Patent ID: 11928149
Assignee: TOYOTA CONNECTED NORTH AMERICA, INC.
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. A vision system for improving querying of visual data by using edge computing resources of collection devices in a distributed network, comprising:
one or more processors; and
a memory communicably coupled to the one or more processors and storing:
an acquisition module including instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to, in response to receiving, in a selected vehicle that is equipped with at least one camera, a request for locating a target, identify search parameters from the request that specify the target that is to be identified and a time window for analyzing visual data from the camera,
pre-process the visual data that is acquired during and prior to the request by determining semantic labels for objects in the visual data, including sniffing the semantic labels from an autonomous driving module of the selected vehicle that is processing the visual data for autonomous operation of the selected vehicle, wherein the instructions to pre-process include instructions to use a semantic segmentation model that is built-in with the autonomous driving module and that defines boundaries of objects within the visual data, and
index, in a visual inventory of a data store in the selected vehicle, the visual data according to the semantic labels; and
a search module including instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to analyze the visual data according to the search parameters to identify the target by using at least a machine vision model executing on a processor within the selected vehicle, wherein the visual data includes at least camera data that is currently being acquired; and
wherein the search module further includes instructions to communicate detection results about whether the visual data includes the target to a remote device from which the request originated and the index of content that is available at the selected vehicle, including the semantic labels, wherein the instructions to communicate the detection results and the semantic labels reduce consumption of bandwidth by providing information about contents of the visual inventory for subsequent selection of available vehicles for searching.