SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ACQUIRING AND QUANTIFYING VEHICULAR DAMAGE INFORMATION

• Main Authors: KIDD, SCOTT D, ROGERS, LINDA J, SMITH, DARRIN A, PANCRATZ, DAVID J, BOMAR, JOHN B., JR
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French
• Published: 04.08.1999
• Edition: 6
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; CONTROLLING; COUNTING; DATA PROCESSING SYSTEMS OR METHODS, SPECIALLY ADAPTED FORADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL, SUPERVISORYOR FORECASTING PURPOSES; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; INFORMATION STORAGE; INFORMATION STORAGE BASED ON RELATIVE MOVEMENT BETWEEN RECORDCARRIER AND TRANSDUCER; MEASURING; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS ORELEMENTS; PHYSICS; REGULATING; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE,COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL, SUPERVISORY OR FORECASTINGPURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; TESTING; TESTING STATIC OR DYNAMIC BALANCE OF MACHINES ORSTRUCTURES; TESTING STRUCTURES OR APPARATUS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR

A system and method enables nontechnical personnel to provide information relating to vehicle damage information via a graphical user interface of a computer system. The information provided by the user includes damaged vehicle area information, crush depth of the damaged areas information, and vehicle component-by-component damage information. This information is utilized by a .DELTA.V determination module executing on a processor to, for example, obtain respective overall vehicle damage ratings for each vehicle of two vehicles involved in a collision. The overall damage rating is obtained by applying a set of rules, based on a uniform quantification of component-by-component damage, to the subject vehicles and an identical or sister test vehicle from one or more crash tests which provide damage information.