Patent Issued for Subsurface Imaging System And Method For Inspecting The Condition Of A Structure (USPTO 10,241,201)

2019 APR 08 (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 10,241,201, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Boyer, Patrick H. (Bloomington, IL); Tofte, Nathan L. (Downs, IL); Jordan, II, Jackie O. (Bloomington, IL).

This patent was filed on October 31, 2017 and was published online on April 8, 2019.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “After an accident or loss, property owners typically file claims with their insurance companies. In response to these claims, insurance agents or representatives investigate the claims to determine the extent of damage and/or loss, ultimately providing their clients with appropriate compensation.

“Determining and documenting the extent of damage can be risky for the appraiser. For example, in a situation where a structure has experienced roof damage, appraisers typically climb onto the roof to evaluate the damage. When climbing onto the roof and maneuvering around the roof for the inspection, the appraiser runs a risk of injury, especially in difficult weather conditions, where the roof may be slippery because of rain, snow, and/or ice and winds may be severe.

“Even if the appraiser is not injured, the inspection process is time consuming and inefficient. Once on the roof, appraisers may take a digital picture of the damaged area. Afterwards, the picture is typically attached to an electronic claim file where it can later be analyzed by an appraiser to estimate the extent of damage to the structure. Two-dimensional digital pictures or video of a roof or structure often provide inadequate detail for a thorough inspection of a structure. Issues like poor image quality resulting from camera movement, bad lighting or out-of-focus images can make it difficult to estimate the condition of a property based on an image. To address some of these issues, insurance companies may use 3D-scanners to get a more detailed view of the surface of the roof.

“However, both two-dimensional images (2D) and many three-dimensional (3D) surface scans, for example, are unable to capture damage that may have occurred beneath the surface of a roof (e.g., damage to lower layers of shingles, moisture accumulation, rotting of lower layers). For example, a fiberglass mesh layer of a roof that is disposed beneath the surface of the roof may be damaged by impacts and cause a visible divot. Heat from the sun on the roof, however, often causes such divots to reset, making it appear as though the fiberglass mesh layer was not damaged. As a result, such damage to subsurface structures often goes undetected during 2D and 3D surface scans, interfering with, if not preventing, accurate estimates and appraisals of the condition of a structure and/or damage to the structure.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “A system and method of inspecting the condition of a structure is disclosed. In one example, the method of inspecting a structure includes deploying one or more three-dimensional (3D) scanners to scan a structure, wherein the one or more 3D scanners are communicatively coupled to a memory; and detecting 3D information about a subsurface of the structure by implementing a sensing device including one or more of a radar sensing device or an ultrasonic detection device coupled to the one or more 3D scanners. Implementing the sensing device includes: transmitting, via at least one transmitter, pulses to at least one point of a plurality of points of the subsurface of the structure; receiving, via at least one receiver, one or more reflected signals from at least one point of a plurality of points of the subsurface of the structure; and determining, via one or more processors, a distance from one of the radar sensing device or the ultrasonic detection device to at least one point of the plurality of points of the subsurface of the structure based on the at least one received reflected signal. The method further comprises generating, at the one or more 3D scanners, a plurality of 3D data points, wherein at least one point of the plurality of 3D data points correspond to at least one point of a plurality of points in the subsurface of the structure detected by the radar sensor device or the ultrasonic detection device during the scan of the structure. The method still further comprises causing one or more processors communicatively coupled to the memory to generate an estimation of the condition of the subsurface of the structure based on the plurality of 3D data points.

“In another example of the present disclosure, a property inspection system for inspecting the condition of a structure comprises one or more three-dimensional (3D) scanners adapted to scan a surface of the structure and a sensing device including one or more of a radar sensing device or an ultrasonic detection device coupled to the one or more 3D scanners. Each of the radar sensing device and the ultrasonic detection device has at least one transmitter, at least one receiver, and at least one processor. In addition, each sensing device is adapted to detect 3D information about a subsurface of the structure by: (1) transmitting, via the at least one transmitter, pulses to at least one point of a plurality of points of the subsurface of the structure; (2) receiving, via at least one receiver, one or more reflected pulses from at least one point of a plurality of points of the subsurface of the structure; and (3) determining, via at least one processor, a distance from one or more devices to at least one point of the plurality of points of the subsurface of the structure based on the at least one received reflected pulse. Further, the system comprises at least one processor adapted to generate 3D data points corresponding to the 3D information detected by one or more of the radar sensing device or the ultrasonic sensing device, and a memory, communicably coupled to the one or more 3D scanners, adapted to store 3D data points generated by the one or more processors and the 3D information detected by the radar sensing device or the ultrasonic detection device. Still further, the system comprises a network interface, communicably coupled to the one or more processors, adapted to transmit the 3D data points to a data analysis system for estimating the condition of the subsurface of the structure.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“We claim:

“1. A method of inspecting a structure, the method comprising: deploying one or more three-dimensional (3D) scanners to scan a structure, wherein the one or more 3D scanners are communicatively coupled to a memory; detecting 3D information about a subsurface of the structure by implementing a sensing device including one or more of a radar sensing device or an ultrasonic detection device coupled to the one or more 3D scanners, wherein implementing the sensing device includes: transmitting, via at least one transmitter, pulses to at least one point of a plurality of points of the subsurface of the structure; receiving, via at least one receiver, one or more reflected signals from at least one point of a plurality of points of the subsurface of the structure; and determining, via one or more processors, a distance from one of the radar sensing device or the ultrasonic detection device to at least one point of the plurality of points of the subsurface of the structure based on the at least one received reflected signal; generating, at the one or more 3D scanners, a plurality of 3D data points, wherein at least one point of the plurality of 3D data points corresponds to at least one point of a plurality of points in the subsurface of the structure detected by the radar sensor device or the ultrasonic detection device during the scan of the structure; and causing a processor communicatively connected to the memory to generate an estimation of the condition of the subsurface of the structure based on the plurality of 3D data points, and identifying, via the one or more processors, at least one reflection that corresponds to at least one layer of the subsurface of the structure, the at least one layer including a lowest layer of the subsurface of a roof of the structure.

“2. The method of claim 1, further comprising causing a processor communicatively coupled to the memory to construct a 3D model from the generated plurality of 3D data points and analyze the 3D model to identify one or more features associated with the structure.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensing device comprises the radar sensing device, and deploying one or more 3D scanners includes positioning the radar sensing device coupled to the one or more 3D scanners at an elevation higher than at least part of a surface of the structure.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving, via the at least one receiver, one or more reflected signals from at least one point of a plurality of points of the subsurface of the structure includes: receiving one or more waves, via at least one receiver, reflected off of at least part of the subsurface of the structure.

“5. The method of claim 4, wherein generating, at one or more 3D scanners, the plurality of 3D points comprises: identifying a first reflection of the one or more waves off of at least part of the subsurface or surface of the structure at the radar sensing device or the ultrasonic detection device at a first time; identifying a second reflection of the one or more waves off of at least part of the subsurface or surface of the structure at one or more of the radar sensing device or the ultrasonic detection device at a second time different from the first time; and identifying a third reflection of the one or more waves off of at least part of the subsurface of surface of the structure at one or more of the radar sensing device or the ultrasonic device at a third time different from the first and second times.

“6. The method of claim 5, further including recording at least the first, second, and third times, via one or more processors, of the first, second, and third reflections of the one or more waves off of at least one point of a plurality of points of the subsurface or surface of the structure.

“7. The method of claim 4, further comprising calculating, via one or more processors, a thickness of at least one layer of the subsurface by converting a time between at least two separate reflections into distances traveled by the waves, the distance corresponding to at least one layer of the structure.

“8. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating, via one or more processors, a number of layers in the subsurface of the structure by adding up a number of reflections received by the at least one receiver that corresponds to one or more separate layers of the subsurface.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting 3D information about a subsurface of the structure by implementing the ultrasonic detection device coupled to the one or more 3D scanners across a surface of the structure further includes applying a sound conducting material to the plurality of points on a surface of the structure; and positioning at least one transducer of at least one ultrasonic detection device onto a portion of the sound conducting material applied to the surface of the structure, such that the at least one transducer physically contacts the sound conducting material that is in contact with the surface of the structure before transmitting pulses to at least one point of the plurality of points of the subsurface of the structure.

“10. The method of claim 9, further comprising collecting remaining sound conducting material disposed on the surface of the structure via one or more of a suction device or vacuum coupled to the 3D scanner.

“11. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying, via one or more processors, a first plurality of points within a shingle layer of the subsurface, a second plurality of points within a tar layer of the subsurface, and a third plurality of points within a fiberglass layer of the subsurface.

“12. A property inspection system for inspecting the condition of a physical structure, the property inspection system comprising: one or more three-dimensional (3D) scanners adapted to scan a surface of the structure; a sensing device including one or more of a radar sensing device or an ultrasonic detection device coupled to the one or more 3D scanners, each of the radar sensing device and the ultrasonic detection device having at least one transmitter, at least one receiver, and at least one processor, each sensing device adapted to detect 3D information about a subsurface of the structure by: (1) transmitting, via the at least one transmitter, pulses to at least one point of a plurality of points of the subsurface of the structure; (2) receiving, via at least one receiver, one or more reflected pulses from at least one point of a plurality of points of the subsurface of the structure; and (3) determining, via at least one processor, a distance from one or more of the devices to at least one point of the plurality of points of the subsurface of the structure based on the at least one received reflected pulse; the at least one processor adapted to generate 3D data points corresponding to the 3D information detected by the radar sensing device or the ultrasonic sensing device; a memory, communicably coupled to the one or more 3D scanners, adapted to store 3D data points generated by the at least one processor and the 3D information detected by the radar sensing device or the ultrasonic sensing device; and a network interface, communicably coupled to the one or more processors, adapted to transmit the 3D data points to a data analysis system for estimating the condition of the subsurface of the structure, wherein the sensing device includes at least one ultrasonic detection device, and the at least one ultrasonic detection device further includes a body having at least one transducer, the at least one transducer including the at least one transmitter and the at least one receiver, and at least one of the one or more 3D scanners includes a base and a spraying mechanism coupled to the base, the spraying mechanism is configured to apply a sound conducting material to a plurality of points on the surface of the structure to facilitate inspection.

“13. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one processor is further adapted to generate a 3D model based, at least in part, on the generated 3D data points of the 3D information detected by one or more of the radar sensing device and the ultrasonic detection device, and the memory is further adapted to store the 3D model.

“14. The system of claim 12, wherein at least one of the one or more 3D scanners is physically connected to a flying device.

“15. The system of claim 12, further including a suction device that is coupled to the base, the suction device adapted to collect the substrate from a plurality of points on the surface of the structure after or during the scan.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Boyer, Patrick H.; Tofte, Nathan L.; Jordan, II, Jackie O. Subsurface Imaging System And Method For Inspecting The Condition Of A Structure. U.S. Patent Number 10,241,201, filed October 31, 2017, and published online on April 8, 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=10,241,201.PN.&OS=PN/10,241,201RS=PN/10,241,201

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