A waste stream is analyzed and sorted to segregate different items for recycling. Certain features of the technology improve the accuracy with which waste stream items are diverted to collection repositories. Other features concern adaptation of neural networks in accordance with context information sensed from the waste. Still other features serve to automate and simplify maintenance of machine vision systems used in waste sorting. Yet other aspects of the technology concern marking 2D machine readable code data on items having complex surfaces (e.g., food containers with integral ribbing for structural strength or juice pooling), to mitigate issues that such surfaces can introduce in code reading. Still other aspects of the technology concern prioritizing certain blocks of conveyor belt imagery for analysis. Yet other aspects of the technology concern joint use of near infrared spectroscopy, artificial intelligence, digital watermarking, and/or other techniques, for waste sorting. A variety of further features and arrangements are also detailed.
G06K 19/06 - Record carriers for use with machines and with at least a part designed to carry digital markings characterised by the kind of the digital marking, e.g. shape, nature, code
A thermoplastic resin, such as PET, is molded to define a 2D code signal, such as a digital watermark pattern. The mold can comprise an array of hole or spike features, some of which are directly vented to atmospheric pressure. A network of channels can link the other features to the directly-vented features, so all features are vented. A mold comprising spike features can form a digital watermark pattern on an item such that the watermark payload is decodable both from the side of the item that contacted the mold, and also from the opposite, non-contact side of the item. To aid entry of viscous thermoplastic among the very fine elemental features of a mold representing a watermark signal pattern, the features can be overlapped, forming a connected binary mark having larger features. A variety of other improvements and arrangements are also detailed.
B29C 33/10 - SHAPING OR JOINING OF PLASTICS; SHAPING OF MATERIAL IN A PLASTIC STATE, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; AFTER-TREATMENT OF THE SHAPED PRODUCTS, e.g. REPAIRING - Details thereof or accessories therefor with incorporated venting means
B29C 33/38 - SHAPING OR JOINING OF PLASTICS; SHAPING OF MATERIAL IN A PLASTIC STATE, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; AFTER-TREATMENT OF THE SHAPED PRODUCTS, e.g. REPAIRING - Details thereof or accessories therefor characterised by the material or the manufacturing process
B29C 33/42 - SHAPING OR JOINING OF PLASTICS; SHAPING OF MATERIAL IN A PLASTIC STATE, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; AFTER-TREATMENT OF THE SHAPED PRODUCTS, e.g. REPAIRING - Details thereof or accessories therefor characterised by the shape of the moulding surface, e.g. ribs or grooves
G06K 19/06 - Record carriers for use with machines and with at least a part designed to carry digital markings characterised by the kind of the digital marking, e.g. shape, nature, code
A surface is laser-etched to convey a 2D machine-readable code pattern. Various strategies are detailed to minimize the etching time. Some strategies include modifying the code pattern to reduce a path length traveled by the laser. Some strategies include modifying the code pattern to make it sub-optimal, i.e., making the code pattern a less-faithful approximation of an ideal code pattern. In some embodiments the etched surface is the surface of a plastic container, and the code pattern conveys information indicating the type of plastic of which the container is manufactured. A variety of other features and arrangements are also detailed.
Images depicting items in a waste flow on a conveyor belt are provided to two analysis systems. The first system processes images to decode digital watermark payload data found on certain of the items (e.g., plastic containers). This payload data is used to look up corresponding attribute metadata for the items in a database, such as the type of plastic in each item, and whether the item was used as a food container or not. The second analysis system can be a spectroscopy system that determines the type of plastic in each item by its absorption characteristics. When the two systems conflict in identifying the plastic type, a sorting logic processor applies a rule set to arbitrate the conflict and determine which plastic type is most likely. The item is then sorted into one of several different bins depending on a combination of the final plastic identification, and whether the item was used as a food container or not. A variety of other features and arrangements are also detailed.
B07C 5/342 - Sorting according to other particular properties according to optical properties, e.g. colour
G06V 10/58 - Extraction of image or video features relating to hyperspectral data
G06V 10/70 - Arrangements for image or video recognition or understanding using pattern recognition or machine learning
B07C 5/344 - Sorting according to other particular properties according to electric or electromagnetic properties
B65G 47/49 - Devices for discharging articles or materials from conveyors with distribution, e.g. automatically, to desired points according to bodily destination marks on either articles or load-carriers without bodily contact between article or load-carrier and automatic control device
A plastic item, such as a beverage bottle, can convey two distinct digital watermarks, encoded using two distinct signaling protocols. A first, printed label watermark conveys a retailing payload, including a Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) used by a point-of-sale scanner in a retail store to identify and price the item when presented for checkout. A second, plastic texture watermark may convey a recycling payload, including data identifying the composition of the plastic. The use of two different signaling protocols assures that a point-of-sale scanner will not spend its limited time and computational resources working to decode the recycling watermark, which may lack data needed for retail checkout. In some embodiments, a recycling apparatus makes advantageous use of both types of watermarks to identify the plastic composition of the item (e.g., relating GTIN to plastic type using an associated database), thereby increasing the fraction of items that are correctly identified for sorting and recycling. In other embodiments the plastic item (or a label thereon) bears only a single watermark. A great number of other features and arrangements are also detailed.
G06K 19/06 - Record carriers for use with machines and with at least a part designed to carry digital markings characterised by the kind of the digital marking, e.g. shape, nature, code
B29B 17/02 - Separating plastics from other materials
B29C 59/00 - Surface shaping, e.g. embossing; Apparatus therefor
B65D 1/00 - Rigid or semi-rigid containers having bodies formed in one piece, e.g. by casting metallic material, by moulding plastics, by blowing vitreous material, by throwing ceramic material, by moulding pulped fibrous material or by deep-drawing operations p
G06K 1/12 - Methods or arrangements for marking the record carrier in digital fashion otherwise than by punching
G06K 7/10 - Methods or arrangements for sensing record carriers by corpuscular radiation
In some arrangements, product packaging is digitally watermarked over most of its extent to facilitate high-throughput item identification at retail checkouts. Imagery captured by conventional or plenoptic cameras can be processed (e.g., by GPUs) to derive several different perspective -transformed views - further minimizing the need to manually reposition items for identification. Crinkles and other deformations in product packaging can be optically sensed, allowing such surfaces to be virtually flattened to aid identification. Piles of items can be 3D-modelled and virtually segmented into geometric primitives to aid identification, and to discover locations of obscured items. Other data (e.g., including data from sensors in aisles, shelves and carts, and gaze tracking for clues about visual saliency) can be used in assessing identification hypotheses about an item. Logos may be identified and used - or ignored - in product identification. A great variety of other features and arrangements are also detailed.
Methods and arrangements involving portable devices, such as smartphones and tablet computers, are disclosed. One arrangement enables a creator of content to select software with for rendering that creator's content - assuring continuity between artistic intention and delivery. Another arrangement utilizes the smartphone camera to identify nearby subjects, and take actions based thereon. Others rely on near field chip (RFID) identification of objects, or on identification of audio streams (e.g., music, voice). Some of the detailed technologies concern improvements to the user interfaces associated with such devices. Others involve use of these devices in connection with shopping, text entry, sign language interpretation, and vision-based discovery. Still other improvements are architectural in nature, e.g., relating to evidence-based state machines, and blackboard systems. Yet other technologies concern use of linked data in portable devices - some of which exploit GPU capabilities. Still other technologies concern computational photography.
G06F 17/00 - Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions
H04H 60/27 - Arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information
H04N 21/8405 - Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors represented by keywords
G06F 3/00 - Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
A smart phone senses audio, imagery, and/or other stimulus from a user's environment, and acts autonomously to fulfill inferred or anticipated user desires. In one aspect, the detailed technology concerns phone-based cognition of a scene viewed by the phone's camera. The image processing tasks applied to the scene can be selected from among various alternatives by reference to resource costs, resource constraints, other stimulus information (e.g., audio), task substitutability, etc. The phone can apply more or less resources to an image processing task depending on how successfully the task is proceeding, or based on the user's apparent interest in the task. In some arrangements, data may be referred to the cloud for analysis, or for gleaning. Cognition, and identification of appropriate device response(s), can be aided by collateral information, such as context. A great number of other features and arrangements are also detailed.
G01C 22/00 - Measuring distance traversed on the ground by vehicles, persons, animals or other moving solid bodies, e.g. using odometers or using pedometers
G01D 21/00 - Measuring or testing not otherwise provided for
G01D 21/02 - Measuring two or more variables by means not covered by a single other subclass
G01S 3/802 - Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction
G01V 3/08 - Electric or magnetic prospecting or detecting; Measuring magnetic field characteristics of the earth, e.g. declination or deviation operating with magnetic or electric fields produced or modified by objects or geological structures or by detecting devices
G10L 15/24 - Speech recognition using non-acoustical features
A smart phone senses audio, imagery, and/or other stimulus from a user's environment, and acts autonomously to fulfill inferred or anticipated user desires. In one aspect, the detailed technology concerns phone-based cognition of a scene viewed by the phone's camera. The image processing tasks applied to the scene can be selected from among various alternatives by reference to resource costs, resource constraints, other stimulus information (e.g., audio), task substitutability, etc. The phone can apply more or less resources to an image processing task depending on how successfully the task is proceeding, or based on the user's apparent interest in the task. In some arrangements, data may be referred to the cloud for analysis, or for gleaning. Cognition, and identification of appropriate device response(s), can be aided by collateral information, such as context. A great number of other features and arrangements are also detailed.
H04W 4/00 - Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
G01C 23/00 - Combined instruments indicating more than one navigational value, e.g. for aircraft; Combined measuring devices for measuring two or more variables of movement, e.g. distance, speed or acceleration
G01V 3/08 - Electric or magnetic prospecting or detecting; Measuring magnetic field characteristics of the earth, e.g. declination or deviation operating with magnetic or electric fields produced or modified by objects or geological structures or by detecting devices
The present technology concerns use of cell phones and other portable devices connection with media content (electronic and physical and with other systems (e g, televisions, digital video recorders, and electronic program directories). Some aspects allow users to easily transfer displayed content from cell phone screens onto a television screens for easier viewing, or vice versa for content portability. Others enable users to participate interactively in entertainment content. Still other aspects of the technology involve a program directory database, compiled automatically from information reported by network nodes that watch and identify content traffic passing through networked computers. By identifying content resident at a number of different repositories (e g, web sites, TV networks, P2P systems, etc ), such a directory allows cell phone users to identify the diversity of scheduled or on-demand content sources. A great number of other features and arrangements are also detailed.
H04N 21/2665 - Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
H04W 4/18 - Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
H04N 21/254 - Management at additional data server, e.g. shopping server or rights management server
H04N 21/262 - Content or additional data distribution scheduling, e.g. sending additional data at off-peak times, updating software modules, calculating the carousel transmission frequency, delaying a video stream transmission or generating play-lists
H04N 21/278 - Content descriptor database or directory service for end-user access
H04N 21/436 - Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or inside the home
H04N 21/478 - Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification or shopping application
A63F 13/26 - Output arrangements for video game devices having at least one additional display device, e.g. on the game controller or outside a game booth
11.
CONTENT INTERACTION METHODS AND SYSTEMS EMPLOYING PORTABLE DEVICES
A portable device, such as a cell phone, is used to "forage" media content from a user's environment For example, it may listen to a television viewed by a traveler in an airport lounge By reference to digital watermark or other data extracted from the content, the device can identify the television program, and enable a variety of actions For example, the device may instruct a DVR to record the remainder of the television program - or determine when the program will be rebroadcast, and instruct the DVR to record the program in its entirety at that later time The device may also identify content that preceded (or follows) the foraged content Thus, a user who tunes-m just at the end of an exciting sporting event can capture one of the following commercials, identify the preceding program, and download same for later viewing
Mobile phones and other portable devices are equipped with a variety of technologies by which existing functionality can be improved, and new functionality can be provided. One such improvement concerns an architecture employing a forked image processing path: a first branch is tailored for human visual system purposes, and a second branch is tailored for object recognition. The first branch processes captured imagery using a gamma correction module, a de-mosaicing module, or a JPEG compression module, and provides imagery useful for rendering into perceptual form for human viewing. The second branch processes the captured imagery without any of the noted modules, and provides imagery that can be applied to a recognition stage, to yield plural-bit data identifying an object depicted in the image data. A great number of other features and arrangements are also detailed.
A method and system for provides routing of metadata related to media content, using content identifiers to locate the metadata content and rules to determine a subset of the metadata to deliver. This method registers globally unique identifiers for content objects. These globally unique identifiers each comprise a content identifier provided with the content object and a bounding identifier identifying a set of content identifiers of which the content identifier is a member. For each of the globally unique identifiers, information is maintained about a metadata source. The method receives a first content identifier for the content object, and uses a bounding identifier associated with the set of the first content identifier to determine the globally unique identifier for the first content identifier. The user is routed to the metadata source associated with globally unique identifier.
patents
