Data capture and identification system and process

• US 7,881,529 B2
• Filed: 07/20/2009
• Issued: 02/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Nant Holdings IP, LLC (NantWorks, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Evryx Technologies Inc (Ipplex Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Cohen, Ronald H, Boncyk, Wayne C
• Primary Examiner(s): SHERALI, ISHRAT I
• Application Number:
  US12/505,714
• Publication Number:
  US 20100011058A1
• Time in Patent Office: 561 Days
• Field of Search: 382115-118, 382/162, 382/165, 382/170, 382/100, 382/181, 382/305, 382/224, 382/218, 348/239, 348 141- 1416, 3482112-2116, 348/207.1, 348/460, 348/552, 707 1- 7, 707/104.1, 705 26- 27, 705/23, 455/414.2, 455/456.3, 455/556.1, 455/412.1, 455/556.2, 455/419, 709201-203, 709217-219, 709/250
• US Class Current: 382/165
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour
• 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 18/00 Pattern recognition
• 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 30/142 using hand-held instruments; Constructional details of the instruments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0202 Portable telephone sets, e.g. cordless phones, mobile phones or bar type handsets constructional features of telephone transmitters or receivers, e.g. of speakers or microphones H04M1/03

Abstract

An identification method and process for objects from digitally captured images thereof that uses data characteristics to identify an object from a plurality of objects in a database. The data is broken down into parameters such as a Shape Comparison, Grayscale Comparison, Wavelet Comparison, and Color Cube Comparison with object data in one or more databases to identify the actual object of a digital image.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a camera that captures an image;

a network-enabled device that conducts a data processing operation on at least a portion of the image to produce data, and sends the data to a service;

the service programmed to receive the data;

identify an object within the image;

distinguish an object present in the image from others using a database that stores data characteristics of target objects;

associate the object with information; and

return the information to the network-enabled device; and

the network-enabled device further programmed to present the information related to the object to a user.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the network-enabled device comprises a mobile phone.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the service conducts a second data processing operation on at least a portion of the image.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the service is further programmed to identify the object by applying multiple algorithms to at least a portion of the image or of the data, and identify the object as a function of a confidence levels associated with results of the multiple algorithms.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the object is not encoded with any data.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising identifying a bar code or other symbol contained within the image.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the service is hosted on a computer remote to the network-enabled device.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the service is further programmed to select the information from among a plurality of information that provides content in a format suitable for display on the network-enabled device.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the information comprises data that can be utilized to conduct a commercial transaction related to the object.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the network-enabled device is further programmed to use an address within the information to conduct a commercial transaction related to the object.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the network-enabled device is further programmed to use at least one of an address and the information to initiate a software process on a remote computer.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the network-enabled device is further programmed to use at least one of an address and the information to initiate a telephone call.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the network-enabled device is further programmed to use at least one of an address and of information to initiate a radio communication.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the network-enabled device is further programmed to use at least one of an address and the information to send data received from the service to a web site.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the network-enabled device is further programmed to use at least one of an address and the information to display graphics.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the network-enabled device is further programmed to use at least one of an address and the information to produce an audible sound.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the distal server is farther programmed to initiate a telephone call from at least one of an address and the information.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of (a) processing of the data and (b) recognizing objects in the data are divided between the device and the server.

19. The system of claim 1 wherein the image include motion imagery.

20. The system of claim 1 wherein the data processing operation is selected from the group consisting of contrast enhancement, noise removal, and de-blurring.

21. The system of claim 1 wherein the data processing operation is applied to the image prior to identifying the object.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the object comprises a bar code.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the device and the server are further configured to discriminate among recognizable symbols.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the at least one of the device and the server are further configured to decode a recognizable symbol.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the recognizable symbol comprises at least one of the following a barcode, a matrix code, an alphanumeric character.

26. The system of claim 1, wherein the image comprises an image of a magazine.

27. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the device and the server are further configured to produce a grayscale representation of the image.