Methods and systems for content processing

• US 9,008,724 B2
• Filed: 04/11/2012
• Issued: 04/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Lord, John D.
• Primary Examiner(s): WYCHE, MYRON
• Application Number:
  US13/444,521
• Publication Number:
  US 20120258776A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,098 Days
• Field of Search: 455/450, 455/556.1, 455/566, 455/561, 345/582
• US Class Current: 455/556.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/50 of still image data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/40 Software arrangements specially adapted for pattern recognition, e.g. user interfaces or toolboxes therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/945 User interactive design; Environments; Toolboxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/96 Management of image or video recognition tasks
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/142 using hand-held instruments; Constructional details of the instruments
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0264 for a camera module assembly
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• 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 1/32101 Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2101/00 Still video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3225 of data relating to an image, a page or a document
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3274 Storage or retrieval of prestored additional information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3278 Transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/10 for generating image signals from different wavelengths
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/56 provided with illuminating means
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/74 by influencing the scene brightness using illuminating means
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/26 Resource reservation

Abstract

Disclosed are technologies are useful in enabling a smart phone to respond to a user'"'"'s environment, e.g., so it can serve as an intuitive hearing and seeing device. Some of the detailed arrangements involve using radio base station SDR equipment (e.g., at a cell tower) to perform image recognition operations for phones; forecasting service needs from remote processors delegating a remote execution task to a service provider chosen in a competitive process; using nearby processors, e.g., in an automobile, another phone, or set-top box, for remote execution tasks; phones with separable camera and/or illumination components; phone camera illumination using different colors of light; using search tree methods with image frames captured at different focuses; using a phone'"'"'s microprojector to aid in object identification; correcting lens aberrations by texture mapping captured imagery onto a corrective polygon surface using a phone GPU; etc. A great variety of other features are also detailed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

(a) using a camera sub-system of a mobile phone, capturing and buffering plural frames of image data, while the camera sub-system is changing a parameter that varies a camera focal distance from a first focal distance to a second focal distance, thereby yielding frames of image data at a variety of focal distance settings;

(b) performing a first analysis on one or more of said frames of image data, to assess a focus parameter;

(c) based on said first analysis, selecting one of said captured and buffered plural frames of image data, not analyzed in act (b), as having a desired focus parameter; and

(d) taking a further action with the selected frame of image data;

wherein said selected frame was captured before said first analysis was performed, but was not selected until after said first analysis was performed.

2. A method comprising:

using a camera sub-system of a mobile phone, capturing a first frame of image data;

assessing the captured image data;

setting a parameter of the camera sub-system based on said assessment; and

capturing a second frame of image data using said set parameter;

wherein;

the assessing includes assessing the content of the first frame of image data in a particular color channel selected from the group consisting of blue, yellow, red and green, and

the setting includes varying said parameter to maximize a range of said particular color channel values, in pixels representing the second frame of image data.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein said parameter is a parameter that varies exposure of the camera sub-system.

8. The method of claim 2 that includes:

assessing content of a frame of image data in a first color channel selected from said group;

based on said assessing in the first color channel, capturing a frame “

A”

of image data using a parameter set to maximize a range of said first color channel values, in pixels representing the captured frame “

A”

of image data;

assessing content of a frame of image data in a second color channel selected from said group, the second color channel being different than the first;

based on said assessing in the second color channel, capturing a frame “

B”

of image data using a parameter set to maximize a range of said second color channel values, in pixels representing the captured frame “

B”

of image data; and

subtracting data corresponding to frame “

B”

from data corresponding to frame “

A”

to yield a difference frame “

C”

, and taking an action based on a result of said subtracting.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein one of said first and second color channels is a blue color channel, and the other of said first and second color channels is a yellow color channel.

10. The method of claim 9 that further includes decoding information from a digital watermark in said difference frame “

C”

.

11. The method of claim 2 that further includes decoding information from a digital watermark encoded in the second frame of image data.

12. The method of claim 2 that further includes capturing said second frame of image data with flash illumination from said mobile phone.

3. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing programming instructions that, when executed by a processor of a mobile phone equipped with a camera sub-system, cause the mobile phone to perform acts including:

(a) using said camera sub-system, capturing and buffering plural frames of image data, while the camera sub-system is changing a parameter that varies a camera focal distance from a first focal distance to a second focal distance, thereby yielding frames of image data at a variety of focal distance settings;

(b) performing a first analysis on one or more of said frames of image data, to assess a focus parameter;

(c) based on said first analysis, selecting one of said captured and buffered plural frames of image data, not analyzed in act (b), as having a desired focus parameter; and

(d) taking a further action with the selected frame of image data;

wherein said selected frame was captured before said first analysis was performed, but was not selected until after said first analysis was performed.

4. A mobile phone including the non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, a processor, and a camera sub-system.

5. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing programming instructions that, when executed by a processor of a mobile phone equipped with a camera sub-system, cause the mobile phone to perform acts including:

using said camera sub-system, capturing a first frame of image data;

assessing the captured image data;

setting a parameter of the camera sub-system based on said assessment; and

capturing a second frame of image data using said set parameter;

wherein;

the assessing includes assessing the content of the first frame of image data in a particular color channel selected from the group consisting of blue, yellow, red and green, and

the setting includes varying said parameter to maximize a range of said particular color channel values, in pixels representing the second frame of image data.

6. A mobile phone including the non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 5, a processor, and a camera sub-system.

13. A method comprising:

using a camera-equipped hardware system, capturing a first frame of image data;

assessing the captured image data, using a processor portion of said system;

setting a parameter of the camera based on said assessment; and

capturing a second frame of image data using said set parameter;

wherein;

the assessing includes assessing the content of the first frame of image data in a particular color channel selected from the group consisting of blue, yellow, red and green; and

the setting includes varying said parameter to maximize a range of said particular color channel values, in pixels representing the second frame of image data.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein said parameter is a parameter that varies exposure of the camera.

15. The method of claim 13 that includes:

assessing content of a frame of image data in a first color channel selected from said group;

based on said assessing in the first color channel, capturing a frame “

A”

of image data using a parameter set to maximize a range of said first color channel values, in pixels representing the captured frame “

A”

of image data;

assessing content of a frame of image data in a second color channel selected from said group, the second color channel being different than the first;

based on said assessing in the second color channel, capturing a frame “

B”

of image data using a parameter set to maximize a range of said second color channel values, in pixels representing the captured frame “

B”

of image data; and

subtracting data corresponding to frame “

B”

from data corresponding to frame “

A”

to yield a difference frame “

C”

, and taking an action based on a result of said subtracting.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein one of said first and second color channels is a blue color channel, and the other of said first and second color channels is a yellow color channel.

17. The method of claim 16 that further includes decoding information from a digital watermark in said difference frame “

C”

.

18. The method of claim 13 that further includes decoding information from a digital watermark encoded in the second frame of image data.

19. The method of claim 13 that further includes capturing said second frame of image data with flash illumination from said hardware system.