Mobile phone using dedicated and programmable processors for pipelined image processing, and method thereof

摘要

Cell phones and other portable devices are equipped with a variety of technologies by which existing functionality is improved, and new functionality is provided. Some aspects relate to imaging architectures, in which a cell phone's image sensor is one in a chain of stages that successively act on instructions/data, to capture and later process imagery. Other aspects relate to distribution of processing tasks between the device and remote resources (“the cloud”). Elemental image processing, such as filtering and edge detection—and even some simpler template matching operations—may be performed on the cell phone. Other operations are referred out to remote service providers. The remote service providers can be identified using techniques such as a reverse auction, through which they compete for processing tasks. Other aspects of the disclosed technologies relate to visual search capabilities, and determining appropriate actions responsive to different image inputs. Still others concern metadata generation, processing, and representation. A great number of other features and arrangements are also detailed.

主权项

1. A cell phone comprising:
an image sensor portion that outputs frames of image data; a processing system coupled to the image sensor portion, the processing system including plural hardware processing units, including:
a first processing unit comprising first circuitry; anda second processing unit different than the first processing unit, the second processing unit comprising second circuitry different than the first circuitry;the processing system including an interconnection arrangement that conveys data from an output of the first processing unit to an input of the second processing unit; a memory containing instructions that cause the processing system to configure a pipelined arrangement in which one of said processing units processes one frame of image data while another of said processing units processes a different frame of image data; a setup module that sends information specifying operations to be performed on a first frame of data by the first and second processing units, before the pipelined arrangement begins processing said first frame of data; and a radio interface coupled to the processing system to enable wireless transmission of one or more frames of processed image data from the cell phone; wherein said instructions and information: cause the first processing unit to process a first frame of data at a first time, applying a first function; cause the same first processing unit to process said same first frame of data at a second, later time, applying a second function different than the first function; and cause the second processing unit to process said same first frame of data between said first and second times, the second processing unit applying a third function different than the first and second functions.