POINT CLOUD DATA HIERARCHY

• US 20140089834A1
• Filed: 03/07/2013
• Published: 03/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Willow Garage, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Willow Garage, Inc.
• Inventors: Marder-Eppstein, Eitan, Glaser, Stuart, Meeussen, Wim
• Application Number:
  US13/789,547
• Publication Number:
  US 20140089834A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/771
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2246 Trees, e.g. B+trees
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/20 Perspective computation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/005 Tree description, e.g. octree, quadtree
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/05 Geographic models
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/24 involving graphical user interfaces [GUIs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2210/36 Level of detail
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2210/56 Particle system, point based geometry or rendering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A system comprises a storage system comprising data representing a point cloud comprising a very large number of associated points; a controller operatively coupled to the storage cluster and configured to organize the data into an octree hierarchy of data sectors, each of which is representative of one or more of the points at a given octree mesh resolution; and a user interface through which a user may select a viewing perspective origin and vector, which may be utilized to command the controller to assemble an image based at least in part upon the selected origin and vector, the image comprising a plurality of data sectors pulled from the octree hierarchy, the plurality of data sectors being assembled such that sectors representative of points closer to the selected viewing origin have a higher octree mesh resolution than that of sectors representative of points farther away from the selected viewing origin.

Claims

1. A system for presenting multi-resolution views of a very large point data set, comprising:

a. a storage system comprising data representing a point cloud comprising a very large number of associated points;

b. a controller operatively coupled to the storage cluster and configured to organize the data into an octree hierarchy of data sectors, each of which is representative of one or more of the points at a given octree mesh resolution; and

c. a user interface through which a user may select a viewing perspective origin and vector, which may be utilized to command the controller to assemble an image based at least in part upon the selected origin and vector, the image comprising a plurality of data sectors pulled from the octree hierarchy, the plurality of data sectors being assembled such that sectors representative of points closer to the selected viewing origin have a higher octree mesh resolution than that of sectors representative of points farther away from the selected viewing origin.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage system comprises a storage cluster.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage system, controller, and user interface are interoperable using a network.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein at least one portion of the network is accessible to the internet.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface is generated by a computing system that houses the controller.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface is presented to the user within a web browser.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface is configured such that the user may adjust the selected origin and vector using an input device, causing the controller to assemble a new image based at least in part upon the adjusted origin and vector.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the very large number of associated points is greater than 1 billion points.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the point cloud has a uniform point pitch.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the point cloud has a point pitch that is less than about one meter.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the point cloud has a point pitch that is less than about 1 centimeter.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the point cloud represents data that has been collected based upon distance measurement scans of objects.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the point cloud represents at least one LIDAR scan.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the octree hierarchy of data sectors is configured such that an N level sector represents a centroid of points at the N+1 level below.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein each point is weighted equally in determining the centroid.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the points comprising the point cloud are not all weighted equally in determining the centroid.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to store data sectors of similar octree mesh resolution in similar accessibility configurations using the storage system.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the controller is configured to store data sectors of similar octree mesh resolution on a common storage device.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the controller is configured to store data sectors of similar octree mesh resolution such that they have similar retrieval latencies from the storage system.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the image comprises a gradient of octree mesh resolution data sectors in a direction outward from the selected viewing origin.