Image capture and identification system and process

• US 9,311,552 B2
• Filed: 05/31/2013
• Issued: 04/12/2016
• 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:
  US13/907,780
• Publication Number:
  US 20130265400A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,047 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/103, 382/305, 348 61- 62, 348/468
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 9/08 Devices or methods enabling eye-patients to replace direct visual perception by another kind of perception
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/00 Video games, i.e. games using an electronically generated display having two or more dimensions gaming systems which provide a financial reward G07F17/32
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/20 Input arrangements for video game devices
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/213 comprising photodetecting means, e.g. cameras, photodiodes or infrared cells A63F13/219, A63F13/655 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/335 using Internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/35 Details of game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/65 automatically by game devices or servers from real world data, e.g. measurement in live racing competition
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/70 Game security or game management aspects
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/792 for payment purposes, e.g. monthly subscriptions
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/92 Video game devices specially adapted to be hand-held while playing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/50 of still image data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5846 using extracted text
• 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 16/94 : Hypermedia Hyperlinking G06F40/134
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9554 : by using bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 : Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/217 : Validation; Performance evaluation; Active pattern learning techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/22 : Matching criteria, e.g. proximity measures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/23 : Clustering techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2218/12 : Classification; Matching
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 : Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 : Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 : Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 : Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 : specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/202 : Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/208 : Input by product or record sensing, e.g. weighing or scanner processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/24 : Credit schemes, i.e. "pay after"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/327 : Short range or proximity payments by means of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3567 : Software being in the reader
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40145 : Biometric identity checks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0217 : involving input on products or services in exchange for incentives or rewards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 : Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 : During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 : User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 : Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0268 : at point-of-sale [POS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 : based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 : Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 : Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 : Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 : Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 : Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 : Graphical representation of items or shoppers
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 : Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 90/00 : Systems or methods specially adapted for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial or supervisory purposes, not involving significant data processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/10 : Segmentation; Edge detection motion-based segmentation G06T7/215
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/11 : Region-based segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/13 : Edge detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/136 : involving thresholding
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/194 : involving foreground-background segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/246 : using feature-based methods, e.g. the tracking of corners or segments
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/33 : using feature-based methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/337 : involving reference images or patches
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/73 : using feature-based methods
• 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 20/10 : Terrestrial scenes scenes under surveillance with static cameras G06V20/52; scenes perceived from the exterior of a vehicle G06V20/56; scenes perceived from the interior of a vehicle G06V20/59
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/20 : in augmented reality scenes
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/142 : using hand-held instruments; Constructional details of the instruments
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/224 : of printed characters having additional code marks or containing code marks
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3206 : Player sensing means, e.g. presence detection, biometrics
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3241 : Security aspects of a gaming system, e.g. detecting cheating, device integrity, surveillance computer security G06F21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3244 : Payment aspects of a gaming system, e.g. payment schemes, setting payout ratio, bonus or consolation prizes
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/006 : using audible presentation of the information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 : based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 : in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00244 : with a server, e.g. an internet server fax-servers or the like for store and forward H04N1/324
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23109 : by placing content in organized collections, e.g. EPG data repository details of retrieval of video data and associated meta data in video databases G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23418 : involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics television picture signal circuitry for scene change detection H04N5/147; filtering for image enhancement G06T5/00; methods or arrangements for recognising scenes G06V20/00; arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/254 : Management at additional data server, e.g. shopping server, rights management server arrangements for maintenance or administration in data networks H04L41/00; network services using third party service providers H04L67/53
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 : embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 : Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 : for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4781 : Games
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47815 : Electronic shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 : Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 : Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8126 : involving additional data, e.g. news, sports, stocks, weather forecasts
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8173 : End-user applications, e.g. Web browser, game
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3253 : Position information, e.g. geographical position at time of capture, GPS data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3254 : Orientation, e.g. landscape or portrait; Location or order of the image data, e.g. in memory
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3274 : Storage or retrieval of prestored additional information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/00 : Cameras or camera modules comprising electronic image sensors; Control thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/60 : Control of cameras or camera modules
• 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 23/80 : Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/91 : Television signal processing therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 : for receiving images from a single remote source
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/185 : from a mobile camera, e.g. for remote control

Abstract

A digital image of the object is captured and the object is recognized from plurality of objects in a database. An information address corresponding to the object is then used to access information and initiate communication pertinent to the object.

Claims

1. An auditory interaction system comprising:

a device interface configured to receive a digital image of an object from a mobile device; and

a device-based processing platform coupled with the device interface and configured to;

obtain the digital image via the device interface;

recognize the object as a target object of interest to a visually impaired person;

identify an address associated with the target object; and

cause a mobile device to produce an audio signal associated with the object based on the address.

2. The auditory interaction system of claim 1, wherein the device-based processing platform is further configured to cause the mobile device to perform an action based on the address.

3. The auditory interaction system of claim 1, wherein the audio signal associated with the object comprises read text.

4. The auditory interaction system of claim 1, wherein the audio signal associated with the object comprises a spoken name of the object.

5. The auditory interaction system of claim 1, wherein the audio signal associated with the object comprises a spoken price of the object.

6. The auditory interaction system of claim 1, wherein the audio signal associated with the object comprises information pertinent to the target object.

7. The auditory interaction system of claim 1, wherein the device interface automatically recognizes that an image is to be acquired.

8. The auditory interaction system of claim 1, wherein the device interface is configured to recognize that an image is to be acquired by a user action.

9. The auditory interaction system of claim 8, wherein the user action comprises a voice command.

10. The auditory interaction system of claim 8, wherein the user action comprises a pressing of a button.

11. The auditory interaction system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device comprises the device interface and the processing platform.

12. The auditory interaction system of claim 1, wherein the audio signal represents content information associated with the target object.

13. The auditory interaction system of claim 1, wherein the audio signal comprises an audio recording associated with the address.

14. The auditory interaction system of claim 1, wherein the audio signal comprises music associated with the address.

15. The auditory interaction system of claim 1, wherein the audio signal comprises a sound associated with the address.

16. The auditory interaction system of claim 1, wherein the target object of interest comprises a printed document.

17. The auditory interaction system of claim 1, wherein the target object of interest comprises a sign.

18. The auditory interaction system of claim 1, wherein the target object of interest comprises a product.

19. The auditory interaction system of claim 1, wherein the target object of interest comprises on-screen content.

20. The auditory interaction system of claim 1, wherein the processing platform is further configured to identify the address at least in part based on a location.

21. The auditory interaction system of claim 20, wherein the location comprises a user location.

22. The auditory interaction system of claim 20, wherein the location comprises a device location.

23. The auditory interaction system of claim 1, wherein the processing platform is further configured to identify the address at least in part based on an identity of a person.

24. The auditory interaction system of claim 1, wherein the processing platform is further configured to identify the address at least in part based on a position.

25. The auditory interaction system of claim 24, wherein the position includes an object position of the object with respect to a user.

26. The auditory interaction system of claim 24, wherein the position includes an object position of the object with respect to the mobile device.

27. The auditory interaction of claim 1, wherein the processing platform is further configured to identify the address at least in part based on an orientation.

28. The auditory interaction system of claim 27, wherein the orientation includes an orientation of the object with respect to a user.

29. The auditory interaction system of claim 27 wherein the orientation includes an orientation of the object with respect to the mobile device.

30. The auditory interaction system of claim 1, wherein the processing platform is further configured to analyze the digital image for symbolic content.

31. The auditory interaction system of claim 1, wherein the processing platform is further configured to detect a symbol within the digital image.

32. The auditory interaction system of claim 31, wherein the symbol includes at least one of the following:

a barcode, text, a matrix code, a product code, and a 2D code.

33. A mobile device comprising:

a sensor configured to acquire a digital image of an object; and

a processing platform coupled with the sensor and configured to;

obtain the digital image via the sensor;

recognize the object as a target object of interest to a visually impaired person;

identify an address associated with the object; and

cause the device to produce an audio signal associated with the object based on the address.

34. The mobile device of claim 33, wherein the audio signal associated with the object comprises at least one of the following:

read text, a spoken name of the object, a spoken price of the object, and information pertinent to the target object.

35. The mobile device of claim 33, wherein the sensor automatically recognizes that an image is to be acquired.

36. The mobile device of claim 33, wherein the sensor recognizes that an image is to be acquired by a user voice command.

37. The mobile device of claim 33, wherein the sensor recognizes that an image is to be acquired by a user pushing a button.

38. The mobile device of claim 33, wherein the sensor is further configured to automatically recognize that an image is to be acquired based at least in part from the digital image.

39. A method of auditory interaction comprising the steps of:

providing access to a processing server;

receiving, from a mobile device, a digital image of an object;

recognizing, by the processing server, at least one object from the digital image as a target object of interest to a visually impaired person;

identifying, by the processing server, an address associated with the object; and

causing, by the processing server, the mobile device to produce an audio signal associated with the object based on the address.

40. The method of claim 39, further comprising analyzing the digital image by a symbolic image branch.

41. The method of claim 39, further comprising of decomposing the digital image into different types of quantifiable salient parameters.

42. The method of claim 39, further comprising of removing compression artifacts from the digital image.

43. The method of claim 39, wherein identifying the address comprises analyzing a symbolic image.

44. The method of claim 39, wherein identifying the address comprises obtaining a location.

45. The method of claim 39, wherein identifying the address depends at least in part on a position.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein the position is with respect to the user.

47. The method of claim 45, wherein the position is with respect to the mobile device.

48. The method of claim 41, wherein identifying the address depends at least in part on an orientation.

49. The method of claim 48, wherein the orientation comprises of an orientation of the object with respect to a user.

50. The method of claim 48, wherein the orientation comprises of an orientation of the object with respect to the mobile device.

51. The method of claim 39, wherein the audio signal associated with the object comprises at least one of the following:

read text, a spoken name of the object, a spoken price of the object, and information pertinent to the target object.

52. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that cause a processor to execute the steps of:

receiving, from a mobile device, a digital image of an object;

recognizing at least one object from the digital image as a target object of interest to a visually impaired person;

identifying an address associated with the object; and

causing the device to produce an audio signal associated with the object based on the address.

53. The non-transitory computer readable medium storing instruction of claim 52, the instructions further causing the processor to execute the step of analyzing the digital image by a symbolic image analysis process.

54. The non-transitory computer readable medium storing instruction of claim 52, the instructions further causing the processor to execute the step of decomposing the digital image into different types of quantifiable salient parameters.

55. The non-transitory computer readable medium storing instruction of claim 52, the instructions further causing the processor to execute the step of removing compression artifacts.

56. The non-transitory computer readable medium storing instruction of claim 52, wherein the step of identifying the address further comprises analyzing a symbolic image.

57. The non-transitory computer readable medium storing instruction of claim 52, wherein the step of identifying the address depends at least in part on a location.

58. The non-transitory computer readable medium storing instruction of claim 52, wherein the step of identifying the address depends at least in part on a position.

59. The non-transitory computer readable medium storing instruction of claim 58, wherein the position is with respect to the user.

60. The non-transitory computer readable medium storing instruction of claim 58, wherein the position is with respect to the mobile device.

61. The non-transitory computer readable medium storing instruction of claim 52, wherein the step of identifying the address depends at least in part on an orientation.

62. The non-transitory computer readable medium storing instruction of claim 61, wherein the orientation comprises of an orientation of the object with respect to a user.

63. The non-transitory computer readable medium storing instruction of claim 61, wherein the orientation comprises of an orientation of the object with respect to the mobile device.

64. The non-transitory computer readable medium storing instruction of claim 52, wherein the target object of interest includes at least one of the following:

a poster, a sign, a product, a building, a vehicle, a newspaper, a magazine, and on-screen content.

65. The non-transitory computer readable medium storing instruction of claim 52, wherein the audio signal associated with the object comprises at least one of the following:

read text, a spoken name of the object, a spoken price of the object, and information pertinent to the target object.