Patent ID: 8160880

Claim:
A method of operating a reading machine, the method comprising: capturing an image by an image capture device on the reading machine; operating the reading machine in a mode that performs generalized object recognition, by: forming by the reading machine an N-dimensional features vector, the features vector comprising a header portion having fields including a field identifying the image used to produce the features vector, a field identifying the object, and a field identifying the class of the object and an array portion comprising fields that correspond to values based on features of the image, the features corresponding to characteristics of the object depicted in the image; representing by the reading machine the values portion of the features vector as a point in n-dimensional space, where n corresponds to N, the number of features in the features vector; retrieving centroid points, a tolerance, and identification of the class of objects for the retrieved centroid points; comparing by the reading machine the point in n-dimensional space to centroid points that represent clusters of points in the n-dimensional space corresponding to classes of objects to determine, which of the classes of objects correspond to the point; and rendering the reading machine to a user, identification information based on the determined class of objects.