Specification
The present disclosure relates to geotagged images or videos. More particularly,
the present disclosure relates to analysis of captured geotagged imagelvideo to identify
anomalies in geotagged attributes and comparing captured imageslvideos with previously
recorded and stored geo-tagged imagehide0 data.
BACKGROUONFD T HE INVENTION
[21 The background description includes information that may be useful in
understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information
provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any
publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
131 Geotagging is a process of associating geographical identification information of
one or more objectdattributes such as buildings, parks, restaurants, among other points of
interest to various media such as to a photograph or video, website, SMS message, or RSS
feed, and storing such geographical identification information along with geospatial metadata
content about the object. Geographical identification information for a geotagged object
usually comprises of latitude and longitude coordinates, though they can also include
information such as altitude, bearing, distance, date and time, accuracy data, and place
names. In application, geo-tagging (also interchangeably used as geotagging hereinafter) can
help users find wide variety of location-specific information. For instance, one can find
images taken near a given location by entering latitude and longitude coordinates into a
suitable image search engine and at the same time another user can also be notified of a geotagged
object when helshe passes by the location where the object is positioned. Geo-taggingenabled
information services can also potentially be used to find location-based news,
websites, or other resources. Geotagging can further allow users to search and identify
location of content in given picture or any other media and at the same time also allow media
platforms to show media relevant to a given 1ocation.GPS systems can also be operatively
coupled with recorded geotagged videos such that while travelling through a stretch of road
that has been recorded, all locations that have been geotagged in the video can be presented
as and when they are bypassed or arrived at.
141 Existing geotagging, also commonly referred to as geo-referencing techniques,
pose certain threats and complications during their actual implementation for broader
additional applications. One such complication involves inability of a user to be able to
differentiate between alterations made to a geo-location. This differentiation is typically
required by a user when helshe wishes to compare current metadata to previous metadata of
stored geotagged information, and to observe changes that have taken place between the two
comparisons. Existing geotagging techniques also suffer from ,limitations of providing
detailed view of alterations and fail to provide any calculative difference between current and
previous metadata. Therefbre, in present solutions, alteration or changes that take place in
parameters of one or more geo-locations go unnoticed and may deprive a user from having a
detailed change report that presents changes that have taken place across days/months/years
for one or more geotagged objects.
151 Existing geotagging systems also typically tend to store conventional and
manually entered information about geo-referenced locations/objects and do not provide for
capture of intelligent information about geotagged objects, which may or may not be captured
automatically through use of one or more sensors. Furthermore, existing solutions and
geotagging technologies also do not cater to analysis of multiple similar or dissimilar
geotagged objects that are captured together, say within a video. For instance, in a video that
is recorded from point A to point B with six objects including points of interest being
geotagged therein, existing solutions do not intelligently link such geotagged objects in order
to offer certain industrial solutions. With increasing interest and commercial applicability in
the location based services, it has become very desirable for users to be able to periodically
capture and analyze videos or images having one or more geotagged objectslattributes and
take an action based on the behaviour or evaluation of objects. Such analysis can either be
done within a single video or can include comparison of a given video having geotagged
objects with previously stored one or more geo-referenced videos. Users in such cases can
vary from a road authority to a foreignfdomestic tourist/visitor who visits a given location at
varied time intervals or a potential investor looking to open a commercial establishment such
as but not limited to an eatery or departmental store at a particular site and looking to assess
how road condition~placeso f interestlbusiness potential have changed over a period of time.
Such time intervals can range from hours to days to month to years depending on the interest
of the interested party.
OR? '. ,"AL 0 " P? 1 7 JAN 2014 7 rg \ ' c "
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[61 Therefore, availability of comprehensive and reliable information about
geotagged objects is very much desirable for an informed decision-making and its lack leaves
a serious cavity for the concerned stakeholders. In an application, road authorities and other
such stakeholders periodically require road safety audits to be conducted to assess condition
of roads, surrounding elementslattributes, compliance with policy guidelines, clarity in
direction boards, condition of traffic lights, pollution level, among other considerations,
which are typically done manually and only take into consideration the current audit without
any sort of comparison or assessment in view of previous audits. Such manual road safety
audits are highly inefficient both in terms of cost and time and are also significantly error
prone. In order to overcome these above mentioned and other such deficiencies of existing
geotagging techniques, there exists a need of an automated system for recording and
geotagging multiple road attributes, analysing andlor comparing recorded videos with
previous stored video to assess the change in conditions that have taken place, and
accordingly propose more reliable decisions or steps that need to be taken to improve the
road conditions and/or architecture.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
171 It is an object of present disclosure to resolve problems and disadvantages with
present methods of geotagging.
181 It is an object of present disclosure to provide a method and apparatus of
geotagging of attributes so that changes in attributes of a geo location over a period of time
may be differentiated.
191 It is an object of present disclosure to provide a method and apparatus for
geotagging and capturing intelligent information about geotagged objects which may or may
not be captured automatically using one or more sensors.
1101 It is another object of present disclosure to provide a method and apparatus for
analysis of multiple similar or dissimilar geotagged objects.
11 11 It is yet another object of the disclosure to provide a method and apparatus to
provide calculative difference between current and previous metadata of a geotagged object.
1121 It is another object of present disclosure to provide a method and apparatus to
record and analyse road attributes affecting the safety of road users and empower road
authorities with tools for informed decision making.
F+ :*;. " ' ;J~ ir . .. ' $
1 7 JAN 2014 *
[I31 It is an object of the disclosure to provide road users with information on road
attributes for safe driving.
[I41 It is an object of the disclosure to provide a method and apparatus that may help
traffic police authorities to manage traffic in a scientific manner.
1151 It is another object of the present disclosure to to compare existing plan of roads
network one or more videoslimages to detect absence of planned features in the actual road.
SUMMAROYF THE INVENTION
1 161 The present disclosure provides a highly scalable and precise system and
method for evaluation of various geotagged attributes of roads in order to assess road
conditions along with conditions of other surrounding and linked objects and propose steps
that can highlight problems along with giving possible solutions to identified problems.
According to one embodiment, system of the present invention can be configured to geotag
and/or geo-reference various attributes of a road, such as but not limited to traffic lights,
specific road portions, turns, sign boards, buslmetro stops, lanes, surrounding buildingsltrees,
road bumps, speed breakers, zebra crossing, among other such attributes by capturing
videoslimages of corresponding roads and surrounding objects. System and method of the
present invention can also be configured to compare and/or analyze one or more of such
geotagged attributes across captured videoslimages or compare the attributes within a single
videolimage and generate a report indicating evaluation outputs such as changes in one or
more geotagged attributes, extent of change, level of compliance, level of non-compliance
with desired regulations, among other such outputs.
[ 171 Proposed system and method can also be configured to compare changes in a
given geotagged road attribute across different time intervals based on one or more attribute
parameters so as to assess change in pattern of the road attributes such as reduction,increase
in number of road bumps across a given stretch of road, increase in dimensions of a given
road bump, reductiodincrease in traffic densitylcongestion across a given stretch of road,
among other such changes, which can help present evaluation output that are based on such
changes to concerned stakeholders.
[I81 According to one embodiment, systems and methods are also provided for
reporting outcome of assessment of a geotagged attribute of one or more roads across
different time periods, wherein the time periods can range from seconds to decades or even
more. As discussed above, assessment of geotagged road attributes can be done based on
changes in parameters that define such attributes, which parameters can be automatically
andor manually recordedentered each time a video is captured, say once during the day and
then during the night.
[191 According to one embodiment, in implementation, video of one or more road
attributes can first be recorded by a capturing module, wherein road attributes of interest can
then be geotagged or geo-referenced by means of a geotagging module. Such road attributes
can include traffic lights, objects indicative of road condition, turns, sign boards, buslmetro
stops, lanes, surrounding buildingsltrees, road bumps, speed breakers, zebra crossing, among
other such attributes, wherein each geotagged road attribute can be defined by one or more
parameters such as a road bumplpothole can be assessed based on its heightJdepth, width,
location, among other such parameters, which can help describe and evaluate the concerned
road surface abnormality. Such evaluation of one or more geotagged attributeslparameters
can be done by means of an evaluation module. Once a video is recorded, value of each
geotagged road attribute can be measured through its respective parameters and associated
with the concerned attribute. During evaluation, in an implementation, evaluation module can
be configured to evaluate each attribute independently to check for its compliance with
industry norms1Govt. regulation standards among others aspects to help present the overall
condition of the road as part of a road safety audit. In another implementation, a second
video having same or different geotagged road attributes can also be captured in a different
time periodlduration (say a few days later) by the capturing module and can be processed by
evaluation module to compare the second video with one or more previously recorded videos
such that geotagged road attributes and changes in their respective parameters can be
compared and an output giving such changes along with their magnitude, reasons for change,
among other details can be presented so that a preventive/corrective action can be taken by
concerned stakeholders/authorities. It would be appreciated that although most of the present
disclosure would be explained with respect to few road attributes, many more road attribute
can be assessed in parallel, and videos can completelylpartially be replaced by images of
geotagged road attributes, wherein multiple images taken at different time intervals can be
collectively assessed to analyze road attribute characteristics and effectiveness for same
locations. In an exemplary application, special road attributes may be compiled targeting the
requirements of specific road users such as children, cyclists, slow moving vehicles,
pedestrians, elderly people, people with disabilities etc. to study their exposure to risks and
help in decision making to provide better facilities for these specific groups. In such cases
road attributes have to be recorded taking the mode of transport or taking the specific
17 JAN 20\4 07 5,- y.' - pipm a $
, % -. .:,* - 4
category of person along for which it is being recorded, to get a faithful recording from the
perspective of the special user.
I201 In yet another exemplary application, impact of land use development projects
on road attributes may be undertaken. Land use development projects have great potential to
change traffic volumelpattern, vehicle mix and road environment. Recording these attributes
over the period of development of land and analyzing them may provide authorities with data
to chalk out improvement plans.
[211 In an application, recording of geotagged road attributes and their evaluation
may help road accident victims while claiming compensation from civil authorities, as
geotagged road attributes can show that authorities have done something, which a reasonable
road authority would not have done or have failed to do something which a reasonable road
authority would have done. In another aspect of this application, recording of geotagged road
attributes may help civil authorities to defend compensation suites or prosecute those whose
actions endanger road safety. In yet another application, evaluation of geotagged road
attributes such as traffic volume, time taken to travel a stretch between traffic signals may
help synchronize series of traffic signals along a stretch of busy road so that road users may
navigate the stretch without encountering red lights. Alternatively geotagged recordings of
different time periods may be used to program and time the traffic signals in accordance with
the changes in volume of traffic during the day.
1221 It is another objective of the disclosure to compare existing plan of roads
network, that was made on planning software such as Autocad, with the video so that the
algorithm can detect absence of planned features in the actual road. For example, the drawing
or plan's digital version can be automatically compared with the actual video to point out that
the sign board planned is not actually there or a lighting system is not present in the spot.
This is possible because the plan will give the georeference of the spot where the planned
feature should be there and the software will compare with the video frame of that very spot
in the video and the image processing algorithm will try and find the match.
I231 Various objects, features, aspects and advantages of the inventive subject matter
will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred
embodiments, along with the accompanying drawings in which like numerals represent like
components.
[241 Figure 1 illustrates a schematic of a geotagged road attribute evaluation system
in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
1251 Figure2illustratesa flowchart for evaluating geotagged attributes of roads in
accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
[261 Figure 3 illustrates an exemplary screen shots of user interfacetinput-output
device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILEDDE SCRIPTION
[271 It should be noted that while the following description is drawn to a system
and method for evaluating roads over a particular route, various alternative modifications are
also deemed suitable and may employ various devices including cameras, vehicles,
computing devices, servers, systems, databases, controllers, or other types of processing
devices operating individually or collectively. One should appreciate the devices comprise a
processor configured to execute software instructions stored on a tangible, non-transitory
readable storage medium (e.g., hard drive', solid state drive, RAM, flash, ROM, etc.). The
software instructions can preferably configure the device to perform various operations, or
other functionality as discussed below with respect to the disclosed system. Data exchanges
preferably are conducted over a data bus, a packet-switched network, internet, LAN, WAN,
VPN, or other type of packet switched network.
[281 The following discussion describes the inventive subject matter with respect to
various modules or units of road evaluation system. One skilled in the art will recognize that
the inventive subject matter can scale as necessary to any number of items without departing
from the inventive subject matter.In the following description, numerous specific details are
set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the present
invention. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that embodiments of the present
invention may be practiced without some of these specific details.
1291 Generally a system can be made up of several different units such as, one or
more processor, memory (e.g., RAM, SDRAM, DDR RAM, ROM), CODEC circuitry,
Inputloutput ("110") circuitry, or any other suitable components. Each of these components
can generally be fabricated on their own, distinct microchip or fabricated as a discrete and
distinct "entity". For example, the processor of a system may be on one component, the
memory of the system may be on a different component, and some embodiments may be a
separate entity from embodiments mentioned herein. In this manner, all of the system
components can be discrete or coupled together. Data exchanges preferably are conducted
over a data bus, a packet-switched network, internet, LAN, WAN, VPN, or other type of
packet switched network.
1301 As used herein, the term "entity" can refer to a component when it is included in
a system as a discrete, pre-packaged part or microchip. As used herein, the term "unit" can
refer to any suitable part or constituent of a system and can be embraced or modified
accordingly. Various uses and advantages explained herein are not confined or limited to
descriptions given below. Descriptions of well known components and processing techniques
are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein.It will be apparent to
one skilled in the art that embodiments of the present invention may be practiced without
some of these specific details. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed as
restraining the scope of embodiments herein and can be protracted to other uses.
1311 Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to systems and methods
for evaluating geotagged road attributes in order to identify characteristics of respective road,
compliance of road with regulations, overall road condition, changes that have taken place
from previous road condition, among all other objectives that can be achieved by such
evaluation of road attributes. Systems and methods of the present invention further relate to
capturing videos of geotagged road attributes across different time periods such as across
dayslmonths, and analyzing one or more of such videos to identify changeslalterations that
have taken placed in road attributes of interest.
1321 The following discussion describes the inventive subject matter with respect to
various modules or units of geotagged road attributes evaluation system and method One
skilled in the art will recognize that the inventive subject matter can scale as necessary to any
number of items without departing from the inventive subject matter.
[331 In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to
provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the present invention. It will be
apparent to one skilled in the art that embodiments of the present invention may be practiced
without some of these specific details.
[341 Embodiments of the present invention include various steps, which will be
described below. The steps may be performed by hardware components or may be embodied
in machine-executable instructions, which may be used to cause a general-purpose or specialpurpose
processor programmed with the instructions to perform the steps. Alternatively,
steps may be performed by a combination of hardware, software, firm-ware andfor by human
operators.
1351 Embodiments of the present invention may be provided as a computer program
product, which may include a machine-readable storage medium tangibly embodying thereon
instructions, which may be used to program a computer (or other electronic devices) to
perform a process. The machine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, fixed
(hard) drives, magnetic tape, floppy diskettes, optical disks, compact disc read-only
memories (CD-ROMs), and magneto-optical disks, semiconductor memories, such as ROMs,
PROMs, random access memories (RAMS), programmable read-only memories (PROMs),
erasable PROMs (EPROMs), electrically erasable PROMs (EEPROMs), flash memory,
magnetic or optical cards, or other type of medialmachine-readable medium suitable for
storing electronic instructions (e.g., computer programming code, such as software or
firmware).
[361 Various methods described herein may be practiced by combining one or more
machine-readable storage media containing the code according to the present invention with
appropriate standard computer hardware to execute the code contained therein. An apparatus
for practicing various embodiments of the present invention may involve one or more
computers (or one or more processors within a single computer) and storage systems
containing or having network access to computer program(s) coded in accordance with
various methods described herein, and the method steps of the invention could be
accomplished by units, routines, subroutines, or subparts of a computer program product.
[37] If the specification states a component or feature "may", "can", "could", or
"might" be included or have a characteristic, that particular component or feature is not
required to be included or have the characteristic FIG. 1 illustrates a geotagged road attribute
evaluation system 100 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
According to one embodiment, the system 100 comprises a capturing module 102, a
geotagging module 104 operatively coupled with the capturing unit 102, an evaluation
module 106 operatively coupled with the geotagging module 104, and a report generation
module 108. It should be appreciated that although present units have been shown as being
interconnected with each other, each of the units can be implemented on different or same
computing devices and configured to operatively couple with each other to implement system
100.In an exemplary embodiment in application, while capturing road attributes, only
capturing module 102 coupled with a geotagging module 104 along with a temporary storage
(J\<*;.J... ;,- fi
Documents
Application Documents
| # |
Name |
Date |
| 1 |
123-del-2013-GPA-(19-07-2013).pdf |
2013-07-19 |
| 2 |
123-del-2013-Form-1-(19-07-2013).pdf |
2013-07-19 |
| 3 |
123-del-2013-Correspondence-Others-(19-07-2013).pdf |
2013-07-19 |
| 4 |
123-del-2013-Form-5.pdf |
2013-08-20 |
| 5 |
123-del-2013-Form-3.pdf |
2013-08-20 |
| 6 |
123-del-2013-Form-2.pdf |
2013-08-20 |
| 7 |
123-del-2013-Form-1.pdf |
2013-08-20 |
| 8 |
123-del-2013-Drawings.pdf |
2013-08-20 |
| 9 |
123-del-2013-Correspondence-others.pdf |
2013-08-20 |
| 10 |
123-del-2013-Abstract.pdf |
2013-08-20 |
| 11 |
123-DEL-2013-Form-5-(17-01-2014).pdf |
2014-01-17 |
| 12 |
123-DEL-2013-Form-3-(17-01-2014).pdf |
2014-01-17 |
| 13 |
123-DEL-2013-Form-2-(17-01-2014).pdf |
2014-01-17 |
| 14 |
123-DEL-2013-Correspondence-Others-(17-01-2014).pdf |
2014-01-17 |
| 15 |
123-del-2013-Correspondence-Others-(21-04-2014).pdf |
2014-04-21 |
| 16 |
123-DEL-2013-Other Patent Document-170117.pdf |
2017-01-19 |
| 17 |
123-DEL-2013-Form 18-170117.pdf |
2017-01-19 |
| 18 |
123-DEL-2013-FORM 4(ii) [29-04-2021(online)].pdf |
2021-04-29 |
| 19 |
123-DEL-2013-PETITION UNDER RULE 137 [29-05-2021(online)].pdf |
2021-05-29 |
| 20 |
123-DEL-2013-FER_SER_REPLY [29-05-2021(online)].pdf |
2021-05-29 |
| 21 |
123-DEL-2013-CORRESPONDENCE [29-05-2021(online)].pdf |
2021-05-29 |
| 22 |
123-DEL-2013-COMPLETE SPECIFICATION [29-05-2021(online)].pdf |
2021-05-29 |
| 23 |
123-DEL-2013-CLAIMS [29-05-2021(online)].pdf |
2021-05-29 |
| 24 |
123-DEL-2013-ABSTRACT [29-05-2021(online)].pdf |
2021-05-29 |
| 25 |
123-DEL-2013-FER.pdf |
2021-10-17 |
| 26 |
123-DEL-2013-US(14)-HearingNotice-(HearingDate-09-11-2023).pdf |
2023-10-26 |
| 27 |
123-DEL-2013-US(14)-ExtendedHearingNotice-(HearingDate-22-11-2023).pdf |
2023-11-06 |
| 28 |
123-DEL-2013-Correspondence to notify the Controller [20-11-2023(online)].pdf |
2023-11-20 |
| 29 |
123-DEL-2013-Correspondence to notify the Controller [22-11-2023(online)].pdf |
2023-11-22 |
Search Strategy
| 1 |
search_strategyE_28-10-2020.pdf |