Patent ID: 11893727
Assignee: HARSCO TECHNOLOGIES LLC
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G  H | IPC B  G  H

Claim 6:
7. A railroad track feature detection system comprising:
an imaging device configured to be coupled to a frame of a rail vehicle and positioned such that the imaging device is configured to capture a plurality of images of a rail track as the rail vehicle moves along the rail track; and
a computer having:
at least one memory comprising instructions, at least a portion of the instructions configured as a neural network; and
at least one processor configured to execute the instructions, wherein the instructions cause the at least one processor to perform one or more operations in real-time;

wherein the one or more operations include:
receiving the plurality of images, and for each of the images:
assigning a location identifier; and
identifying one or more rail features that correspond to one of a plurality of predetermined rail features; and

determining a location of each of the one or more identified rail features;
assigning a first location identifier to a first image of the plurality of images,
identifying, in the first image, the one or more rail features;
assigning a second location identifier to a second image of the plurality of images,
comparing the first location identifier with the second location identifier to determine a first displacement distance between the identified rail features in the first image;
based on the first displacement distance, determining if one or more rail features in the second image correspond to one of the one or more identified rail features in the first image;
based on the determintion that:
a first subset of the one or more rail features in the second image correspond to at least one of the one or more identified rail features in the first image, setting the first subset as detected rail features and re-identifying the first subset of the one or more rail features; and
a second subset of the one or more rail features in the second image does not correspond to at least one of the one or more identified rail features in the first image, setting the second subset as detected rail features and identifying, in the first image, the second subset of the one or more rail features.