Vehicle data collection and verification

• US 9,530,064 B2
• Filed: 11/05/2015
• Issued: 12/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mile Auto, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Vehcon, Inc.
• Inventors: Blumer, Frederick T., Fuller, Joseph R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shafi, Muhammad
• Application Number:
  US14/933,260
• Publication Number:
  US 20160055386A1
• Time in Patent Office: 418 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701400-541, 340988-996
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/00 Pattern recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/59 inside of a vehicle, e.g. relating to seat occupancy, driver state or inner lighting conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/02 Recognising information on displays, dials, clocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/08 Detecting or categorising vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0866 the electronic data carrier being a digital video recorder in combination with video camera

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments for a data aggregation application. Operational data and image data may be captured from a client device. Odometer readings can be extracted from the image data. The operational data and image data can be verified by comparing an instrument panel depicted in the image data to a known instrument panel depiction.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

at least one computing device, configured to at least;

obtain, from a mobile device, at least one image capturing an image of an instrument panel of a vehicle;

generate from the image of the instrument panel image data of a feature of the instrument panel and image data of an odometer display of the vehicle;

generate from the image data of the odometer display an odometer reading;

verify that the vehicle corresponds to a vehicle identification as a function of the image data of a feature of the instrument panel by comparing the image data of the feature of the instrument panel to an image knowledge base, wherein the at least one image is a first at least one image of the instrument panel and the image knowledge base comprises a second at least one image depicting the instrument panel, and finding a match between the second at least one image depicting the instrument panel and the image data of a feature of the instrument panel of the first at least one image of the instrument panel; and

associate the odometer reading with the vehicle identification.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one image is a first at least one image, the instrument panel is a first instrument panel, and the image knowledge base comprises a second at least one image depicting at least one second instrument panel associated with the vehicle.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one second instrument panel corresponds to a shared make, model or year of the vehicle.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one computing device is further configured to at least associate the odometer reading with an account corresponding to the vehicle.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one computing device is further configured to verify the odometer reading as being greater than or equal to a temporally earlier odometer reading.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one computing device is further configured to at least:

obtain, from the mobile device, operational data associated with a usage of the vehicle; and

associate the operational data with an account corresponding to the vehicle.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one computing device is further configured to determine whether the first at least one image comprises altered or transformed image data.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein comparing the image data of the instrument panel to the image knowledge base is performed based at least in part on a machine learning algorithm or an image matching algorithm.

9. A method, comprising:

obtaining, by at least one computing device, from a mobile device, at least one image capturing an image of an instrument panel of a vehicle;

generating, by the computing device, from the image of the instrument panel image data of a feature of the instrument panel and image data of an odometer display;

generating, by the computing device, from the image data of the odometer display an odometer reading;

verifying, by the computing device, that the vehicle corresponds to a vehicle identification as a function of the image data of a feature of the instrument panel by comparing the image data of the instrument panel to an image knowledge base, wherein the at least one image is a first at least one image of the instrument panel and the image knowledge base comprises a second at least one image depicting the instrument panel, and finding a match between the second at least one image depicting the instrument panel and the image data of a feature of the instrument panel of the first at least one image of the instrument panel; and

associating, by the computing device, the odometer reading with the vehicle identification.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one image is a first at least one image, the instrument panel is a first instrument panel, and the image knowledge base comprises a second at least one image depicting at least one second instrument panel associated with the vehicle.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one second instrument panel corresponds to a shared make, model or year of the vehicle.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising associating, by the at least one computing device, the odometer reading with an account corresponding to the vehicle.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising verifying, by the at least one computing device, the odometer reading as being greater than or equal to a temporally earlier odometer reading.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

obtaining, by the at least one computing device, from the mobile device, operational data associated with a usage of the vehicle; and

associating, by the at least one computing device, the operational data with an account corresponding to the vehicle.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising determining, by the at least one computing device, whether the first at least one image comprises altered or transformed image data.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein comparing the at least one image to the image knowledge base is performed based at least in part on a machine learning algorithm or an image matching algorithm.