Using Geographic Coordinates On A Digital Image Of A Physical Map

• US 20150154773A1
• Filed: 01/09/2013
• Published: 06/04/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Cosenza, Roberto, Zanolin, Luca
• Application Number:
  US13/737,187
• Publication Number:
  US 20150154773A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for using geographic coordinates on a physical map. The system may include a mobile device having a processor and a display, where the processor receives a first input that instructs a camera to capture a digital image of a physical map. The mobile device may then display the digital image of the physical map. The mobile device may further receive a second input from a user interface, where the second input identifies a first location on the digital image of the physical map. The first location may be associated with an image pixel coordinate, and the mobile device may obtain a geographic coordinate based on this image pixel coordinate. The mobile device may then determine a transformation matrix based on the image pixel and geographic coordinates. Using the determined transformation matrix, the mobile device may determine further image pixel coordinates based on received geographic coordinates.

Claims

1. An apparatus for aligning geographic coordinates on a digital image of a physical map, the apparatus comprising:

a display device configured to display a digital image of a physical map;

a computer-readable memory that stores;

the digital image of the physical map; and

a transformation matrix that establishes a relationship between a first image coordinate and a first geographic coordinate, wherein the first image coordinate corresponds to a pixel on the digital image of the physical map and the first geographic coordinate corresponds to a geographical location of a mobile device; and

a processor in communication with the computer-readable memory, the processor configured to;

display the digital image of the physical map on the display device;

receive input from a user interface, the input identifying a first location on the displayed digital image, the first location being associated with the first image coordinate;

obtain the first geographic coordinate, the first geographic coordinate being associated with the first image coordinate of the displayed digital image;

determine a transformation matrix that establishes a relationship between the first image coordinate and the first geographic coordinate; and

display a graphical element at a second location on the digital image, wherein;

the graphical element identifies the geographical location of the mobile device; and

the graphical element is associated with a second image coordinate and a second geographic coordinate, the second image coordinate being determined based on the transformation matrix and the second geographic coordinate.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

an image capturing device configured to capture the digital image of the physical map;

wherein the apparatus is further configured to receive additional input that instructs the image capturing device to capture the digital image of the physical map.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the first image coordinate comprises a plurality of coordinates; and

the transformation matrix comprises a plurality of rows, each row corresponding to one of the plurality of coordinates.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the transformation matrix is determined based on the equation:

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the processor is further configured to receive a plurality of additional inputs from the user interface, wherein each of the plurality of additional inputs is associated with a different location on the digital image of the physical map and a different coordinate corresponding to each different location; and

the processor determines the transformation matrix based on the plurality of inputs from the user interface.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the processor determines the transformation matrix after the plurality of inputs equals or exceeds a predetermined number of inputs.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:

receive additional input from the user interface, the additional input identifying a third location on the displayed image of the physical map, wherein the third location is associated with a third geographic coordinate; and

re-determine the transformation matrix based on the first image coordinate and the third geographic coordinate.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the third location comprises a different geographic location than the first geographic location.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving additional input from the user interface, the additional input identifying a third location on the displayed image of the physical map, wherein the third location is associated with a third geographic coordinate; and

re-determining the transformation matrix based on the first image coordinate and the third geographic coordinate.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the third location comprises a different geographical location than the first location.

9. A method for aligning geographic coordinates to user-selected coordinates on a digital image of a physical map, the method comprising:

displaying, on a display in communication with a processor, a digital image of a physical map;

receiving a first input from a user interface in communication with the processor, the first input identifying a first location on the digital image of the physical map, wherein the first location is associated with a first image coordinate;

obtaining a first geographic coordinate corresponding to the first image coordinate;

determining, with the processor, a transformation matrix based on the first image coordinate and the first geographic coordinate, the transformation matrix establishing a relationship between the first image coordinate and the first geographic coordinate;

displaying, on the display, a graphical element at a second location on the digital image of the physical map, the graphical element associated with a second image coordinate and a second geographic coordinate, the second image coordinate determined based on the transformation matrix and the second geographic coordinate.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first image coordinate and the first geographic coordinate are different coordinate types.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first image coordinate comprises a plurality of digital image pixels and the second geographic coordinate comprises a plurality of geographic coordinates.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving, with the processor, a second input that instructs an image capturing device to capture the digital image of the physical map; and

capturing, with the image capturing device, the digital image of the physical map.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein:

the first image coordinate comprises a plurality of coordinates; and

the transformation matrix comprises a plurality of rows based on the number of coordinates in the plurality of coordinates.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the transformation matrix is determined based on the equation:

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving a plurality of inputs from the user interface, wherein each input of the plurality of inputs is associated with a different location on the digital image of the physical map and a different coordinate corresponding to each different location; and

wherein;

determining the transformation matrix based on the first image coordinate comprises determining the transformation matrix based on the plurality of inputs from the user interface.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the transformation matrix is determined after the plurality of inputs equals or exceeds a predetermined number of inputs.