Patents by Inventor Eric Taipale

Eric Taipale has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11640651
    Abstract: Aerial imagery may be captured from an unmanned aircraft or other aerial vehicle. The use of aerial vehicle imagery provides greater control over distance from target and time of image capture, and reduces or eliminates imagery interference caused by clouds or other obstacles. Images captured by the aerial vehicle may be analyzed to provide various agricultural information, such as vegetative health, plant counts, population counts, plant presence estimation, weed presence, disease presence, chemical damage, wind damage, standing water presence, nutrient deficiency, or other agricultural or non-agricultural information. Georeference-based mosaicking may be used to process and combine raw image files into a direct georeferenced mosaic image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2023
    Assignee: Sentera, Inc.
    Inventors: Eric Taipale, Andrew Muehlfeld
  • Patent number: 11472549
    Abstract: A method may include determining a location of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV); generating a set of mission plans based on the location of the UAV, each mission plan including respective mission plan parameters; receiving a selection of a mission plan of the set of mission plans; obtaining mission plan parameters for the selected mission plan; and transmitting the obtained mission plan parameters to the UAV to configure the UAV according to the obtained mission parameters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: Sentera, Inc.
    Inventor: Eric Taipale
  • Publication number: 20220198606
    Abstract: Aerial imagery may be captured from an unmanned aircraft or other aerial vehicle. The use of aerial vehicle imagery provides greater control over distance from target and time of image capture, and reduces or eliminates imagery interference caused by clouds or other obstacles. Images captured by the aerial vehicle may be analyzed to provide various agricultural information, such as vegetative health, plant counts, population counts, plant presence estimation, weed presence, disease presence, chemical damage, wind damage, standing water presence, nutrient deficiency, or other agricultural or non-agricultural information. Georeference-based mosaicking may be used to process and combine raw image files into a direct georeferenced mosaic image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 10, 2022
    Publication date: June 23, 2022
    Inventors: Eric TAIPALE, Andrew MUEHLFELD
  • Patent number: 11301957
    Abstract: Aerial imagery may be captured from an unmanned aircraft or other aerial vehicle. The use of aerial vehicle imagery provides greater control over distance from target and time of image capture, and reduces or eliminates imagery interference caused by clouds or other obstacles. Images captured by the aerial vehicle may be analyzed to provide various agricultural information, such as vegetative health, plant counts, population counts, plant presence estimation, weed presence, disease presence, chemical damage, wind damage, standing water presence, nutrient deficiency, or other agricultural or non-agricultural information. Georeference-based mosaicking may be used to process and combine raw image files into a direct georeferenced mosaic image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2022
    Assignee: Sentera, Inc.
    Inventors: Eric Taipale, Andrew Muehlfeld
  • Patent number: 11232303
    Abstract: The present subject matter provides a technical solution for various technical problems associated with precision agriculture imagery. One solution to improving precision agriculture imagery includes identification and use of ground control points. A ground control point may include the association of a visible feature in an image of an agricultural field with a geospatial coordinate. A ground control point may be used as a common reference point between two aerial images, thereby improving alignment between the two images during stitching. The ground control points may be generated using planting prescription data or as-planted data, which may include one or more intentionally unplanted regions within an agricultural filed. Multiple aerial images may be stitched together using these ground control points to generate a precisely georeferenced output image, thereby improving the accuracy of the precision agriculture output image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2022
    Assignee: Sentera, Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Muehlfeld, Eric Taipale
  • Patent number: 11044448
    Abstract: Spectral filtering or shaping is applied to an imaging system of an aerial vehicle such as a UAV to ensure that the measurements between a camera system and an ambient light sensor system are proportional under all light conditions. The spectral filtering is applied so that the resulting spectral sensitivity curves of the ambient light sensor system and of the camera system are proportional to one another over a spectral region. Thereafter, it is determined if there is a difference between a target ambient lighting condition and a real-time ambient lighting condition collected by the ambient light sensor system when an image was obtained. If a difference exists, a color correction can be applied to the image. This results in more accurate color correction and more spectrally accurate and consistent images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2021
    Assignee: Sentera, Inc.
    Inventors: Ryan Nelson, Eric Taipale
  • Publication number: 20200184188
    Abstract: The present subject matter provides a technical solution for various technical problems associated with precision agriculture imagery. One solution to improving precision agriculture imagery includes identification and use of ground control points. A ground control point may include the association of a visible feature in an image of an agricultural field with a geospatial coordinate. A ground control point may be used as a common reference point between two aerial images, thereby improving alignment between the two images during stitching. The ground control points may be generated using planting prescription data or as-planted data, which may include one or more intentionally unplanted regions within an agricultural filed. Multiple aerial images may be stitched together using these ground control points to generate a precisely georeferenced output image, thereby improving the accuracy of the precision agriculture output image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 13, 2020
    Publication date: June 11, 2020
    Inventors: Andrew Muehlfeld, Eric Taipale
  • Patent number: 10614305
    Abstract: The present subject matter provides a technical solution for various technical problems associated with precision agriculture imagery. One solution to improving precision agriculture imagery includes identification and use of ground control points. A ground control point may include the association of a visible feature in an image of an agricultural field with a geospatial coordinate. A ground control point may be used as a common reference point between two aerial images, thereby improving alignment between the two images during stitching. The ground control points may be generated using planting prescription data or as-planted data, which may include one or more intentionally unplanted regions within an agricultural filed. Multiple aerial images may be stitched together using these ground control points to generate a precisely georeferenced output image, thereby improving the accuracy of the precision agriculture output image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2020
    Assignee: Sentera, Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Muehlfeld, Eric Taipale
  • Publication number: 20190340727
    Abstract: Aerial imagery may be captured from an unmanned aircraft or other aerial vehicle. The use of aerial vehicle imagery provides greater control over distance from target and time of image capture, and reduces or eliminates imagery interference caused by clouds or other obstacles. Images captured by the aerial vehicle may be analyzed to provide various agricultural information, such as vegetative health, plant counts, population counts, plant presence estimation, weed presence, disease presence, chemical damage, wind damage, standing water presence, nutrient deficiency, or other agricultural or non-agricultural information. Georeference-based mosaicking may be used to process and combine raw image files into a direct georeferenced mosaic image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 22, 2019
    Publication date: November 7, 2019
    Inventors: Eric TAIPALE, Andrew MUEHLFELD
  • Patent number: 10402942
    Abstract: Aerial imagery may be captured from an unmanned aircraft or other aerial vehicle. The use of aerial vehicle imagery provides greater control over distance from target and time of image capture, and reduces or eliminates imagery interference caused by clouds or other obstacles. Images captured by the aerial vehicle may be analyzed to provide various agricultural information, such as vegetative health, plant counts, population counts, plant presence estimation, weed presence, disease presence, chemical damage, wind damage, standing water presence, nutrient deficiency, or other agricultural or non-agricultural information. Georeference-based mosaicking may be used to process and combine raw image files into a direct georeferenced mosaic image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2019
    Assignee: Sentera, Inc.
    Inventors: Eric Taipale, Andrew Muehlfeld
  • Publication number: 20190202555
    Abstract: A method may include determining a location of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV); generating a set of mission plans based on the location of the UAV, each mission plan including respective mission plan parameters; receiving a selection of a mission plan of the set of mission plans; obtaining mission plan parameters for the selected mission plan; and transmitting the obtained mission plan parameters to the UAV to configure the UAV according to the obtained mission parameters.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 29, 2017
    Publication date: July 4, 2019
    Inventor: Eric Taipale
  • Publication number: 20190205610
    Abstract: The present subject matter provides a technical solution for various technical problems associated with precision agriculture imagery. One solution to improving precision agriculture imagery includes identification and use of ground control points. A ground control point may include the association of a visible feature in an image of an agricultural field with a geospatial coordinate. A ground control point may be used as a common reference point between two aerial images, thereby improving alignment between the two images during stitching. The ground control points may be generated using planting prescription data or as-planted data, which may include one or more intentionally unplanted regions within an agricultural filed. Multiple aerial images may be stitched together using these ground control points to generate a precisely georeferenced output image, thereby improving the accuracy of the precision agriculture output image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 4, 2018
    Publication date: July 4, 2019
    Inventors: Andrew Muehlfeld, Eric Taipale
  • Publication number: 20190096033
    Abstract: Aerial imagery may be captured from an unmanned aircraft or other aerial vehicle. The use of aerial vehicle imagery provides greater control over distance from target and time of image capture, and reduces or eliminates imagery interference caused by clouds or other obstacles. Images captured by the aerial vehicle may be analyzed to provide various agricultural information, such as vegetative health, plant counts, population counts, plant presence estimation, weed presence, disease presence, chemical damage, wind damage, standing water presence, nutrient deficiency, or other agricultural or non-agricultural information. Georeference-based mosaicking may be used to process and combine raw image files into a direct georeferenced mosaic image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 28, 2017
    Publication date: March 28, 2019
    Inventors: Eric Taipale, Andrew Muehlfeld