Method and Apparatus for Integrated Image Capture for Vehicles to Track Damage

A system comprising:

• a plurality of gate cameras at a plurality of rental sites, the gate cameras configured to generate a plurality of images of rental vehicles as the rental vehicles arrive at or depart from the rental sites;
• and
• a computer system in communication with the gate cameras, wherein the computer system comprises:
• a database in which is stored at least one member of the group consisting of (1) rental agreement data, the rental agreement data being representative of a plurality of rental agreements for a plurality of rental transactions with respect to a plurality of rental vehicles, and (2) condition report data, the condition report data corresponding to a plurality of condition reports and comprising data indicative of a condition for a plurality of rental vehicles with respect to a plurality of rental transactions;
• and
• wherein the computer system is configured to:
• receive the rental vehicle images from the gate cameras, the gate camera rental vehicle images being associated with metadata, the metadata comprising an identifier for each rental vehicle depicted in the gate camera rental vehicle images and a temporal identifier indicative of when each gate camera rental vehicle image was created;
• search the database based on the metadata for the gate camera rental vehicle images to automatically pair each of a plurality of the gate camera rental vehicle images with the at least one member that corresponds to a rental transaction in common between the subject gate camera rental vehicle image and the subject at least one member;
• store the paired gate camera rental vehicle images in the database;
• and
• create a plurality of associations in the database between the paired gate camera rental vehicle images and each at least one member paired thereto to thereby make the database a searchable multi-rental site database of gate camera rental vehicle images that have been associated with their corresponding at least one member.

A method comprising:

• receiving a plurality of rental vehicle images from a plurality of rental sites;
• receiving metadata associated with the received rental vehicle images;
• and
• for at least a plurality of the received rental vehicle images, (1) processing their associated metadata, (2) automatically creating a data association in a memory between at least a plurality of those rental vehicle images with at least one of a condition report and a rental agreement for the rental vehicles depicted by those rental vehicle images;
• and
• wherein the method steps are performed by a processor.

A method comprising:

• receiving, from a plurality of rental sites, a plurality of rental vehicle images and metadata for the rental vehicle images, each rental vehicle image comprising an image of a rental vehicle that is indicative of whether body damage is present on that rental vehicle, the metadata comprising an identifier for each rental vehicle depicted in the rental vehicle images and a temporal identifier indicative of when each rental vehicle image was created;
• accessing data stored in a memory representative of a plurality of condition reports, the condition report data corresponding to a plurality of rental transactions for a plurality of rental vehicles, each condition report comprising data indicative of a condition for each rental transactions' rental vehicle;
• processing the accessed condition report data and the received metadata;
• determining which of the received rental vehicles and which of the accessed condition reports correspond to the same rental transactions based on the processed condition report data and the processed metadata;
• and
• in response to a determination that a rental vehicle image corresponds to a condition report, creating an association in a memory between that rental vehicle image and that condition report;
• and
• wherein the receiving, accessing, processing, determining, and creating steps are performed by a processor.