Photo survey service system

• US 20020146164A1
• Filed: 05/22/2001
• Published: 10/10/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tobishima Corporation
• Original Assignee: Tobishima Corporation
• Inventors: Matsumoto, Kazunobu, Kobayashi, Kaoru, Nakahara, Hirotaka, Kumagai, Kouki, Tsutsui, Masayuki, Chikahisa, Hiroshi
• Granted Patent: US 7,023,468 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/154
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 11/02 Picture taking arrangements specially adapted for photogrammetry or photographic surveying, e.g. controlling overlapping of pictures

Abstract

The photo survey service system of the invention comprises an image information receiving means 12 for receiving image information from customer'"'"'s terminal equipment 8 via a telecommunication circuit network 10, which image information is obtained by taking photographs of an area 4 under survey having a plurality of stations 2-1, 2-2, . . . 2-n from a plurality of points using a digital camera 6 at a fixed focal length, an analysis processing means 14 which uses computation processing to calculate a three-dimensional vector relation of each station from the received image information on the basis of a difference in parallax between both images of adjacent photographing points, and an analytical result transmitting means 16 for transmitting information on the calculated three-dimensional vector relation of each station to the customer'"'"'s terminal equipment 8 via the telecommunication circuit network 10.

Claims

1. A photo survey service system comprising:

an image information receiving means 12 for receiving image information from customer'"'"'s terminal equipment 8 via a telecommunication circuit network 10, said image information being obtained by taking photographs of an area 4 under survey having a plurality of stations 2-1, 2-2, . . . 2-n from a plurality of points using a digital camera 6 at a fixed focal length,

an analysis processing means 14 which uses computation processing to calculate a three-dimensional vector relation of each station from the received image information on the basis of a difference in parallax between both images of adjacent photographing points, and

an analytical result transmitting means 16 for transmitting information on the calculated three-dimensional vector relation of each station to the customer'"'"'s terminal equipment 8 via the telecommunication circuit network 10.

3. The photo survey service system according to claim 1 or 2, which further includes a graphic processing means 18 for performing graphic processing on the basis of information concerning the three-dimensional vector relation or position of each station calculated by said analysis processing means 14, and wherein said analytical result transmitting means 16 is operable to transmit, in addition to the information concerning the calculated three-dimensional vector relation or position of each station, graphic information obtained from said graphic processing means to the customers terminal equipment 8 via the telecommunication circuit network 10.

4. The photo survey service system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, which further includes:

an estimate condition input means 24 for receiving entry of at least information concerning the number of photographs and the total number of stations that are conditions for photo surveying and an output form of photo survey results from terminal equipment 20 for a person or customer gaining access to a generally browsable web site on the Internet 22,

an estimate display means 26 for calculating an estimate for photo surveying on the basis of the entered conditions and displaying said estimate on a browsable screen of the terminal equipment 20 for said access person,

an order intake means 28 for receiving, in a screen, entry of information for identification of said access person including her or his e-mail address and information for confirmation of an order, and for receiving an order under the entered conditions upon entry of said information by the terminal equipment 20 for said person via the Internet 22, and

a means 30 for instructing how to photograph whereby, when said order is received, a text file containing information about how to take survey photographs under said entered conditions is e-mailed to the terminal equipment 20 on the access person side via the Internet 22.

5. The photo survey service system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, which comprises, in addition to said analysis processing means 14 or said analysis processing means 14 and said graphic processing means 18,

an analyzer data base 32 wherein e-mail addresses of analyzers having the necessary analyzing expertise and information concerning their analyzing capabilities are registered,

an analyzer retrieval means 34 for performing matching for the photographing conditions for an image received by said image information receiving means 12 and the information concerning the analyzing capabilities registered in said data base 32 to find the best analyzer from said data base 32,

an analytical result transmitting means 34 for e-mailing the image information received by said image information receiving means 12 to terminal equipment 34 for the thus found analyzer via the Internet 22, and

an analytical result receiving means 40 for receiving, in addition to information on the three-dimensional vector relation and/or position of each station calculated by the analysis processing means 14 on the thus found analyzer side, graphic information subjected to graphic processing by said graphic processing means 18 from the terminal equipment 36 on the thus found analyzer side via the Internet 22.

2. A photo survey service system comprising:

an image information receiving means 12 for receiving image information obtained by taking photographs of an area 4 under survey having a plurality of stations 2-1, 2-2, . . . 2-n from a plurality of points using a digital camera 6 at a fixed focal length and length information in the area 4 under survey from customer'"'"'s terminal equipment 8 via a telecommunication circuit network 10,

an analysis processing means 14 which uses computation processing to calculate a three-dimensional position of each station from the received image information and the received length information in the area 4 under survey on the basis of a difference in parallax between both images of adjacent photographing points, and

an analytical result transmitting means 16 for transmitting information on the calculated three-dimensional position of each station to the customer'"'"'s terminal equipment 8 via the telecommunication circuit network 10.