Data capture and identification system and process

• US 8,494,264 B2
• Filed: 05/04/2012
• Issued: 07/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nant Holdings IP, LLC (NantWorks, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Nant Holdings IP, LLC (NantWorks, LLC)
• Inventors: Boncyk, Wayne C., Cohen, Ronald H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sherali, Ishrat I
• Application Number:
  US13/464,410
• Publication Number:
  US 20120219187A1
• Time in Patent Office: 445 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/181, 382162-165, 382/224, 382/305, 382115-118, 705/23, 705 261- 272, 713/186, 713/168, 348/239, 3482112-2116, 348/207.1, 348/460, 348/552, 709201-203, 709217-219, 709/250, 715/751, 4554141-4142, 455/412.1, 455/411, 455/456.5, 455/456.6
• US Class Current: 382/165
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5854 using shape and object relationship
• 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 18/00 Pattern recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/462 Salient features, e.g. scale invariant feature transforms [SIFT]
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/56 relating to colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/7515 Shifting the patterns to accommodate for positional errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/142 using hand-held instruments; Constructional details of the instruments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• 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

Abstract

An identification method and process for objects from digitally captured images thereof that uses data characteristics to identify an object from a plurality of objects in a database. The data is broken down into parameters such as a Shape Comparison, Grayscale Comparison, Wavelet Comparison, and Color Cube Comparison with object data in one or more databases to identify the actual object of a digital image.

Claims

1. An information retrieval system comprising:

a device connection configured to obtain digital data representative of a scene from a first device; and

a recognition platform configured to;

obtain the digital data via the device connection;

determine a presence of at least one recognizable symbol represented in the digital data to within a confidence level;

decompose the digital data to salient parameters based at least in part on the confidence level;

identify the at least one recognizable symbol as a target based on the salient parameters;

associate the at least one recognizable symbol with target information corresponding to the target; and

return the target information to a second device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the digital data comprises a representation of an object within the scene.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one recognizable symbol is associated with the object.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the digital data comprises representations of a plurality of recognizable symbols.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the recognition platform is further configured to analyze the plurality of recognizable symbols according to their type.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the target information comprises content information from the at least one recognizable symbol.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one recognizable symbol comprises a bar code.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one recognizable symbol comprises alpha numeric characters.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one recognizable symbol comprises a matrix code.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one recognizable symbol comprises a two dimensional matrix code.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the recognition platform is disposed within a mobile device.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the recognition platform is remote relative to the first device.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the recognition platform, at least in part, comprises an Internet accessible server.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the recognition platform, at least in part, comprises a network accessible image identification service.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the first device comprises the second device.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising a database of target information indexed by the salient parameters.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the target information comprises a network address.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the target information enables the second device to perform an action.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the action comprises an interaction with a machine.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the action comprises an interaction with a vending machine.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the action comprises establishing a communication channel.

22. The system of claim 18, wherein the action comprises changing a channel.

23. The system of claim 18, wherein the action comprises initiating a commercial transaction.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the first device comprises at least one of the following:

a computer, a mobile telephone, a personal data assistant, a camera, and a sensor.