Method and apparatus for capturing, geolocating and measuring oblique images
DCFirst Claim
1. A computerized system for displaying, geolocating, and making measurements based upon captured oblique images, comprising:
- a computer system having a memory;
an image and data file accessible by said system and including a plurality of image files corresponding to a plurality of captured oblique images, said image and data file further including positional data corresponding to said plurality of image files;
a ground plane data file representing a tessellated ground plane, said ground plane data file accessible by said computer system, said ground plane data file representing a tessellated ground plane that closely approximates at least a portion of the terrain depicted within said captured oblique images, said tessellated ground plane further comprising a plurality of interconnected facets with the size of the facets defined using a uniform number of pixels in the captured oblique images; and
image display and analysis software executed by said system for reading said image and data file and displaying at least a portion of the captured oblique images as a displayed oblique image, said software calculating the geo-location of one or more selected points within said displayed image, said software calculating a separation distance between any two or more selected points within said displayed image.
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Abstract
A computerized system for displaying, geolocating, and taking measurements from captured oblique images includes a data file accessible by the computer system. The data file includes a plurality of image files corresponding to a plurality of captured oblique images, and positional data corresponding to the images. Image display and analysis software is executed by the system for reading the data file and displaying at least a portion of the captured oblique images. The software retrieves the positional data for one or more user-selected points on the displayed image, and calculates a separation distance between any two or more selected points. The separation distance calculation is user-selectable to determine various parameters including linear distance between, area encompassed within, relative elevation of, and height difference between selected points.
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Citations
42 Claims
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1. A computerized system for displaying, geolocating, and making measurements based upon captured oblique images, comprising:
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a computer system having a memory; an image and data file accessible by said system and including a plurality of image files corresponding to a plurality of captured oblique images, said image and data file further including positional data corresponding to said plurality of image files; a ground plane data file representing a tessellated ground plane, said ground plane data file accessible by said computer system, said ground plane data file representing a tessellated ground plane that closely approximates at least a portion of the terrain depicted within said captured oblique images, said tessellated ground plane further comprising a plurality of interconnected facets with the size of the facets defined using a uniform number of pixels in the captured oblique images; and image display and analysis software executed by said system for reading said image and data file and displaying at least a portion of the captured oblique images as a displayed oblique image, said software calculating the geo-location of one or more selected points within said displayed image, said software calculating a separation distance between any two or more selected points within said displayed image. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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12. A computerized method for taking measurements within a displayed oblique image, comprising:
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selecting with an input device a starting point and an end point on the displayed image; retrieving from a data file positional data corresponding to said starting point and said end point; referencing a ground plane data file corresponding to a tessellated ground plane having a plurality of facets, each of said facets having a respective pitch and slope, said tessellated ground plane closely matching a terrain of said displayed oblique image; connecting said starting and end points with line segments, said line segments conforming to said pitch and slope of said facets to thereby follow said terrain; and calculating the linear distance along said line segments between said starting and end points thereby taking into account said pitch and slope of said facets. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A computerized method for taking measurements from an oblique image displayed on a computer system, at least one input device connected to said computer system, an image data file accessible by said computer system, said image data file including captured images and positional data corresponding thereto, said computerized method comprising:
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placing the computer system into a desired one of a plurality of measurement modes, the desired measurement mode configured for calculating a desired measurement; selecting a starting point on the displayed image; retrieving the positional data corresponding to said starting point; selecting an end point on the displayed image; retrieving the positional data corresponding to said end point; and calculating the desired measurement dependent at least in part upon said positional data of said starting and end points; wherein said plurality of measurement modes comprise a distance measuring mode calculating a distance between two or more selected points, a height measuring mode calculating a height difference between two or more selected points, a relative elevation measurement mode calculating the difference in elevation of two or more selected points, and an area measurement mode calculating the area encompassed by at least three points. - View Dependent Claims (18)
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19. A method of capturing oblique images of an area of interest with an image-capturing device carried by a platform, each oblique image captured at a respective image-capturing event, said method comprising:
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subdividing the area of interest into a plurality of sectors;
guiding the platform along a first path to thereby target one or more target sectors with the image-capturing device;capturing with the image-capturing device one or more oblique images to thereby cover an entirety of each said target sector in oblique images captured from a first perspective; guiding the platform along a second path to thereby target said target sectors;
capturing with the image-capturing device one or more oblique images to thereby cover an entirety of each said target sector in oblique images captured from a second perspective;repeating said guiding and capturing steps along paths substantially parallel to and spaced apart from said first and second paths and capturing one or more oblique images to thereby cover an entirety of each of said plurality of sectors in oblique images captured from each of said first and second perspectives; and recording positional data indicative of a geo-location of said image-capturing device at each image-capturing event. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification