

through use of the second device identification information, obtaining user interface information corresponding to the second device from the remote system, and employing said user interface information to present a user interface for the second device on the display of the portable apparatus, the user interface for the second device being different than the user interface for the first device;

receiving further user input responsive to presentation of the user interface for the second device; and

as a consequence of said received further user input, sending data from the portable apparatus for reception by the transceiver portion of the second device, to control the second device.

15. The method of claim 14 that further includes presenting, on the display of the portable apparatus, a menu identifying pending interaction sessions resulting from use of the portable apparatus with both the first and second devices, from which menu the user can select to recall a corresponding user interface, allowing the user to continue an earlier interaction with a particular device.

16. The method of claim 10 in which the portable apparatus includes a touch-screen display, and the presented user interface for the first device includes first and second touch-screen buttons operable to respectively increase and decrease a parameter for the first device.

17. The method of claim 10 in which obtaining the user interface information comprises providing the device identification information to a remote system, which uses the device identification information to identify a source of user interface information corresponding to said first device, from among plural sources of user interface information, resulting in return of the user interface information to the portable apparatus.

18. The method of claim 10 in which the object-recognition operation includes generating robust local descriptor data from the captured imagery.

19. The method of claim 10 in which the object-recognition operation includes a local image gradient function.

20. The method of claim 10 in which the object-recognition operation comprises a blob detection method.

21. The method of claim 10 in which the first device comprises a parking meter.