Smartphone-based methods and systems

• US 8,819,172 B2
• Filed: 11/17/2011
• Issued: 08/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Davis, Bruce L., Rodriguez, Tony F., Rhoads, Geoffrey B., Conwell, William Y., Owen, Jerrine K., Alattar, Adnan M., Rogers, Eliot, Bradley, Brett A., Reed, Alastair M., Brandis, Robert Craig
• Primary Examiner(s): Nalven, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Li, Mary
• Application Number:
  US13/299,140
• Publication Number:
  US 20120208592A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,013 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/217
• 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. A method practiced with a consumer electronic device, comprising:

receiving content data representing audio, image and/or video content, the content data being received in a file format of a type that the electronic device is capable of rendering to produce a content-related experience, by reason of a first software rendering program earlier installed or otherwise made available for use with the device;

by reference to the received content data, identifying a software rendering program desired by a proprietor of the content data for producing a content-related user experience with said content data;

determining that said proprietor-desired software rendering program is not presently installed or available for use with the device; and

based on said determining, refusing to render the received content data on the device, despite the capable first software rendering program;

wherein the consumer electronic device respects a desire of the proprietor regarding the software rendering program by which a content-related user experience is to be delivered to the user.

2. The method of claim 1 that further includes presenting a user of the device with information enabling the user to direct installation of one or more of the software rendering program(s) prescribed by the proprietor.

3. The method of claim 1 in which identifying one or more software rendering program(s) prescribed by the proprietor is also based on one or more context factors.

4. The method of claim 3 in which identifying one or more software rendering program(s) prescribed by the proprietor is based on a context factor comprising identification of a type identifier for the consumer electronic device.

5. A consumer electronic device including a processor and a memory, the memory including instructions that configure the device to perform a method comprising:

receiving content data representing audio, image and/or video content, the content data being received in a file format of a type that the electronic device is capable of rendering to produce a content-related experience, by reason of a first software rendering program earlier installed or otherwise made available for use with the device;

by reference to the received content data, identifying a software rendering program desired by a proprietor of the content data for producing a content-related user experience with said content data;

determining that said proprietor-desired software rendering program is not presently installed or available for use with the device; and

based on said determining, refusing to render the received content data on the device, despite the capable first software rendering program;

wherein the consumer electronic device respects a desire of the proprietor regarding the software rendering program by which a content-related user experience is to be delivered to the user.

6. The device of claim 5 in which said method further includes presenting a user of the device with information enabling the user to direct installation of one or more of the software rendering program(s) prescribed by the proprietor.

7. The device of claim 5 in which said identifying one or more software rendering program(s) prescribed by the proprietor is also based on one or more context factors.

8. The device of claim 7 in which said identifying one or more software rendering program(s) prescribed by the proprietor is based on a context factor comprising identification of a type identifier for the consumer electronic device.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing programming instructions that, when used to configure a consumer electronic device, enable the device to perform a method comprising:

receiving content data representing audio, image and/or video content, the content data being received in a file format of a type that the electronic device is capable of rendering to produce a content-related experience, by reason of a first software rendering program earlier installed or otherwise made available for use with the device;

by reference to the received content data, identifying a software rendering program desired by a proprietor of the content data for producing a content-related user experience with said content data;

determining that said proprietor-desired software rendering program is not presently installed or available for use with the device; and

based on said determining, refusing to render the received content data on the device, despite the capable first software rendering program;

wherein the consumer electronic device respects a desire of the proprietor regarding the software rendering program by which a content-related user experience is to be delivered to the user.

10. The medium of claim 9 in which said method further includes presenting a user of the device with information enabling the user to direct installation of one or more of the software rendering program(s) prescribed by the proprietor.

11. The medium of claim 9 in which said identifying one or more software rendering program(s) prescribed by the proprietor is also based on one or more context factors.

12. The medium of claim 11 in which said identifying one or more software rendering program(s) prescribed by the proprietor is based on a context factor comprising identification of a type identifier for the consumer electronic device.