US 10,372,996 B2Granted

Automatic vehicle leak detection

AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC

InventorsJinesh J Jain, Harpreetsingh Banvait, Bruno Sielly Jales Costa, Ashley Elizabeth Micks

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Abstract

A vehicle controller receives images from a camera upon arrival and upon departure. A location of the vehicle may be tracked and images captured by the camera may be tagged with a location. A departure image may be compared to an arrival image captured closest to the same location as the arrival image. A residual image based on a difference between the arrival and departure images is evaluated for anomalies. Attributes of the anomaly such as texture, color, and the like are determined and the anomaly is classified based on the attributes. If the classification indicates an automotive fluid, then an alert is generated.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A method comprising, by a vehicle controller:

receiving a stream of images from a forward facing camera, each image of the stream of images being received at a vehicle location;
storing the image stream as stored images such that each image of the stream of images is stored as a stored image tagged with the vehicle location at which the each image was received;
detecting parking of the vehicle;
in response to detecting parking of the vehicle:
detecting a parked location of the vehicle;
and
identifying an arrival image from the stored images from the stream of images as being received prior to detecting parking of the vehicle and having the vehicle location with which the arrival image is tagged at a predetermined distance from the parked location;
detecting departure of the vehicle from the parked location;
in response to detecting departure of the vehicle from the parked location:
identifying a departure image in the image stream received after departure and having the vehicle location at which the each image was received within a threshold distance from the vehicle location with which the arrival image is tagged;
identifying an anomaly according to an evaluation of the arrival image and the departure image by evaluating a representation of a surface located under the vehicle while parked and that is visible in the arrival image and the departure image;
and
determining that the anomaly indicates a fluid leak.

10 more elements

A vehicle comprising:

a camera, the camera being forward facing;
a vehicle component containing a fluid;
a controller operably coupled to the camera, the controller programmed to—
receive an image stream from the camera, each image of the image stream being received at a vehicle location;
storing the image stream as stored images such that each image of the image stream is stored as a stored image tagged with the vehicle location at which the each image was received;
detect parking of the vehicle;
in response to detecting parking of the vehicle at a parking location:
identify a set of arrival images from the stored images that were received before detecting parking of the vehicle and that are tagged with vehicle locations in a region about a predetermined distance from the parking location;
detect departure of the vehicle from the parking location;
in response to detecting departure of the vehicle from the parking location, identify a set of departure images from the image stream that were received after detecting departure of the vehicle and received at vehicle locations corresponding to the vehicle locations with which the set of arrival images are tagged;
stabilize the set of arrival images to obtain a stabilized arrival image;
stabilize the set of departure images to obtain a stabilized departure image
evaluate whether (a) the stabilized arrival image and the stabilized departure image indicate an anomaly at the parking location on a surface located under the vehicle while parked;
evaluate whether (b) the anomaly indicates a fluid leak;
if (b), generate an alert.

12 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 15/380,930Filed 15 Dec 2016
Published: US 2018/0173961 A121 Jun 2018
Granted: 6 Aug 2019
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification10 codes

G06V 20/52
Context or environment of the image: surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects
G06T 7/001
Industrial image inspection: using an image reference approach
G06T 7/40
Image analysis: analysis of texture
G06T 2207/10004
Image acquisition modality: still image; Photographic image

Family

US 2018/0173961 A1Pre-grant publication · published 21 Jun 2018
US 10,372,996 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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