Object tracking

• US 9,979,809 B2
• Filed: 09/02/2016
• Issued: 05/22/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Scavezze, Mike, Scott, Jason, Steed, Jonathan, McIntyre, Ian, Krauss, Aaron, McCulloch, Daniel, Latta, Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): YANG, WEI WEN
• Application Number:
  US15/256,235
• Publication Number:
  US 20160373570A1
• Time in Patent Office: 627 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19613 Recognition of a predetermined image pattern or behaviour pattern indicating theft or intrusion
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/24 Reminder alarms, e.g. anti-loss alarms
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/385 Transceivers carried on the body, e.g. in helmets
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2001/3866 carried on the head
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/724097 Worn on the head
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/005 Transmission of information for alerting of incoming communication

Abstract

Embodiments are disclosed herein that relate to the automatic tracking of objects. For example, one disclosed embodiment provides a method of operating a mobile computing device having an image sensor. The method includes acquiring image data, identifying an inanimate moveable object in the image data, determining whether the inanimate moveable object is a tracked object, if the inanimate moveable object is a tracked object, then storing information regarding a state of the inanimate moveable object, detecting a trigger to provide a notification of the state of the inanimate moveable object, and providing an output of the notification of the state of the inanimate moveable object.

Claims

1. A mobile computing device, comprising:

a sensor subsystem comprising an image sensor;

a display subsystem comprising a see-through display device;

a logic subsystem configured to execute instructions; and

a data-holding subsystem comprising instructions stored thereon that are executable by the logic subsystem to;

receive image data from the image sensor;

detect via image analysis of the image data a plurality of user interactions with a moveable inanimate physical object over time;

recognize a behavioral pattern based at least on one or more of a number of and a frequency of the user interactions and times at which the user interactions occurred;

at a time that is based upon the times at which the user interactions occurred, generate an alert based upon the behavioral pattern, the alert comprising information related to a potential location of the moveable inanimate physical object; and

automatically output the alert by displaying the alert via the display subsystem as augmented reality imagery using the see-through display device.

2. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable to track the moveable inanimate physical object.

3. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the instructions that are executable to output the alert are further executable to output information regarding a last known location of the moveable inanimate physical object.

4. The mobile computing device of claim 3, wherein the information regarding the last known location of the moveable inanimate physical object comprises one or more of an image of a last known location of the moveable inanimate physical object and directions to the last known location of the moveable inanimate physical object.

5. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable to receive a user input defining the movable inanimate physical object as tracked.

6. The mobile computing device of claim 5, wherein the instructions are further executable to define the movable inanimate physical object as tracked based upon a frequency of user interaction with the physical object.

7. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable to define the movable inanimate physical object as tracked based upon the object being part of a set of pre-defined objects.

8. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable to output the alert based upon detecting a triggering event comprising one or more of a user request and a contextual clue detected via the sensor subsystem.

9. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable to apply one or more constraints on tracking of the moveable inanimate physical object, wherein the one or more constraints comprise one or more of a time-based constraint and a location-based constraint.