Systems and methods for estimation of building floor area

• US 8,774,525 B2
• Filed: 02/01/2013
• Issued: 07/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: EagleView Technologies Incorporated (Eagleview Technologies, Inc. /Wa/)
• Original Assignee: EagleView Technologies Incorporated (Eagleview Technologies, Inc. /Wa/)
• Inventors: Pershing, Chris
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Jayesh A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kholdebarin, Iman K
• Application Number:
  US13/757,712
• Publication Number:
  US 20130346020A1
• Time in Patent Office: 522 Days
• Field of Search: 382/106, 382/199
• US Class Current: 382/199
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 21/28 for measuring areas
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/16 Real estate

Abstract

A system generates an estimated floor area measurement of a building based on the calculated estimated total roof area of the roof of the building. This is based on a correlation between the size of the building roof and the size of the building. Typically, the floor area of a single full floor of the building is roughly the size of the roof of the building if the roof were flat with no slope. This in effect is turning the roof into a floor to generate estimated floor area. With additional adjustments to area measurements to account for multiple floors, roof overhang, wall width, internal building features such as walls and staircases, and/or obstructed views of the building in the aerial image(s), etc., an even more accurate floor area estimation may be generated.

Claims

1. A computing system for generating an estimated floor area measurement, the computing system comprising:

a memory;

a floor area measurement estimation module that is stored on the memory and that is configured, when executed, to;

receive roof edge measurements of a building having a roof;

generate, based at least in part on the received roof edge measurements, an estimated floor area measurement of the building;

adjust the estimated floor area measurement of the building to obtain adjusted roof edge measurements by at least one of;

subtract an amount from one or more of the roof edge measurements corresponding to an estimated roof overhang over one or more walls of the building;

subtract an amount from one or more of the adjusted roof edge measurements corresponding to an estimated wall width; and

subtract floor area spaces of the building that are not to be included in the estimated floor area measurement of the building, the floor area spaces of the building that are not to be included being received by the system; and

output a floor area measurement report having floor area data thereon.

2. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the roof edge measurements of the building are based on at least one aerial image of the building.

3. The computing system of claim 2 wherein the at least one aerial image of the building includes a first and a second aerial image of the building on which the roof measurements are based, the first aerial image representing a substantially orthogonal view of the top of the building and the second aerial image of the building representing a view from a different angle than the substantially orthogonal view of the top of the building.

4. The computing system of claim 3 wherein the floor area measurement estimation module is configured to generate, based at least in part on the received roof measurements, an estimated floor area measurement of the building by:

determining how many stories the building has using the second aerial image of the building representing a view from a different angle than the substantially orthogonal view of the top of the building.

5. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the roof edge measurements include at least one of:

one or more roof edge dimensions of the roof, areas of a plurality of planar roof sections of the roof, and slopes of the plurality of planar roof sections of the roof.

6. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the floor area measurement estimation module is further configured to generate and deliver a floor area measurement estimate report that includes one or more aerial images of the building annotated with numerical values that indicate the corresponding estimated floor area measurement.

7. The computing system of claim 6 wherein the floor area measurement estimation module is further configured to generate and deliver a floor area measurement estimate report that is annotated with a floor area measurement and one or more of:

slope, area, and length of edges of at least some of a plurality of planar roof sections of the roof.

8. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the floor area measurement estimation module is further configured to deliver the floor area measurement estimate as part of a report including a plurality of floor area measurement estimates for a plurality of buildings in response to a request for a plurality of estimates from a single entity.

9. A computer-implemented method for generating an estimated floor area measurement, the method comprising:

calculating roof edge measurements of a roof of a building with each section of the roof being set to a slope of zero, without regard to an actual slope of each section of the roof;

using the roof edge measurements to calculate an estimated total roof area of the roof with the slope of each section of the roof being set to zero;

generating the estimated floor area measurement based on the calculated estimated total roof area of the roof, with the slope of each roof section set to zero, by at least one of;

receiving information pertaining to how many stories the building has and about one or more sections of the roof below which one or more of the stories laterally extends, and generating the estimated floor area measurement based on a total area of the one or more sections of the roof under which the one or more of the stories laterally extends and based on the estimated total roof area of the roof; and

receiving information pertaining to floor area spaces of the building that are not to be included in the estimated floor area measurement of the building, and generating the estimated floor area measurement based on an area corresponding to an extent to which the spaces extend under the roof.

17. The method of claim 9 wherein the roof edge measurements of the building are based on at least one aerial image of the building.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the at least one aerial image of the building includes a first and a second aerial image of the building on which the roof measurements are based, the first aerial image representing a substantially orthogonal view of the top of the building and the second aerial image of the building representing a view from a different angle than the substantially orthogonal view of the top of the building.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium whose contents enable a computing system to generate an estimated floor area measurement, by performing a method comprising:

receiving a first and a second aerial image of a building having a roof, each of the aerial images providing a different view of the roof of the building;

correlating the first aerial image with the second aerial image;

generating, based at least in part on the correlation between the first and second aerial images, a three-dimensional model of the roof that includes a plurality of planar roof

sections that each have a corresponding slope, area, and edges;

generating an adjusted roof model by adjusting a slope of the planar roof sections in the three dimensional model of the roof to substantially zero;

obtaining an estimated total roof area measurement based on the adjusted model;

generating, based at least in part on the estimated total roof area measurement, an estimated floor area measurement of the building; and

adjusting the estimated floor area measurement of the building to obtain adjusted roof edge measurements by at least one of;

subtracting an amount from one or more of the roof edge measurements corresponding to an estimated roof overhang over one or more walls of the building;

subtracting

an amount from one or more of the adjusted roof edge measurements corresponding to an

estimated wall width; and

subtracting floor area spaces of the building that are not to be included in the estimated floor area measurement of the building, the floor area spaces of the building that are not to be included being received by the system.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the contents further enable outputting a floor area measurement report having floor area data thereon.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the contents further enable delivering, by a computing system, the estimated floor area in response to a request.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the roof edge measurements of the building are based on at least one aerial image of the building.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the at least one aerial image of the building includes a first and a second aerial image of the building on which the roof measurements are based, the first aerial image representing a substantially orthogonal view of the top of the building and the second aerial image of the building representing a view from a different angle than the substantially orthogonal view of the top of the building.

13. A computer-implemented method for generating an estimated floor area measurement, the method comprising:

receiving roof edge measurements of a building having a roof;

generating, based at least in part on the received roof edge measurements, an estimated floor area measurement of the building;

adjusting the estimated floor area measurement of the building to obtain adjusted roof edge measurements by at least one of;

subtracting an amount from one or more of the roof edge measurements corresponding to an estimated roof overhang over one or more walls of the building;

subtracting an amount from one or more of the adjusted roof edge measurements corresponding to an estimated wall width; and

subtracting floor area spaces of the building that are not to be included in the estimated floor area measurement of the building, the floor area spaces of the building that are not to be included being received by the system.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

outputting a floor area measurement report having floor area data thereon.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the roof edge measurements of the building are based on at least one aerial image of the building.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the at least one aerial image of the building includes a first and a second aerial image of the building on which the roof measurements are based, the first aerial image representing a substantially orthogonal view of the top of the building and the second aerial image of the building representing a view from a different angle than the substantially orthogonal view of the top of the building.