Patent Issued for 360 Degree Vehicle Camera Accident Monitoring System (USPTO 10,504,302)

2019 DEC 25 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Chavez, Carlos (San Antonio, TX); Danko, Amanda Shannon (San Antonio, TX); Fiedler, Kevin Kenneth (Boerne, TX); Szentes, Michael Jay (San Antonio, TX); Harrison, James Stephan (Bulverde, TX), filed on December 15, 2016, was published online on December 23, 2019, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 10,504,302 is assigned to United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Automobiles, cars, trucks, vans, motorcycles, boats or any other motorized apparatus, collectively referred to herein as vehicles, are prevalent throughout society. Vehicles accidents are a major cause of personal injuries and property damage. Police, accident investigators, and insurance companies may spend significant time investigating the cause of an accident. These investigations often suffer from a lack of reliable information and often rely on the testimony of witnesses. Witness accounts are often unreliable and a more reliable system for determining the cause of vehicle accidents is needed.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “A vehicle monitoring system is provided which has a camera for creating video or still photo data in response to detecting an accident. The monitoring system monitors a vehicle parameter using a sensor contained within the vehicle. The system may use a processor contained within the vehicle to monitor the vehicle parameter. The system sets a parameter threshold. When the system detects, using the sensor, the parameter has met the threshold it captures a video or still photo of an area surrounding the vehicle. The system then transmits the image(s), video or other captured data to a remote server using a network.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A method for predicting an event surrounding a vehicle based on monitored parameters, the method comprising: controlling, by a processor, a sensor to obtain sensor information for monitoring a vehicle parameter corresponding to the vehicle; determining, by the processor, the sensor information is greater than an acceptable threshold; controlling, by the processor, an image capturing device in communication with the vehicle to capture an image depicting an area surrounding the vehicle; transmitting, by a network interface, the image to a remote server; generating, by the processor, an event detection signal; transmitting, by the network interface, the event detection signal to the remote server, wherein the remote server is configured to: receive the event detection signal; determine an external image capturing device located within a predetermined distance from the vehicle; transmit a control signal to the external image capturing device, wherein the control signal causes the external image capturing device to capture a supplemental image depicting the vehicle and the area surrounding the vehicle; and receive the supplemental image from the external image capturing device.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensor information is a vehicle speed of the vehicle.

“3. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining the vehicle speed is greater than an acceptable speed threshold when a monitored speed of the vehicle has decreased at least a first amount in a predetermined period of time.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensor information is a decibel level outside of the vehicle.

“5. The method of claim 4, further comprising determining the decibel level is greater than an acceptable decibel threshold when a monitored decibel level of the vehicle has increased at least a first amount over a predetermined time.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensor is a pressure sensor and the vehicle parameter comprises a pressure measured by the pressure sensor.

“7. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensor and processor are independent of a vehicle on-board diagnostics system.

“8. The method of claim 1, wherein the image depicts a panoramic view of the area surrounding the vehicle.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein the image is a still image.

“10. The method of claim 1, wherein the image is captured as an image frame comprising a video including a plurality of image frames.

“11. The method of claim 1, further comprising controlling, by the processor, a second image capturing device in communication with the vehicle to capture a supplemental image based on the determination the vehicle parameter is greater than the acceptable threshold.

“12. The method of claim 11, wherein the supplemental image depicts an interior cabin of the vehicle.

“13. A method for predicting an event surrounding a first vehicle, the method comprising: controlling, by a processor of the first vehicle, a sensor of the first vehicle to obtain sensor information for monitoring a vehicle parameter corresponding to the first vehicle; detecting, by the processor of the first vehicle, a second vehicle located within a predetermined distance from the first vehicle; determining, by the processor of the first vehicle, the sensor information is greater than an acceptable threshold; generating, by the processor, a control signal; transmitting, by a network interface, the control signal to the second vehicle, wherein the control signal causes an image capturing device in communication with the second vehicle to capture an image depicting the first vehicle and an area surrounding the first vehicle; receiving, by the network interface, the image from the second vehicle; transmitting, by the network interface, the image to a server at a location remote from the first vehicle and second vehicle; determining, by the processor, a vehicle location of the first vehicle when the image depicting the area surrounding the first vehicle was captured; parsing, by the processor, insurance claims stored on the remote server; identifying, by the processor, target insurance claims submitted to an insurance provider during a period of time when the image depicting the area surrounding the first vehicle was captured; determining, by the processor, locations identified from the target insurance claims; comparing, by the processor, the locations identified from the target insurance claims to the vehicle location of the first vehicle when the image depicting the area surrounding the first vehicle was captured; and attaching, by the processor, the image to insurance claims with matching locations based on the comparison.

“14. The method of claim 13, wherein a location of the second vehicle is detected using a global positioning system.

“15. The method of claim 13, further comprising transmitting characteristics of the second vehicle to the server.

“16. The method of claim 13, further comprising: storing the image on a damage resistant non-volatile memory of the first vehicle.

“17. The method of claim 13, further comprising: in response to detecting the second vehicle located within the predetermined distance from the first vehicle, transmitting, by the processor of the first vehicle, an identification signal to the second vehicle, wherein the image capturing device in communication with the second vehicle initiates video capture of the first vehicle upon recognizing the identification signal.

“18. A vehicle monitoring device, comprising: an interface configured to communicate with a remote server; a sensor configured to obtain sensor information for monitoring a vehicle parameter of a first vehicle; and a processor in communication with the interface and the sensor, the processor configured to: determine the sensor information is greater than an acceptable threshold; control an image capturing device in communication with the vehicle to capture an image depicting an area surrounding the vehicle; transmit, via the interface, the image to the remote server; generate an event detection signal; transmit, via the interface, the event detection signal to the remote server, wherein the remote server is configured to: receive the event detection signal; determine an external image capturing device located within a predetermined distance from the vehicle; transmit a control signal to the external image capturing device, wherein the control signal causes the external image capturing device to capture a supplemental image depicting the vehicle and the area surrounding the vehicle; and receive the supplemental image from the external image capturing device.

“19. The vehicle monitoring device of claim 18, wherein the processor is further configured to: communicate, through the interface, with a global positioning system to detect a second vehicle located within a predetermined distance from the first vehicle; receive, from the sensor, the sensor information; determine the sensor information is greater than an acceptable threshold; generate a control signal; transmit, via the interface, the control signal to the second vehicle, wherein the control signal causes an image capturing device in communication with the second vehicle to capture an image depicting the first vehicle and an area surrounding the first vehicle; receive, via the interface, the image from the second vehicle; transmit, via the interface, the image to the remote server; and in response to detecting the second vehicle located within the predetermined distance from the first vehicle, control the interface to transmit an identification signal to the second vehicle, wherein the image capturing device in communication with the second vehicle initiates video capture of the first vehicle upon recognizing the identification signal.

“20. The vehicle monitoring device of claim 18, wherein the processor is further configured to: determine a vehicle location of the first vehicle when the image depicting the area surrounding the first vehicle was captured; parse insurance claims stored on the remote server; identify target insurance claims submitted to an insurance provider during a period of time when the image depicting the area surrounding the first vehicle was captured; determine locations identified from the target insurance claims; compare the locations identified from the target insurance claims to the vehicle location of the first vehicle when the image depicting the area surrounding the first vehicle was captured; and attach the image to insurance claims with matching locations based on the comparison.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: Chavez, Carlos; Danko, Amanda Shannon; Fiedler, Kevin Kenneth; Szentes, Michael Jay; Harrison, James Stephan. 360 Degree Vehicle Camera Accident Monitoring System. U.S. Patent Number 10,504,302, filed December 15, 2016, and published online on December 23, 2019. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,504,302.PN.&OS=PN/10,504,302RS=PN/10,504,302

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