SEARCHABLE ELECTRONIC RECORDS OF UNDERGROUND FACILITY LOCATE MARKING OPERATIONS
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatus for generating a searchable electronic record of a locate operation in which a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility within a dig area may be identified using one or more physical locate marks. Source data representing one or more input images of a geographic area comprising the dig area is received and processed so as to display at least a portion of the input image(s) on a display device. One or more digital representations of the physical locate mark(s) applied to the dig area during the locate operation are added to the displayed input image(s) as “locate mark indicators” so as to generate a marked-up image. Information relating to the marked-up image is electronically transmitted and/or electronically stored so as to generate the searchable electronic record of the locate operation.
83 Citations
44 Claims
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1. (canceled)
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2. An apparatus for facilitating generation of an electronic manifest of at least one physical locate mark applied to a ground surface by a technician at an excavation site prior to excavation activities, the apparatus comprising:
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a communication interface; a display device; a memory to store processor-executable instructions; and a processing unit coupled to the communication interface, the display device, and the memory, wherein upon execution of the processor-executable instructions by the processing unit, the processing unit; controls the display device so as to display at least one photographic image of a geographic area including the excavation site, wherein the at least one photographic image comprises at least one of; a street level photographic image; a topographical image; a satellite image; and an aerial image; further controls the display device to add to the displayed at least one photographic image at least one digital representation of the at least one physical locate mark, the at least one physical locate mark applied to the ground surface at the excavation site by the technician to indicate a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility at the excavation site; further controls the display device to add to the photographic image offset information relating to a distance between the at least one physical locate mark and at least one landmark in the at least one photographic image, so as to generate a marked-up image including the at least one photographic image, the at least one digital representation of the at least one physical locate mark, and the offset information; and controls the communication interface and/or the memory to electronically transmit and/or electronically store information relating to the marked-up image so as to generate the electronic manifest. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method for generating an electronic manifest of at least one physical locate mark applied to a ground surface by a technician at an excavation site prior to excavation activities, the method comprising:
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A) displaying, on a display device, at least one photographic image of a geographic area including the excavation site, wherein the at least one photographic image comprises at least one of; a street level photographic image; a topographical image; a satellite image; and an aerial image; B) adding to the displayed at least one photographic image at least one digital representation of the at least one physical locate mark, the at least one physical locate mark applied to the ground surface at the excavation site by the technician to indicate a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility at the excavation site; C) further adding to the photographic image offset information relating to a distance between the at least one physical locate mark and at least one landmark in the at least one photographic image, so as to generate a marked-up image including the at least one photographic image, the at least one digital representation of the at least one physical locate mark, and the offset information; and D) electronically transmitting and/or electronically storing information relating to the marked-up image so as to generate the electronic manifest. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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43. At least one computer-readable storage device encoded with instructions that, when executed on at least one processing unit, perform a method for generating an electronic manifest of at least one physical locate mark applied to a ground surface by a technician at an excavation site prior to excavation activities, the method comprising:
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A) displaying, on a display device, at least one photographic image of a geographic area including the excavation site, wherein the at least one photographic image comprises at least one of; a street level photographic image; a topographical image; a satellite image; and an aerial image; B) adding to the displayed at least one photographic image at least one digital representation of the at least one physical locate mark, the at least one physical locate mark applied to the ground surface at the excavation site by the technician to indicate a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility at the excavation site; C) further adding to the photographic image offset information relating to a distance between the at least one physical locate mark and at least one landmark in the at least one photographic image, so as to generate a marked-up image including the at least one photographic image, the at least one digital representation of the at least one physical locate mark, and the offset information; and D) electronically transmitting and/or electronically storing information relating to the marked-up image so as to generate the electronic manifest.
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44. An apparatus for facilitating generation of an electronic manifest of at least one physical locate mark applied to a ground surface by a technician at an excavation site prior to excavation activities, the apparatus comprising:
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a communication interface; a display device; a memory to store processor-executable instructions; and a processing unit coupled to the communication interface, the display device, and the memory, wherein upon execution of the processor-executable instructions by the processing unit, the processing unit; controls the display device so as to display at least one input image of a geographic area including the excavation site; further controls the display device to add to the displayed at least one input image at least one digital representation of the at least one physical locate mark so as to generate a marked-up image including the at least one input image and the at least one digital representation of the at least one physical locate mark, the at least one physical locate mark applied to the ground surface at the excavation site to indicate a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility at the excavation site; and controls the communication interface and/or the memory to electronically transmit and/or electronically store information relating to the marked-up image so as to generate the electronic manifest.
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Specification