Method for Producing a Digital Photo Wherein at Least Some of the Pixels Comprise Position Information, and Such a Digital Photo

• US 20130141549A1
• Filed: 06/29/2011
• Published: 06/06/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2010
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: CycloMedia Technology B.V.
• Original Assignee: CycloMedia Technology B.V.
• Inventors: Beers, Bart, van den Heuvel, Franciscus
• Granted Patent: US 10,264,239 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/50
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/89 for mapping or imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 37/04 with cameras or projectors providing touching or overlapping fields of view
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/05 Geographic models
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/264 using the relative movement of objects in two video frames or fields

Abstract

Method for producing a digital photo comprising pixels, wherein at least some of the pixels comprise position information, the method comprising of: taking a photo with a known geometry of the optical system with which the photo is taken; recording the position from which the photo has been taken; recording the direction in which the photo has been taken; providing a three-dimensional model comprising points which are comprised by at least an outer surface of an object in the field of view of the position where the photo has been taken, wherein the points comprise position information; relating a pixel on the one hand and a corresponding point in the three-dimensional model on the other; and recording, in a manner associated with the pixel, the position information of the corresponding pixel.

Claims

1. A method for producing a digital photo comprising pixels, wherein at least one of the pixels comprise position information, the method comprising:

taking a photo with a known geometry of the optical system with which the photo is taken;

recording the position from which the photo has been taken;

recording the direction in which the photo has been taken;

providing a three-dimensional model comprising points which are comprised by at least an outer surface of an object in the field of view of the position where the photo has been taken, wherein the points comprise position information;

relating a pixel on the one hand and a corresponding point in the three-dimensional model on the other; and

recording, in a manner associated with the pixel, the position information of the corresponding pixel.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating the three-dimensional model by means of a LIDAR device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

extracting an object characteristic from the photo;

extracting an object characteristic from the three-dimensional model;

determining a corresponding pair of an object characteristic from the photo and an object characteristic from the three-dimensional model;

determining a relative position error between the photo and the three-dimensional model by determining the distance between the position of an object characteristic in the photo and a corresponding object characteristic from the three-dimensional model; and

correcting the position data of the photo and/or the three-dimensional model on the basis of the relative position error.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein correcting the position data comprises correcting the position data of both the photo and the three-dimensional model on the basis of a weighting.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the weighting is determined by reliability information of the position determinations of the photo and/or the three-dimensional model.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the photo is taken from a vehicle while the vehicle is in motion.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the vehicle is a car.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the LIDAR device is arranged on a vehicle and wherein LIDAR data are collected while the vehicle is in motion.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the photo is taken from a vehicle other than the vehicle on which the LIDAR device is arranged.

17. The digital photo of claim 10 produced in accordance with the method of claim 1.

10. A digital photo comprising pixels, wherein each pixel comprises at least one light intensity and at least one of the pixels comprise position information.

11. The digital photo of claim 10, wherein the position information comprises a distance from the position from which the digital photo was taken.

12. The digital photo of claim 10, wherein the position information comprises a relative position in relation to the position from which the digital photo was taken.

13. The digital photo of claim 10, wherein the position information comprises a position relative to an external coordinate system.

14. The digital photo of claim 10, wherein the photo also comprises a reliability indicator for the position information.

15. The digital photo of claim 10, wherein the pixels comprise the light intensity for three color channels.

16. The digital photo of claim 10, wherein the photo comprises a field of vision of 360°

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