SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ACQUIRING AND QUANTIFYING VEHICULAR DAMAGE INFORMATION

• US 20020013685A1
• Filed: 02/04/1998
• Published: 01/31/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CCC Information Services, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Injury Sciences, LLC (CCC Information Services Group Incorporated)
• Inventors: SMITH, DARRIN A., KIDD, SCOTT D., PANCRATZ, DAVID J., BOMAR,, JOHN B. Jr., ROGERS, LINDA J.
• Granted Patent: US 6,470,303 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass

Abstract

A system and method enables nontechnical personnel to provide information relating to vehicle damage information via a graphical user interface of a computer system. The information provided by the user includes damaged vehicle area information, crush depth of the damaged areas information, and vehicle component-by-component damage information. This information is utilized by a ΔV determination module executing on a processor to, for example, obtain respective overall vehicle damage ratings for each vehicle of two vehicles involved in a collision. The overall damage rating is obtained by applying a set of rules, based on a uniform quantification of component-by-component damage, to the subject vehicles and an identical or sister test vehicle from one or more crash tests which provide damage information.

Claims

1. A computer program product encoded in computer readable media, the computer program product comprising:

first instructions, executable by a processor, for displaying a vehicle image corresponding to an actual vehicle, the vehicle image having selectable grid locations displayed over a portion of the vehicle image;

second instructions, executable by the processor, for receiving grid selection input information to indicate vehicle damaged portions; and

third instructions, executable by the processor, for receiving depth information corresponding to the indicated vehicle damaged portions.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 further comprising:

a windows based graphical user interface for displaying the vehicle image and receiving information.

3. The computer program product of claim 1 further comprising:

fourth instructions, executable by the processor, for displaying first exemplary vehicle images, each vehicle having crush damage; and

fifth instructions, executable by the processor, to display damage depth information corresponding to each displayed exemplary vehicle.

4. The computer program product of claim 3 further comprising:

sixth instructions for displaying second exemplary vehicle images, wherein each vehicle includes induced damage; and

seventh instructions, executable by the processor, for displaying depth of the induced damage depth corresponding to each second exemplary vehicle images.

5. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the computer readable media includes any of magnetic storage media, including disk and tape storage media;

optical storage media, including compact disk memory and digital video disk storage media;

nonvolatile memory storage memory;

volatile storage media; and

data transmission media including computer network, point-to-point telecommunication, and carrier wave transmission media.

6. A computer system comprising:

a display device;

a processor coupled to the display device;

computer readable medium coupled to the processor; and

computer code, encoded in the computer readable medium, for generating a graphical user interface, wherein the graphical user interface includes a first screen object representing a vehicle having selectable portions to indicate damage areas, a second screen object representing crush depth regions corresponding to the selectable damage area portions of the vehicle, and a third screen object to allow entry of crush depth information.

7. A computer system comprising:

a processor;

computer readable medium coupled to the processor;

first computer code, encoded in the computer readable medium and executable by the processor, for generating a first graphical user interface, wherein the first graphical user interface includes a first screen object representing a vehicle, a second screen object having data entry fields to allow entry of damaged vehicle components and repair/replace estimate information; and

second computer code, encoded in the computer readable medium and executable by the processor, for generating a second graphical user interface, wherein the second graphical user interface includes a first screen object representing the vehicle, and a second screen object having data entry fields to allow entry of damaged vehicle components and visual damage information.

8. The computer system of claim 7 further comprising:

third computer code, encoded in the computer readable medium and executable by the processor, to rate damage severity of each vehicle component according to a set of predetermined rules;

fourth computer code, encoded in the computer readable medium and executable by the processor, to determine an overall damage rating for the vehicle based on rated damage to the vehicle components; and

fifth computer code, encoded in the computer readable medium and executable by the processor, to compare the overall damage rating for the vehicle to a crash test vehicle having an overall rating based on component damage ratings in accordance with the set of rules.