SMARTPHONE-BASED METHODS AND SYSTEMS

• US 20160322082A1
• Filed: 04/27/2016
• Published: 11/03/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Owen, Jerrine K., Davis, Bruce L., Rodriguez, Tony F., Rhoads, Geoffrey B., Conwell, William Y., Alattar, Adnan M., Rogers, Eliot, Bradley, Brett A., Reed, Alastair M., Brandis, Robert Craig
• Granted Patent: US 9,830,950 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 device including a camera, a display, a processor, and a memory, the memory containing executable code that, when executed by the processor, adapts the device to perform acts including:

presenting streaming video captured from a field of view of the camera within a viewfinder region of the device display, the field of view including at least part of a first object bearing a first machine-readable feature, and at least part of a second object bearing a second machine readable feature;

locating the first machine-readable feature in the field of view, decoding a first plural-bit payload from the first machine-readable feature, storing said payload in a device history, and indicating to the user that the first machine-readable feature has been decoded, while still presenting the captured video from the field of view in the viewfinder region of the display;

locating the second machine-readable feature in the field of view, decoding a second plural-bit payload from the second machine-readable feature, storing said payload in the device history, and indicating to the user that the second machine-readable feature has been decoded, while still presenting the captured video from the field of view in the viewfinder region of the display;

the device thereby operating in a streaming mode to collect information related to plural different machine-readable features found on objects in the field of view; and

in response to selection of a user interface control by the user, presenting a scrollable listing of entries from the history, said entries including a first entry providing information about the decoded first feature, and a second entry providing information about the decoded second feature.

23. The device of claim 22 in which said acts further include presenting on the display, with the streaming video in the viewfinder region, a numeric figure indicating a number of entries available for user review in the device history.

24. The device of claim 22 in which the entry in said scrollable list about the first machine-readable feature comprises a graphical indicia indicating a type of feature that was recognized, information discerned from the feature, and a time the feature was detected.

25. The device of claim 22 in which said listing of entries additionally includes an entry for a feature discerned from audio.

26. The device of claim 22 in which said listing of entries additionally includes an entry for a feature discerned from an RFID chip.

27. The device of claim 22 in which said first locating act include starting at the center of the field of view, and working out from the center, in search of the first feature.

28. The device of claim 22 in which the user interface additionally includes a control operable by the user to toggle the device to a non-streaming mode, in which the device responds to decoding of a payload a machine-readable feature by storing said payload in the device history, and immediately loading a web page corresponding to said feature.

29. The device of claim 22 in which the streaming video depicts both the first and second machine-readable features, simultaneously.

30. A method employing a device equipped with a camera and a display, the method including the acts:

(a) presenting streaming video captured from the field of view of the camera within a viewfinder region of the device display, the field of view including at least part of a first object bearing a first machine-readable feature, and at least part of a second object bearing a second machine readable feature;

(b) locating the first machine-readable feature in the field of view, decoding a first plural-bit payload from the first machine-readable feature, storing said payload in a device history, and indicating to the user that the first machine-readable feature has been decoded, while still presenting the captured video from the field of view in the viewfinder region of the display;

(c) locating the second machine-readable feature in the field of view, decoding a second plural-bit payload from the second machine-readable feature, storing said payload in the device history, and indicating to the user that the second machine-readable feature has been decoded, while still presenting the captured video from the field of view in the viewfinder region of the display;

wherein acts (b) and (c) are performed within an interval of less than three seconds, the device thereby operating in a streaming mode to collect information related to plural different machine-readable features found on objects in the field of view; and

(d) in response to selection of a user interface control by the user, presenting a scrollable listing of entries in the history, said entries including a first entry providing information about the decoded first feature, and a second entry providing information about the decoded second feature.