Multi-scale fiducials

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016124431-A1
Application number	US-201414527261-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 29, 2014
Priority date	Oct 29, 2014
Publication date	May 5, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments of a multi-scale fiducial. A multi-scale fiducial may have three or more scales, where the child fiducials are nested or otherwise linked by a relative position to the parent fiducials. Multi-scale fiducials may facilitate target identification and tracking at varying distances, potentially without the aid of a scale-invariant recognition algorithm. One application of multi-scale fiducials may involve target identification for autonomously controlled aerial vehicles.

First claim

1 - 7 . (canceled)

8 . A multi-scale fiducial, comprising:
a first fiducial at a first scale; a second fiducial at a second scale smaller than the first scale and linked to the first fiducial; and a third fiducial at a third scale smaller than the second scale and linked to the second fiducial.

9 . The multi-scale fiducial of claim 8 , further comprising at least one additional fiducial at a scale different from the first scale, the second scale, and the third scale and linked to at least one of: the first fiducial, the second fiducial, or the third fiducial.

10 . The multi-scale fiducial of claim 8 , wherein the second fiducial is located outside of a boundary of the first fiducial at a predefined relative position.

11 . The multi-scale fiducial of claim 8 , wherein the first fiducial comprises a first grid of black or white blocks, the second fiducial comprises a second grid of black or white blocks, the third fiducial comprises a third grid of black or white blocks, the second fiducial is located at a predefined block location within the first grid, and the third fiducial is located at a predefined block location within the second grid.

12 . The multi-scale fiducial of claim 8 , further comprising a fourth fiducial at the second scale and linked to the first fiducial.

13 . The multi-scale fiducial of claim 8 , wherein the second fiducial is centered within the first fiducial, and the third fiducial is centered within the second fiducial.

14 . The multi-scale fiducial of claim 8 , wherein at least one of: the second fiducial is not centered within the first fiducial, or the third fiducial is not centered within the second fiducial.

15 . The multi-scale fiducial of claim 8 , wherein at least two of the first fiducial, the second fiducial, or the third fiducial encode different information, or at least two of the first fiducial, the second fiducial, or the third fiducial employ at least one of: different colors, textures, or patterns.

16 . The multi-scale fiducial of claim 8 , wherein the first fiducial, the second fiducial, and the third fiducial each comprises a concentric ring having at least one respective rotation marker.

17 - 20 . (canceled)

21 . The multi-scale fiducial of claim 8 , wherein an autonomously controlled aerial vehicle is configured to at least:
capture, via an imaging device, a first image at a first location; recognize the first fiducial within the first image; and move relative to the multi-scale fiducial based at least in part on information contained within the first fiducial.

22 . The multi-scale fiducial of claim 21 , wherein the autonomously controlled aerial vehicle is further configured to at least:
capture, via the imaging device, a second image at a second location; recognize the second fiducial within the second image; and perform an action based at least in part on information contained within the second fiducial.

23 . A system, comprising:
an autonomously controlled aerial vehicle; and control logic implemented in the autonomously controlled aerial vehicle configured to perform a method comprising:
capturing, via an imaging device of the autonomously controlled aerial vehicle, a first image at a first location; and
recognizing a first fiducial of a multi-scale fiducial depicted within the first image, wherein the multi-scale fiducial comprises:
the first fiducial at a first scale;
a second fiducial at a second scale smaller than the first scale and linked to the first fiducial; and
a third fiducial at a third scale smaller than the second scale and linked to the second fiducial.

24 . The system of claim 23 , wherein the method further comprises:
capturing, via the imaging device, a second image at a second location; recognizing the second fiducial, the second fiducial being depicted within the second image; and performing an action based at least in part on information contained in the second fiducial.

25 . The system of claim 24 , wherein at least a portion of the first fiducial is clipped in the second image, or the second fiducial is unresolvable from the image by the control logic.

26 . The system of claim 23 , wherein the method further comprises piloting the autonomously controlled aerial vehicle relative to the multi-scale fiducial based at least in part on information contained within the first fiducial.

27 . The system of claim 23 , wherein each scale of the multi-scale fiducial can be used independently to determine a relative position of at least one of: a respective parent fiducial or a respective child fiducial.

28 . A method, comprising:
capturing, via an imaging device of a computing device, a first image of a location at a first distance; recognizing, via the computing device, a second fiducial depicted within the first image, the second fiducial being a part of a multi-scale fiducial comprising:
a first fiducial at a first scale;
the second fiducial at a second scale smaller than the first scale and linked to the first fiducial; and
a third fiducial at a third scale smaller than the second scale and linked to the second fiducial; and
wherein the first fiducial is at least partially clipped by the first image.

29 . The method of claim 28 , wherein the second fiducial is nested within the first fiducial.

30 . The method of claim 28 , wherein recognizing the second fiducial further comprises recognizing, via the computing device, the second fiducial using a scale-variant algorithm.

31 . The method of claim 28 , further comprising:
capturing, via the imaging device of the computing device, a second image of the location at a second distance, the second distance being closer to the location than the first distance; and recognizing, via the computing device, the third fiducial depicted within the second image.

Assignees

• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Kelso Carl Ryan
• Schoenberg Yves Christian Albers
• Yang James

Classifications

• G06K2019/06262

  with target- or other orientation-indicating feature · CPC title

• G06K19/06168

  the marking being a concentric barcode · CPC title

• G06K2019/06243

  concentric-code · CPC title

• G06K19/06056 Primary

  the marking comprising a further embedded marking, e.g. a 1D bar code with the black bars containing a smaller sized coding · CPC title

• G06K19/06037

  multi-dimensional coding · CPC title