Information communication method for obtaining information by demodulating bright line pattern included in an image

• US 9,088,362 B2
• Filed: 03/27/2014
• Issued: 07/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Oshima, Mitsuaki, Aoyama, Hideki
• Primary Examiner(s): HERNANDEZ, NELSON D
• Application Number:
  US14/226,982
• Publication Number:
  US 20140212145A1
• Time in Patent Office: 481 Days
• Field of Search: 348/211.99, 3482111-2115, 348/211.14, 348/302, 348/229.1, 348/221.1, 348/308, 725/105
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/1143 Bidirectional transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/116 Visible light communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/516 Details of coding or modulation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2807 Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2841 Wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/64 Computer-aided capture of images, e.g. transfer from script file into camera, check of taken image quality, advice or proposal for image composition or decision on when to take image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/661 Transmitting camera control signals through networks, e.g. control via the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/73 by influencing the exposure time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/531 by controlling rolling shutters in CMOS SSIS
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

An information communication method is provided that transmits a signal using a change in luminance. The information communication method includes determining a pattern of the change in luminance by modulating the signal to be transmitted, and transmitting the signal by a display, which is a light emitter, changing in luminance according to the determined pattern. Additionally, in the transmitting, a part of the display changes in luminance according to the pattern to display the image, the part emitting light with predetermined brightness or more.

Claims

1. A non-transitory recording medium storing a program for obtaining information from a subject, the program causing a computer to execute:

setting an exposure time of an image sensor so that, in an image obtained by capturing the subject by the image sensor, a bright line corresponding to an exposure line included in the image sensor appears according to a change in luminance of the subject;

obtaining a bright line image including the bright line by capturing the subject that changes in luminance by the image sensor with the set exposure time; and

obtaining the information by demodulating data specified by a pattern of the bright line included in the obtained bright line image,

wherein in the obtaining of a bright line image, the bright line image including a plurality of parts where the bright line appears is obtained by capturing a plurality of the subjects, and

in the obtaining of the information, a position of each of the plurality of subjects is obtained by demodulating, for each of the plurality of parts, the data specified by the pattern of the bright line in the part,

the program further causing the computer to execute

estimating a position of the image sensor, based on the obtained position of each of the plurality of subjects.

2. An information communication method for obtaining information from a subject, the information communication method comprising:

setting an exposure time of an image sensor so that, in an image obtained by capturing the subject by the image sensor, a bright line corresponding to an exposure line included in the image sensor appears according to a change in luminance of the subject;

obtaining a bright line image including the bright line by capturing the subject that changes in luminance by the image sensor with the set exposure time; and

obtaining the information by demodulating data specified by a pattern of the bright line included in the obtained bright line image,

wherein in the obtaining of a bright line image, the bright line image including a plurality of parts where the bright line appears is obtained by capturing a plurality of the subjects, and

in the obtaining of the information, a position of each of the plurality of subjects is obtained by demodulating, for each of the plurality of parts, the data specified by the pattern of the bright line in the part,

the information communication method further comprising

estimating a position of the image sensor, based on the obtained position of each of the plurality of subjects.

3. The information communication method according to claim 2,

wherein in the obtaining of a bright line image, the plurality of subjects are captured in a period during which the image sensor is being moved, and

in the estimating of a position, the position of the image sensor is estimated, based on the obtained position of each of the plurality of subjects and a moving state of the image sensor.

4. An information communication device for obtaining information from a subject, the information communication device comprising:

an exposure time setting unit configured to set an exposure time of an image sensor so that, in an image obtained by capturing the subject by the image sensor, a bright line corresponding to an exposure line included in the image sensor appears according to a change in luminance of the subject;

an image obtainment unit including the image sensor which obtains a bright line image including the bright line by capturing the subject that changes in luminance with the set exposure time; and

an information obtaining unit configured to obtain the information by demodulating data specified by a pattern of the bright line included in the obtained bright line image,

wherein the image obtainment unit is configured to obtain the bright line image including a plurality of parts where the bright line appears by capturing a plurality of the subjects, and

the information obtaining unit is configured to obtain a position of each of the plurality of subjects by demodulating, for each of the plurality of parts, the data specified by the pattern of the bright line in the part,

the information communication device further comprising

a position estimation unit configured to estimate a position of the image sensor, based on the obtained position of each of the plurality of subjects.