CN-122021686-A - Visual marker

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to visual markers. Various implementations disclosed herein include apparatuses, systems, and methods that provide a visual marker including a plurality of markers arranged in a corresponding plurality of shapes. In some implementations, each mark is formed from a set of sub-marks separated by gaps and arranged according to respective shapes, and the gaps of the plurality of marks are configured to encode data and indicate an orientation of the visual marker. In some implementations, the plurality of marks are arranged in a plurality of concentric rings of increasing size. In some implementations, the orientation is encoded in a first set of the gaps in the plurality of marks and the data is encoded in a second set of the gaps.

Inventors

• A. S. Langa Prasad
• A. Grandhoff
• M. S.B. Himani
• D. A. goville
• J.M. Lexton
• J-C.B.M. Bazin
• S. Agraval

Assignees

• 苹果公司

Dates

Publication Date

20260512

Application Date

20210615

Priority Date

20200619

Claims (20)

1. 1.A method, comprising: At an electronic device having a processor: Obtaining an image of a physical environment, the physical environment comprising a visual marker comprising a plurality of markers arranged in a corresponding plurality of shapes, each marker being formed from a set of sub-markers separated by gaps and arranged according to the respective shapes; determining an orientation of the visual marker from a first set of the gaps in at least two of the plurality of marks depicted in the image, and Decoding data encoded in a second set of gaps in the gaps based on the orientation of the visual marker.
2. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the orientation comprises determining a unique orientation corresponding to a relative positioning of the first set of gaps.
3. 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the decoding comprises clustering the plurality of labeled pixels into one of the corresponding plurality of shapes.
4. 4. A method according to claim 3, wherein the clustering uses a data-driven learning segmentation method to classify the plurality of labeled pixels into a plurality of categories each representing one of the corresponding plurality of shapes and at least one other category.
5. 5. The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of markers is a plurality of concentric markers, wherein the clustering comprises: randomly selecting a group of pixels from the plurality of marked pixels, and Using the set of pixels to hypothesize a modeled shape; Repeating the step of randomly selecting a set of pixels and the step of assuming using the set of pixels a prescribed number of times; Selecting one of a plurality of sets of pixels based on a number of the pixels of the plurality of markers proximate to the corresponding modeled shape; Determining a first shape of the corresponding plurality of shapes based on a selected one of the plurality of sets of pixels, and The remaining shapes of the corresponding plurality of shapes are estimated using a preset size and distance relationship to the first shape.
6. 6. The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of markers is a plurality of concentric markers, wherein the clustering comprises: randomly selecting a group of pixels from the plurality of marked pixels, and Using the set of pixels to assume a modeled shape, wherein the modeled shape is a first shape of the corresponding plurality of shapes; estimating remaining shapes of the corresponding plurality of shapes using a preset size and distance relationship to the first shape; Determining a number of the pixels of the plurality of markers proximate to the first shape and the estimated remaining shapes of the corresponding plurality of shapes; repeating the step of randomly selecting a set of pixels, the step of using the set of pixels to hypothesize a modeled shape, the step of estimating remaining shapes of the corresponding plurality of shapes, and the step of determining the number of pixels a prescribed number of times; Selecting one of the plurality of sets of pixels based on the determined number of proximate pixels in the pixels of the plurality of labels; The corresponding plurality of shapes is determined based on a selected one of the plurality of sets of pixels.
7. 7. The method of claim 1, wherein a first color of the plurality of indicia of the visual marker and a second color of a background of the visual marker are selected anywhere within a color spectrum.
8. 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: Encoding a version of the visual marker in a first marker of the plurality of markers, and The data of the visual marker is encoded in the remaining markers of the plurality of markers.
9. 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising: Determining a data value of a color exhibited by a plurality of elements forming the plurality of markers, wherein the data value is determined based on a color characteristic of the color, and Further data encoded in the color exhibited by the plurality of elements is decoded based on the determined data values of the color.
10. 10. A method, comprising: At an electronic device having a processor: obtaining an image of a physical environment, the physical environment comprising a visual marker, the visual marker comprising a plurality of elements; determining a color characteristic of the visual marker based on the image; Determining a data value for a color exhibited by the plurality of elements, the data value being determined based on the determined color characteristic, and Decoding data encoded in the color exhibited by the plurality of elements based on the determined data values of the color.
11. 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of elements are sequentially arranged on the visual marker, and wherein the colors of the visual marker comprise a set of 4 colors, the method further comprising assigning data values 11, 10, 01, 00 to corresponding colors in the set of 4 colors, respectively.
12. 12. The method of claim 10, wherein determining the data values for the colors exhibited by the plurality of elements comprises determining a relationship of the determined color characteristics between the colors and assigning the data values based on the determined relationship.
13. 13. The method of claim 10, wherein determining the data value for the color exhibited by the plurality of elements comprises comparing the determined color characteristic of the color to a background color of the visual marker and assigning the corresponding data value based on the comparison.
14. 14. The method of claim 10, wherein the visual marker comprises a plurality of markers arranged in a corresponding plurality of shapes, each marker being formed from a set of sub-markers separated by sub-gaps and arranged according to the respective shape.
15. 15. The method of claim 14, further comprising, when the number of the plurality of elements is below a threshold, Setting a flip indicator in the visual marker, and The data values in the sub-slots of the plurality of markers are interchanged prior to encoding the data in the color exhibited by the plurality of elemental colors.
16. 16. A system, comprising: a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, and One or more processors coupled to the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium includes program instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, cause the system to perform operations comprising: obtaining an image of a physical environment, the physical environment comprising a visual marker, the visual marker comprising a plurality of elements; determining a color characteristic of the visual marker based on the image; Determining a data value for a color exhibited by the plurality of elements, the data value being determined based on the determined color characteristic, and Decoding data encoded in the color exhibited by the plurality of elements based on the determined data values of the color.
17. 17. The system of claim 16, wherein the plurality of elements are sequentially arranged on the visual marker, and wherein the colors of the visual marker comprise a set of 4 colors, further comprising assigning data values 11, 10, 01, 00 to corresponding colors in the set of 4 colors, respectively.
18. 18. The system of claim 16, wherein determining the data values for the colors exhibited by the plurality of elements comprises determining a relationship of the determined color characteristics between the colors and assigning the data values based on the determined relationship.
19. 19. The system of claim 16, wherein determining the data value for the color exhibited by the plurality of elements comprises comparing the determined color characteristic of the color to a background color of the visual marker and assigning the corresponding data value based on the comparison.
20. 20. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program instructions computer-executable on a computer to perform operations comprising: obtaining an image of a physical environment, the physical environment comprising a visual marker, the visual marker comprising a plurality of elements; determining a color characteristic of the visual marker based on the image; Determining a data value for a color exhibited by the plurality of elements, the data value being determined based on the determined color characteristic, and Decoding data encoded in the color exhibited by the plurality of elements based on the determined data values of the color.

Description

Visual marker The application is a divisional application of an application patent application with the application number 202180043368.4 and the application date 2021, 6, 15 and the application name of 'visual marker'. Technical Field The present disclosure relates generally to visual markers (markers) conveying information and to systems, methods, and devices that capture and interpret images of such visual markers to obtain and use the conveyed information. Background Today, visual markers exist in the form of bar codes, quick Response (QR) codes, and other proprietary formats. QR codes encode binary data such as a string or other payload. Disclosure of Invention Various implementations disclosed herein include visual markers having a plurality of markers arranged in a plurality of shapes. In some implementations, a marking (marking) of the visual marker may be configured to both indicate an orientation of the visual marker and communicate information. In some implementations, each mark is formed from a set of sub-marks separated by gaps and arranged according to a respective shape. Some of these gaps are positioned to uniquely indicate the orientation of the visual marker. In one example, each marker is a ring formed from ring segment sub-markers that are spaced apart to define a template of locations. Some of these locations in the template are selectively filled with other ring segment sub-marks (representing 1) or left as gaps (representing 0) to convey information. Other ones of these positions in the template are left as gaps to indicate the orientation of the visual marker. For example, gaps at these orientation-indicating template positions may provide a combination of gap positions that is unique to a single orientation of the visual marker. The size, shape, number of locations, and other characteristics of the indicia may be configured such that gaps at certain locations provide a combination of gap locations that is unique to a single orientation of the visual indicia. Various other implementations disclosed herein decode or otherwise interpret the visual marker to determine the orientation of the visual marker or obtain information conveyed by the visual marker based on the orientation. In some implementations, the visual marker conveys the first set of information by a template that selectively encodes (e.g., closes or opens) gaps between ring segment sub-markers that form a plurality of elements in each of a plurality of markers. In some implementations, the visual marker conveys the second set of information by selectively coloring a subset of the plurality of elements. In some implementations, the visual marker conveying information includes a plurality of markers arranged in a corresponding plurality of shapes, each marker formed from a set of sub-markers separated by gaps and arranged according to the respective shape, wherein the gaps of the plurality of markers are configured to convey information (e.g., encoded data) and indicate an orientation of the visual marker. In some implementations, at an electronic device having a processor, a method includes obtaining an image of a physical environment including a visual marker including a plurality of markers arranged in a corresponding plurality of shapes, each marker formed from a set of sub-markers separated by a gap and arranged according to the respective shape. The orientation of the visual marker is determined from a first set of gaps in the gaps in at least two of the plurality of markers depicted in the image. The data encoded in the second set of gaps in the gaps is then decoded based on the orientation of the visual marker. In some implementations, at an electronic device having a processor, a method includes obtaining an image of a physical environment, the physical environment including a visual marker including a plurality of elements. Then, a color characteristic (color) of the visual marker is determined based on the image. In some implementations, data values are determined for colors exhibited by a plurality of elements, the data values being determined based on the determined color characteristics. The data encoded in the color exhibited by the plurality of elements is then decoded based on the determined data values for the colors. Drawings Accordingly, the present disclosure may be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art, and the more detailed description may reference aspects of some illustrative implementations, some of which are shown in the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram of an exemplary operating environment, according to some implementations. FIG. 2 is a diagram of an exemplary electronic device, according to some implementations. Fig. 3-4 are diagrams illustrating exemplary visual markers indicating orientation and conveying information using gaps in a plurality of progressively larger markers, according to some implementations. Fig. 5A-5B are diagrams illustrating an exemplary configuration