Patent Issued for Image Analysis Technologies For Identifying Abnormal Vehicle Conditions (USPTO 10,783,386)

2020 OCT 07 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States) has been issued patent number 10,783,386, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Li, Yuntao (Champaign, IL); Zhang, Dingchao (Normal, IL); Myers, Jeffrey S. (Normal, IL).

This patent was filed on February 12, 2019 and was published online on October 5, 2020.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Individuals frequently operate or otherwise travel in vehicles, where the environments and conditions of the vehicle operation may be varied. Generally, a given vehicle may have a set of ‘normal’ operation conditions. For example, a vehicle may have associated one or more primary operators, such as an owner of the vehicle. As another example, a vehicle may typically operate with a consistent amount of individuals (i.e., the operator plus any additional passenger(s)).

“However, vehicle technologies are limited in their ability to detect when vehicle operation conditions are abnormal or otherwise not consistent with normal conditions. In particular, existing infotainment components, display monitors, and cameras do not have the ability to detect and/or communicate abnormal conditions. Accordingly, vehicles may continue to operate under abnormal conditions, which may negatively affect vehicle safety, may violate certain policies or regulations, or may indicate illegal activity.

“Therefore, there is an opportunity for techniques and technologies to detect abnormal vehicle operation conditions, and notify appropriate individuals of the abnormal vehicle operation conditions.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In an embodiment, a system for assessing abnormal vehicle occupancy conditions within a vehicle is provided. The system may include a transceiver, at least one image sensor configured to capture image data, a non-transitory memory storing a set of computer-executable instructions, and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver, the at least one image sensor, and the memory. The processor may be configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to cause the processor to: access the image data from the at least one image sensor, the image data comprising a plurality of image frames depicting an interior of the vehicle, determine, from the plurality of image frames, at least a portion of image frames that depict a face of an individual located within the vehicle, analyze at least the portion of image frames to determine that an abnormal condition exists, the abnormal condition associated with the individual located within the vehicle, and in response to determining that the abnormal condition exists: generate a notification indicating the abnormal condition, and transmit, via the transceiver, the notification to an electronic device.

“In another embodiment, a computer-implemented method of assessing abnormal vehicle occupancy conditions within a vehicle is provided. The method may include: accessing image data from at least one image sensor, the image data comprising a plurality of image frames depicting an interior of the vehicle, determining, by a processor from the plurality of image frames, at least a portion of image frames that depict a face of an individual located within the vehicle, analyzing, by the processor, at least the portion of image frames to determine that an abnormal condition exists, the abnormal condition associated with the individual located within the vehicle, and in response to determining that the abnormal condition exists: generating a notification indicating the abnormal condition, and transmitting, via a network connection, the notification to an electronic device.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A system for assessing abnormal vehicle occupancy conditions within a vehicle, comprising: a transceiver; at least one image sensor configured to capture image data; a non-transitory memory storing a set of computer-executable instructions; and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver, the at least one image sensor, and the memory, and configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to cause the processor to: access the image data from the at least one image sensor, the image data depicting a plurality of individuals located within the vehicle, including a first individual located in a driver seat of the vehicle and a set of additional individuals, analyze the image data to determine that the first individual located in the driver seat is authorized, in response to determining that the first individual located in the driver seat is authorized, analyze at least a portion of the image data depicting at least the set of additional individuals to determine that an abnormal condition exists, the abnormal condition associated with at least the set of additional individuals located within the vehicle, and in response to determining that the abnormal condition exists: generate a notification indicating the abnormal condition, and transmit, via the transceiver, the notification to an electronic device.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the image data comprises a plurality of image frames, and wherein the processor is further configured to: determine, from the plurality of image frames, at least a portion of image frames that depict a face of the first individual located in the driver seat.

“3. The system of claim 2, wherein to analyze the image data to determine that the first individual located in the driver seat is authorized, the processor is configured to: determine, using a facial recognition technique on at least the portion of image frames that depict the face of the first individual, a facial recognition result, and determine that the facial recognition result is included in a listing of authorized individuals for the vehicle.

“4. The system of claim 3, wherein to determine that the facial recognition result is included in the listing of authorized individuals for the vehicle, the processor is configured to: transmit the facial recognition result to a backend server via the transceiver, the backend server configured to check the facial recognition result against the listing of authorized individuals for the vehicle, and receive, from the backend server via the transceiver, an indication that the facial recognition result is included in the listing of authorized individuals for the vehicle.

“5. The system of claim 1, wherein to analyze at least the portion of the image data to determine that the abnormal condition exists, the processor is configured to: determine that an amount of the set of additional individuals located within the vehicle exceeds a normal amount of individuals associated with the vehicle.

“6. The system of claim 5, wherein to determine that the amount of the set of additional individuals located within the vehicle exceeds the normal amount of individuals associated with the vehicle, the processor is configured to: access a policy associated with the vehicle, the policy indicating the normal amount of individuals associated with the vehicle, and determine that the amount of the set of additional individuals located within the vehicle exceeds the normal amount of individuals associated with the vehicle.

“7. The system of claim 1, wherein to analyze at least the portion of the image data to determine that the abnormal condition exists, the processor is configured to: analyze at least the portion of the image data to estimate an age of an additional individual of the set of additional individuals, wherein the age of the additional individual is less than a threshold age.

“8. A computer-implemented method of assessing abnormal vehicle occupancy conditions within a vehicle, the method comprising: accessing image data from at least one image sensor, the image data depicting a plurality of individuals located within the vehicle, including a first individual located in a driver seat of the vehicle and a set of additional individuals; analyzing, by a processor, the image data to determine that the first individual located in the driver seat is authorized; in response to determining that the first individual located in the driver seat is authorized, analyzing, by the processor, at least a portion of the image data depicting at least the set of additional individuals to determine that an abnormal condition exists, the abnormal condition associated with at least the set of additional individuals located within the vehicle; and in response to determining that the abnormal condition exists: generating a notification indicating the abnormal condition, and transmitting, via a network connection, the notification to an electronic device.

“9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the image data comprises a plurality of image frames, and wherein the processor is further configured to method further comprises: determining, from the plurality of image frames, at least a portion of image frames that depict a face of the first individual located in the driver seat.

“10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein analyzing the image data to determine that the first individual located in the driver seat is authorized comprises: determining, using a facial recognition technique on at least the portion of image frames that depict the face of the first individual, a facial recognition result, and determining that the facial recognition result is included in a listing of authorized individuals for the vehicle.

“11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein determining that the facial recognition result is included in the listing of authorized individuals for the vehicle comprises: transmitting the facial recognition result to a backend server via the transceiver, the backend server configured to check the facial recognition result against the listing of authorized individuals for the vehicle, and receiving, from the backend server via the transceiver, an indication that the facial recognition result is included in the listing of authorized individuals for the vehicle.

“12. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein analyzing at least the portion of the image data to determine that the abnormal condition exists comprises: determining that an amount of the set of additional individuals located within the vehicle exceeds a normal amount of individuals associated with the vehicle.

“13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein determining that the amount of the set of additional individuals located within the vehicle exceeds the normal amount of individuals associated with the vehicle comprises: accessing a policy associated with the vehicle, the policy indicating the normal amount of individuals associated with the vehicle, and determining that the amount of the set of additional individuals located within the vehicle exceeds the normal amount of individuals associated with the vehicle.

“14. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein analyzing at least the portion of the image data to determine that the abnormal condition exists comprises: analyzing at least the portion of the image data to estimate an age of an additional individual of the set of additional individuals, wherein the age of the additional individual is less than a threshold age.

“15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising: a plurality of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: access image data from at least one image sensor, the image data depicting a plurality of individuals located within the vehicle, including a first individual located in a driver seat of the vehicle and a set of additional individuals, analyze the image data to determine that the first individual located in the driver seat is authorized, in response to determining that the first individual located in the driver seat is authorized, analyze at least a portion of the image data depicting at least the set of additional individuals to determine that an abnormal condition exists, the abnormal condition associated with at least the set of additional individuals located within the vehicle, and in response to determining that the abnormal condition exists: generate a notification indicating the abnormal condition, and transmit the notification to an electronic device.

“16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the image data comprises a plurality of image frames, and wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to: determine, from the plurality of image frames, at least a portion of image frames that depict a face of the first individual located in the driver seat.

“17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein one or more instructions, of the plurality of instructions, to analyze the image data to determine that the first individual located in the driver seat is authorized cause the one or more processors to: determine, using a facial recognition technique on at least the portion of image frames that depict the face of the first individual, a facial recognition result, and determine that the facial recognition result is included in a listing of authorized individuals for the vehicle.

“18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein one or more instructions, of the plurality of instructions, to determine that the facial recognition result is included in the listing of authorized individuals for the vehicle cause the one or more processors to: transmit the facial recognition result to a backend server via the transceiver, the backend server configured to check the facial recognition result against the listing of authorized individuals for the vehicle, and receive, from the backend server via the transceiver, an indication that the facial recognition result is included in the listing of authorized individuals for the vehicle.

“19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein one or more instructions, of the plurality of instructions, to analyze at least the portion of the image data to determine that the abnormal condition exists cause the one or more processors to: determine that an amount of the set of additional individuals located within the vehicle exceeds a normal amount of individuals associated with the vehicle.

“20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein one or more instructions, of the plurality of instructions, to determine that the amount of the set of additional individuals located within the vehicle exceeds the normal amount of individuals associated with the vehicle cause the one or more processors to: access a policy associated with the vehicle, the policy indicating the normal amount of individuals associated with the vehicle, and determine that the amount of the set of additional individuals located within the vehicle exceeds the normal amount of individuals associated with the vehicle.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Li, Yuntao; Zhang, Dingchao; Myers, Jeffrey S. Image Analysis Technologies For Identifying Abnormal Vehicle Conditions. U.S. Patent Number 10,783,386, filed February 12, 2019, and published online on October 5, 2020. 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=10,783,386.PN.&OS=PN/10,783,386RS=PN/10,783,386

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