Image-based addressing of physical content for electronic communication

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9253305-B2
Application number	US-201113048659-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 15, 2011
Priority date	Mar 15, 2010
Publication date	Feb 2, 2016
Grant date	Feb 2, 2016

Abstract

In one exemplary embodiment, a method includes: capturing image data for physical content, where the physical content includes a recipient image indicative of at least one desired recipient; performing image recognition on the captured image data to identify the recipient image; matching the recipient image with corresponding contact information to obtain address information for the at least one desired recipient; and addressing an electronic communication to the at least one desired recipient using the address information, where the electronic communication includes the captured image data for the physical content.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
capturing image data for physical content, wherein the physical content includes a photograph of at least one desired recipient;
performing facial recognition on the captured image data;
accessing a database comprising at least one picture of the at least one desired recipient and data that indicates a correspondence between the at least one picture and contact information of the at least one desired recipient;
matching the photograph of the at least one desired recipient with the at least one picture in the database of the at least one desired recipient based on the facial recognition to obtain corresponding contact information of the at least one desired recipient;
obtaining address information for the at least one desired recipient from the corresponding contact information;
modifying the captured image data by replacing the photograph of the at least one desired recipient with a sender image indicative of a sender of an electronic communication;
addressing the electronic communication to the at least one desired recipient using the address information, wherein the electronic communication comprises the modified captured image data for the physical content; and
sending the addressed electronic communication to the at least one desired recipient.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
stamping the physical content to indicate the sending of the addressed electronic communication; and
receiving a second electronic communication addressed to the sender using the sender image.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the photograph comprises a customized stamp, a customizable stamp, a sticker or an adhesive item, and wherein the electronic communication comprises an e-mail, a multimedia message service (MMS) message, a short message service (SMS) message, a text message, a fax or a digital communication.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein addressing the electronic communication comprises filling in a destination field of the electronic communication with at least a portion of the address information.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the address information comprises at least one of an e-mail address, a phone number, a text number, a SMS number, an account name, a personal identifier, a personal identifier code, a routing code and a name.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the photograph comprises a reference marking along an edge and wherein the performed image recognition uses the reference marking to identify a boundary of the photograph.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein accessing a database further comprises searching a social network for at least one picture of the at least one desired recipient.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sender image is associated with contact information of the sender in the database.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
upon capturing the image data for the physical content, uploading the captured image data to a remote server, wherein the electronic communication further comprises information identifying a storage location of the uploaded captured image.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein matching the photograph comprises matching the photograph of at least two desired recipients with at least one picture in the database of the at least two desired recipients based on the facial recognition to obtain corresponding contact information of the at least two desired recipients, and wherein addressing the electronic communication comprises addressing the electronic communication to each of the at least two desired recipients using the address information.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the modifying the captured image data comprises:
including at least one reference marking to assist a printer in adjusting alignment and/or sizing of the sender image with a stamp area on printer paper.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one picture in the database of the at least one desired recipient comprises at least one social network picture, wherein the corresponding contact information of the at least one desired recipient comprises at least one corresponding social network account for the at least one desired recipient, and wherein sending the addressed electronic communication comprises sending the electronic communication to the at least one corresponding social network account of the at least one desired recipient.

13. A program storage device tangibly embodying a program of instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to at least:
capture image data for physical content, wherein the physical content includes a photograph of at least one desired recipient;
perform facial recognition on the captured image data;
access a database comprising at least one picture of the at least one desired recipient and data that indicates a correspondence between the at least one picture and contact information of the at least one desired recipient;
match the photograph of the at least one desired recipient with the at least one picture in the database of the at least one desired recipient based on the facial recognition to obtain corresponding contact information of the at least one desired recipient;
obtain address information for the at least one desired recipient from the corresponding contact information;
modify the captured image data by replacing the photograph of the at least one desired recipient with a sender image indicative of a sender of an electronic communication;
address the electronic communication to the at least one desired recipient using the address information, wherein the electronic communication comprises the modified captured image data for the physical content; and
send the addressed electronic communication to the at least one desired recipient.

14. The program storage device of claim 13 , wherein the instructions further cause the machine to:
stamp the physical content to indicate the sending of the addressed electronic communication; and
receive a second electronic communication addressed to the sender using the sender image.

15. The program storage device of claim 13 , wherein the photograph comprises a customized stamp, a customizable stamp, a sticker or an adhesive item, and wherein the electronic communication comprises an e-mail, a multimedia message service (MMS) message, a short message service (SMS) message, a text message, a fax or a digital communication.

16. The program storage device of claim 13 , wherein the address information comprises at least one of an e-mail address, a phone number, a text number, a SMS number, an account name, a personal identifier, a personal identifier code, a routing code and a name.

17. An apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code being configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least:
capture image data for physical content, wherein the physical content includes a photograph of at least one desired recipient;
perform facial recognition on the captured image data;
access a database comprising at least one picture of the at least one desired recipient and data that indicates a correspondence between the at least one picture and contact information of the at least one desired recipient;
match the photograph of the at least one desired recipient with the at least one picture in the database of the at least one desired recipient based on the facial recognition to obtain corresponding contact information of the at least one desired recipient;

Assignees

• Mori Koichi
• Raffle Hayes
• Ballagas Rafael A
• Horii Hiroshi
• Nokia Corp

Inventors

• Mori Koichi
• Raffle Hayes
• Ballagas Rafael A
• Horii Hiroshi

Classifications

• H04N1/0036

  Alphanumeric symbols · CPC title

• H04M1/72555

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04N1/00307

  with a mobile telephone apparatus (constructional features of portable telephone sets H04M1/0202; mobile radio systems H04W84/00) · CPC title

• H04M1/2755 Primary

  by optical scanning · CPC title

• H04N1/00355

  Mark-sheet input (sensing record carriers G06K7/00; character recognition G06V30/10; document-oriented image-based pattern recognition G06V30/40) · CPC title