Patent Issued for Systems and methods for local augmented-reality rendering (USPTO 11200718): United Services Automobile Association

2022 JAN 03 (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 Durairaj, Ravi (San Antonio, TX, US), Kwak, Victor (Frisco, TX, US), Lopez, Mark Anthony (Helotes, TX, US), Lyle, Ruthie D. (Durham, NC, US), Meyer, Gregory Brian (San Antonio, TX, US), Russell, Christopher (The Colony, TX, US), Russell, Ryan Thomas (San Antonio, TX, US), Serrao, Nolan (Plano, TX, US), filed on May 29, 2020, was published online on December 14, 2021.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11200718, is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Potential home buyers may often drive by selected neighborhoods in which they might be interested in possibly purchasing a home, to determine whether they may like one or more of the neighborhoods or to find out if there are any suitable homes for sale in any of those neighborhoods. In some cases, the potential home buyers are accompanied by a real estate agent. In other cases, the potential buyers may be driving around on their own, to make a preliminary assessment of which neighborhoods they may want to settle in. In the latter cases, real estate agents may want to identify such home potential buyers, and may also wish to provide the home buyers with relevant information regarding homes for sale in as attractive and informative a way as possible. In either set of cases, the interests of the potential home buyers and real estate agents are at least somewhat aligned as they work to find attractive homes for sale at prices within the home buyers’ budgets.

“For those reasons, there is a need for efficiently and effectively providing the home buyers with attractive presentations of homes for sale in the selected neighborhoods.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In one aspect, embodiments include a method for providing augmented-reality enhanced images of a house that is for sale. The method includes providing a first augmented-reality application on a computer located at the house, and providing a second augmented-reality application on potential buyers’ personal devices. The method also includes providing a router connected to the computer that is configured to communicate with the potential buyers’ personal devices. Images of rooms in the house are transmitted to personal devices carried by the potential buyers. The potential buyers can then manipulate the images to create enhanced-reality images of the rooms in the house.

“In another aspect, embodiments include an augmented-reality system that includes a computer loaded with a first augmented-reality application and a personal device controlled by a potential home buyer that is loaded with a second augmented reality application. The system also includes a router configured to enable communications between the computer and the personal device such that images may be transmitted between the computer and the personal device using the first augmented-reality application and the second augment-reality application. The personal device is configured to allow the potential home buyer to manipulate the images to create augmented-reality images.

“In yet another aspect, embodiments include a method for generating augmented-reality images of rooms in a house that is for sale. The method includes transmitting plans of the floors in the house via a router from a computer in the house to a personal device controlled by a potential home buyer. The method then includes selecting a room in the house by identifying the room using the plan of floors in the house, then selecting an image of an item to be combined with an image of the selected room, and manipulating the image of the selected room by inserting the image of the selected item into the image of the selected room to create an augmented-reality room image. Either the computer or the personal device has an augmented-reality application that can combine the image of the selected room with the image of the selected item.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method for providing augmented-reality enhanced images of a house that is for sale comprising: providing a first augmented-reality application on a computer located at the house, wherein the computer located at the house is connected to a first router in communication with the Internet; providing a second augmented-reality application on one or more personal devices of potential buyers of the house; providing a second router at the house that is separate from the first router, wherein the second router is connected to the computer that is configured to communicate with the one or more personal devices of potential buyers, wherein communication between the computer and the one or more personal devices is independent of communication via the first router; and transmitting images of rooms in the house to the one or more personal devices carried by the potential buyers through the second router; wherein the potential buyers can manipulate the images on the personal devices to create enhanced-reality images of the rooms in the house.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the potential buyers manipulate the images by at least one of (a) removing depictions of certain home owner’s items from the images of the rooms, and (b) inserting depictions of the potential buyers own items into the images of the rooms.

“3. The method of claim 2, wherein the potential buyers own items comprise furniture; and wherein images and dimensions of the furniture are stored on the personal devices of the potential buyers.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the potential buyers enter queries regarding the house and receive responses to the queries through the second augmented reality application on the personal devices.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein the personal devices of the potential buyers detect the presence of the first augmented-reality application.

“6. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting information from the computer in response to questions posed by the potential buyers.

“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining room dimensions using a LIDAR device.

“8. An augmented-reality system comprising: a computer in a house, wherein the computer is loaded with a first augmented-reality application, wherein the computer in the house is connected to a first router in communication with the Internet; a personal device owned by a potential home buyer that is loaded with a second-augmented reality application; and a second router configured to enable communications between the computer in the house and the personal device of the potential home buyer, wherein communication between the computer and the personal device is independent of communication via the first router; wherein images may be transmitted between the computer and the personal device through the second router using the first augmented-reality application and the second augmented-reality application; and wherein the personal device is configured to allow the potential home buyer to manipulate the images to create augmented-reality images.

“9. The augmented reality system of claim 8, wherein the personal device is configured to allow the potential home buyer to create an augmented-reality image of a room in the house by at least one of (a) removing depictions of at least one item from at least one of the images transmitted between the computer and the personal device, and (b) inserting depictions of at least one item of the potential home buyer into the image.

“10. The augmented reality system of claim 8, wherein the second router controls a dedicated extended local network that has an extended range such that it can communicate with personal devices of potential home buyers held on a street in front of the house, wherein the dedicated extended local network is separate from a local network associated with the first router.

“11. The augmented-reality system of claim 8, wherein the computer is configured to respond to questions posed by the potential buyer and transmitted to the computer via the second augmented-reality application.

“12. The augmented-reality system of claim 8, wherein at least one of the first augmented-reality application and the second augmented-reality application comprises an application that is configured to combine images of rooms in the house with images of furniture of the potential home buyer; and wherein images and dimensions of the furniture are stored on the personal device of the potential home buyer.

“13. The augmented-reality system of claim 8, wherein the personal device is configured to detect the first augmented-reality application on the computer.

“14. The augmented-reality system of claim 8, wherein the personal device comprises an application that allows the potential home buyer to select an image of a specific room in the house for display on the personal device.

“15. A method for generating augmented-reality images of rooms in a house that is for sale comprising: receiving a package of information about the house, including at least data and images of the house, at a computer in the house via a first router in communication with the Internet; transmitting a plan of floors in the house via a second router from the computer in the house to a personal device controlled by a potential home buyer, wherein communication between the computer and the personal device via the second router is independent of communication via the first router; selecting a room in the house by identifying the room using the plan of floors in the house; the potential home buyer selecting an image of an item to be combined with an image of the selected room, wherein the image of the item is stored on the personal device of the potential home buyer; manipulating the image of the selected room by inserting the image of the selected item into the image of the selected room to create an augmented-reality room image; wherein at least one of the computer and the personal device comprises an augmented-reality application that is configured to combine the image of the selected room with the image of the selected item.

“16. The method of claim 15 wherein the selected image is an image of a piece of furniture.

“17. The method of claim 15, wherein the augmented-reality application maintains registration of the image of the selected item with the image of the selected room using dimensions of the selected item stored on personal device of the potential home buyer.

“18. The method of claim 15, wherein the augmented-reality application allows the potential home buyer to receive an image of the house at a different time of the year.

“19. The method of claim 15, further comprising moving the image of the selected item to at least one different location in the image of the room.

“20. The method of claim 15, further comprising the computer responding to a question asked by the potential home buyer using the personal device.”

For more information, see this patent: Durairaj, Ravi. Systems and methods for local augmented-reality rendering. U.S. Patent Number 11200718, filed May 29, 2020, and published online on December 14, 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=11200718.PN.&OS=PN/11200718RS=PN/11200718

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