Methods and arrangements for identifying objects

Abstract

In some arrangements, product packaging is digitally watermarked over most of its extent to facilitate high-throughput item identification at retail checkouts. Imagery captured by conventional or plenoptic cameras can be processed (e.g., by GPUs) to derive several different perspective-transformed views—further minimizing the need to manually reposition items for identification. Crinkles and other deformations in product packaging can be optically sensed, allowing such surfaces to be virtually flattened to aid identification. Piles of items can be 3D-modelled and virtually segmented into geometric primitives to aid identification, and to discover locations of obscured items. Other data (e.g., including data from sensors in aisles, shelves and carts, and gaze tracking for clues about visual saliency) can be used in assessing identification hypotheses about an item. A great variety of other features and arrangements are also detailed.

1 - 20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . A supply of food wrap that is serialized, bearing a plurality of different machine-readable codes that encode different identifiers. 
     
     
         22 . A supply of paper food wrap according to  claim 21 . 
     
     
         23 . A supply of paper food wrap sheets according to  claim 21 , with each sheet bearing a machine-readable code that encodes a different identifier. 
     
     
         24 . A method of using the food wrap of  claim 21 , including wrapping a food item in a sheet of said food wrap, said sheet encoding a first identifier in its machine-readable code, and storing a price for the item in a database in association with said first identifier. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 24  that further includes weighing the food item, and storing a weight for the item in said database in association with said first identifier. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 24  that further includes decoding the first identifier from the wrapped food item in a checkout process, recalling the price associated with said identifier in the database, and adding said price to a checkout tally. 
     
     
         27 . A method involving a food item wrapped by a clerk at a grocery store counter, using a sheet of wrapping medium drawn from an inventory of such sheets, the method comprising:
 sensing an identifier from the wrapping medium at said counter, each sheet of wrapping medium encoding an identifier by which it can be distinguished from other sheets;   storing identification data for said wrapped food item, the stored identification data serving to associate the wrapping medium identifier with first data identifying the type of food item;   at a checkout station, sensing the identifier from the wrapping medium, recalling the stored first data associated therewith, and including the thereby-identified food item in a checkout tally.   
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 27  that further includes:
 producing weight data for the food item using a weighing system at the counter; 
 receiving an identifier of the food item entered by the clerk through a user interface of the weighing system; and 
 including the weight data with the stored identification data.