8. The method of claim 1 that includes, in the first circumstance, and in dependence on the plural-bit data decoded from the optical signal, selecting a first recognition agent that performs object recognition, and launching said first recognition agent.
1. A mobile discovery method for recognizing and/or identifying media and physical objects, the method employing a mobile device equipped with plural sensors, including an optical sensor, the mobile device being operated in an ambient environment illuminated by a solid state lamp fixture that is separate from the mobile device, the method including the acts: in a first circumstance, a processor of said device selecting a first recognition agent, from among plural available recognition agents, and launching said first recognition agent, the first recognition agent performing a recognition process selected from the list: image watermark recognition, pattern matching, object recognition, facial recognition, barcode recognition, sign language recognition, optical character recognition, audio watermark recognition, speech recognition, and music recognition; and in a second circumstance, the processor selecting a second recognition agent different than the first recognition agent, and launching said second recognition agent, the second recognition agent performing a second, different, recognition process selected from said list; wherein the method includes the optical sensor of the mobile device sensing an encoded optical signal emitted by said solid state lamp fixture, and the mobile device decoding said optical signal sensed by the optical sensor to extract plural-bit payload data, wherein said selecting of the first recognition agent from among the plural available recognition agents depends at least in part on said plural-bit payload data decoded by the mobile device from the encoded optical signal emitted from the lamp fixture.