Method and Apparatus for Integrated Image Capture for Vehicles to Track Damage

Abstract

Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products are disclosed for building a consolidated searchable database of vehicle images that were captured at a plurality of different sites. The database can be searched to track vehicle condition over time and over a plurality of transactions involving the vehicles. From this information, a determination can be made as to whether damage first arose on a vehicle during a particular transaction for the purpose of allocating responsibility for payment of repair costs.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 receiving, from a plurality of sites, a plurality of vehicle images and metadata for the vehicle images, each vehicle image comprising an image of a vehicle that is indicative of whether body damage is present on that vehicle, the metadata comprising an identifier for each vehicle depicted in the vehicle images and a temporal identifier indicative of when each vehicle image was created; and   creating a searchable multi-site database of the received vehicle images indexed by the received metadata; and   wherein the receiving and creating steps are performed by a processor.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the vehicle images are rental vehicle images, and wherein the sites are rental sites. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  further comprising:
 generating the rental vehicle images via a plurality of cameras, wherein the rental vehicle images comprise a plurality images of a plurality of rental vehicles from a plurality of angles such that each of at least a plurality of the rental vehicles has images thereof from a plurality of angles. 
 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2  further comprising:
 the processor accessing rental agreement data stored in a memory, the rental agreement data being representative of a plurality of rental agreements for a plurality of rental transactions with respect to a plurality of rental vehicles; 
 the processor processing the accessed rental agreement data and the received metadata; 
 the processor determining a plurality of rental agreements corresponding to the received vehicle images based on the processed rental agreement data and the processed metadata; and 
 the processor storing the received rental vehicle images in a memory in association with their determined corresponding rental agreements to index a plurality of the rental vehicle images by their determined corresponding rental agreements. 
 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  wherein the rental agreement data comprises condition report data for the rental vehicles corresponding to the rental transactions, the condition report data comprising data indicative of a condition for each rental transactions' rental vehicle, the method further comprising:
 the processor associating the received rental vehicle images with the condition report data for the determined corresponding rental agreements. 
 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4  further comprising:
 the processor receiving data indicative of a body damage report for a rental vehicle; and 
 the processor performing the accessing, processing, and storing steps for that rental vehicle in response to the received body damage report data. 
 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 4  further comprising:
 the processor receiving data indicative of a rental agreement being opened for a rental transaction with respect to a rental vehicle; and 
 the processor performing the accessing, processing, and storing steps for that rental vehicle in response to the received rental agreement opening data. 
 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 4  further comprising:
 the processor receiving data indicative of a rental agreement being closed for a rental transaction with respect to a rental vehicle; and 
 the processor performing the accessing, processing, and storing steps for that rental vehicle in response to the received rental agreement closing data. 
 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 4  further comprising:
 the processor performing the accessing, processing, and storing steps each time a new rental vehicle image is received. 
 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 2  wherein the received metadata further comprises a rental site identifier for each rental site at which the received rental vehicle images were taken. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10  wherein the received metadata further comprises an arrival/departure identifier, the arrival/departure identifier configured to identify whether a rental vehicle image corresponds to an image of a rental vehicle arriving at or departing from a rental site. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11  further comprising:
 providing a user interface for a user to search the database for rental vehicle images that are associated with a user-specified value for the received metadata. 
 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 2  further comprising generating a plurality of the rental vehicle images via a plurality of rental site gate cameras, and wherein a plurality of the rental vehicle images comprise the rental site gate camera images. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 2  further comprising generating a plurality of the rental vehicle images via a plurality of mobile cameras at a plurality of the rental sites during customer pickup, and wherein a plurality of the rental vehicle images comprise the rental vehicle images generated by the mobile cameras. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 2  further comprising:
 the processor accessing condition report data stored in a memory, the condition report data corresponding to a plurality of condition reports and comprising data indicative of a condition for a plurality of rental vehicles with respect to a plurality of rental transactions; 
 the processor processing the accessed condition report data and the received metadata; 
 the processor determining a plurality of condition reports corresponding to the received vehicle images based on the processed condition report data and the processed metadata; and 
 the processor storing the received rental vehicle images in a memory in association with their determined corresponding condition reports to index a plurality of the rental vehicle images by their determined corresponding condition reports. 
 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 the processor providing a web service interface for communicating with a plurality of gate camera systems at a plurality of the sites, the web service interface defining a standardized format for the vehicle images and the metadata; 
 wherein the receiving step comprises the web service interface (1) receiving a plurality of the vehicle images and their corresponding metadata in the standardized format from the gate camera systems, and (2) validating the received vehicle images and their corresponding metadata from the gate camera systems against the standardized format; and 
 the processor performing the creating step for the validated vehicle images and their corresponding metadata. 
 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the vehicle images comprise a plurality of vehicle images that were taken at a start of a transaction and a plurality of vehicle images that were taken at an end of a transaction such that a body damage condition can be assessed for the vehicles with respect to each transaction for those vehicles. 
     
     
         18 . A method comprising:
 receiving a plurality of rental vehicle images from a plurality of rental sites;   receiving metadata associated with the received rental vehicle images; and   for at least a plurality of the received rental vehicle images, (1) processing their associated metadata, (2) automatically creating a data association in a memory between at least a plurality of those rental vehicle images with at least one of a condition report and a rental agreement for the rental vehicles depicted by those rental vehicle images; and   wherein the method steps are performed by a processor.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the rental vehicle images depict a plurality of rental vehicles with respect to at least one member of the group consisting of (1) at a start of a rental transaction, (2) at an end of a rental transaction, (3) arriving at a rental site, and (4) departing from a rental site. 
     
     
         20 . A method comprising:
 receiving, from a plurality of rental sites, a plurality of rental vehicle images and metadata for the rental vehicle images, each rental vehicle image comprising an image of a rental vehicle that is indicative of whether body damage is present on that rental vehicle, the metadata comprising an identifier for each rental vehicle depicted in the rental vehicle images and a temporal identifier indicative of when each rental vehicle image was created;   accessing data stored in a memory representative of a plurality of condition reports, the condition report data corresponding to a plurality of rental transactions for a plurality of rental vehicles, each condition report comprising data indicative of a condition for each rental transactions' rental vehicle;   processing the accessed condition report data and the received metadata;   determining which of the received rental vehicles and which of the accessed condition reports correspond to the same rental transactions based on the processed condition report data and the processed metadata; and   in response to a determination that a rental vehicle image corresponds to a condition report, creating an association in a memory between that rental vehicle image and that condition report; and   wherein the receiving, accessing, processing, determining, and creating steps are performed by a processor.