Object processing employing movement
View Patent ↗Directional albedo of a particular article, such as an identity card, is measured and stored. When the article is later presented, it can be confirmed to be the same particular article by re-measuring the albedo function, and checking for correspondence against the earlier-stored data. The re-measuring can be performed through use of a handheld optical device, such as a camera-equipped cell phone. The albedo function can serve as random key data in a variety of cryptographic applications. The function can be changed during the life of the article. A variety of other features are also detailed.
1. A method comprising:
causing relative movement between an object and a camera-equipped mobile phone;
capturing plural successive images of the object from different viewpoints using said camera-equipped mobile phone; and
by reference to data thereby collected, making a determination concerning said object;
wherein said determination is made independently of information about positioning of any illumination source relative to the object.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein said object comprises an identity document.
3. The method of claim 1 that includes making a determination concerning identification of said object.
4. A method comprising:
waving an article before a 2D optical sensor device along a random track; and
by reference to data produced by said device, making a determination concerning said article;
wherein said determination is made independently of information about positioning of any illumination source relative to the article.
5. A method comprising:
causing relative movement between an identity card and a 2D optical sensor;
capturing plural frames of image data during said movement, said frames including image data corresponding to said identity card;
determining relative position data for each of plural frames;
decoding a steganographically encoded data signal conveyed by said card; and
processing said captured image data, in conjunction with said position data, to determine a physical function associated with said card;
wherein said processing is done independently of information about positioning of any illumination source relative to the identity card.
6. The method of claim 5 that further comprises checking previously-stored physical function data with said determined physical function, for correspondence.
7. The method of claim 6 that includes, by reference to the decoded data signal, identifying a record in a database purportedly corresponding to said card, and obtaining said previously-stored physical function data therefrom.
8. The method of claim 5 wherein said determining position data proceeds by reference to a steganographically encoded reference signal conveyed by said card.
9. The method of claim 5 wherein said physical function has a directional aspect.
10. The method of claim 5 that further comprises checking previously-stored physical function data with said determined physical function, for correlation.
11. A method that includes:
causing relative movement between an object and a 2D optical sensor;
generating object-related data, said generating including capturing a frame of image data during said movement, said frame of image data including at least some image data corresponding to said object, and determining relative position data associated with said captured frame of image data;
sensing a machine-readable identifier from the object;
accessing a remote data store containing data associated with said sensed identifier; and
checking the data from said remote data store with said object-related data for correspondence;
wherein said method proceeds independently of information about positioning of any illumination source relative to the object.
12. The method of claim 11 that includes checking the data from said remote data store with said object-related data for correlation.
13. The method of claim 11 in which the object comprises an identity card.
14. The method of claim 11 in which said act of generating object-related data includes capturing plural frames of image data during said movement, and determining relative position data associated with each of said captured frames.
15. The method of claim 11 wherein said capturing a frame of image data comprises capturing with a 2D optical sensor in a camera-equipped telephone.
16. The method of claim 1 wherein said determination is made by a processor, configured in accordance with software instructions, and proceeds with reference to information related to surface topology of the object.
17. The method of claim 4 wherein said determination is made by a processor, configured in accordance with software instructions, and proceeds with reference to information related to surface topology of the article.
18. The method of claim 5 wherein said processing is performed by a processor, configured in accordance with software instructions, and proceeds with reference to information related to surface topology of the identity card.
19. The method of claim 11 wherein said generating is performed by a processor, configured in accordance with software instructions, and proceeds with reference to information related to surface topology of the object.
20. A computer readable medium containing non-transitory instructions for causing a process programmed thereby to perform the following acts:
control the capturing of image data from an article;
process the image data to obtain data relating to positioning of the article; and
make a determination concerning the authenticity of the article, independently of information about positioning of any illumination source relative to the article.
21. A method that includes:
collecting plural frames of image data of an object, each with a different perspective;
step for checking a match between said object to a reference object, through use of data stored in a data structure, and independently of information about positioning of any illumination source relative to the article; and
providing an indication to a user if a match is found.
22. The method of claim 21 wherein said step comprises performing a correlation operation using a computer.