System and method for calculating tolerance zones for utility assets

• US 9,619,573 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2014
• Issued: 04/11/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Prostar Geocorp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Prostar Geocorp, Inc.
• Inventors: Tucker, Nelson Page, Colby, Daniel Edward, Forster, Peter James Lynch, Slusarenko, William Steven
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Taelor
• Assistant Examiner(s): Raab, Christopher J
• Application Number:
  US14/211,908
• Publication Number:
  US 20140280277A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,124 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 Ensuring data consistency and integrity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries

Abstract

Method for calculating tolerance zones for utility assets includes: receiving data about a point, a line, or an area related to a location of an utility asset in a region; receiving information about said utility asset in the region from one or more databases, wherein the received information includes two or more of a type of the utility asset, a location of the utility asset, an accuracy of the location of the utility asset, accuracy requirements for the utility asset, accuracy requirements for the region, and a map tile accuracy; calculating a tolerance zone for said utility asset in the region based on the accuracy requirements for the utility asset and one or more of said accuracy of the location of the utility asset, accuracy requirements for the region, and the map tile accuracy; and transmitting the tolerance zone to a remote device.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for calculating tolerance zones for utility assets, the method comprising:

receiving data about a point, a line, or an area related to a location of a utility asset in a region;

receiving information about said utility asset in the region from one or more databases, wherein the received information includes a type of the utility asset, a location of the utility asset, an accuracy of the location of the utility asset, accuracy requirements for the utility asset, accuracy requirements for the region, and a map tile accuracy;

calculating a tolerance zone for said utility asset in the region based on the accuracy requirements for the utility asset and the map tile accuracy; and

transmitting the tolerance zone to a remote device, wherein the tolerance zone is calculated from an aggregate accuracy (GPVA) and a map visual accuracy mean (MVAM) as follows;

GPVA=√

(MTa1)²+(GPSa1)²

where MTa1 represents an associated map tile accuracy value for a visible map tile, and GPSa1 represents an associated GPS point accuracy value for a visible GPS point; and

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising publishing the tolerance zone on a digital map as a vector or tiled image halo surrounding a geospatial map feature.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said data about a point, a line, or an area is received from a mobile device, by marking a point or drawing a line using a cursor or touch screen on a map displayed on the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the tolerance zone in two and three dimensional views.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising rendering the tolerance zone on a digital map to represent a calculated distance of spatial data accuracy and to visually represent differing quality levels between multiple data sources with differing accuracies.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the tolerance zone to generate a warning for a mobile device or a digging equipment, when the mobile device or the digging equipment is within or close to the tolerance zone.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the tolerance zone with a given standard or guideline for data quality levels for collection and depiction of the information about the utility asset to provide an aggregated view when displaying the information about the utility asset.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the tolerance zone with pedigree data, including who collected the data, what data was collected, why the data was collected, where the data was collected, when the data was collected, and how the data was collected.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the tolerance zone with precision attributes, including instrumentation readings and settings required to calculate precision from data collection devices.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting a child object to be associated to the point or the line related;

saving an association of the child object and the point or the line;

creating reference pointer referencing the child object; and

accessing the child object via the URL.

11. A system for calculating tolerance zones for utility assets, comprising:

an input devices for receiving data about a point, a line, or an area related to a location of a utility asset in a region;

a receiver for receiving information about said utility asset in the region from one or more databases, wherein the received information includes a type of the utility asset, a location of the utility asset, an accuracy of the location of the utility asset, accuracy requirements for the utility asset, accuracy requirements for the region, and a map tile accuracy;

a processor for calculating a tolerance zone for said utility asset in the region based on the accuracy requirements for the utility asset and the map tile accuracy; and

a transmitter for transmitting the tolerance zone to a remote device, wherein said processor calculates the tolerance zone from an aggregate accuracy (GPVA) and a map visual accuracy mean (MVAM) as follows;

GPVA=√

(MTa1)²+(GPSa1)²

where MTa1 represents an associated map tile accuracy value for a visible map tile, and GPSA1 represents an associated GPS point accuracy value for a visible GPS point; and

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising a display device for displaying the tolerance zone on a displayed digital map as a vector or tiled image halo surrounding a geospatial map feature.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein said data about a point, a line, or an area is received from the input device, by marking a point or drawing a line using a cursor or touch screen on a map displayed on the input device.

14. The system of claim 11, further comprising using the tolerance zone by a mobile device or a digging equipment to generate a warning for said mobile device or the digging equipment, when the mobile device or the digging equipment is within or close to the tolerance zone.