Methods and arrangements for processing image data

• US 8,532,334 B2
• Filed: 12/11/2012
• Issued: 09/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Rhoads, Geoffrey B.
• Primary Examiner(s): CHANG, JON CARLTON
• Application Number:
  US13/711,256
• Publication Number:
  US 20130100301A1
• Time in Patent Office: 273 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/190, 382/195, 382/276
• US Class Current: 382/100
• 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: G06T 2201/0601 whereby calibration information is embedded in the watermark, e.g. a grid, a scale, a list of transformations
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/225 based on a marking or identifier characterising the area
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32 Circuits or arrangements for control or supervision between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device, e.g. between a still-image camera and its memory or between a still-image camera and a printer device H04N1/38, H04N1/387 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32133 on the same paper sheet, e.g. a facsimile page header
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32187 with selective or adaptive application of the additional information, e.g. in selected frequency coefficients
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32309 in colour image data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3269 of machine readable codes or marks, e.g. bar codes or glyphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/327 which are undetectable to the naked eye, e.g. embedded codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3273 Display

Abstract

An image can be encoded to define one or more spatial regions that are detectable by a suitably-equipped mobile device (e.g., a smartphone), but are imperceptible to humans. When such a mobile device senses one of these regions, it takes an action in response (e.g., rendering an associated tone, playing linked video, etc.). The mobile device may send an excerpt of captured imagery to a cloud processor, which responds with an estimate of the viewing angle by which the image was captured. The mobile device can perform further operations (e.g., re-sampling, watermark decoding) based on this viewing angle estimate. A great variety of other features and arrangements are also detailed.

Claims

1. A method practiced using a user'"'"'s camera-equipped portable computer system, including the acts:

processing imagery of a subject captured by the user'"'"'s camera-equipped portable computer system, to produce processed image data corresponding to a spatial excerpt of the captured imagery, the spatial excerpt comprising less than all of a captured image frame;

sending the processed image data corresponding to the spatial excerpt to a remote processor;

receiving from the remote processor an estimate of a viewing angle of the camera relative to the subject; and

further processing image data corresponding to the captured image frame, in accordance with said estimate of the viewing angle received from the remote processor.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the spatial excerpt consists of a 32×

32 region of pixels.

3. The method of claim 1 in which the spatial excerpt consists of a region from the center of the captured image frame.

4. The method of claim 1 in which the further processing of the image data comprises resampling the image data in accordance with the estimate of the viewing angle received from the remote processor.

5. The method of claim 1 in which the spatial excerpt includes a steganographic signal by which the remote system can estimate the viewing angle.

6. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, if executed by a user'"'"'s camera-equipped portable computing system, cause the system to perform operations including:

processing imagery of a subject captured by the user'"'"'s camera-equipped portable computer system, to produce processed image data corresponding to a spatial excerpt of the captured imagery, the spatial excerpt comprising less than all of a captured image frame;

sending the processed image data corresponding to the spatial excerpt to a remote processor;

receiving from the remote processor an estimate of a viewing angle of the camera relative to the subject; and

further processing image data corresponding to the captured image frame, in accordance with said estimate of the viewing angle received from the remote processor.

7. The article of claim 6 in which the spatial excerpt consists of a 32×

32 region of pixels.

8. The article of claim 6 in which the spatial excerpt consists of a region from the center of the captured image frame.

9. The article of claim 6 in which the further processing of the image data comprises resampling the image data in accordance with the estimate of the viewing angle received from the remote processor.

10. The article of claim 6 in which the spatial excerpt includes a steganographic signal by which the remote system can estimate the viewing angle.

12. The system of claim 9 in which the spatial excerpt consists of a 32×

32 region of pixels.

13. The system of claim 9 in which the spatial excerpt consists of a region from the center of the captured image frame.

11. A system including a camera, a processor and a memory, the system being adapted for portable conveyance by a user, the memory containing computer instructions that configure the system to perform operations including:

processing imagery of a subject captured by the camera, to produce processed image data corresponding to a spatial excerpt of the captured imagery, the spatial excerpt comprising less than all of a captured image frame;

sending the processed image data corresponding to the spatial excerpt to a remote processor;

receiving from the remote processor an estimate of a viewing angle of the camera relative to the subject; and

further processing image data corresponding to the captured image frame, in accordance with said estimate of the viewing angle received from the remote processor.

14. The system of claim 11 in which the further processing of the image data comprises resampling the image data in accordance with the estimate of the viewing angle received from the remote processor.

15. The system of claim 11 in which the spatial excerpt includes a steganographic signal by which the remote system can estimate the viewing angle.