281 results about "Camera identification" patented technology

An agricultural robot system and method of harvesting, pruning, culling, weeding, measuring and managing of agricultural crops. Uses autonomous and semi-autonomous robot(s) comprising machine-vision using cameras that identify and locate the fruit on each tree, points on a vine to prune, etc., or may be utilized in measuring agricultural parameters or aid in managing agricultural resources. The cameras may be coupled with an arm or other implement to allow views from inside the plant when performing the desired agricultural function. A robot moves through a field first to “map” the plant locations, number and size of fruit and approximate positions of fruit or map the cordons and canes of grape vines. Once the map is complete, a robot or server can create an action plan that a robot may implement. An action plan may comprise operations and data specifying the agricultural function to perform.

Arrangements involving portable devices (e.g., smartphones and tablet computers) are disclosed. One arrangement enables a content creator to select software with which that creator's content should be rendered—assuring continuity between artistic intention and delivery. Another utilizes a device 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 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. A great variety of other features and arrangements are also detailed.

An agricultural robot system and method of harvesting, pruning, culling, weeding, measuring and managing of agricultural crops. Uses autonomous and semi-autonomous robot(s) comprising machine-vision using cameras that identify and locate the fruit on each tree, points on a vine to prune, etc., or may be utilized in measuring agricultural parameters or aid in managing agricultural resources. The cameras may be coupled with an arm or other implement to allow views from inside the plant when performing the desired agricultural function. A robot moves through a field first to “map” the plant locations, number and size of fruit and approximate positions of fruit or map the cordons and canes of grape vines. Once the map is complete, a robot or server can create an action plan that a robot may implement. An action plan may comprise operations and data specifying the agricultural function to perform.

Arrangements involving portable devices (e.g., smartphones and tablet computers) are disclosed. One arrangement enables a content creator to select software with which that creator's content should be rendered—assuring continuity between artistic intention and delivery. Another utilizes a device 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 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. A great variety of other features and arrangements are also detailed.

A plurality of cameras are controlled to follow a common moving target in a three dimensional environment such that each camera generates a video feed comprising a plurality of video segments captured sequentially. Each video segment comprises a static image of the target at a respective point in time. A resulting video is generated by selecting a sequence of video segments which may include video segments from different cameras and at the same or different points in time to create various video effects. The recorded video segments are categorized for later recall according to camera identification and point in time to allow for instantaneous recall for producing video replays from a variety of camera angles during a live event. Auxiliary video segments can be computer generated for insertion between video segments captured by the cameras for smoothing the appearance of the resulting video.

Arrangements involving portable devices (e.g., smartphones and tablet computers) are disclosed. One arrangement enables a content creator to select software with which that creator's content should be rendered—assuring continuity between artistic intention and delivery. Another utilizes a device 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 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. A great variety of other features and arrangements are also detailed.

An onboard control device that is installed at a vehicle acquires land mark information including position information of a landmark which can be recognized on a road in which the vehicle is estimated to travel by a camera, a landmark image for recognition, a recognition evaluation value that represents ease of the recognition successfully performed and so on, and selects a landmark to be a subject for recognition based on the recognition evaluation value included in the landmark information. The onboard control device further evaluates the recognition results of the landmark to be a subject for recognition, and transmits the recognition results to the server with the landmark image recognized by the camera. The server aggregates the recognition evaluation results of the landmark and the recognized images and reflects them in the recognition evaluation values for the landmark information and landmark images to be transmitted to the onboard control device.

One or more objects placed on a display surface of an interactive display system are identified by a camera that receives infrared light reflected back by the object(s) through the display surface. The interactive display system displays images on the display surface that are produced by software applications, as well as sensing objects placed proximate to the display surface. If object(s) that were placed on the display surface are identified and determined to be associated with a predefined software application, the application is automatically executed. Objects can be identified based upon shape, a pattern applied to the objects, a size of the object, or a location on the display surface where the object is placed. The object may be used in the software application after it is executed or may simply be bear a functional relationship to the software application.

Provided are a location awareness apparatus using a camera and a method thereof. The apparatus includes: an image capturing unit for photographing a position identification tag using a camera; a distance measuring unit for measuring a distance to a position identification tag; an incident angle measuring unit for measuring a photographing angle at a visual point; an image analyzing unit for reading the photographed image from the image capturing unit, and requesting location information corresponding to the read information to a position recognition server; and a location awareness unit for estimating a current location using the distance to the position identification tag, the photographing angle of the position identification tag, and the location information corresponding to the read information by the image analyzing unit.

Systems and methods for providing a merchant-customer engagement system include a physical merchant location in which a customer may be tracked to determine products within the physical merchant location that the customer is interested in. A merchant may use a wearable merchant device that is configured to identify the customer via a camera that captures an image of the customer, and that image may be used to retrieve customer account information for that customer. Using the customer account information and the products that the customer is showing interest in, the wearable merchant device may be used to display merchant-customer engagement information next to a view of the customer to allow the merchant to help the customer while utilizing a variety of displayed information about the customer including, for example, past purchases, products browsed in-store and previously browsed online, time spent in an area of the physical merchant location, etc.

An event within a surveilled area, a physically bounded region, can be detected in real-time. The event can be outside the field of view of a camera associated with the surveilled area. The event can be detected by a fiber optic sensor within the surveilled area which can measure an event metrics. Event information associated with the event can be received which can include a timing information, a sensor measurement, and a location information. An adjustment operation associated with the camera can be determined utilizing a mapping and the event location. The adjustment operation can be associated with a camera functionality and an adjustment value. The mapping can include a camera identification value, a camera location, and a field of view dimension. The field of view of the camera can be adjusted dynamically which can result in the location of the event being within the field of view.

One or more objects placed on a display surface of an interactive display system are identified by a camera that receives infrared light reflected back by the object(s) through the display surface. The interactive display system displays images on the display surface that are produced by software applications, as well as sensing objects placed proximate to the display surface. If object(s) that were placed on the display surface are identified and determined to be associated with a predefined software application, the application is automatically executed. Objects can be identified based upon shape, a pattern applied to the objects, a size of the object, or a location on the display surface where the object is placed. The object may be used in the software application after it is executed or may simply be bear a functional relationship to the software application.

According the present invention, there is provided a method and system for automatically launching an application in a computing device (e.g. Internet appliance, or the like) by authenticating a user via a digital camera in the computing device, comprising: obtaining a digital representation of the user via the digital camera; filtering the digital representation with an digital edge detection algorithm to produce a resulting digital image; comparing the resulting digital image to a pre-stored digital image of the user; retrieving user information including an application to be launched in response to a successful comparison result, the user information being associated with the pre-stored digital image of the user; and launching the application.

Systems and methods for providing a merchant-customer engagement system include a physical merchant location in which a customer may be tracked to determine products within the physical merchant location that the customer is interested in. A merchant may use a wearable merchant device that is configured to identify the customer via a camera that captures an image of the customer, and that image may be used to retrieve customer account information for that customer. Using the customer account information and the products that the customer is showing interest in, the wearable merchant device may be used to display merchant-customer engagement information next to a view of the customer to allow the merchant to help the customer while utilizing a variety of displayed information about the customer including, for example, past purchases, products browsed in-store and previously browsed online, time spent in an area of the physical merchant location, etc.

According the present invention, there is provided a method and system for automatically launching an application in a computing device (e.g. Internet appliance, or the like) by authenticating a user via a digital camera in the computing device, comprising: obtaining a digital representation of the user via the digital camera; filtering the digital representation with an digital edge detection algorithm to produce a resulting digital image; comparing the resulting digital image to a pre-stored digital image of the user; retrieving user information including an application to be launched in response to a successful comparison result, the user information being associated with the pre-stored digital image of the user; and launching the application.

Disclosed herein is an image monitoring system including: a camera connected to a network; display means for displaying an image captured by the camera; and display control means for controlling display such that, in displaying images by the display means, an image is displayed in a window having a predetermined layout; wherein the display control means presets an allocation database containing a correlation between the window having a predetermined layout and a camera identification code and, when the camera is connected to the network, automatically sets a correlation between the camera identification code in the allocation database and the camera, thereby controlling image display into the window on the basis of the allocation database.

A method for recognizing a subject motion using a camera is provided, in which each of the previous and current image frames received from the camera is split into multiple image blocks, motion blocks are detected among the image blocks based on a difference between previous and current pixel values for each of the image frames, a motion center is detected based on positions of the motion blocks for each image frame, and the subject motion appearing in the previous and current image frames is recognized based on the motion centers of the previous and current image frames.

Provided are a location awareness apparatus using a camera and a method thereof. The apparatus includes: an image capturing unit for photographing a position identification tag using a camera; a distance measuring unit for measuring a distance to a position identification tag; an incident angle measuring unit for measuring a photographing angle at a visual point; an image analyzing unit for reading the photographed image from the image capturing unit, and requesting location information corresponding to the read information to a position recognition server; and a location awareness unit for estimating a current location using the distance to the position identification tag, the photographing angle of the position identification tag, and the location information corresponding to the read information by the image analyzing unit.

The invention provides a system and method for snapshotting the behavior of running the red light. The method for snapshotting the behavior of running the red light comprises the steps that a vehicle head picture is snapshotted by a second camera, license plate information is recognized according to the vehicle head picture, and the vehicle head picture, the license plate information and the snapshotting time are sent to an information processing device to be cached; whether a vehicle breaks rules and regulations is recognized by a first camera, and if the vehicle breaks the rules and regulations, the license plate information is recognized according to a vehicle tail picture, and a regulation violation picture, the license plate information of the vehicle breaking the rules and regulations, and the regulation violation time are sent to the information processing device to be cached; after the information processing device receives the regulation violation picture, the license plate information of the vehicle breaking the rules and regulations, and the regulation violation time, a vehicle head picture matched with the regulation violation picture is found during a snapshotting period according to which the time difference between the regulation violation time and snapshotting time of the vehicle head picture is smaller than a threshold value, and the regulation violation picture and the found vehicle head picture are combined to form a regulation violation record, wherein the regulation violation picture, the license plate information of the vehicle breaking the rules and regulations, and the regulation violation time are sent by the first camera. According to the system and method for snapshotting the behavior of running the red light, the second camera is additionally arranged for acquiring the vehicle head pictures, then head portraits of drivers are obtained, and drivers corresponding to the regulation violation records can be found.

A digital photography messaging and advertisement system wherein a message center maintains records of camera purchasers, and each corresponding camera identification (ID). The message center prepares and collects messages, putting them in categories including personal messages for a particular camera / user, messages for all users of a particular interest group, and generic messages which can be advertisements for al users with cameras configured according to the system. Each camera is equipped with a transceiver for receiving and sending data, and a display for observing the messages or listening to them. Each camera subscribes to its own personal messages. In addition, a camera user may subscribe to a single or multiple interest groups. When a user turns on the camera, the transceiver transmits a signal conveying the camera identification to the message center. In response, the center packages the messages that are identified for the particular camera / user and transmits them along with a code that assures reception only by the specific camera. Alternatively, the messaging and advertisement center continuously transmits generic and user interest group messages. The camera receives the messages, and places them on a display. Interactive messages remain on the display until the user responds through activation of a key or key sequence on a camera keypad. Alternatively, a key or key sequence is provided whereby a user can select to not receive messages, the activation of the key / sequence directing the camera processor to not initiate the signal transmission to the message center upon camera activation.

Methods and systems for efficient video compression by recording various state signals of cameras. In accordance with the teaching of the present invention, a video camera with means to record the movement, zooming state, focus state, and aperture state of the video camera is provided. The luminous intensity, camera identification number and frame index are also recorded. These various state signals are recorded along with video and audio signals on recording media, such as magnetic tapes, memory cards, and hard drives in a predetermined data format. Additionally, video compression algorithms, which utilize such state signals to predict the current frame from previous reconstructed images, are provided. In particular, the information on the various states of the video camera is useful in obtaining accurate motion compensated images.

The present disclosure relates to an autonomous driving support apparatus and method capable of generating road information for autonomous driving, correcting an error, and updating the road information. The autonomous driving support apparatus of the present disclosure includes at least one autonomous vehicle and a server. The autonomous vehicle senses a traveling road to generate camera recognition information including road information, signpost information, traffic light information, construction section information, and future route information. The server analyzes at least one piece of camera recognition information received from a controller of the at least one autonomous vehicle to update predetermined road map information, and transmits the updated road map information to the at least one autonomous vehicle.

The invention discloses an automobile engine piston and cylinder block assembly system based on an industrial robot and a method thereof. The automobile engine piston and cylinder block assembly system based on the industrial robot comprises a robot, a camera, a manipulator claw, a cylinder block assembling device, a computer module and pistons. The method comprises the steps of recognizing the pistons by virtue of the camera, obtaining the positions of the pistons according to characteristics by utilizing the computer module, controlling the robot, grabbing the pistons by virtue of the manipulator claw, and assembling the pistons into a cylinder block of an automobile engine. Four pistons subjected to connecting rod assembly are arranged on an iron stand platform side by side, and the manipulator claw is arranged at the tail end of an industrial robot and is used for grabbing the pistons, clamping a piston ring and carrying out piston assembling. The camera is arranged at the front end of an arm and is used for recognizing and positioning the pistons and the cylinder block on the cylinder block assembling device. The computer module is connected with the robot, the camera, the manipulator claw and the cylinder block assembling device by virtue of signal lines and is used for realizing data processing and transmission of control signals. The automobile engine piston and cylinder block assembly system based on the industrial robot and the method thereof can accurately and efficiently realize automatic assembling of the pistons and the engine cylinder block.

To output stable results as necessary when recognizing scenes with a camera. Unless the result of scene recognition can be stabilized, an output result will confuse the user. In consideration thereof, by combiningly performing processing for determining what type of scene a particular scene is and processing for monitoring whether or not a change has occurred from a recognized scene, it is now possible to perform scene recognition in an accurate and stable manner.

The invention discloses an automatic integrated rubber tapping and collecting method based on image identification. The method comprises the following steps: firstly, through a camera identification system on a rubber collecting manipulator carried on a work platform which can move along rails, determining the positions of rubber trees, the placement positions and directions of rubber bowls and other parameters, and sending an instruction to the rubber collecting manipulator to decide whether a tree is subjected to rubber tapping or not and a rubber bowl is well placed or not; then, by use of a rubber tapping manipulator with a camera identification system carried on the work platform which can move along the rails, sending an instruction to the rubber tapping manipulator through the camera identification system, and performing rubber tapping by the rubber tapping manipulator according to the instruction; and then, by use of the rubber collecting manipulator with the camera identification system carried on the work platform which can move along the rails, sending an instruction to the rubber collecting manipulator through the camera identification system, and collecting rubber by the rubber collecting manipulator according to the instruction. According to the method and the device, the automation of rubber tapping and collecting can be realized, and the method and the device have the characteristics of full-automatic implementation and high efficiency. Meanwhile, the technology disclosed by the invention can be applied to other economic tree species.

In conventional systems using an onboard camera disposed rearward of a vehicle for recognizing an object surrounding the vehicle, the object is recognized by the camera disposed rearward of the vehicle. In the image recognized by the camera, a road surface marking taken by the camera appears at a lower end of a screen of the image, which makes it difficult to predict a specific position in the screen from which the road surface marking appears. Further, an angle of depression of the camera is large, and it is a short period of time to acquire the object. Therefore, it is difficult to improve a recognition rate and to reduce false recognition. Results of recognition (type, position, angle, recognition time) made by a camera disposed forward of the vehicle, are used to predict a specific timing and a specific position of a field of view of a camera disposed rearward of the vehicle, at which the object appears. Parameters of recognition logic of the rearwardly disposed camera and processing timing are then optimally adjusted. Further, luminance information of the image from the forwardly disposed camera is used to predict possible changes to be made in luminance of the field of view of the rearwardly disposed camera. Gain and exposure time of the rearwardly disposed camera are then adjusted.

The present invention relates to a device and method for quantitatively measuring an analyte using a camera. More particularly, to capture the identification code required for obtaining an accurate analysis result for the analyte to be analyzed, to capture the result of the reaction of the analyte using a camera without additional equipment, and to read the identification code and the result of the reaction of the analyte, the device of the present invention comprises: a camera for capturing a camera recognition area of an analyte kit, which contains an analyte reaction result obtained by the reaction of the analyte and an identification code for the analyte kit; an image-processing unit for separating the analyte reaction result image and the identification code image from images of the camera recognition area of the analyte kit captured by the camera; a reading unit for reading the analyte reaction result image and the identification code image; and a control unit for enabling the read result of the analyte reaction result image to be processed using the read result of the identification code image.