Patent Issued for Portable 360-degree video-based fire and smoke detector and wireless alerting system (USPTO 11080990)

2021 AUG 20 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Burchesky, Kyle Richard (East Walpole, MA, US), De Vries, Jaap (Providence, RI, US), Kostka, Stanislav (Norwood, MA, US), Leonessa, Raphael Hussni (San Paulo, BR), filed on August 5, 2019, was published online on August 3, 2021.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11080990, is Factory Mutual Insurance Company (Johnston, Rhode Island, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “A fire and smoke detection system is an important safety tool used in hazardous or exposed environments, such as a construction environment or a hot work environment. A hot work environment may be an environment that has an activity the produces flames, sparks, and/or heat. Examples of activities in a hot work environment include welding, cutting, grinding, soldering, brazing, drilling, and thawing pipes. Fire and smoke detection are also important in environments with low traffic, like warehouses, where fire or smoke may not be noticed until it is too late to stop. Conventional video-based fire and smoke detection systems are often in fixed locations, such as mounted to a wall, provide low resolution video, have limited visibility, and are difficult to monitor. These conventional systems are also highly inaccurate, resulting in false positives and false-negatives that undermine trust in the systems.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “An aspect of the invention includes a fire and smoke detection system including a 360-degree camera, and a computing platform in communication with the 360-degree camera. The computing platform is configured to receive an image or video from the 360-degree camera, determine that fire or smoke is detected in the image or video received from the 360-degree camera, and generate at least one alert in response to determining that fire or smoke is detected in the image or video received from the 360-degree camera. The fire and smoke detection system is portable and not removably mounted.

“Another aspect of the invention includes a method to detect fire and smoke using a portable system. The portable system includes a computing platform and a 360-degree camera in communication with the computing platform, the computing platform includes one or more microprocessors and memory, and the computing platform using the one or more microprocessors to execute software code stored in the memory. The method includes capturing an image or video by the 360-degree camera, transforming the image or video to an equirectangular image or equirectangular video, and processing the equirectangular image or equirectangular video by the computing, platform using convolutional neural network software code to determine whether fire appears in the equirectangular image or equirectangular video. The method further includes processing the equirectangular image or equirectangular video by the computing platform using the convolutional neural network software code to determine whether smoke appears in the equirectangular image or equirectangular video. The method also includes generating at least one alert in response to determining that fire or smoke is in the image or video received from the 360-degree camera.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A fire and smoke detection system comprising: a 360-degree camera; and a computing platform in communication with the 360-degree camera; wherein the computing platform is configured to: receive an image or video from the 360-degree camera; determine that fire or smoke is detected in the image or video received from the 360-degree camera, wherein determining that fire or smoke is detected comprises using a convolutional neural network to determine that fire or smoke is detected in the image or video received from the 360-degree camera; and generate at least one alert in response to determining that fire or smoke is detected in the image or video received from the 360-degree camera, wherein the fire and smoke detection system is portable and not removably mounted, and wherein the convolutional neural network is a distortion-aware convolutional neural network trained using video or image data collected via fire testing using smoke or fire events selected from the group consisting of: rack storage fires, pool fires, wall fires, and smoke generators.

“2. The fire and smoke detection system of claim 1, wherein the image or video used by the computing platform to determine that fire or smoke is detected is an equirectangular image or equirectangular video.

“3. The fire and smoke detection system of claim 1, wherein the 360-degree camera provides the image or video to the computing platform as an equirectangular image or equirectangular video.

“4. The fire and smoke detection system of claim 1, wherein the convolutional neural network is a able to detect fire in the image or video received from the 360-degree camera, and wherein the convolutional neural network is able to detect smoke in the image or video received from the 360-degree camera.

“5. The fire and smoke detection system of claim 1, wherein generating at least one alert in response to determining that fire or smoke is detected comprises: sending a text message to a first user mobile device, the text message indicating that fire or smoke was detected, the text message including an annotated image of the fire or smoke detected.

“6. The fire and smoke detection system of claim 5, wherein the annotated image includes an annotated identification of a portion of the image where the fire or smoke was detected.

“7. The fire and smoke detection system of claim 5, wherein the annotated image includes annotated text indicating whether fire was detected or whether smoke was detected.

“8. The fire and smoke detection system of claim 5, wherein the fire and smoke detection system is calibrated to identify places within a field of view of the 360-degree camera, and wherein the annotated image includes annotated text indicating a place within the field of view of the 360-degree camera where the fire was detected or where the smoke was detected.

“9. The fire and smoke detection system of claim 5, wherein generating at least one alert in response to determining that fire or smoke is detected further comprises: after the text message is sent, waiting for a predetermined time period for the first user mobile device to acknowledge the text message; in response to failing to receive an acknowledgement from the first user mobile device within the predetermined time period, sending a second text message to a second user mobile device, the second text message indicating that fire or smoke was detected, the second text message including an annotated image of the fire or smoke detected.

“10. The fire and smoke detection system of claim 1, wherein generating at least one alert in response to determining that fire or smoke is detected comprises sending a signal to a local alarm to sound an alarm, wherein the alarm may be audible in the vicinity of the fire and smoke detection system.

“11. The fire and smoke detection system of claim 1, wherein generating at least one alert in response to determining that fire or smoke is detected comprises sending a signal to a fire alarm panel to trigger an alarm.

“12. A method to detect fire and smoke using a portable system, the portable system comprising, a computing platform and a 360-degree camera in communication with the computing platform, the computing platform comprising one or more microprocessors and memory, the computing platform using the one or more microprocessors to execute software code stored in the memory, the method comprising: capturing an image or video by the 360-degree camera; transforming the image or video to an equirectangular image or equirectangular video; processing the equirectangular image or equirectangular video by the computing platform using convolutional neural network software code to determine whether fire appears in the equirectangular image or equirectangular video; processing the equirectangular image or equirectangular video by the computing platform using the convolutional neural network software code to determine whether smoke appears in the equirectangular image or equirectangular video; and generating at least one alert in response to determining that fire or smoke is in the image or video received from the 360-degree camera; wherein the convolutional neural network software code comprises a distortion-aware convolutional neural network trained using video or image data collected via fire testing using smoke or fire events selected from the group consisting of: rack storage fires, pool fires, wall fires, and smoke generators.

“13. The method of claim 12, the method further comprising: sending a text message to a first user mobile device, the text message indicating that fire or smoke was detected, the text message including an annotated image of the fire or smoke detected.

“14. The method of claim 13, the method further comprising: after the text message is sent, waiting for a predetermined time period for the first user mobile device to acknowledge the text message; in response to failing to receive an acknowledgement from the first user mobile device within the predetermined time period, sending a second text message to a second user mobile device, the second text message indicating that fire or smoke was detected, the second text message including an annotated image of the fire or smoke detected.”

For more information, see this patent: Burchesky, Kyle Richard. Portable 360-degree video-based fire and smoke detector and wireless alerting system. U.S. Patent Number 11080990, filed August 5, 2019, and published online on August 3, 2021. 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=11080990.PN.&OS=PN/11080990RS=PN/11080990

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)