{
  "patent_number": "US 12475678",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "How Computers Automatically Spot Disaster Damage Using Different Types of Images",
  "original_title": "Method and apparatus for detecting changes between heterogeneous image data for identifying disaster damage",
  "summary": "A method for comparing two different types of images—like satellite photos and drone footage—to automatically identify areas damaged by natural disasters.",
  "what_it_does": "This technology compares 'before' and 'after' images of a disaster zone, even when those images come from different sources like optical cameras and multispectral sensors. It first identifies specific objects in both images—such as buildings or vegetation—based on their color or light reflectance. It then filters out 'exceptional objects' that aren't relevant to the disaster, like moving cars or shadows, to ensure they don't trigger false alarms. Finally, it uses mathematical techniques like Change Vector Analysis and PCA K-means to highlight exactly where the landscape has changed, pinpointing the damage.",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Does not cover analysis of homogeneous image data (e.g., comparing two identical camera feeds).",
    "Does not cover manual human-in-the-loop damage assessment without the automated filtering of exceptional objects.",
    "Does not cover real-time streaming video analysis for non-disaster events."
  ],
  "filed": "2022-11-17",
  "granted": "2025-11-18",
  "expires": null,
  "status": "active",
  "holder": "Kakao Mobility Corp",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/kakao-mobility-corp",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "Seung Hwan HONG",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/seung-hwan-hong"
    },
    {
      "name": "Yoon Jo CHOI",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/yoon-jo-choi"
    },
    {
      "name": "Mohammad Gholami Farkoushi",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/mohammad-gholami-farkoushi"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 0,
  "tags": [
    "ai_ml",
    "consumer_electronics",
    "software"
  ],
  "abstract": "Disclosed herein method and apparatus for detecting changes between heterogeneous image data for identifying disaster damage. The method includes obtaining observation image data of an event occurrence region and reference image data that occurs before an event and has a heterogeneous type of an image from the observation image data; processing the observation image data and the reference image data according to an attribute of the observation image data and preprocessing the observation image data and the reference image data to determine whether or not there is an exceptional object to be excluded from a change analysis in the processed observation image data and the processed reference image data based on an event type and to process the exceptional object; and detecting a change area of the event occurrence region based on the preprocessed observation image data and the preprocessed reference image data.",
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/12475678/spacex-engine-philosophy",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/12475678/spacex-engine-philosophy/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US12475678",
  "relatedPatents": []
}