Patent Issued for Audio sensor based vehicle fault diagnostics system (USPTO 11828732): Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company

2023 DEC 14 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (Springfield, Massachusetts, United States) has been issued patent number 11828732, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Depaolo, Damon Ryan (Barkhamsted, CT, US), John, Jiby (Suffield, CT, US), Knas, Michal (Monson, MA, US), Shubrick, Payton A. (Springfield, MA, US).

This patent was filed on May 30, 2019 and was published online on November 28, 2023.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “A driver may take a vehicle to a repair shop for diagnosis. The driver explains to a mechanic sounds from the vehicle to assist in performing the diagnosis. It can be very difficult for the driver to explain those sounds and their origin. Additionally, some of the sounds originating in the vehicle may not be audible to the driver while the driver is driving the vehicle. As a result, the driver is unable to communicate all the sounds coming out of the vehicle to the mechanic for performing the diagnosis. Accordingly, the mechanic spends a substantial amount of time and resources in inspecting the vehicle to diagnose mechanical or other malfunctions associated with components of the vehicle. Therefore, time-based diagnosis of the malfunctions in the vehicle is proving to be a growing challenge, and as the complexity of vehicles increases, it can become increasingly difficult to diagnose an unusual sound.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Disclosed herein are vehicle fault diagnostics systems and methods capable of addressing the above-described shortcomings by equipping a vehicle with one or more electronic audio sensors. The electronic audio sensors may monitor and detect sound signals, such as noises and vibrations coming from components of the vehicle. The electronic audio sensors may perform auditory diagnosis of the vehicle by identifying mechanical or electrical faults associated with the components based on processing of detected sound signals. The processing may include comparing of the detected sound signals with reference sounds signals associated with known mechanical or electrical faults. The electronic audio sensors may present identified mechanical or electrical faults on a graphical user interface of a control unit within the vehicle.

“When the electronic audio sensors are not able to identify any mechanical or electrical faults corresponding to the detected sound signals, the electronic audio sensors may record the detected sounds signals. The electronic audio sensors may generate sound sensor data records using recorded sound signals. The electronic audio sensors may transmit the sound sensor data records to a server over an internal data link. The server may feed the sound sensor data records in a sound analyzer device to identify the mechanical or electrical faults associated with the components. In some cases, the server may execute a protocol on the sound sensor data records to potentially associate different types of the sound signals within the sound sensor data records with different types of the mechanical or electrical faults associated with different types of the components. The server may then identify potential mechanical or electrical faults associated with the components based on the execution of the protocol. The server may present identified mechanical or electrical faults in the vehicle on a graphical user interface of an analyst computer.

“In one embodiment, a system may include a vehicle comprising a plurality of components generating one or more types of sound signals. The system may further include one or more sensors associated with the plurality of components are configured to sense and identify one or more known sound signals from the one or more types of sound signals, wherein the one or more known sound signals correspond to one or more first faults associated with at least one of the plurality of components, and record one or more unknown sound signals from the one or more types of sound signals to generate sensor data. The system may further include a server configured to receive the sensor data from the one or more sensors and process the sensor data to identify one or more second faults associated with at least one of the plurality of components.

“In another embodiment, a method may include identifying, by one or more sensors in a vehicle, one or more known sound signals from one or more types of sound signals generated by a plurality of components of the vehicle, wherein the one or more known sound signals correspond to one or more first faults associated with at least one of the plurality of components; recording, by the one or more sensors, one or more unknown sound signals from the one or more types of sound signals to generate sensor data; and transmitting, by the one or more sensors, the sensor data to a server, wherein the server processes the sensor data to identify one or more second faults associated with at least one of the plurality of components.

“In yet another embodiment, a system may include one or more sensors, each sensor positioned near one of a plurality of components on a vehicle operated by a user, the one or more sensors configured to: sense a sound signal from a component of the plurality of components; compare a portion of the sound signal with a set of known sound signals, the set of known sound signals comprising a first subset of known sound signals and a second subset of known sound signals, the second subset of known sound signals correspond to operational sounds associated with the plurality of components, and the first subset of known sound signals correspond to one or more faults associated with at least one of the plurality of components; when the portion of the sound signal match a first known sound signal of the first subset of known sound signals, identify a fault associated with the first known sound signal and display the fault on a graphical user interface of an electronic device of the user; and when the portion of the sound signal does not match any of the set of known sound signals, generate and transmit an electronic message to the electronic device, the electronic message indicating an anomaly in at least one of the plurality of components based on detection of the sound signal.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system comprising: one or more sensors, each sensor positioned in association with one of a plurality of components on a vehicle operated by a user, the one or more sensors configured to: sense a sound signal from a component of the plurality of components; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more sensors and configured to: compare a portion of the sound signal with a set of known sound signals, the set of known sound signals comprising a first subset of known sound signals and a second subset of known sound signals, the first subset of known sound signals corresponding to one or more faults associated with at least one of the plurality of components, and the second subset of known sound signals corresponding to operational sounds associated with the plurality of components; when the portion of the sound signal matches a first known sound signal of the first subset of known sound signals: identify a fault associated with the first known sound signal and display the fault on a graphical user interface of an electronic device of the user; compare a risk score corresponding to the fault associated with the first known sound signal to a threshold; and upon determining that the risk score corresponding to the fault associated with the first known sound signal exceeds the threshold, display, on the graphical user interface of the electronic device of the user, at least one service center identified based on a location of the vehicle and the fault; and when the portion of the sound signal does not match any of the set of known sound signals, generate and transmit an electronic message to the electronic device, the electronic message indicating an anomaly in at least one of the plurality of components based on detection of the sound signal.

“2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors are further configured to transmit the fault associated with the sound signal to an analyst computer or the one or more processors.

“3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors are further configured to generate and transmit a recording of the sound signal to an analyst computer or the one or more processors.

“4. The system according to claim 1, wherein each sensor comprises a sensor processor, a sensor memory, and a microphone.

“5. The system according to claim 4, wherein the sensor memory is configured to store a relationship between the first subset of known sound signals and the one or more faults associated with the at least one of the plurality of components.

“6. The system according to claim 4, wherein the microphone is configured to detect a presence of the sound signal originating from the component.

“7. A method comprising: sensing, by a sensor positioned in association with one of a plurality of components on a vehicle operated by a user, a sound signal from a component of the plurality of components; comparing, by a processor in communication with the sensor, a portion of the sound signal with a set of known sound signals, the set of known sound signals comprising a first subset of known sound signals and a second subset of known sound signals, the first subset of known sound signals correspond to one or more faults associated with at least one of the plurality of components, and the second subset of known sound signals correspond to operational sounds associated with the plurality of components; when the portion of the sound signal matches a first known sound signal of the first subset of known sound signals: identifying, by the processor, a fault associated with the first known sound signal and display the fault on a graphical user interface of an electronic device of the user; comparing, by the processor, a risk score corresponding to the fault associated with the first known sound signal to a threshold; and upon determining that the risk score corresponding to the fault associated with the first known sound signal exceeds the threshold, displaying, by the processor, on the graphical user interface of the electronic device of the user, at least one service center identified based on a location of the vehicle and the fault; and when the portion of the sound signal does not match any of the set of known sound signals, generating and transmitting, by the processor, an electronic message to the electronic device, the electronic message indicating an anomaly in at least one of the plurality of components based on detection of the sound signal.

“8. The method according to claim 7, transmitting, by the sensor, the fault associated with the sound signal to an analyst computer or the processor.

“9. The method according to claim 7, generating and transmitting, by the sensor, a recording of the sound signal to an analyst computer or the processor.

“10. The method according to claim 7, wherein each sensor comprises a sensor processor, a sensor memory, and a microphone.

“11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the sensor memory is configured to store a relationship between the first subset of known sound signals and the one or more faults associated with the at least one of the plurality of components.

“12. The method according to claim 10, wherein the microphone or the sensor processor is configured to detect a presence of the sound signal originating from the component.

“13. A method comprising: identifying, by one or more sensors in a vehicle, one or more known sound signals from one or more types of sound signals generated by a plurality of components of the vehicle, wherein the one or more known sound signals correspond to one or more first faults associated with at least one of the plurality of components; recording, by the one or more sensors, one or more unknown sound signals from the one or more types of sound signals to generate sensor data; and transmitting, by the one or more sensors, the sensor data to a server, wherein the server processes the sensor data to: identify one or more second faults associated with at least one of the plurality of components; identify at least one service center associated with a location of the vehicle and the one or more second faults; compare a risk score corresponding to the one or more second faults to a threshold; and upon determining that the risk score corresponding to the one or more second faults exceeds the threshold, display, on a graphical user interface of an electronic device of a user, the at least one service center.

“14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising receiving, by an analyst computer, information associated with the one or more second faults from the server, wherein the one or more second faults are presented on a user interface of the analyst computer.

“15. The method according to claim 13, further comprising receiving, by an analyst computer, the one or more first faults from the one or more sensors, and wherein the one or more first faults are presented on a user interface of the analyst computer.

“16. The method according to claim 13, further comprising generating and transmitting, by the one or more sensors, an alert regarding a presence of the one or more unknown sound signals to the server.

“17. The method according to claim 13, wherein each sensor comprises a sensor processor, a sensor memory, and a microphone.

“18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the sensor memory is configured to store a relationship between a plurality of different types of known sound signals and a plurality of first faults.

“19. The method according to claim 17, wherein the sensor processor is configured to filter a recording of the one or more unknown sound signals to generate the sensor data.

“20. The method according to claim 19, wherein the sensor processor is configured to store the recording of the one or more unknown sound signals in the sensor memory.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Depaolo, Damon Ryan. Audio sensor based vehicle fault diagnostics system. U.S. Patent Number 11828732, filed May 30, 2019, and published online on November 28, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11828732)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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