ITEM LOCATION TRACKING VIA IMAGE ANALYSIS AND PROJECTION

Number: 20220051013
Published: 2022-02-17
Filed: 2020-08-11
Assignee: Disney Enterprises, Inc.
Inventors: GOLDBERG; Evan M., MINE; Mark R., DEUEL; Matthew, BAKER; Daniel L., COFFEY; Dane M., CHAPMAN; Steven M.
CPC: G06V20/52; G06V10/40; G06V20/00; G08B5/22; G06T7/20; G08B21/24; G06V10/62; G08B13/1481; G08B5/36
Verdict: Set aside lost-item tracking/security, business
Source: Google Patents · FreePatentsOnline

Abstract

Tracking an item of interest through an environment is described. Tracking the item of interest through the environment is accomplished using passive optical tracking where an item is identified in an image of the environment using image processing and various locations of the item are tracked through the environment. When a user wants to know an item's location, a location image is projected onto the location of the item to allow a user view a current location of the item.

Background

BACKGROUND

Locations of small or frequently moved physical items are often hard to track over time. These items are commonly lost or misplaced for a myriad of reasons. For example, common household items such as keys and remote controls are often placed in a variety of different locations at varying times of the day. These items may also be moved by multiple people such that is difficult for someone to locate the item at any given time.

Solutions for locating these physical items often rely on actively tagging the item with a location transmitter or other hardware device that can be used to locate the item. These solutions require that the item be tagged with additional hardware and that the additional hardware be working. This additional hardware can often fail to function properly when the item is covered or out of range of a receiving device, etc. These active processes and hardware can often render the item hard to find and leave a user still searching for the misplaced item. SUMMARY

A system of one or more computers can be configured to perform particular operations or actions by virtue of having software, firmware, hardware, or a combination of them installed on the system that in operation causes or cause the system to perform the actions. One or more computer programs can be configured to perform particular operations or actions by virtue of including instructions that, when executed by data processing apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform the

Claims

1. A method comprising: receiving an image of a physical environment; identifying, from the image, an item of interest in the physical environment; determining, from the image, a first location of the item of interest within the physical environment; tracking a location of the item of interest within the physical environment over a period of time; and projecting, using a projector, a location image into the physical environment that indicates to a user a current location of the item of interest. || 10. A system, comprising: a processor; and a memory comprising instructions which, when executed on the processor, performs an operation, the operation comprising: receiving an image of a physical environment; identifying, from the image, an item of interest in the physical environment from the image; determining, from the image, a first location of the item of interest within the physical environment; tracking a location of the item of interest within the physical environment over a period of time; and projecting, using a projector, a location image into the physical environment that indicates to a user a current location of the item of interest. || 18. A computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-readable program code embodied therewith, the computer-readable program code is configured to perform, when executed by a processor, an operation, the operation comprising: receiving an image of a physical environment; identifying, from the image, an item of interest in the physical environment; determining, from the image, a first location of the item of interest within the physical environment; tracking a location of the item of interest within the physical environment over a period of time; and projecting, using a projector, a location image into the physical environment that indicates to a user a current location of the item of interest.