Cell 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. Some relate to visual search capabilities, and determining appropriate actions responsive to different image inputs. Others relate to processing of image data. Still others concern metadata generation, processing, and representation. Yet others relate to coping with fixed focus limitations of cell phone cameras, e.g., in reading digital watermark data. Still others concern user interface improvements. A great number of other features and arrangements are also detailed.

Methods and Systems for Content Processing

A system, method, apparatus and computer program product for providing location based functions and mobile e-commerce comprising a central processing unit including a processor, a storage device, and programming stored in the storage device, a display device, an audio input device, an audio output device, a communications module, a commerce module, an image module, and a location module. The programming controls the operation of the present invention to provide functions based on location data, to facilitate commercial exchanges by wirelessly exchanging payment and product information with venders, to identify services such as venders meeting selection criteria, to wirelessly exchange select information with other users and systems, to restrict and/or monitor the use of the device based on authorized user parameters, selecting one of a plurality networks through which to communicate, detecting a trigger for performing an action based on a change in location and sensed data, storing a voice annotation with a computer data file, determining service providers and associated communication parameters, contemporaneously maintaining a wireless voice and data link, providing a system for selecting and delivering mobile advertisements, and many other functions and services that are described herein.

System, method, and computer program product for providing location based services and mobile e-commerce

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.

Intuitive computing methods and systems

Media objects are transformed into active, connected objects via identifiers embedded into them or their containers. In the context of a user's playback experience, a decoding process extracts the identifier from a media object and possibly additional context information and forwards it to a server. The server, in turn, maps the identifier to an action, such as returning metadata, re-directing the request to one or more other servers, requesting information from another server to identify the media object, etc. The linking process applies to broadcast objects as well as objects transmitted over networks in streaming and compressed file formats.

Connected audio and other media objects

A digital image of the object is captured and the object is recognized from plurality of objects in a database. An information address corresponding to the object is then used to access information and initiate communication pertinent to the object.

Image Capture and Identification System and Process

Watermarks in video signals or the accompanying audio track are used to associate video objects in a video sequence with object specific actions or information. A video object refers to a spatial and temporal portion of a video signal that depicts a recognizable object, such as a character, prop, graphic, etc. Each frame of a video signal may have one or more video objects. The auxiliary information is embedded in video or audio signals using “steganographic” methods, such as digital watermarks. By encoding object specific information into video or an accompanying audio track, the watermarks transform video objects into “watermark enabled” video objects that provide information, actions or links to additional information or actions during playback of a video or audio-visual program. A similar concept may be applied to audio objects, i.e. portions of audio that are attributable to a particular speaker, character, instrument, artist, etc.

Watermark enabled video objects

The presently claimed invention generally relates to deriving and/or utilizing content signatures (e.g., so-called “fingerprints”). One claim recites a method of generating a fingerprint associated with a content item including: pseudo-randomly selecting a segment of the content item; and utilizing a processor or electronic processing circuitry, fingerprinting the selected segment of content item as at least an identifier of the content item. Of course, other claims and combination are provided as well.

Methods, Apparatus and Programs for Generating and Utilizing Content Signatures

A method of associating a content object with metadata uses a combination of a content identifier and a bounding identifier to enable handling of disparate sets of content identifiers for content objects with potentially conflicting content identifiers. The method receives a content identifier for a content object from among a set of content identifiers. It provides a unique bounding identifier for the set of content identifiers. This unique bounding identifier is used in combination with the content identifier to form a globally unique identifier for the content object. This globally unique identifier is associated with a metadata source, which enables routing of a user to the metadata source.

Content metadata directory services

This disclosure describes several video watermarking and fingerprinting enhancements. These enhancements include synchronizing watermark detectors with one-dimensional calibration signals, layering digital watermarks, watermarks for version control, compressed domain watermarking, watermarking of video object layers, key channel watermark embedding for video, robust fingerprinting of video and watermarking of scalable video.

Digital watermarking and fingerprinting including symchronization, layering, version control, and compressed embedding

A method of indexing content for network searching comprises identifying media content signals stored at sites distributed over a distributed computer network; extracting content identifiers from the content signals; using the content identifiers to obtain metadata used to classify the media content signals; and creating a searchable index of the media content signals based on the metadata, wherein users access the searchable index on the distributed computer network to submit a search query for the searchable index to retrieve links to the media content signals.

Kenneth L. Levy

Papers

Watermark enabled video objects

Methods, Apparatus and Programs for Generating and Utilizing Content Signatures

Content metadata directory services

Digital watermarking and fingerprinting including symchronization, layering, version control, and compressed embedding

Content indexing and searching using content identifiers and associated metadata