Road pavement deterioration inspection system
First Claim
1. A system for acquiring, processing, storing, analyzing, and reporting data relating to the condition of a road or other pavement surface in real time;
- the system including;
at least one digital image acquirer positioned relative to a pavement surface so as to capture images of the pavement surface while the digital image acquirer is moving relative to the pavement surface; and
illumination assembly to illuminate the region on the pavement surface from which an image is taken;
an interface between the image acquirer and at least one computer;
a processor in said at least one computer for real time processing of said images to detect and classify cracks and other pavement surface features.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system for acquiring, processing, storing, analyzing and reporting data relating to the condition of a road or other pavement surface (102) in real time. The system includes a digital camera (104) mounted on a vehicle and positioned relative to a pavement surface (102) so as to capture images of the pavement surface (102) while the camera (104) is moving relative to the surface (102). The system also includes an illumination assembly (100) to illuminate the region from which an image is taken and an interface between the digital camera (104) and at least one computer. The system also includes a processor in the computer for processing the images to detect and classify cracks and other pavement surface (102) features.
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Citations
42 Claims
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1. A system for acquiring, processing, storing, analyzing, and reporting data relating to the condition of a road or other pavement surface in real time;
- the system including;
at least one digital image acquirer positioned relative to a pavement surface so as to capture images of the pavement surface while the digital image acquirer is moving relative to the pavement surface; and
illumination assembly to illuminate the region on the pavement surface from which an image is taken;
an interface between the image acquirer and at least one computer;
a processor in said at least one computer for real time processing of said images to detect and classify cracks and other pavement surface features. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 41)
- the system including;
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34. A system for real time capture and processing of pavement crack data comprising;
- a vehicle capable of travelling at highway speeds, a digital image capturer mounted in or on said vehicle for capturing digital images of the pavement surface; and
a processor in communication with said digital image capturer, the processor for processing at least part of said captured data in real time, wherein the processor in communication with said digital image capturer includes a digital camera and the processor means includes computer hardware and software for processing said digital images. - View Dependent Claims (35)
- a vehicle capable of travelling at highway speeds, a digital image capturer mounted in or on said vehicle for capturing digital images of the pavement surface; and
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36. A system for enabling real time capture and processing of data relating to the condition of a pavement, the assembly including;
- a vehicle capable of travelling at highway speeds;
a pavement crack data capturer mounted in or on said vehicle for capturing pavement crack data; and
a processor for processing captured data in real time. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38)
- a vehicle capable of travelling at highway speeds;
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39. A system for real time capture of and processing of pavement crack data relating to the condition of a road pavement, said system comprising;
- a vehicle capable of traveling at highway speeds;
a digital camera mounted in or on said vehicle for capturing images of said pavement while said vehicle is in motion;
a processor mounted in or on said vehicle, and linked to said camera, for receiving data captured by said camera, and for removal of any unwanted captured data in real time. - View Dependent Claims (40)
- a vehicle capable of traveling at highway speeds;
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42. A method for real time capture and processing of pavement crack data comprising the steps of:
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(a) using digital image acquirer having an electronic exposure control and positioned relative to a pavement surface to capture images of the surface while the digital image acquirer is moving relative to the surface, in conjunction with an illumination assembly which illuminates the region from which an image is taken;
(b) using an interface between the digital image acquirer and at least one computer to manage the manner in which the digital image acquirer acquires images and to manage the way in which the acquired data is passed on to an image processing CPU;
(c) using software and/or hardware in an image processing CPU to process said images(s) of the pavement loaded into the computer by a number of steps which include;
i) image filtering;
ii) crack isolation; and
/oriii) crack measurement; and
(d) processing the images in real time and providing real time reporting of pavement crack data.
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Specification