IP Library Granted Patent US 9,488,492
Granted Patent B2
US 9,488,492 · App. 14/575,472 · Granted Nov 8, 2016

Real-time system for multi-modal 3D geospatial mapping, object recognition, scene annotation and analytics

Inventors: Supun Samarasekera (Princeton, NJ); Raia Hadsell (Princeton Junction, NJ); Rakesh Kumar (West Windsor, NJ); Harpreet S. Sawhney (Princeton Junction, NJ); Bogdan C. Matei (Princeton Junction, NJ); Ryan Villamil (Plainsboro, NJ)
Assignee: SRI INTERNATIONAL
G01C21/3673G01C11/02G01C21/32G06K9/00637G06K9/6267G06K9/6293G06T17/05G06T2200/04G06T2207/10012
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 9,488,492
App. No.
14/575,472
Granted
Nov 8, 2016
Kind
B2
Abstract

A multi-sensor, multi-modal data collection, analysis, recognition, and visualization platform can be embodied in a navigation capable vehicle. The platform provides an automated tool that can integrate multi-modal sensor data including two-dimensional image data, three-dimensional image data, and motion, location, or orientation data, and create a visual representation of the integrated sensor data, in a live operational environment. An illustrative platform architecture incorporates modular domain-specific business analytics “plug ins” to provide real-time annotation of the visual representation with domain-specific markups.

Claims (55)

1. A navigation-capable vehicle, comprising:

one or more processors, and, in communication with the one or more processors:

one or more two-dimensional image sensors;

one or more sensors to determine motion, location, and orientation of the navigation-capable vehicle; and

one or more non-transitory machine accessible storage media comprising instructions to cause the navigation-capable vehicle to:

temporally and spatially align sensor data received from the one or more two-dimensional image sensors, and the one or more motion, location, and orientation sensors;

generate a map representation of a real world environment in a frame of reference of the navigation-capable vehicle based on the temporally and spatially aligned sensor data;

recognize a plurality of visual features in the map representation using one or more computer vision algorithms;

annotate one or more of the visual features in accordance with domain-specific business logic;

wherein the domain-specific business logic is to cause the navigation-capable vehicle to detect a change in a visual feature of a natural resource.

2. A navigation-capable vehicle, comprising:

one or more processors, and, in communication with the one or more processors:

one or more two-dimensional image sensors;

one or more sensors to determine motion, location, and orientation of the navigation-capable vehicle; and

one or more non-transitory machine accessible storage media comprising instructions to cause the navigation-capable vehicle to:

temporally and spatially align sensor data received from the one or more two-dimensional image sensors, and the one or more motion, location, and orientation sensors;

generate a map representation of a real world environment in a frame of reference of the navigation-capable vehicle based on the temporally and spatially aligned sensor data;

recognize a plurality of visual features in the map representation using one or more computer vision algorithms; and

annotate one or more of the visual features in accordance with domain-specific business logic;

wherein the navigation-capable vehicle comprises an unmanned aerial vehicle.

3. A multi-sensor data collection, analysis, recognition, and visualization platform comprising instructions embodied in one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media and executable by one or more processors to cause a navigation-capable vehicle to:

receive sensor data from a plurality of sensors comprising one or more two-dimensional image sensors, and one or more sensors to determine motion, location, and orientation of the navigation-capable vehicle;

temporally and spatially align the sensor data received from the one or more two-dimensional image sensors, and the one or more motion, location, and orientation sensors;

generate a map representation of the real world surroundings of the navigation-capable vehicle based on the temporally and spatially aligned sensor data;

recognize a plurality of visual features in the map representation by executing one or more computer vision algorithms;

annotate one or more of the visual features in accordance with domain-specific business logic; and

present a visualization of the annotated visual features on the navigation-capable vehicle;

wherein the domain-specific business logic comprises a change detection algorithm to detect one or more domain-specific changes in the visual features over time, and the platform comprises instructions to annotate the visual features to identify the detected domain-specific changes on the visualization.

4. A multi-sensor data collection, analysis, recognition, and visualization platform comprising instructions embodied in one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media and executable by one or more processors to cause a navigation-capable vehicle to:

receive sensor data from a plurality of sensors comprising one or more two-dimensional image sensors, and one or more sensors to determine motion, location, and orientation of the navigation-capable vehicle;

temporally and spatially align the sensor data received from the one or more two-dimensional sensors, and the one or more motion, location, and orientation sensors;

generate a map representation of the real world surroundings of the navigation-capable vehicle based on the temporally and spatially aligned sensor data;

recognize a plurality of visual features in the map representation by executing one or more computer vision algorithms;

annotate one or more of the visual features in accordance with domain-specific business logic; and

present a visualization of the annotated visual features on the navigation-capable vehicle;

wherein the domain-specific business logic comprises an anomaly detection algorithm to detect one or more domain-specific anomalies in the visual features over time, and the platform comprises instructions to annotate the visual features to identify the detected domain-specific anomalies on the visualization.

5. A system for multi-sensor data collection, analysis, recognition, and visualization by a navigation-capable vehicle, the system comprising one or more computing devices configured to:

temporally and spatially align data received from one or more two-dimensional sensors and one or more motion, location, and orientation sensors;

generate a map representation of the real world surroundings of the navigation-capable vehicle based on the temporally and spatially aligned sensor data;

recognize a plurality of visual features in the map representation by executing one or more computer vision algorithms;

estimate a navigation path for the navigation-capable vehicle;

annotate one or more of the visual features in accordance with domain-specific business logic;

present a visualization of the annotated visual features on the navigation-capable vehicle; and

tag one or more of the annotated visual features in the visualization in response to user input.

6. The system of claim 5 , configured to execute domain-specific anomaly detection logic on the visual features and annotate the visualization based on the execution of the domain-specific anomaly detection logic.

7. The system of claim 5 , configured to execute domain-specific change detection logic on the visual features and annotate the visualization based on the execution of the domain-specific change detection logic.

8. The navigation-capable vehicle of claim 2 , wherein one of the one or more two-dimensional image sensors generates two-dimensional image sensor data.

9. The navigation-capable vehicle of claim 2 , wherein one of the one or more two-dimensional image sensors generates three-dimensional image sensor data.

10. The navigation-capable vehicle of claim 2 , further comprising a three-dimensional image sensor.

11. The navigation-capable vehicle of claim 3 , wherein one of the one or more two-dimensional image sensors generates two-dimensional image sensor data.

12. The navigation-capable vehicle of claim 3 , wherein one of the one or more two-dimensional image sensors generates three-dimensional image sensor data.

13. The navigation-capable vehicle of claim 3 , further comprising a three-dimensional image sensor.

14. The navigation-capable vehicle of claim 4 , wherein one of the one or more two-dimensional image sensors generates two-dimensional image sensor data.

15. The navigation-capable vehicle of claim 4 , wherein one of the one or more two-dimensional image sensors generates three-dimensional image sensor data.

16. The navigation-capable vehicle of claim 4 , further comprising a three-dimensional image sensor.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Oct 10, 2016
From: SAMARASEKERA, SUPUN; HADSELL, RAIA; KUMAR, RAKESH; SAWHNEY, HARPEET S.; MATEI, BOGDAN CALIN MIHAI; VILLAMIL, RYAN
To: SRI INTERNATIONAL
Reel/Frame 039977/0362 →
Continuity (3)
Provisional Application 61954635 · Mar 18, 2014
Provisional Application 62074674 · Nov 4, 2014
Related Publication 20150268058A1 · Sep 24, 2015