Video inspection system with wireless enabled drum

Abstract

Among other things, techniques, systems, methods and computer readable storage medium with executable instructions relating to the viewing of data from and the controlling of the operation of an inspection camera at a remote computing device that is connected to the inspection camera via a network are described. Various features may be realized by using an installable software application or a web browser at the remote computing device. Features of the invention also pertain to a smart cable storage drum comprising a push cable, an inspection camera, and a network transceiver configured to communicate with a remote computer.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A video inspection system, comprising:
 a smart cable storage drum including:
 a housing; 
 a wheel assembly mechanically coupled to the housing; 
 a slip ring for coupling electrical signals and/or electrical power; 
 a WiFi transceiver disposed in the housing and configured as a WLAN hotspot to which an external tablet or cellphone computing device is wirelessly connected; 
 a processor for executing computer readable program code stored in a non-transitory memory to generate streaming images or video data through the WLAN hotspot; and 
 a push-cable having a proximal end and a distal end, the push-cable including conductors to transfer signals and power. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the slip ring is insertable in a cavity formed in at least part of a corresponding hub of the smart cable storage drum. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the smart cable storage drum includes a rotary hub and wherein the WiFi transceiver is disposed in the rotary hub of the storage drum. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the slip ring is electrically coupled to transfer power from a battery power source to the WiFi transceiver. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 3 , wherein the rotary hub includes electronics to compress the image or video data provided from the inspection camera to generate compressed image or video data and wherein the compressed image or video data is provided to the WiFi transceiver for transmission to a wirelessly coupled display device. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the wireless coupled display device is a smart phone or tablet device. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , further including a USB port and associated electronics, wherein the images or streaming video is provided to the USB port for storing on a coupled USB device. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the coupled USB device is a thumb drive. 
     
     
         9 . A video inspection system, comprising:
 a smart cable storage drum including:
 a drum assembly; 
 a housing; 
 a wheel assembly mechanically coupled to the housing; 
 a push-cable having a proximal end and a distal end, the push-cable including conductors to transfer signals and power; 
 a slip ring for coupling electrical signals and/or electrical power to and from the push-cable; 
 a WiFi transceiver configured as a WLAN hotspot to which an external tablet or cellphone computing device is wirelessly connected; 
 a processor for executing computer readable program code stored in a non-transitory memory to generate images or streaming video data for rendering on a downloadable application (app) on the external tablet or smart phone computing device via a wireless signal through the WLAN hotspot; 
 an inspection camera for capturing one or more images or video, the inspection camera mechanically and electrically coupled to a distal end of the push cable to provide the captured one or more images or video to the push cable conductors and further to the processor to generate the images or the streaming video data, and to receive electrical power from the push cable; 
 a protective coil spring positioned around the push cable at the distal end and adjacent to the inspection camera; and 
 computer readable media comprising downloadable code for execution on the external tablet or cellphone computing device as an application (app) to render the streaming video.