System and method for creating, storing, and utilizing composite images of a geographic location
DC CAFCFirst Claim
1. In a system including an image source and a user terminal having a screen and an input device, a method for enabling visual navigation of a geographic area from the user terminal, the method comprising:
- receiving a first user input specifying a first location in the geographic area;
retrieving from the image source a first image associated with the first location, the image source providing a plurality of images depicting views of objects in the geographic area, the views being substantially elevations of the objects in the geographic area, wherein the images are associated with image frames acquired by an image recording device moving along a trajectory;
receiving a second user input specifying a navigation direction relative to the first location in the geographic area;
determining a second location based on the user specified navigation direction; and
retrieving from the image source a second image associated with the second location.
1 Assignment
Litigations
0 Petitions
Reexamination
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method synthesizing images of a locale to generate a composite image that provide a panoramic view of the locale. A video camera moves along a street recording images of objects along the street. A GPS receiver and inertial navigation system provide the position of the camera as the images are being recorded. The images are indexed with the position data provided by the GPS receiver and inertial navigation system. The composite image is created on a column-by-column basis by determining which of the acquired images contains the desired pixel column, extracting the pixels associated with the column, and stacking the columns side by side. The composite images are stored in an image database and associated with a street name and number range of the street being depicted in the image. The image database covers a substantial amount of a geographic area allowing a user to visually navigate the area from a user terminal.
-
Citations
38 Claims
-
1. In a system including an image source and a user terminal having a screen and an input device, a method for enabling visual navigation of a geographic area from the user terminal, the method comprising:
-
receiving a first user input specifying a first location in the geographic area; retrieving from the image source a first image associated with the first location, the image source providing a plurality of images depicting views of objects in the geographic area, the views being substantially elevations of the objects in the geographic area, wherein the images are associated with image frames acquired by an image recording device moving along a trajectory; receiving a second user input specifying a navigation direction relative to the first location in the geographic area; determining a second location based on the user specified navigation direction; and retrieving from the image source a second image associated with the second location. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
-
-
19. In a system including an image source and a user terminal having a screen and an input device, a method for enabling visual navigation of a geographic area from the user terminal, the method comprising:
-
accessing a plurality of images from the image source, the images representing objects within the geographic area; identifying a current location in the geographic area; retrieving from the image source an image corresponding to the current location; monitoring a change of the current location in the geographic area; and retrieving from the image source an image corresponding to the changed location, wherein each retrieved image is a composite image created by processing a plurality of image frames acquired from an image recording device moving through the geographic area.
-
-
20. A system for enabling visual navigation of a geographic area from a user terminal, the system comprising:
-
means for accessing an image source providing a plurality of images depicting views of objects in the geographic area, the views being substantially elevations of the objects in the geographic area, wherein the images are associated with image frames acquired by an image recording device moving along a trajectory; means for receiving a first user input specifying a first location in the geographic area; means for retrieving from the image source a first image associated with the first location; means for receiving a second user input specifying a navigation direction relative to the first location in the geographic area; means for determining a second location based on the user specified navigation direction; and means for retrieving from the image source a second image associated with the second location. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
-
-
38. In a system including an image database and a user terminal having a screen and an input device, a method for enabling visual navigation of a geographic area from the user terminal, the method comprising:
-
receiving a first user input specifying a first location in the geographic area; retrieving from the image database a first set of image frames associated with the first location, the image database storing a plurality of image frames depicting views of objects in the geographic area, the views being substantially elevations of the objects in the geographic area, wherein the image frames are acquired by an image recording device moving along a trajectory; generating a first image of the first location based on the first set of image frames; receiving a second user input specifying a navigation direction relative to the first location in the geographic area; determining a second location based on the user specified navigation direction; retrieving from the image database a second set of image frames associated with the second location; and generating a second image of the second location based on the second set of image frames.
-
Specification