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US 9,791,865 B2Granted
Multi-scale fiducials
AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.
InventorsCarl Ryan Kelso, Yves Christian Albers Schoenberg, James Yang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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.
Claims20
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;
- a third fiducial at a third scale smaller than the second scale and linked to the second fiducial;
- wherein at least one of:
- the first fiducial encodes data indicating a position of the second fiducial relative to the first fiducial, or the second fiducial encodes data indicating a position of the third fiducial relative to the second fiducial;
- and
- wherein at least one of:
- the second fiducial is located outside of an outer boundary of the first fiducial, or the third fiducial is located outside of an outer boundary of the second fiducial.
5 more elements
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;
- a third fiducial at a third scale smaller than the second scale and linked to the second fiducial;
- wherein at least one of:
- the first fiducial encodes data indicating a position of the second fiducial relative to the first fiducial, or the second fiducial encodes data indicating a position of the third fiducial relative to the second fiducial;
- and
- wherein at least one of:
- the second fiducial is located outside of a boundary of the first fiducial, or the third fiducial is located outside of a boundary of the second fiducial.
5 more elements
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;
- a third fiducial at a third scale smaller than the second scale and linked to the second fiducial;
- wherein at least one of:
- the first fiducial encodes data indicating a position of the second fiducial relative to the first fiducial, or the second fiducial encodes data indicating a position of the third fiducial relative to the second fiducial;
- and
- wherein the first fiducial, the second fiducial, and the third fiducial each comprises a concentric ring having at least one respective rotation marker.
4 more elements
An autonomously controlled aerial vehicle configured to at least:
- capture, via an imaging device, a first image at a first location;
- recognize a first fiducial of a multi-scale 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;
- and
- 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;
- a third fiducial at a third scale smaller than the second scale and linked to the second fiducial;
- wherein at least one of:
- the first fiducial encodes data indicating a position of the second fiducial relative to the first fiducial, or the second fiducial encodes data indicating a position of the third fiducial relative to the second fiducial;
- and
- wherein at least one of:
- the second fiducial is located outside of an outer boundary of the first fiducial, or the third fiducial is located outside of an outer boundary of the second fiducial.
11 more elements
A system, comprising:
- an autonomously controlled aerial vehicle;
- 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;
- and
- the multi-scale fiducial comprising:
- 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;
- a third fiducial at a third scale smaller than the second scale and linked to the second fiducial;
- wherein at least one of:
- the first fiducial encodes data indicating a position of the second fiducial relative to the first fiducial, or the second fiducial encodes data indicating a position of the third fiducial relative to the second fiducial;
- and
- wherein at least one of:
- the second fiducial is located outside of a boundary of the first fiducial, or the third fiducial is located outside of a boundary of the second fiducial.
12 more elements
A method for recognizing a multi-scale fiducial, 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 of the multi-scale fiducial depicted within the first image;
- wherein the first fiducial is at least partially clipped by the first image;
- and
- wherein the multi-scale fiducial comprises:
- 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;
- a third fiducial at a third scale smaller than the second scale and linked to the second fiducial;
- wherein at least one of:
- the first fiducial encodes data indicating a position of the second fiducial relative to the first fiducial, or the second fiducial encodes data indicating a position of the third fiducial relative to the second fiducial;
- and
- wherein the first fiducial, the second fiducial, and the third fiducial each comprises a concentric ring having at least one respective rotation marker.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.