ARCHITECTURES AND METHODS FOR CREATING AND REPRESENTING TIME-DEPENDENT IMAGERY
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of processing geographical imagery, comprising:
- obtaining imagery from an imagery source;
identifying an acquisition date and a level of detail for at least some of the imagery obtained from the imagery source;
blending overlapping pieces of imagery using a processor of a computer based on respective acquisition dates to form one or more image tiles associated with each acquisition date;
storing the one or more image tiles in memory associated with the computer, the stored tiles being organized by level of detail;
determining at the processor the acquisition dates for which imagery is available at a first level of detail and not a second level of detail;
storing, for the second level of detail, an indicator linking to the imagery at the first level of detail for the acquisition dates where the second level of detail is not available; and
providing at least one of the image tiles having a selected acquisition date from the memory to a client device upon request for an image associated with a geographical location for the selected acquisition date.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention pertains to geographical image processing of time-dependent imagery. Various assets acquired at different times are stored and processing according to acquisition date in order to generate one or more image tiles for a geographical region of interest. The different image tiles are sorted based on asset acquisition date. Multiple image tiles for the same region of interest may be available. In response to a user request for imagery as of a certain date, one or more image tiles associated with assets from prior to that date are used to generate a time-based geographical image for the user.
102 Citations
21 Claims
-
1. A method of processing geographical imagery, comprising:
-
obtaining imagery from an imagery source; identifying an acquisition date and a level of detail for at least some of the imagery obtained from the imagery source; blending overlapping pieces of imagery using a processor of a computer based on respective acquisition dates to form one or more image tiles associated with each acquisition date; storing the one or more image tiles in memory associated with the computer, the stored tiles being organized by level of detail; determining at the processor the acquisition dates for which imagery is available at a first level of detail and not a second level of detail; storing, for the second level of detail, an indicator linking to the imagery at the first level of detail for the acquisition dates where the second level of detail is not available; and providing at least one of the image tiles having a selected acquisition date from the memory to a client device upon request for an image associated with a geographical location for the selected acquisition date. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
-
-
6. A processing system for processing geographical imagery, comprising:
-
at least one processor; and memory for storing data organized by a level of detail associated with the data, the memory electrically coupled to the at least one processor; wherein the at least one processor is operable to obtain imagery from an imagery source, identify an acquisition date and a level of detail for at least some of the imagery obtained from the imagery source, blend overlapping pieces of imagery based on respective acquisition dates to form one or more image tiles associated with each acquisition date, store the one or more tiles in the memory, determine the acquisition dates for which imagery is available at a first level of detail and not a second level of detail, store for the second level of detail an indicator linking to the imagery at the first level of detail for the acquisition dates where the second level of detail is not available, and provide at least one of the image tiles having a selected acquisition date from the memory to a client device upon request for an image associated with a geographical location for the selected acquisition date. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A method for displaying available dates associated with historical imagery of a specified location, comprising:
-
determining a first set of dates for which real tiles associated with a specified location and a first level of detail exist; determining a second set of dates for which coarse tiles associated with the specified location and a second coarser level of detail exist; displaying through a user interface the first set of dates and the second set of dates; receiving input from a user requesting imagery associated with the specified location, one of the first or second sets of dates, and a specified level of detail; searching a database for tiles associated with the requested imagery; and displaying the tiles associated with the requested imagery on a display. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. A client device for displaying available dates associated with historical imagery of a specified location, the client device being electronically coupled to a server, the client device comprising a processor operable to:
-
determine a first set of dates for which real tiles associated with a specified location and a first level of detail exist; determine a second set of dates for which coarse tiles associated with the specified location and a second coarser level of detail exist; display through a user interface the first set of dates and the second set of dates; receive input from a user requesting imagery associated with the specified location, one of the first or second sets of dates, and a specified level of detail; search for tiles associated with the requested imagery; and display the tiles associated with the requested imagery. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21)
-
Specification