PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16167196
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-10
Publication Date: 2019-02
Patent Classification: ["348", "046000"]

Abstract:
An active-pulsed four-dimensional camera system that utilizes a precisely-controlled light source produces spatial information and human-viewed or computer-analyzed images. The acquisition of four-dimensional optical information is performed at a sufficient rate to provide accurate image and spatial information for in-motion applications where the camera is in motion and/or objects being imaged, detected and classified are in motion. Embodiments allow for the reduction or removal of image-blocking conditions like fog, snow, rain, sleet, and dust from the processed images. Embodiments provide for operation in daytime or nighttime conditions and can be utilized for day or night full-motion video capture with features like shadow removal. Multi-angle image analysis is taught as a method for classifying and identifying objects and surface features based on their optical reflective characteristics.

Claim (Index 28):
An image processing system that analyzes a series of images of a scene to assess an optical property of an object in the scene comprising:\n an active camera system configured to capture and store at least two successive frames of data of the scene to be used to generate each image of the series of images, wherein each frame is captured during a capture cycle in one or more frame buffers; a processing system operably coupled to the active camera system to generate the series of images of the scene, the processing system configured to:\n analyze the at least two successive frames of data to determine a minimum intensity value due to ambient light in the scene and a maximum intensity value of image pixels corresponding to the scene and generate an image of the series of images based on a difference between the minimum intensity values and the maximum intensity values of the image pixels; \n identify at least one object in the series of images that has a surface that is differentiable from other objects such that a common point on the surface of the object can be identified and analyzed in the series of images captured from different distances of the active camera system to the object and different angular orientations of the active camera system relative to the object; \n analyze the series of images that include the common point to determine a set of characteristic values of the image pixels corresponding to the common point, including:\n a reflected intensity value that is based on the maximum intensity value relative to the minimum intensity value; \n a distance from the active camera system to the common point; \n a normal vector for the common point; and \n an angular orientation between an optical path of the image pixel and the normal vector; \n \n create an optical profile for the common point based on the set of characteristic values of the image pixels corresponding to the common point; \n compare the optical profile for the common point to a set of predefined characteristic profiles of optical properties of objects; and \n identify the object based on the characteristic profile that best matches the optical profile for at least one common point of the object.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 8.0
- Percentile: 97.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.51685
- Patent Class: 348.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15059811', '15853222', '14639802', '15173969', '14251254']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.6651332040861964
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5739411510903741
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.6560139987866143
- Mean Citation Score: 280.53830800000003
- Max Citation Score: 413.4119
- Similarity Product: 302.50115196585654

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test