Technologies involving portable devices, such as smartphones and tablet computers, are disclosed. One arrangement enables a creator of content to select
software with which that creator's content should be rendered—assuring continuity between artistic intention and delivery. Another uses the camera of a smartphone to identify nearby subjects, and take actions based thereon. Others rely on near field
chip (RFID) identification of objects, or on identification of audio streams (e.g., music, voice). Some technologies concern improvements to the user interfaces associated with such devices. Others involve use of these devices in shopping,
text entry, sign language interpretation, and vision-based discovery. Still other improvements are architectural in nature, e.g., relating to evidence-based state machines, and blackboard systems. Yet other technologies concern use of
linked data in portable devices—some of which
exploit GPU capabilities. Still other technologies concern
computational photography. A great variety of other features and arrangements are also detailed.