公开(公告)号：US11962875B2

公开(公告)日：2024-04-16

申请号：US17371964

申请日：2021-07-09

Applicant: Digimarc Corporation

Inventor： Ravi K. Sharma ,  Tomas Filler ,  Vojtech Holub ,  Osama M. Alattar ,  Hugh L. Brunk ,  John D. Lord

IPC: G06K9/00 ,  G06F21/16 ,  G09C5/00 ,  H04N21/2389 ,  H04N21/44 ,  H04N21/8358 ,  H04N23/00

CPC classification number: H04N23/00 ,  G06F21/16 ,  G09C5/00 ,  H04N21/23892 ,  H04N21/44008 ,  H04N21/8358 ,  H04L2209/34 ,  H04L2209/608

Abstract: A plastic item, such as a beverage bottle, conveys 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 conveys 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 lacks the 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. A great number of other features and arrangements are also detailed.

公开(公告)号：US20240054801A1

公开(公告)日：2024-02-15

申请号：US18457170

申请日：2023-08-28

Applicant: Digimarc Corporation

Inventor： Tomas Filler ,  Vojtech Holub ,  Ravi K. Sharma ,  Tony F. Rodriguez ,  Osama M. Alattar ,  Adnan M. Alattar ,  John D. Lord ,  Brian Johnson ,  David Ruotolo ,  Geoffrey B. Rhoads ,  Hugh L. Brunk ,  Vahid Sedighianaraki

IPC: G06V30/224 ,  G06T7/90 ,  B07C5/34 ,  B07C5/342 ,  B65G47/49 ,  G05B13/02 ,  G06T1/00 ,  G06T7/00 ,  H04N7/18 ,  G06F18/21 ,  G06F18/24 ,  H04N23/56 ,  H04N23/73 ,  G06V10/80 ,  G06V10/82 ,  G06V10/44

CPC classification number: G06V30/224 ,  G06T7/90 ,  B07C5/3416 ,  B07C5/3422 ,  B65G47/493 ,  G05B13/027 ,  G06T1/0014 ,  G06T1/0021 ,  G06T7/0004 ,  H04N7/18 ,  G06F18/21 ,  G06F18/24 ,  H04N23/56 ,  H04N23/73 ,  G06V10/811 ,  G06V10/82 ,  G06V10/454 ,  B07C2501/0054 ,  G06T2207/10024 ,  G06T2207/10048 ,  G06T2207/20084 ,  G06T2207/30108 ,  G06V10/58

Abstract: 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.

公开(公告)号：US11878327B2

公开(公告)日：2024-01-23

申请号：US17470674

申请日：2021-09-09

Applicant: Digimarc Corporation

Inventor： Ravi K Sharma ,  Tomas Filler ,  Vojtech Holub ,  Osama M. Alattar ,  Hugh L. Brunk ,  John D. Lord ,  Geoffrey B. Rhoads ,  William Y. Conwell ,  Ajith M. Kamath

IPC: B07C5/34 ,  B07C5/342

CPC classification number: B07C5/3412 ,  B07C5/3422 ,  B07C2501/0045

Abstract: 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.

公开(公告)号：US11410262B2

公开(公告)日：2022-08-09

申请号：US16557929

申请日：2019-08-30

Applicant: Digimarc Corporation

Inventor： Ravi K. Sharma ,  John D. Lord ,  Robert G. Lyons

IPC: G06T1/00 ,  G06T3/00 ,  G06V10/75 ,  G06F1/02

Abstract: Signal processing devices and methods estimate transforms between signals using a least squares technique. From a seed set of transform candidates, a direct least squares method applies a seed transform candidate to a reference signal and then measures correlation between the transformed reference signal and a suspect signal. For each candidate, update coordinates of reference signal features are identified in the suspect signal and provided as input to a least squares method to compute an update to the transform candidate. The method iterates so long as the update of the transform provides a better correlation. At the end of the process, the method identifies a transform or set of top transforms based on a further analysis of correlation, as well as other results.

公开(公告)号：US20210299706A1

公开(公告)日：2021-09-30

申请号：US17214455

申请日：2021-03-26

Applicant: Digimarc Corporation

Inventor： Tomas Filler ,  Vojtech Holub ,  Ravi K. Sharma ,  Tony F. Rodriguez ,  Osama M. Alattar ,  Adnan M. Alattar ,  John D. Lord ,  Brian Johnson ,  David Ruotolo ,  Geoffrey B. Rhoads ,  Hugh L. Brunk ,  Vahid Sedighianaraki

IPC: B07C5/342 ,  H04N5/235 ,  H04N5/225 ,  H04N7/18 ,  G06T1/00 ,  G06K9/62 ,  G06T7/90 ,  G06T7/00 ,  B65G47/49 ,  B07C5/34 ,  G05B13/02

Abstract: 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.

公开(公告)号：US20210004550A9

公开(公告)日：2021-01-07

申请号：US15462597

申请日：2017-03-17

Applicant: Digimarc Corporation

Inventor： Brian T. MacIntosh ,  Tony F. Rodriguez ,  Bruce L. Davis ,  Geoffrey B. Rhoads ,  John D. Lord ,  Alastair M. Reed ,  Eric D. Evans ,  Rebecca L. Gerlach ,  Yang Bai ,  John F. Stach ,  Tomas Filler ,  Marc G. Footen ,  Sean Calhoon ,  William Y. Conwell

IPC: G06K7/10 ,  G06K9/78 ,  G06Q30/00 ,  G06K7/14 ,  G06Q20/20 ,  G07G1/00

Abstract: 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.

公开(公告)号：US20190332840A1

公开(公告)日：2019-10-31

申请号：US16405621

申请日：2019-05-07

Applicant: Digimarc Corporation

Inventor： Ravi K. Sharma ,  Tomas Denemark ,  Brett A. Bradley ,  Geoffrey B. Rhoads ,  Eoin C. Sinclair ,  Vojtech Holub ,  Hugh L. Brunk ,  Trent J. Brundage ,  John F. Stach ,  John D. Lord ,  Joel R. Meyer ,  Tomas Filler ,  Ajith M. Kamath ,  Mark-Andrew Ray Tait ,  Kevin J. Hansonoda ,  Adnan M. Alattar

IPC: G06K7/14

Abstract: The parameters of an optical code are optimized to achieve improved signal robustness, reliability, capacity and/or visual quality. An optimization program can determine spatial density, dot distance, dot size and signal component priority to optimize robustness. An optical code generator employs these parameters to produce an optical code at the desired spatial density and robustness. The optical code is merged into a host image, such as imagery, text and graphics of a package or label, or it may be printed by itself, e.g., on an otherwise blank label or carton. A great number of other features and arrangements are also detailed.

公开(公告)号：US10402929B2

公开(公告)日：2019-09-03

申请号：US15959992

申请日：2018-04-23

Applicant: Digimarc Corporation

Inventor： Ravi K. Sharma ,  John D. Lord ,  Robert G. Lyons

IPC: G06T1/00 ,  G06T3/00 ,  G06K9/62 ,  G06F1/02

Abstract: Signal processing devices and methods estimate transforms between signals using a least squares technique. From a seed set of transform candidates, a direct least squares method applies a seed transform candidate to a reference signal and then measures correlation between the transformed reference signal and a suspect signal. For each candidate, update coordinates of reference signal features are identified in the suspect signal and provided as input to a least squares method to compute an update to the transform candidate. The method iterates so long as the update of the transform provides a better correlation. At the end of the process, the method identifies a transform or set of top transforms based on a further analysis of correlation, as well as other results.

公开(公告)号：US20190266749A1

公开(公告)日：2019-08-29

申请号：US16141587

申请日：2018-09-25

Applicant: Digimarc Corporation

Inventor： Geoffrey B. Rhoads ,  Utkarsh Deshmukh ,  John D. Lord

IPC: G06T7/73 ,  G06T1/00 ,  G06T5/00 ,  G06T7/00

Abstract: The geometric pose of a patch of watermark data is estimated based on the position of a similar, but non-identical, patch of information within a data structure. The information in the data structure corresponds to a tiled array of calibration patterns that is sampled along at least three non-parallel paths. In a particular embodiment, the calibration patterns are sampled so that edges are globally-curved, yet locally-flat. Use of such information in the data structure enables enhanced pose estimation, e.g., speeding up operation, enabling pose estimation from smaller patches of watermark signals, and/or enabling pose estimation from weaker watermark signals. A great variety of other features and arrangements are also detailed.

公开(公告)号：US20190266369A1

公开(公告)日：2019-08-29

申请号：US16291366

申请日：2019-03-04

Applicant: Digimarc Corporation

Inventor： Jacob L. Boles ,  Alastair M. Reed ,  John D. Lord

IPC: G06K7/10 ,  G06F16/955 ,  H04N5/225 ,  G06K9/20 ,  G06K7/12 ,  H04N1/48 ,  H04N9/73 ,  H04N1/40 ,  H04N5/33 ,  G06K7/14

Abstract: Signal detection and recognition employees coordinated illumination and capture of images under to facilitate extraction of a signal of interest. Pulsed illumination of different colors facilitates extraction of signals from color channels, as well as improved signal to noise ratio by combining signals of different color channels. The successive pulsing of different color illumination appears white to the user, yet facilitates signal detection, even for lower cost monochrome sensors, as in barcode scanning and other automatic identification equipment.