Systems and methods for collecting and providing map images

• US 8,164,599 B1
• Filed: 06/01/2011
• Issued: 04/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Kadous, Mohammed Waleed, Heywood, Russell
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Xiao M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Welch, David T
• Application Number:
  US13/150,478
• Time in Patent Office: 328 Days
• Field of Search: 345/629, 345/634, 382/113
• US Class Current: 345/634
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/367 Details, e.g. road map scale, orientation, zooming, illumination, level of detail, scrolling of road map or positioning of current position marker
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1614 Image rotation following screen orientation, e.g. switching from landscape to portrait mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1637 Sensing arrangement for detection of housing movement or orientation, e.g. for controlling scrolling or cursor movement on the display of an handheld computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/106 using electronic means
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/026 using orientation information, e.g. compass

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to collecting images of maps at plurality of client devices, orienting the images with respect to the Earth, and providing the oriented maps to users. The map images may be collected by users who orient the maps by arranging the position of the image over a picture of the Earth. In another example, users may orient the maps by using “pushpins” to indicate the location of two or more points in the map image to two or more locations on the image of the Earth. The images may be processed in order to generate high quality images which may then be downloaded and used by other users.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

capturing an image of a map using a camera;

associating the image with a geographic location;

identifying, by a processor, an image of the Earth based on the geographic location;

displaying the image of the map and the image of the Earth on a display of a client device such that the image of the map is proximate to the image of the Earth on the display;

determining, by the processor, an orientation of the displayed image of the map with respect to the displayed image of the Earth based on information input into the client device by a user including the selection of a first set of corresponding locations between the image of the map and the image of the Earth and the selection of a second set of corresponding locations between the image of the map and the image of the Earth without requiring the user to visit multiple locations in the map image;

generating, by the processor, an oriented map image based on the orientation;

receiving information from a geographic positioning component of the client device;

subsequent to determining the orientation and receiving the information from the geographic positioning component, refining the orientation of the oriented map image by using a set of images identified based on both the orientation and the information received from the geographic positioning component, without requiring the user to visit multiple locations in the map image;

transmitting the oriented map image to a server; and

transmitting the first set of corresponding locations and the second set of corresponding locations to the server.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising;

transmitting a request for a map image to the server computer, the request including a geographic location;

receiving a second oriented map image from the server; and

displaying the second oriented map image on a display of the client device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein displaying the second oriented map image on a display of the client device includes:

displaying a list of available maps;

receiving a user selected available map of the list of available maps; and

displaying the user selected available map as the oriented map image.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the second oriented map image received from the server is in vector form and the oriented map image transmitted to the server is not in vector form.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the image of the Earth is a satellite image of the area surrounding the geographic location.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the image of the Earth is a street map of the area surrounding the geographic location.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein determining the orientation of the displayed image of the map includes overlaying the image of the map on the image of the Earth and the method further includes enabling rotation of the image of the map with respect to the image of the Earth until a desired orientation is reached, and wherein the information received by the client device includes the identity of the desired orientation.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the rotation is configured to be performed by rotating the client device while maintaining the location of either the image of the map or the image of the Earth with respect to the display of the client device based on information received from an orientation apparatus of the client device.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the rotation is configured to be performed by dragging a point on the map image using a touch screen of the client device.

7. A computer-implemented method comprising:

capturing an image of a map using a camera;

associating the image with a geographic location;

identifying, by a processor, an image of the Earth based on the geographic location;

displaying the image of the map and the image of the Earth on a display of a client device;

determining, by the processor, an orientation of the displayed image of the map with respect to the displayed image of the Earth based on information input into the client device by a user without requiring the user to visit multiple locations in the map image;

generating, by the processor, an oriented map image based on the orientation;

receiving information from a geographic positioning component of the client device;

subsequent to determining the orientation and receiving the information from the geographic positioning component, refining the orientation of the oriented map image based on both the orientation and the information received from the geographic positioning component without requiring the user to visit multiple locations in the map image;

transmitting the refined orientation to the server computer; and

transmitting the oriented map image to a server.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein identifying the image of the Earth based on the geographic location includes:

transmitting a request to the server for an image of the Earth, the request including the geographic location; and

receiving the image of the Earth from the server.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein identifying the image of the Earth based on the geographic location includes retrieving the image of the Earth from local memory of the client device based on the geographic location.

13. The method of claim 7, further comprising;

transmitting a request for a map image to the server computer, the request including a geographic location;

receiving a second oriented map image from the server; and

displaying the second oriented map image on a display of the client device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein displaying the second oriented map image on a display of the client device includes:

displaying a list of available maps;

receiving a user selected available map of the list of available maps; and

displaying the user selected available map as the second oriented map image.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the second oriented map image received from the server is in vector form and the oriented map image transmitted to the server is not in vector form.

16. A computer-implemented method comprising:

capturing an image of a map using a camera;

associating the image with a geographic location;

identifying, by a processor, an image of the Earth based on the geographic location;

displaying the image of the map and the image of the Earth on a display of a client device;

determining, by the processor, an orientation of the displayed image of the map with respect to the displayed image of the Earth based on information input into the client device by a user without requiring the user of the client device to visit multiple locations in the map image;

generating, by the processor, an oriented map image based on the orientation;

transmitting the oriented map image to a server, wherein the oriented map image is contributed by the user of the client device;

transmitting a request for information to the server identifying the user of the client device; and

receiving, in response to the request, statistics regarding a number of users which have viewed a processed version of the oriented map image contributed by the user of the client device.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising receiving annotation information regarding the oriented map image.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

generating orientation information based on information received from a geographic positioning component of the client device;

refining the orientation of the oriented map image based on both the orientation and the information received from the geographic positioning component; and

transmitting the refined orientation to the server computer.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising;

transmitting a request for a map image to the server computer, the request including a geographic location;

receiving a second oriented map image from the server;

displaying the second oriented map image on a display of the client device; and

wherein the second oriented map image received from the server is in vector form and the oriented map image transmitted to the server is not in vector form.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein orienting the image of the map includes:

displaying the image of the map proximate to the image of the Earth on the display;

the information input into the client device by the user includes the selection of a first set of corresponding locations between the image of the map and the image of the Earth and the selection of a first set of corresponding locations between the image of the map and the image of the Earth; and

transmitting the first set of corresponding locations and the second set of corresponding locations to the server.