System and method for detecting cargo container seals

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for detecting container seals. In one implementation, a processing device receives one or more images and processes the one or more images to identify one or more areas of interest within at least one of the one or more images, the one or more areas of interest including one or more areas of the one or more images within which a container seal is relatively likely to be present. The processing device compares the one or more identified areas of interest with one or more templates, each of the one or more templates being associated with one or more respective seal types. The processing device identifies, based on the comparison, one or more matches between the one or more identified areas and the one or more templates, and provides, based on the identification of the one or more matches, an identification of the container seal.

1 .- 47 . (canceled) 
     
     
         48 . A system comprising:
 a memory; and   a processing device, operatively coupled to the memory, to:
 receive one or more images; 
 process the one or more images to identify one or more areas of the one or more images as being likely to contain a container seal; 
 further process the one or more identified areas of the one or more images to identify a presence of the container seal; and 
 providing an identification of the container seal in relation to the one or more images. 
   
     
     
         49 . The system of  claim 48 , wherein to process the one or more images is to process the one or more images to identify one or more handles within the one or more images. 
     
     
         50 . The system of  claim 48 , wherein to process the one or more images is to process the one or more images to identify one or more hooks within the one or more images. 
     
     
         51 . The system of  claim 48 , wherein the processing device is further to compare the one or more areas of the one or more images is to compute a quantity of templates associated with a particular seal type that are comparable to the one or more areas of the one or more images. 
     
     
         52 . The system of  claim 48 , wherein the processing device is further to compute a quantity of areas of the one or more images within which a container seal is relatively likely to be present. 
     
     
         53 . The system of  claim 48 , wherein to provide an identification of the container seal is to provide an identification of a type of the container seal. 
     
     
         54 . The system of  claim 48 , wherein to provide an identification of the container seal is to provide an identification of a state of the container seal. 
     
     
         55 . The system of  claim 54 , wherein the state of the container seal comprises as least one of: locked, unlocked, tampered, or untampered. 
     
     
         56 . The system of  claim 48 , wherein the processing device is further to process the one or more images to determine a context of the container seal. 
     
     
         57 . The system of  claim 56 , wherein the context of the container seal comprises at least one of one or more characteristics of the container seal or one or more locations of the container seal. 
     
     
         58 . The system of  claim 56 , wherein the processing device is further to determine, based on the identification of the container seal and the context of the container seal, an effectiveness of the container seal. 
     
     
         59 . The system of  claim 58 , wherein to provide an identification of the container seal is to provide an identification of the effectiveness of the container seal. 
     
     
         60 . The system of  claim 48 , wherein the processing device is further to:
 process the one or more images to identify one or more handles within the one or more images;   wherein to identify a presence of the container seal the processing device is further to identify, based on an identification of the one or more handles within the one or more images in relation to the one or more handles, the presence of the container seal; and   wherein to provide the identification of the container seal the processing device is further to provide, based on an identification of the container seals in relation to the one or more handles, an identification of the container seal in relation to a container.   
     
     
         61 . The system of  claim 48 , wherein the processing device is further to:
 process the one or more images to determine a state of the container seal;   based on a determination that the state of the container seal is tampered, receive one or more images of a container associated with the container seal;   process the one or more images of the container seal to determine one or more aspects of the container; and   based on the one or more aspects, identify the container for inspection.   
     
     
         62 . The system of  claim 61 , wherein the one or more aspects comprise one or more areas of the container. 
     
     
         63 . The system of  claim 48 , wherein the processing device is further to:
 based on the identification of the container seal, further process the one or more images to determine a location of the container seal with respect to a container; and   based on (a) the identification of the container seal and (b) a determination of a location of the container seal with respect to the container, determine an integrity of the container.   
     
     
         64 . The system of  claim 48 , wherein the processing device is further to:
 based on an identification of the one or more container seals, further process the one or more images to determine a configuration of one or more elements of a container with respect to the container seal; and   based on (a) the identification of the container seal and (b) a determination of a configuration of the one or more elements of a container with respect to the container seal, determine an integrity of the container.   
     
     
         65 . The system of  claim 64 , wherein the one or more elements comprise at least one of: a door of the container or a handle of the container. 
     
     
         66 . A computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:
 receive an image;   process the image to identify one or more areas of the image as being likely to contain a container seal;   compare the one or more identified areas of the image with a template associated with a seal type;   determine, based on the comparison, a seal type of the container seal; and   provide an identification of the container seal in relation to the image.   
     
     
         67 . A method comprising:
 receiving one or more images;   processing the one or more images to identify at least one of one or more hooks or one or more handles of a container within the one or more images;   based on an identification of the at least one of one or more hooks or the one or more handles within the one or more images, marking one or more areas of the one or more images as being likely to contain a container seal;   processing one or more templates associated with a seal type of the container seal to (a) detect one or more interest points within the one or more templates and (b) compute a numerical descriptor for each of the one or more interest points within the one or more templates;   converting the one or more templates into one or more numeric vectors;   processing, by a processing device, the one or more areas of the one or more images to generate one or more interest points of the one or more images;   matching, based on the one or more numeric vectors, the one or more interest points of the one or more images with the one or more interest points of one or more templates to determine an identification of the container seal, the identification of the container seal comprising the seal type of the container seal; and
 providing the identification of the container seal. 
   
     
     
         68 . The method of  claim 67 , further comprising:
 processing the one or more images to determine a context of the container seal and a location of the container seal in relation to the container;   correlating the seal type of the container seal with (a) the context of the container seal and (b) the location of the container seal in relation to the container; and   determining, based on the correlation of the seal type of the container seal with the context of the container seal and the location of the container seal in relation to the container, an effectiveness of the container seal.