Roof condition assessment using machine learning

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2023394646-A1
Application number	US-202318455094-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 24, 2023
Priority date	Sep 20, 2019
Publication date	Dec 7, 2023
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and methods for roof condition assessment from digital images using machine learning are disclosed, including receiving an image of a structure having roof characteristic(s), first pixel values depicting the structure, second pixel values outside of the structure depicting a background surrounding the structure, and first geolocation data; generating a synthetic shape image of the structure from the image using machine learning, including pixel values forming a synthetic outline shape, and having second geolocation data; mapping the synthetic shape onto the image, based on the first and second geolocation data, and changing the second pixel values so as to not depict the background; assessing roof characteristic(s) based on the first pixel values with a second machine learning algorithm resulting in a plurality of probabilities, each for a respective roof condition classification category, and determining a composite probability based upon the plurality of probabilities so as to classify the roof characteristic(s).

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer executable code that when executed by a processor cause the processor to:
receive an image of a structure having an outline and a roof with one or more characteristic, the image having pixels with first pixel values depicting the structure and second pixel values outside of the structure depicting a background of a geographic area surrounding the structure, and image metadata including first geolocation data; generate a synthetic shape image of the structure from the image using a machine learning algorithm, the synthetic shape image including pixels having pixel values forming a synthetic shape of the outline, the synthetic shape image having second geolocation data derived from the first geolocation data; map the synthetic shape onto the image of the structure, based at least in part on the first and second geolocation data, and change the second pixel values of the image so as to not depict the background of the geographic area outside of the structure forming a mask image; and, assess one or more characteristic of the roof based at least in part on the first pixel values with a second machine learning algorithm and resulting in a plurality of probabilities, with each of the probabilities for a respective roof condition classification category, and determining a composite probability based upon the plurality of probabilities so as to classify the one or more characteristic of the roof.

2 . The non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer executable code of claim 1 , wherein the one or more characteristic includes a roof condition.

3 . The non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer executable code of claim 1 , wherein the one or more characteristic includes a roof architecture.

4 . The non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer executable code of claim 1 , wherein the one or more characteristic includes a roof material.

5 . The non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer executable code of claim 1 , wherein the one or more characteristic includes a roof tree coverage.

6 . The non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer executable code of claim 1 , wherein the one or more characteristic includes a roof solar panel coverage.

7 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the image has a pixel resolution between two and ten inches per pixel.

8 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the machine learning algorithm is a second machine learning algorithm, and wherein the second machine learning algorithm is a component of a generator of a generative adversarial network, the generative adversarial network further comprising a discriminator having a third machine learning algorithm, the generator receiving the image of the structure and generating the synthetic shape image.

9 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the roof is a first roof, and the structure is a first structure, and wherein the generative adversarial network has been trained with truth pairs with each truth pair including a test masked image only depicting a second roof of a second structure and a truth roof classification.

10 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the test masked image depicts an entirety of the second roof of the second structure.

11 . A method, comprising:
receiving, with one or more processors, an image of a structure having an outline and a roof with one or more characteristic, the image having pixels with first pixel values depicting the structure and second pixel values outside of the structure depicting a background of a geographic area surrounding the structure, and image metadata including first geolocation data; generating, with the one or more processors, a synthetic shape image of the structure from the image using a machine learning algorithm, the synthetic shape image including pixels having pixel values forming a synthetic shape of the outline, the synthetic shape image having second geolocation data derived from the first geolocation data; mapping, with the one or more processors, the synthetic shape onto the image of the structure, based at least in part on the first and second geolocation data, and change the second pixel values of the image so as to not depict the background of the geographic area outside of the structure forming a mask image; and, assessing, with the one or more processors, one or more characteristic of the roof based at least in part on the first pixel values with a second machine learning algorithm and resulting in a plurality of probabilities, with each of the probabilities for a respective roof condition classification category, and determining a composite probability based upon the plurality of probabilities so as to classify the one or more characteristic of the roof.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more characteristic includes a roof condition.

13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more characteristic includes a roof architecture.

14 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more characteristic includes a roof material.

15 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more characteristic includes a roof tree coverage.

16 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more characteristic includes a roof solar panel coverage.

17 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the machine learning algorithm is a second machine learning algorithm, and wherein the second machine learning algorithm is a component of a generator of a generative adversarial network, the generative adversarial network further comprising a discriminator having a third machine learning algorithm, the generator receiving the image of the structure and generating the synthetic shape image.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the roof is a first roof, and the structure is a first structure, and wherein the generative adversarial network has been trained with truth pairs with each truth pair including a test masked image only depicting a second roof of a second structure and a truth roof classification.

19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein the test masked image depicts an entirety of the second roof of the second structure.

20 . A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer executable code that when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:
receive an image of a structure having an outline and a roof with one or more characteristic, the image having pixels with first pixel values depicting the structure; and assess one or more characteristic of the roof based at least in part on the first pixel values with a machine learning algorithm and resulting in a plurality of probabilities, with each of the probabilities for a respective roof condition classification category, and determining a composite probability based upon the plurality of probabilities so as to classify the one or more characteristic of the roof.

Assignees

• Pictometry Int Corp

Inventors

• Strong Shadrian

Classifications

• G06T7/0004 Primary

  Industrial image inspection · CPC title

• G06N20/00

  Machine learning · CPC title

• G06F16/29

  Geographical information databases · CPC title

• G06V20/176

  Urban or other man-made structures · CPC title

• G06F18/2155

  characterised by the incorporation of unlabelled data, e.g. multiple instance learning [MIL], semi-supervised techniques using expectation-maximisation [EM] or naïve labelling · CPC title