Virtual white lines for indicating planned excavation sites on electronic images
First Claim
1. A method for facilitating detection of a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility within a dig area, wherein at least a portion of the dig area may be excavated or disturbed during excavation activities, the method comprising:
- A) electronically receiving, at a first user location remote from the dig area, source data representing at least one input image of a geographic area including the dig area;
B) processing the source data so as to display at least a portion of the at least one input image on a display device at the first user location remote from the dig area;
C) in advance of the excavation activities and at the first user location remote from the dig area, sketching environmental landmarks or virtual white lines, via a user input device and a drawing application associated with the display device, on the displayed at least one input image to precisely identify boundaries of the dig area, so as to generate a marked-up digital image including the environmental landmarks or the virtual white lines to delimit the dig area; and
D) electronically transmitting and/or electronically storing information relating to the marked-up digital image so as to facilitate the detection of the presence or the absence of the at least one underground facility within the dig area.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatus for facilitating detection of a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility within a dig area. Source data representing one or more input images of a geographic area including the dig area is electronically received at a first user location, which may be remote from the dig area. The source data is processed so as to display at least a portion of the input image(s) on a display device at the first user location. One or more indicators are added to the displayed input image(s), via a user input device associated with the display device, to provide at least one indication of the dig area and thereby generate a marked-up digital image. In one example, the indicator(s) is/are added to the displayed input image(s) without acquiring geographic coordinates corresponding to the indicator(s).
263 Citations
60 Claims
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1. A method for facilitating detection of a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility within a dig area, wherein at least a portion of the dig area may be excavated or disturbed during excavation activities, the method comprising:
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A) electronically receiving, at a first user location remote from the dig area, source data representing at least one input image of a geographic area including the dig area; B) processing the source data so as to display at least a portion of the at least one input image on a display device at the first user location remote from the dig area; C) in advance of the excavation activities and at the first user location remote from the dig area, sketching environmental landmarks or virtual white lines, via a user input device and a drawing application associated with the display device, on the displayed at least one input image to precisely identify boundaries of the dig area, so as to generate a marked-up digital image including the environmental landmarks or the virtual white lines to delimit the dig area; and D) electronically transmitting and/or electronically storing information relating to the marked-up digital image so as to facilitate the detection of the presence or the absence of the at least one underground facility within the dig area. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed on at least one processing unit, perform a method for facilitating detection of a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility within a dig area, wherein at least a portion of the dig area may be excavated or disturbed during excavation activities, the method comprising:
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A) electronically receiving, at a first user location remote from the dig area, source data representing at least one input image of a geographic area including the dig area; B) processing the source data so as to display at least a portion of the at least one input image on a display device at the first user location remote from the dig area; C) in advance of the excavation activities and at the first user location remote from the dig area, receiving user input, via a user input device and a drawing application associated with the display device, the user input representative of sketching environmental landmarks or virtual white lines to delimit the dig area on the displayed at least one input image; D) generating a marked-up digital image based on the displayed input image, the marked-up digital image including the environmental landmarks or the virtual white lines to precisely identify boundaries of the dig area based on the user input; and E) electronically transmitting and/or electronically storing information relating to the marked-up digital image so as to facilitate the detection of the presence or the absence of the at least one underground facility within the dig area. - View Dependent Claims (47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60)
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17. A method for facilitating detection of a presence or an absence of at least on underground facility within a dig area, wherein at least a portion of the dig area may be excavated or disturbed during excavation activities, the method comprising:
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A) electronically receiving source data representing at least one input image of a geographic area including the dig area; B) processing the source data so as to display at least a portion of the at least one input image on a display device; C) in advance of the excavation activities, sketching environmental landmarks or virtual white lines, via a user input device and a drawing application associated with the display device, on the displayed at least one input image to delimit the dig area and thereby generate a make-up digital image, wherein C) is performed without acquiring geographic coordinates corresponding to the environmental landmarks or the virtual white lines; and D) electronically transmitting and/or electronically storing information relating to the marked-up digital image so as to facilitate the detection of the presence or the absence of the at least one underground facility within the dig area. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. At least one non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by at least one processing unit, perform a method for facilitating detection of a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility within a dig area, wherein at least a portion of the dig area may be excavated or disturbed during excavation activities, the method comprising:
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A) electronically receiving source data representing at least one input image of a geographic area including the dig area; B) processing the source data so as to display at least a portion of the at least one input image on a display device; C) in advance of the excavation activities, receiving user input, via a user input device and a drawing application associated with the display device, the user input representative of sketching environmental landmarks or virtual white lines to delimit the dig area on the displayed at least one input image; D) adding, based on the user input, the environmental landmarks or the virtual white lines to the displayed at least one input image to delimit the dig area and thereby generate a marked-up digital image, wherein D) is performed without acquiring geographic coordinates corresponding to the environmental landmarks or the virtual white lines; and E) electronically transmitting and/or electronically storing information relating to the marked-up digital image so as to facilitate the detection of the presence or the absence of the at least one underground facility within the dig area. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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Specification