System and method for accessing three dimensional information from a panoramic image

• US 20080143709A1
• Filed: 12/14/2006
• Published: 06/19/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: earthmine Incorporated (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: earthmine Incorporated (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Fassero, Donn Anthony, Ristevski, John
• Application Number:
  US11/639,777
• Publication Number:
  US 20080143709A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/419
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/00 Geometric image transformations in the plane of the image

Abstract

The proposed invention defines a system and methods for accessing and displaying three dimensional data through a panoramic image. Three dimensional data comprised of points and polygons is stored in a spatial database on a server and is delivered to the client on demand through point or area selections defined in a panoramic image viewer in the 2D spherical coordinate system of the panoramic image. A number of different processes are defined for transforming these two dimensional spherical coordinates into a three dimensional coordinate, the result of which is returned to the client and used to update the panoramic image and corresponding map or aerial image in the client side application.

Claims

1. A system for the transmission of three dimensional data over a network, comprising:

a first computing device having a panoramic image viewer containing a plurality of panoramic two dimensional images;

a second computing device capable of communicating with the first computing device over a network, the second computing device further comprising a spatial database having a plurality of pieces of three dimensional data; and

wherein the second computing device further comprises a transformation process that transforms a user selected two dimensional point in the panoramic image viewer into a set of three dimensional points based on the spatial database and the three dimensional points are returned to the panoramic image viewer.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first computing device is a client computer and the second computing device is a server computer.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the client computer further comprises a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a PDA such as a Palm device, a wireless email device such as the Blackberry, a mobile phone device or a tablet computer.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the first and second computing devices both comprise a stand-alone computer wherein the network further comprises a bus in the stand-alone computer.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the first computing device further comprises a first peer computer and the second computing device further comprises a second peer computer and wherein the network further comprises a peer-to-peer network between the first and second computing devices.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the spatial database further comprises a plurality of points wherein each point is stored in a three dimensional spherical coordinate system.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the spatial database further comprises a plurality of points wherein each point is stored in a three dimensional Cartesian coordinate system.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the spatial database further comprises a plurality of polygons associated with the plurality of points wherein each polygon is stored in a three dimensional Cartesian coordinate system.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the spatial database further comprises a plurality of polygons wherein each polygon is stored in a three dimensional Cartesian coordinate system.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the panoramic image viewer further comprises a map viewer that enables a user of the first computing device to see an image of a given area on a map and make selections on that map.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the spatial database further comprises a plurality of points wherein each point is stored in a three dimensional Cartesian coordinate system.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the spatial database further comprises a plurality of polygons wherein each polygon is stored in a three dimensional Cartesian coordinate system.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the spatial database further comprises a plurality of points associated with the plurality of polygons and wherein each point is stored in a three dimensional Cartesian coordinate system.

14. A method for the transmission of three dimensional data over a network using a first computing device having a panoramic image viewer containing a plurality of panoramic two dimensional images and a second computing device capable of communicating with the first computing device over a network, the second computing device further comprising a spatial database having a plurality of pieces of three dimensional data, the method comprising:

receiving a user selected two dimensional point from a panoramic image viewer executed on the first computing device;

querying a spatial database based on the user selected two dimensional point to generate a set of three dimensional points based on the spatial database; and

returning the set of three dimensional points back to panoramic image viewer.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising storing a plurality of points in the spatial database wherein each point is stored in a three dimensional spherical coordinate method.

16. The method of claim 14 further comprising storing a plurality of points in the spatial database wherein each point is stored in a three dimensional Cartesian coordinate method.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising storing a plurality of polygons in the spatial database wherein each polygon is stored in a three dimensional Cartesian coordinate method.

18. The method of claim 14 further comprising storing a plurality of polygons in the spatial database wherein each polygon is stored in a three dimensional Cartesian coordinate method.

19. The method of claim 14 further comprising displaying in a map viewer a map of a given area and selecting the user selected two dimensional point using the map viewer.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising storing a plurality of points in the spatial database wherein each point is stored in a three dimensional Cartesian coordinate method.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising storing a plurality of polygons in the spatial database wherein each polygon is stored in a three dimensional Cartesian coordinate method.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising storing a plurality of points associated with the plurality of polygons and wherein each point is stored in a three dimensional Cartesian coordinate method.

23. A method for viewing geocoded data, comprising:

viewing a panoramic image;

selecting a point in the panoramic image; and

viewing a set of geocoded data associated with the selected point in the panoramic image.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the geocoded data further comprises geocoded two dimensional data.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the geocoded data further comprises geocoded three dimensional data.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the geocoded two dimensional data further comprises geocoded address information.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the geocoded address information further comprises at least a point, a line or a polygon.