VEHICLES

Technical Field

The present invention relates to methods and systems for determining attributes of motor vehicles such as their make, model, age and condition. Embodiments of the invention have particular application in assisting with listing vehicles for sale or in processing trade-in and purchase of motor vehicles. Background to the Invention

At the time of preparing a listing to offer a vehicle for sale, or arranging a trade-in/purchase of a vehicle, it is important to correctly determine a number of attributes of the vehicle such as the make, model and age of the vehicle, along with a list of specifications which are installed in the vehicle, such as air-conditioning, satellite navigation and type of vehicle transmission. More than ever, vehicle manufacturers offer an ever increasing range of different vehicles models with different options available. There remains a need to facilitate easier determination of attributes of vehicles.

Summary of the Invention

In a first aspect the present invention provides a method of determining attributes of a motor vehicle including the steps of: analysing at least one photographic image relating to the vehicle to identify a vehicle identification code; processing the vehicle identification code to determine attributes of the motor vehicle.

The attributes may include any of the make, the model or the age of the vehicle.

The attributes may include either of vehicle specifications or the appropriate market naming of the vehicle's option package

The vehicle identification code may include either of a vehicle identification number or a vehicle registration number.

The method may further include the step of preparing a valuation of the vehicle.

The step of preparing the valuation may be further based on the distance travelled by the vehicle.

The step of preparing the valuation may be further based on the condition of the vehicle.

The condition of the vehicle may be determined by analysing the at least one photographic image.

The method may further include the step of determining the colour of the vehicle.

The colour of the vehicle may be determined by analysing the at least one photographic image.

The colour of the vehicle may be determined by processing the vehicle identification code.

In a second aspect the invention provides a system for determining attributes of motor vehicles including: analysing means for analysing photographic images relating to the vehicles to identify vehicle identification codes; processing means for processing the vehicle identification codes to determine attributes of the motor vehicles.

The attributes may include any of the make, the model or the approximate age of the vehicles.

The system may further include an image capture device for obtaining the photographic images.

The system may be embodied in a mobile computing device.

In a third aspect the invention provides a software program arranged to instruct a computing device to conduct a method according to the first aspect of the invention or to operate as a system according to the second aspect of the invention.

In a fourth aspect the invention provides a computer readable medium containing a software program according to the third aspect of the invention.

Brief Description of the Drawings

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic view of participants in a system according to the invention;

Figures 2 to 11 depict screenshots of user interfaces presented to a user. Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment

Referring to figure 1, an arrangement 10 is shown for determining attributes of motor vehicles. The arrangement includes an internet connected server computer 12 running suitably configured software under control of an operating system by way of a typical processor and memory architecture 14. Server 12 is connected to database 16 used for storing and retrieving information. Server 12 communicates via the internet 20 by way of router 18 to receive and transmit information used in the system as will be later described.

Participants 30, 32, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39 use their own computing devices to participate in the arrangement. Before participating each participant must establish a user account in a known fashion.

Participants 30, 32, 34, 36 will usually be either employees of a car dealer or be private individuals who are desirous of listing their own car for sale. They use mobile computing devices in the form of mobile phones upon which they have previously installed a dedicated software application made available to them in a known manner such as from an application store.

Participants 37, 38, 39 are managers or car dealer principals. They use computing devices such as their own mobile phones or laptop or desktop computers to access a web-based online management system.

Operation of this embodiment of the invention will now be described from the point of view of an employee at a car dealership in evaluating second hand vehicles for trade-in.

As is frequently the case, a potential customer of a vehicle will arrive at a car dealership in their own vehicle which they are willing to trade-in by way of part payment for another new or used vehicle. An employee at the car dealership will discuss with the potential customer. At some stage, the potential customer will be interested to know what value they will be given off a purchase by trading in their vehicle. The employee prepares the valuation by using the application installed on their mobile phone.

Referring to figure 2, a user interface displayed on the screen of the phone of the employee is shown displaying the home screen 40. Summary details 42 of vehicles that have already been valued by the employee are shown in the lower part of the screen. The employee can tap on any of these to revisit an earlier valuation. The employee taps an onscreen button 44 labelled "Start a new valuation" to begin the valuation process.

Referring to figure 3, the valuation process proceeds using screen 50 where the employee is directed to aim an image capture device in the form of a camera built into their mobile phone at the vehicle, or of materials associated with the vehicle, so that their camera takes in a scene which predominantly features a vehicle identifying code in the form of either the vehicle's VIN number or registration number. The output of their camera is displayed in on-screen window 52. The employee aims their camera so that the required vehicle identifying code is shown in window 52. Alternatively, they can manually enter the VIN or the registration number shown on the vehicle licence plate at field 54.

Referring to figure 4, the user interface screen 50 is shown and the employee has pointed the camera of their mobile phone to take in a scene featuring the licence plate of the vehicle, which displays the vehicle registration number.

Referring to figure 5, the user interface screen 50 is shown and the employee has pointed the camera of their mobile phone to take in a scene featuring the VIN of the vehicle as displayed on the windshield of the vehicle.

The application repeatedly analyses the output of the phone camera to detect the presence of either a licence plate or a VIN number as described below:

A. Licence Plate to Vin Number Process

Uses image detection to analyse the image captured by the phone to detect a licence plate by shape, outline and letters

Then uses OCR technology to recognises the numbers and letters of the registration number displayed on the plate

Detects the State (or Country) code/letters on the number plate to determine the issuing authority of the licence plate. This dictates the selection of a suitable database to query to look up the registration number. If the issuing authority cannot be determined then the application will assume that the licence plate has been issued by the authority that is responsible for the location in which the application is being used.

Looks up the number plate to retrieve the vehicles VIN number - either through online databases, or with a data provider. B. VIN Image to Vehicle Details Process

Uses OCR technology to read the numbers and letters from the image. A combination of app based and web based OCR is used. Examples of suitable web based OCR services include Google Vision and Microsoft Cognitive Services. App based OCR is optimized for common conditions such as dirt, dust, glare/reflection and common formats (leading/trailing characters, colour combinations, common

watermarks).

Takes the characters of the VIN rather than the VIN barcode - this is easier to find, and printed in more locations on the car such as windscreen, door jamb, compliance plates or even on the vehicles documents like registrations papers, owners manuals. To enhance accuracy, compares OCR results from in-app and web based services to determine confidence, and matches for items such as format and valid WMI characters. It then outputs the characters with highest confidence matching a possible VIN. This is a combination of per character analysis, per VIN segment analysis and complete OCR string analysis.

When it detects a series of characters, matching the VIN number

characteristics, it decodes the VEST using different databases or data providers, depending on the manufacturer of the car to increase accuracy. The manufacturer of the car is coded in the first three digits of the VIN.

- In this process, it checks for the following requirements of a VIN number.

This helps to ensure accuracy in the OCR process:

o ISO 3779:2009

o 17 characters

o All uppercase letters

o Never contains I, O, or Q letters

o Lest 6 characters should always be numbers

o 9th digit is a check digit

o 10th - 17th digit is the Vehicle Identifier Section (VIS) - this is used by manufacturer to identify vehicle, options and specifications.

o 10th Digit is the Model Year of the Car:

The image is also analysed to determine if the image includes a compliance plate. If a compliance plate is detected, then the compliance date is also extracted from the image.

The vehicle VIN number allows the lookup of various attributes of the vehicle. The available attributes vary from one manufacturer to another and can include - make, model, year, body, number of doors, fuel type and production date, manufacturer colour, factory options and other specifications.

Region Specific Vehicle Variants

In certain countries, a certain group of vehicle options will be given a

'package' name or a vehicle name. For example, car XYZ in Australia, if it contains a Sunroof, Leather Seats and Bluetooth, may be called the "XYZ Luxury Edition".

However, this naming is country specific, through product and marketing, and not recorded by VIN number. For these instances, where the VIN number can be decoded to get a full list of options on the car, these are then cross matched to those that make the country specific package, and provide this naming to the user.

At figure 6, the application proceeds to display a screen 60 by which the employee can compile additional photographs of the vehicle by capturing the photos using their camera, or uploading photographs for that particular model of car from a library. The additional images are stored for assessing the vehicle condition and for future reference.

Manufacturer Colour Determination

Where a VIN does not enable the determination of manufacturer colour, this can be determined from images captured by the user, of the vehicle. These images are uploaded and analysed using a 3rd party detection service to determine the object of the image. All the photos which are detected as being "car" (as opposed to a wheel or an interior shot) will then have their primary colour detected by the 3rd party app and return the RGB for each "car" in each photo. For each RGB of each photo, the colour distance from all possible manufacturer RGB for each car will be calculated. Then, there will be a cumulative score between all the photos, to assess the closest match to the possible manufacturer colour - the closest match will be assumed to be the colour of the exterior of the car. Referring to figure 7, the application proceeds to display a screen 70 to the employee by which they can record additional attributes of the vehicle which have not yet been identified from the photos or VIN number. Such as:

i. Colour (if not already deduced from VIN or images)

ii. Mileage 72 of car

iii. Compliance date 74 (if not taken from pics)

iv. Frame / accident damage

v. Overall condition of car 76 by way of a five star rating system- depending on user, inputs such as tyre condition, reconditioning spend ($), or a condition rating. In some embodiments vehicle condition information may be collected by way of a checklist system combined with damage/condition photos. In some embodiments the vehicle condition may be based on an automated system which analyses images of the vehicle to calculate a reconditioning spend $ automatically.

vi. User can record free text in field 78.

Referring to figures 8 and 9, the application proceeds to display a screen 80 to the employee by which the employee can make an evaluation of the vehicle. The application looks up the details determined for the vehicle in database 16 to retrieve ranges of values "Calculated Purchase Price" 82 and "Estimated Selling Price" 84. These values are calculated using aggregate data collected by the app for that make/model/year of vehicle (average and standard deviation) and then adjusted depending on the particular evaluated vehicle's characteristics like mileage and condition. In some embodiments data provided by a third party service is used which may and in some cases be adjusted for the particular evaluated vehicle.

The employee takes all of the displayed information into account and decides upon a "Final Evaluated Price" 88 which they enter on-screen.

In some embodiments the "Final Evaluated Price" may be decided upon by a manager of the employee after the employee has collected all of the information relating to the vehicle.

The final evaluated price is then communicated to the potential customer who can then make a decision as to whether or not they wish to proceed with a trade in. If the customer does proceed, then the information determined in relation to their vehicle can be used in the preparation of contracts or other documentation required to effect the trade in. In some embodiments, the details may be automatically transferred to the dealer's Dealer Management System software.

Furthermore, following accepting a trade-in vehicle, the details determined in relation to the vehicle can be used immediately in preparing advertisements or listings offering the traded in vehicle for sale. The application also contains share functionality which allows the user to share an evaluation by means of email, message, directly to other app users or other electronic communication. It can also be shared in different forms, such as a customer styled evaluation or a more detailed internal evaluation.

In some embodiments the vehicle may be sold through the app itself. In these embodiments the user interface will include an on-screen button whereby the user is invited to sell the vehicle for the calculated final evaluated price. For example, if the system, after analysing the car and damage, values a car at $19,250, then the user (ie car dealer) can click a button and the provider of the app will pay the dealer this amount and will have the vehicle collected.

In alternatives to the above described method the condition of the vehicle may be assessed in other alternative or complimentary ways.

Referring to figures 10 and 11, display screens 70a, 70b are shown whereby a user can indicate issues with the condition of the vehicle's interior or exterior by marking on diagrams of the vehicle exterior and exterior.

In other embodiments the condition of the vehicle may be assessed by computer analysis of the images of the vehicle to establish the type and value of any reconditioning/damage on the vehicle. This damage can then be identified and quantified so the amount can then be used to adjust the value which the system calculates the vehicle to be worth.

Online Management System

In some embodiments information gathered by one or people using the application may be presented by way of an online management system. The system includes a Dealer Dashboard (primarily for dealership sales managers/general managers/dealer principals). The dashboard shows basic statistics and insights such as: i. Conquest vs loyalty, average number of evaluation per sales executive, total number of evaluations, number of evaluations without final price and average age of vehicles evaluated.

ii. Make, model and year of vehicles evaluated (listed in aggregate in a table) iii. Average age

iv. Average price

v. Shows previous evaluations from entire sales team (table view, sortable) vi. Ability to view detailed information about a previous evaluation, set a final price and share the evaluation (by printing, email or other means)

In the case of dealership groups that own several car dealerships the management system may show data relating to all car dealerships owned by that group with ability to filtered by dealerships and/or groups of dealerships.

Some embodiments of the invention display a Manufacturer Dashboard. This allows a manufacturer to see aggregate data regarding vehicles being evaluated by every one of that manufacturer's dealers in a particular country or region such. It contains information such as:

i. Own make vs competitors evaluations (conquest %)

ii. Make, model and year of vehicles evaluated (listed in aggregate in a table) iii. Region and number of evaluations

iv. Average age of evaluated vehicles

v. Average price of evaluated vehicles

vi. Average number of dealers cars evaluated at (for example, each car that is evaluated is evaluated on average at 3 different dealers selling cars from that manufacturer)

All dashboards have user management to add new users to either also have access to the dashboard, or alternately, access to the mobile app under the companies account

Variations Vin and/or Licence Plate

In markets where there is no database of licence plates to give VIN numbers, the user will see a Step 1 with only Vin Number photo option.

In markets where there is licence plate database of VIN Data, the user can take an image of the licence plate or VIN.

In some embodiments the user may select whether they are photographing the licence plate or VIN.

In other embodiments the application may be used by a vehicle owner to determine details of their own vehicle which they can use in preparing an advertisement or listing offering their vehicle for sale.

It can be seen that embodiments of the invention have at least one of the following advantages:

• Using a portable hand held device an operator at a car dealership can determine accurate details of vehicles and prepare competitive valuations of trade-in values

• Details determined using the invention are stored for later statistical analysis or for subsequent preparation of advertisements or listings for on-selling received trade-in vehicles

• Enables fast and accurate identification of vehicle attributes by individuals without industry specific knowledge

Any reference to prior art contained herein is not to be taken as an admission that the information is common general knowledge, unless otherwise indicated.

Finally, it is to be appreciated that various alterations or additions may be made to the parts previously described without departing from the spirit or ambit of the present invention.