Cell phones with optical capabilities, and related applications
View Patent ↗A cell phone is equipped with a 2D optical sensor, enabling a variety of applications. For example, such a phone may also be provided with a digital watermark decoder, permitting decoding of steganographic data on imaged objects. Movement of a phone may be inferred by sensing movement of an imaged pattern across the optical sensor's field of view, allowing use of the phone as a gestural input device through which a user can signal instructions to a computer-based process. A variety of other arrangements by which electronic devices can interact with the physical world are also detailed, e.g., involving sensing and responding to digital watermarks, bar codes, RFIDs, etc.
1. In a wireless telephony handset including a microphone, a modulator, and an RF amplifier, the handset serving to receive audio and transmit an RF signal conveying audio modulation, an improvement comprising a 2D optical sensor producing optical data, a lens for imaging an object onto the sensor, and a watermark decoder for decoding plural bit identifier data conveyed by a digital watermark on the object.
2. A method of using a wireless telephone handset that includes a microphone, a 2D optical sensor, and a wireless interface, the wireless interface being capable of transmitting an RF signal conveying information corresponding to audio sensed by said microphone, the method comprising:
presenting in a field of view of said 2D sensor a physical object bearing a digital watermark pattern, the pattern representing a plural-bit watermark payload; and
decoding from the physical object said plural-bit watermark payload.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein the physical object is a card.
4. The method of claim 2 wherein the card is a playing card.