Auction Houses

Auction houses manage large inventories of expensive vehicles. The resulting increased liability calls for a more sophisticated method to manage them in order to avoid being at a disadvantage when damage to a vehicle is suddenly discovered. The simplest way to deal with this kind of situation altogether is to have a set of pictures that tell the story.

 

Our line of Vehicle Inspection Systems, a solution that is largely based on our popular digital camera lane technology, is designed to do just that. By utilizing high definition vehicle imaging and tagging the image sets to the vehicle’s license plate or vin#, the system is able to document the condition of your inventory as it flows through your facility.

The idea of documenting the physical condition of a vehicle in order to identify the origin of damage has become an industry hit ever since we invented (U.S. Patent Issue #6630893) and brought this technology to market back in early 2002.

A second benefit to creating HD video and image sets for the auction house industry is the ability to post an on-line inventory for others to view.
 
 
 
Shown above is an example of what a typical in-house camera lane set up may look like. 4-6 cameras are positioned to take multiple high definition images as the vehicle moves through the lane, providing ample video and still shots in a quality sufficient to discern the smallest door ding or scratch. If the naked eye can see it, the camera will capture it. The cameras can be set up more permanently by anchoring them to the ground, or positioned with mobile stanchion posts with rubber bases. In addition to a lane mounted barcode reader as shown, we also have a variety of wireless and motion triggers available for you to choose from to accommodate your process. All images can be accessed from a web-based user interface, making it simple to look up a vehicle from virtually anywhere.
 
For some of the lower volume auction houses or ones that do not have enough space for a fixed lane installation, our damagepix product will allow you to close the loop using the latest in smart mobile technology, such as the iphone/pod/pad solution.

 

Record the license plate, VIN# or scan the vehicle’s service order barcode and start taking any number of pictures to record existing vehicle damage or its current condition, inside and out if you so desire.
 
 
The images are imprinted with the date, time, geo-tag info, facility code and attendant user name to create an official document that will serve as irrefutable evidence when needed. The program flow is very intuitive and highly visual, leaving nothing to interpret or decipher. The app is available at the itunes store for ease of deployment.
 
 
This visually rich image presentation is the user interface tool provided to demonstrate the ‘oopps – looks like it was already there’ concept to the owner or customer. The round thumbnail portholes represent the 8-camera views, although 4-6 is more standard in the industry. Selecting one puts it on the big screen, so you can start hunting for that little door-ding the customer insists already existed at time of rental. The capture tool enables you to create a snap-shot of the damage so you can save it, e-mail it or turn it into a follow-up post-card for the customer.
 
 
 
The tubular structure shown below is our minimal rendition of a drive-thru lane set-up, which uses LPR (license plate recognition) to tag the vehicle passing thru at up to 75mph … well, 25mph if you are looking for sharp and not blurry images to go along with your plate. The software governing this process has a user interface that allows you (yes, you) to adjust the frame/second capture rate, to please your desire to end up with a few, many or lots of images per vehicle from every angle. This may be a good solution to track your vehicle movements between lots.
 
 
 
TunnelVision, as we have cleverly named the design shown below, serves to keep weather outside for a more optimal image quality. It too contains all the guts and glory of the other systems and can function as a stop-and-scan or a drive-thru device tagged by LPR. These are highly recommended for outdoor applications that have nothing but air between the vehicle and the clouds.