TCSP – Patent Liability Analysis

Project Overview Overall Objectives Create an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) which is capable of the following: Create an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) which is capable of the following: Autonomous flight Autonomous flight GPS navigation GPS navigation Ground photography Ground photography

“Precision Approach and Control” U.S. Patent # – 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 # , 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# , 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)

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)

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