Transcript ppt
TCSP – Patent Liability Analysis
Project Overview
Overall Objectives
Create an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) which is
capable of the following:
Autonomous flight
GPS navigation
Ground photography
Similar Patents & Products #1
“Precision
Approach and Control”
U.S. Patent #20080071431 – Filed 9/19/2006
Camera with rangefinder, measures angle and
distance to points on the ground
Nav system for measuring latitude/longitude
Controller for movement of aircraft
Similar Patents & Products #1
Similarities
– Camera mounted on aircraft
– Covers GPS navigation, autonomous control (Claims 4-6)
Differences
– Described camera is specified as rangefinder
– Navigation (GPS-based or otherwise) depends on
measurements taken by said camera (azimuth, elevation,
slant range, etc.)
Solution
– Use camera strictly for capturing images, not data.
Similar Patents & Products #2
System and a method for enabling a vehicle to
track a preset path
U.S. Patent #5610815, filed Feb 1990
Position info derived from GPS satellites “or other
sources when the satellites are not in view…”
Navigation obtained using position info, route info,
obstacle detection, on-board vehicle data
Similar Patents & Products #2
Similarities
– Navigation using GPS receiver data
– Servo commands to control vehicle direction
Differences
– Language of and examples in document indicate the
design is primarily for mining and other ground vehicles.
Solution
– Don’t abandon our plane in favor of an RC car.
Similar Patents & Products #3
“System and Method for automatically collecting
images of objects at geographic locations and
displaying same in online directories “
U.S. Patent#7155336, filed March 2004
Camera and GPS receiver mounted on vehicle
Receiver determines geographic location, camera
captures images, both time-stamped and recorded
together
Each image correlated with street address based on
its associated geographic location, can be used in
online directory (yellowpages.com)
Similar Patents & Products #3
Claims of note:
Claims 1 and 3 –
described system in
which object images
are captured using
digital still camera
Similar Patents & Products #3
Similarities
– Camera and GPS receiver mounted on vehicle (car, plane,
etc.) and used in conjunction with each other.
Differences
– Image capture is time-stamped and not at all dependent
upon the GPS data.
Solution
Avoid design that implements independent camera capture
(i.e. taking many pictures and using corresponding GPS
data in map creation)
The End