SEARCHING MEDIA CONTENT FOR OBJECTS SPECIFIED USING IDENTIFIERS

• US 20080027983A1
• Filed: 07/31/2006
• Published: 01/31/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Hull, Jonathan J., Erol, Berna
• Granted Patent: US 9,384,619 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/104.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/253 of extracted features
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/22 by selection of a specific region containing or referencing a pattern; Locating or processing of specific regions to guide the detection or recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/806 of extracted features
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/16 Human faces, e.g. facial parts, sketches or expressions
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/179 metadata assisted face recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/08 by coded identity card or credit card or other personal identification means without personal verification means G07F7/02
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1008 Active credit-cards provided with means to personalise their use, e.g. with PIN-introduction/comparison system
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/127 in which both online and offline card verification can take place

Abstract

Techniques for automatically comparing one or more objects determined from digital media content (e.g., an image, audio information, video information) to one or more objects specified by a machine readable identifier to determine if an object determined from the media content matches an object specified by the machine readable identifier. One or more actions may be initiated upon determining that an object determined from the media content matches an object specified by the machine readable identifier. Information identifying the action to be initiated may also be encapsulated by the machine readable identifier.

Claims

1. A method performed by a data processing system of processing digital media content, the method comprising:

determining a first object descriptor from a machine readable identifier, the first object descriptor specifying one or more features of an object;

determining a set of one or more objects from the digital media content;

generating an object descriptor for each object in the set of objects; and

identifying at least one object descriptor from the object descriptors determined for the set of objects that matches the first object descriptor determined from the machine readable identifier.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

performing an action in response to identifying the at least one object descriptor as matching the first object descriptor.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

determining, from the machine readable identifier, metadata information associated with the first object descriptor; and

determining the action to be performed based upon the metadata information.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the metadata information associated with the first object descriptor identifies the action.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein performing the action comprises:

performing the action using a portion of the metadata information associated with the first object descriptor.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein initiating the action comprises annotating the digital media content.

7. The method of claim 2 further comprising determining, from the machine readable identifier, an identifier associated with the first object descriptor, wherein:

the first object descriptor determined from the machine readable identifier specifies features of a person;

determining the set of objects comprises determining one or more persons from the digital media content;

performing the action comprises

adding, to the digital media content, information indicative of a spatial location of a person corresponding to the at least one object descriptor in the digital media content, and

adding the identifier associated with the first object descriptor to the digital media content.

8. The method of claim 2 further comprising determining metadata information associated with the first object descriptor from the machine readable identifier, and wherein:

the first object descriptor specifies features of a document fragment;

the set of objects comprises one or more document fragments determined from the digital media content;

determining a spatial location in the digital media content of an object corresponding to the at least one object descriptor; and

performing the action comprises annotating the digital media content such that a portion of the metadata information is placed proximal to or overlapping with the spatial location of the object corresponding to the at least one object descriptor.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the digital media content comprises an image, textual information, audio information, or video information.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the first object descriptor from the machine readable comprises decoding the machine readable identifier to identify the first object descriptor.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the machine readable identifier is a barcode and wherein determining the first object descriptor from the machine readable comprises:

reading the barcode using a barcode reader; and

determining the first object descriptor from the barcode.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the machine readable identifier is stored on a radio frequency identifier (RFID) tag and wherein determining the first object descriptor from the machine readable comprises:

reading information from the RFID tag using an RFID reader; and

determining the first object descriptor from the information read from the RFID tag.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein generating an object descriptor for each object in the set of objects comprises:

for each object in the set of objects;

extracting one of more features for the object; and

generating an object descriptor for the object based upon the extracted one or more features.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the one or more features to be extracted for an object are determined based upon the one or more features specified by the first object descriptor determined from the machine readable identifier.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein first object descriptor is represented in MPEG-7 format.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the first object descriptor specifies one or more features of a person, a document fragment, an image, a slide, a motion, or a speech pattern.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the set of objects from the digital media content comprises analyzing the digital media content for the one or more features specified by the first object descriptor.

18. A system comprising:

a reader adapted to read a machine readable identifier; and

a processor adapted to;

determine a first object descriptor from the machine readable identifier, the first object descriptor specifying one or more features of an object;

determine a set of one or more objects from digital media content;

generate an object descriptor for each object in the set of objects; and

identify at least one object descriptor from the object descriptors determined for the set of objects that matches the first object descriptor determined from the machine readable identifier.

19. A method of processing digital media content, the method comprising:

reading a machine readable identifier using a first system;

capturing digital media content using the first system;

communicating the machine readable identifier and the digital media content from the first system to a second system;

determining, at the second system, a first object descriptor from the machine readable identifier, the first object descriptor specifying one or more features of an object;

determining, at the second system, a set of one or more objects from the digital media content;

generating, at the second system, an object descriptor for each object in the set of objects;

identifying, at the second system, at least one object descriptor from the object descriptors determined for the set of objects that matches the first object descriptor determined from the machine readable identifier; and

initiating an action responsive to identifying the at least one object descriptor.