Visual Indicator Interpretation via Image Capture
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Home electronic devices often use ambiguous visual and audio indicators, such as flashing LEDs or beeps, making it difficult for users to understand device status or issues without wired or wireless connectivity.
Innovation Solution
A system that uses image or audio capture devices to interpret sequences of visual or audio indicators, sending data to a remote device for processing to identify device issues and provide user notifications, instructions, or repair services, allowing for IoT automation without the need for WiFi or Bluetooth.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If visual indicators such as LEDs are used to communicate device status, then information can be conveyed to the user, but the meaning of the indicators becomes ambiguous and difficult to understand
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a camera and image processing system as an intermediary between the visual indicator and the user. The camera captures images of the indicator, and software processes these images to translate the visual patterns into comprehensible information about device status, thereby mediating the communication between the ambiguous indicator and the user's understanding
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the direct visual interpretation mechanism with an automated image recognition system. Instead of requiring the user to manually interpret visual patterns, the system uses computer vision technology to automatically detect, analyze, and translate indicator patterns into meaningful information
2Loss of information
If wired or wireless connectivity is added to devices to enable remote monitoring and communication, then device status can be transmitted to users, but manufacturing costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the communication function from the device itself and relocates it to an external system. Instead of embedding networking hardware (WiFi, Bluetooth) within each device, the solution uses a separate camera and processing system to capture and interpret indicator patterns, thereby eliminating the need for costly wired or wireless connectivity components in the devices
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a visual copy of the device status through image capture. The camera captures images of the visual indicators, and these images are processed to recreate the status information in a different, more comprehensible format, allowing remote monitoring without direct electronic connectivity
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
Devices, systems and methods are disclosed that detect and interpret the meaning of visual indicators (such as LEDs) of devices, and provide information and solutions to potential malfunctions to users. For example, image data of the visual indicators can be captured by an image capture device (such as a camera). The image data may then be analyzed to identify an object captured in the image data. Luminescence of pixel values in the image data corresponding to a visual indicator of the object may be used to determine a sequence of the visual indicator. Then, information corresponding to the meaning of the sequence may be sent to a device of a user or owner of the object.