Methods and apparatus for tracking motion and/or orientation of a marking device

A marking apparatus for dispensing marking material onto a target surface, the marking apparatus comprising:

• at least one camera system attached to the marking apparatus;
• and
• control electronics communicatively coupled to the at least one camera system and comprising a processing unit configured to:
• receive camera system data generated by the at least one camera system;
• analyze the camera system data to determine tracking information indicative of the motion or orientation of the marking apparatus;
• and
• analyze the tracking information to determine marking information relating to the marking material dispensed by the marking apparatus.

An apparatus for tracking a motion and/or an orientation of a marking device used to dispense a marking material onto a target surface, the apparatus comprising:

• at least one communication interface;
• at least one memory to store processor-executable instructions;
• and
• at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one memory and the at least one communication interface, wherein, upon execution of the processor-executable instructions, the at least one processor:
• A) analyzes at least one image of the target surface being marked to obtain an optical flow plot indicative of a path on the target surface traversed by the marking device, the at least one image being captured by at least one camera system attached to the marking device;
• B) retrieves, from the at least one memory, a plurality of reference plots, respectively representing a plurality of reference marking patterns;
• and
• C) compares at least one portion of the optical flow plot to at least some of the plurality of reference plots retrieved in B) to identify at least one reference marking pattern of the plurality of reference marking patterns that substantially matches the at least one portion of the optical flow plot obtained in A).

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method comprising:

• A) receiving camera system data from at least one camera system attached to a marking device dispensing a marking material onto a target surface;
• B) analyzing the camera system data to determine tracking information indicative of a motion or an orientation of the marking device;
• and
• C) analyzing the tracking information to determine marking information relating to the dispensed marking material.