IMAGE ACQUISITION

• US 20110025851A1
• Filed: 05/11/2009
• Published: 02/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mark Group Limited (Cottingham Limited)
• Original Assignee: Mark Group Limited (Cottingham Limited)
• Inventors: Rumble, William John
• Granted Patent: US 8,780,207 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/148
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 2005/0077 Imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/02 Constructional details
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/025 Interfacing a pyrometer to an external device or network; User interface
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/0275 Control or determination of height or distance or angle information for sensors or receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/064 Ambient temperature sensor; Housing temperature sensor; Constructional details thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G01K 17/00 Measuring quantity of heat measuring temperature by calorimetry G01K3/00 - G01K11/00; specially adapted for measuring thermal properties of materials, e.g. specific heat, heat of combustion G01N
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/635 Region indicators; Field of view indicators
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/90 Arrangement of cameras or camera modules, e.g. multiple cameras in TV studios or sports stadiums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/33 Transforming infrared radiation cameras or camera modules for generating image signals from infrared radiation H04N23/20; circuitry of SSIS for transforming infrared radiation into image signals H04N25/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source

Abstract

A computerised method of automatically acquiring a series of images, the method comprising the steps of: i) processing a data file containing a series of identifiers, each identifier corresponding to a geographic location of a property; ii) receiving location data from a geographic position sensing unit; iii) defining a camera search area (830) defined by the location data and a location of a camera relative to the location data; and iv) acquiring an image of a property when a geographic location (810a) of a property corresponding to one of the series of identifiers is within the camera search area (830).

Claims

1. A computerised method of automatically acquiring a series of images, the method comprising the steps of:

i) processing a data file containing a series of identifiers, each identifier corresponding to a geographic location of a property;

ii) receiving location data from a geographic position sensing unit;

iii) defining a camera search area defined by the location data and a location of a camera relative to the position sensing unit; and

iv) acquiring an image of a property with the camera when a geographic location of a property corresponding to one of the series of identifiers is within the camera search area.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein steps ii) to iv) are automatically repeated so as to acquire images of a plurality of properties having corresponding identifiers in the data file.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the images are thermal images.

4. The method of claim 1 comprising storing each acquired image with a unique identifier, the unique identifier being the identifier in the received data file.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein additional information is stored with each acquired image, the additional information including one or more of:

the date the image was acquired, the time the image was acquired, the temperature of the external environment, the geographic location of the vehicle, the speed of travel of the geographic position sensing unit, a quality level of the location data received when acquiring the image, a distance from the camera to the property, the date or time the image was reviewed, an identifier corresponding to a driver of a vehicle in which the camera is installed or to an operator of the system and a batch identifier of the data file.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the method is performed on a computerised system installed onboard a vehicle on which the camera and geographic position sensing unit are installed.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the data file is received from a server at a location remote from the vehicle.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein acquired images are transmitted back to the remote server during or after acquisition of images of properties having locations corresponding to identifiers in the received data file.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the images, and any optional additional information, are stored locally to the vehicle.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein the camera search area is defined at least in terms of a distance from the camera and a maximum field of view of the camera.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the maximum field of view is defined as a linear dimension of an area having the maximum distance as another dimension.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the camera search area is in the form of a triangle having a height equal to the maximum distance from the camera and a base width equal to the maximum field of view, with the apex of the triangle located at the camera.

13. The method of claim 1 comprising providing a map display representing a geographic area comprising the location of the geographic position sensing unit and one or more location markers representing properties having a corresponding identifier in the data file, the map display being continually updated with a current location of the position sensing unit.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the visual appearance of a location marker on the map display is automatically altered when an image is acquired of a corresponding property.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the camera search area is displayed on the map display.

16. A vehicle comprising an image acquisition system, the image acquisition system comprising a computer, a camera and a geographic position sensing unit,

wherein the computer is configured to perform the method according to any preceding claim by receiving and processing the data file, continually receiving location data from the geographic position sensing unit, defining the camera search area based on the location data and controlling the camera to acquire images when a geographic location of a property corresponds to one of the series of identifiers falling within the camera search area.

17. The vehicle of claim 16 comprising a first left-facing thermal imaging camera and a second right-facing thermal imaging camera, each camera being connected to the computer for providing thermal images of buildings on the left and right of the vehicle respectively.

18. The vehicle of claim 16 wherein the computer is configured to automatically acquire and process thermal images of a plurality of buildings while the vehicle is in motion.

19. A computer program product comprising a tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions which when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform the method of claim 1.