Apparatus and method of embedding meta-data in a captured image

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses generate and render data embedded with associated meta-data in a human or machine recognizable format. The apparatus includes an obtaining device to acquire first data in a predetermined format and associated second data comprising information of the first data, and to output the first data and the associated second data; a processing device to receive the first data and the associated second data from the obtaining device, to process the first data and the associated second data to thereby generate meta-data based on the first data and/or the associated second data, to convert the meta-data into the predetermined format of the first data, and to embed the converted meta-data into the first data as a combined data in the predetermined format; and a rendering device to receive the combined data from the processing device, and to render the combined data in the human or machine recognizable format.

1 . An apparatus to generate and render data embedded with associated meta-data in a human or machine recognizable format, comprising;
 an obtaining device to acquire first data in a predetermined format and associated second data comprising information of the first data, and to output the first data and the associated second data;   a processing device to receive the first data and the associated second data from the obtaining device, to process the first data and the associated second data to thereby generate meta-data based on the first data and/or the associated second data, to convert the meta-data into the predetermined format of the first data, and to embed the converted meta-data into the first data as a combined data in the predetermined format; and   a rendering device to receive the combined data from the processing device, and to render the combined data in the human or machine recognizable format.   
     
     
         2 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the processing device further converts the meta-data into a block meta-data of another format. 
     
     
         3 . The apparatus of  claim 2 , wherein the rendering device further renders the first data in the human or machine recognizable format, and renders the block meta-data as a standalone meta-data in the human or machine recognizable format. 
     
     
         4 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the human or machine recognizable format includes a format that can be rendered, published, searched, or broadcast as an image, video, audio, sound, text, music, broadcast video stream, a web page RSS-feed, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         5 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the human or machine recognizable format includes JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group), MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group), PDF (Portable Document Format), and TIFF (Tagged Image File Format). 
     
     
         6 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the converted meta-data is a 2D barcode, and the first data is a photographic image. 
     
     
         7 . An apparatus to generate and render an image embedded with associated meta-data, comprising;
 a data acquisition driver to acquire an image, and associated data comprising information of the image;   a data processor to process the acquired image and the associated data from the data acquisition driver in order to generate meta-data based on the image, the associated data, or both, to convert the meta-data into a same format as that of the image, and to embed the converted meta-data into the image; and   a rendering driver to receive the image embedded with the converted meta-data from the data processor, and to render the image with the embedded converted meta-data as an output image.   
     
     
         8 . The apparatus of  claim 7 , wherein the data processor further converts the meta-data into a data block format, and the rendering driver renders the meta-data in the data block format as a standalone meta-data in the same format as that of the image. 
     
     
         9 . The apparatus of  claim 7 , wherein the converted meta-data is a 2D barcode, and the image embedded with the converted meta-data is a photographic image containing the 2D barcode. 
     
     
         10 . The apparatus of  claim 7 , wherein the data acquisition driver further comprises:
 a visual image capture driver to capture the image in a predetermined format, and to output the captured image as the acquire image to the data processor; and   a meta-data capture driver to obtain at least one of user input data, environmental data, and collected data for the acquired image, and to output to the data processor the obtained at least one of user input data, environmental data, and collected data as associated data comprising information of the acquired image.   
     
     
         11 . The apparatus of  claim 7 , wherein the data processor further comprises:
 a visual meta-data extractor to analyze the image from the data acquisition driver and extract one or more extracted meta-data that characterizes the image, and to output the image or an enhanced image according to a user preference, wherein the enhanced image includes one or more highlighted characteristics of the enhanced image that have been extracted into meta-data;   a smart meta-data miner to connect to remote information sources and to obtain supplementary meta-data that are additional information of the image from the remote information sources;   a meta-data processor to extract additional meta-data from the associated data, the image, and/or the enhanced image, and to generate consolidated meta-data from the extracted meta-data, the additional meta-data, and/or the supplementary meta-data;   a meta-data to raw-image formatter to convert the consolidated meta-data from the meta-data processor into a meta-data sub-image, which is a visual representation of the consolidate meta-data;   a raw-image merger to combine the image or the enhanced image from the visual meta-data extractor with the meta-data sub-image from the meta-data to raw-image formatter into a combined image; and   a meta-data to data-block formatter to selectively format the consolidated meta-data from the meta-data processor into a standalone meta-data representation that is user or machine recognizable, according to user preference.   
     
     
         12 . The apparatus of  claim 11 , wherein the meta-data processor further provides the consolidated meta-data to the visual meta-data extractor. 
     
     
         13 . The apparatus of  claim 11 , wherein the meta-data processor provides the extracted meta-data and/or the additional meta-data to the smart meta-data miner so that the smart meta-data miner obtains the supplementary meta-data of the image from the remote information sources based on information provided by the image, the extracted meta-data, and/or the additional meta-data. 
     
     
         14 . The apparatus of  claim 11 , wherein the rendering driver further comprises:
 an image renderer to receive the combined image from the raw-image merger, and to output the rendered combined image as a photographic image having the meta-data sub-image visually rendered and overlying a predetermined portion of the photographic image; and   a data renderer to receive the standalone meta-data representation, and to selectively output a visually rendered standalone meta-data representation.   
     
     
         15 . The apparatus of  claim 14 , wherein the image renderer further receives the image and/or the enhanced image, and selectively renders the image and/or the enhanced image as a photographic image, and the data renderer renders the standalone meta-data representation visually to be physically attached to the rendered image or enhanced image. 
     
     
         16 . The apparatus of  claim 7 , wherein the image is in a Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) format, and the converted meta-data is a 2D barcode. 
     
     
         17 . A method of generating and rendering data embedded with associated meta-data in a human or machine recognizable format, comprising
 obtaining first data in a predetermined format, and second data that is associated with the first data;   processing the obtained first data and the associated second data to generate meta-data based on the first data, and/or the associated second data,   converting the meta-data into the predetermined format of the first data;   embedding the converted meta-data into the first data to obtain a combined data; and   rendering the combined data in the predetermined format of the first data, the predetermined format of the first data being the human or machine recognizable format.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the human or machine recognizable format includes a format that can be rendered, published, searched, or broadcast as an image, video, audio, sound, text, music, broadcast video stream, a web page RSS-feed, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the first data is a photographic image and the converted meta-data is a 2D barcode positioned in a predetermined position of the photographic image. 
     
     
         20 . A method of embedding meta-data in an image to be rendered together, comprising:
 obtaining the image;   obtaining associated data contemporaneously with the image, the associate data being additional information of the image and includes a user input data, environmental data, and/or collected data that is associated with the image;   extracting meta-data from the image that characterizes the image according to user selection as an extracted meta-data;   generating a consolidated meta-data by consolidating the associated data and the extracted meta-data;   generating a meta-data sub-image, which is a visual representation of the consolidated meta-data, by converting the consolidated meta-data into the same format as the image;   embedding the meta-data sub-image into the image to generate a combined image in the same format as the image; and   visually rendering the combined image on a medium or a display device.