2513results about "Picture taking arrangements" patented technology

A stereo camera supporting apparatus of the present invention comprises a joining member constituted in such a manner as to support a stereo camera on a vehicle, and a control device which controls posture or position of the stereo camera supported on the vehicle by the joining member. The control device controls the posture or position of the stereo camera with respect to video obtained by the stereo camera in such a manner that a contour portion present in the highest level position in a contour of a noted subject in the video is positioned in a frame upper end of the video or its vicinity irrespective of a change of the posture or position of the vehicle.

A system and method for an aerial surveillance system are disclosed. Briefly described, one embodiment comprises a lighter-than-air aerial platform, at least one image capture device carried by the lighter-than-air aerial platform and operable to sequentially capture a plurality of images, and at least one control surface physically coupled to the lighter-than-air aerial platform and operable to control direction of movement of the lighter-than-air aerial platform along a surveillance path in response to a guidance control signal determined in part upon the sequentially captured plurality of images.

A camera assembly arranged on an unmanned and autonomously navigating aerial vehicle is employed to inspect a surface area of for material defects. The vehicle is automatically flown to the surface area from a launch site, wherein it can fly around obstacles using automatic obstacle detection and avoidance methods. A relative position of the aerial vehicle with respect to the surface area with the aid of a position sensor is continuously measured and a sequence of images of the surface area is recorded. Between the individual images, the aerial vehicle is moved along a flight path overlapping image details of the surface area. The images of the sequence are composed into an overall image of the surface area to allow for the surface area to be inspected for defects and the location of defects to be ascertained on the basis of the overall image.

Disclosed are methods and apparatus for implementing a reality overlay device. A reality overlay device captures information that is pertinent to physical surroundings with respect to a device, the information including at least one of visual information or audio information. The reality overlay device may transmit at least a portion of the captured information to a second device. For instance, the reality overlay device may transmit at least a portion of the captured information to a server via the Internet, where the server is capable of identifying an appropriate virtual billboard. The reality overlay device may then receive overlay information for use in generating a transparent overlay via the reality overlay device. The transparent overlay is then superimposed via the device using the overlay information, wherein the transparent overlay provides one or more transparent images that are pertinent to the physical surroundings. Specifically, one or more of the transparent images may operate as “virtual billboards.” Similarly, a portable device such as a cell phone may automatically receive a virtual billboard when the portable device enters an area within a specified distance from an associated establishment.

The present invention provides systems, methods, and devices related to target tracking by UAVs. The UAV may be configured to receive target information from a control terminal related to a target to be tracked by an imaging device coupled to the UAV. The target information may be used by the UAV to automatically track the target so as to maintain predetermined position and/or size of the target within one or more images captured by the imaging device. The control terminal may be configured to display images from the imaging device as well as allowing user input related to the target information.

A vehicle based data collection and processing system which may be used to collect various types of data from an aircraft in flight or from other moving vehicles, such as an automobile, a satellite, a train, etc. In various embodiments the system may include: computer console units for controlling vehicle and system operations, global positioning systems communicatively connected to the one or more computer consoles, camera array assemblies for producing an image of a target viewed through an aperture communicatively connected to the one or more computer consoles, attitude measurement units communicatively connected to the one or more computer consoles and the one or more camera array assemblies, and a mosaicing module housed within the one or more computer consoles for gathering raw data from the global positioning system, the attitude measurement unit, and the retinal camera array assembly, and processing the raw data into orthorectified images.

Large format, digital camera systems (10, 100, 150, 250, 310) expose single detector arrays 20 with multiple lens systems (12, 14, 16, 18) or multiple detector arrays (104, 106, 108, 110, 112, 114, 116, 118, 120, 152, 162, 172, 182, 252, 262, 272, 282, 322, 324) with one or more single lens systems (156, 166, 176, 186) to acquire sub-images of overlapping sub-areas of large area objects. The sub-images are stitched together to form a large format, digital, macro-image (80, 230'', 236'', 238'', 240''), which can be colored. Dampened camera carrier (400) and accelerometer (404) signals with double-rate digital signal processing (306, 308) are used.

A computerized system for displaying, geolocating, and taking measurements from captured oblique images includes a data file accessible by the computer system. The data file includes a plurality of image files corresponding to a plurality of captured oblique images, and positional data corresponding to the images. Image display and analysis software is executed by the system for reading the data file and displaying at least a portion of the captured oblique images. The software retrieves the positional data for one or more user-selected points on the displayed image, and calculates a separation distance between any two or more selected points. The separation distance calculation is user-selectable to determine various parameters including linear distance between, area encompassed within, relative elevation of, and height difference between selected points.

System and method of the invention provides for creating, storing and broadcasting interactive panoramic walk-through applications. The combination of images is determined by the user's choice of direction of displacement at each intersection point and from each view point or geographical coordinate, in order to provide a complete view from a first person's point of view. The system provides a visual perspective comparable to a human visual experience.

A system and method synthesizing images of a locale to generate a composite image that provide a panoramic view of the locale. A video camera moves along a street recording images of objects along the street. A GPS receiver and inertial navigation system provide the position of the camera as the images are being recorded. The images are indexed with the position data provided by the GPS receiver and inertial navigation system. The composite image is created on a column-by-column basis by determining which of the acquired images contains the desired pixel column, extracting the pixels associated with the column, and stacking the columns side by side. The composite images are stored in an image database and associated with a street name and number range of the street being depicted in the image. The image database covers a substantial amount of a geographic area allowing a user to visually navigate the area from a user terminal.

An electro-optical framing camera forward motion compensation (FMC) reconnaissance system comprising a moving shutter and a full frame focal plane array detector is designed to minimize the variation of image motion from a target scene across the focal plane array. The full frame focal plane array, such as a Charge Coupled Device (CCD), is designed to transfer and add the image from pixel to pixel at a predetermined rate of image motion corresponding to the region exposed by the focal plane shutter. The focal plane shutter aperture and velocity are set to predetermined values coordinated with the available illumination. The CCD image transfer rate is set to minimize the smear effects due to image motion in the region of the scene exposed by the focal plane shutter. This rate is variable with line of sight depression angle, aircraft altitude, and aircraft velocity/altitude ratio. Further, a method of FMC utilizes a comparison of a measured light level to a standard value in order to determine the appropriate exposure time and shutter motion rate. An optimal FMC clocking signal is calculated based on image motion equations incorporated in the processing unit of the reconnaissance system.

In one embodiment, an aerial collection system includes an image collection field vehicle that travels at street level and an image collection aerial vehicle that travels in the air above the street. The aerial vehicle collects image data including at least a portion of the field vehicle. The field vehicle includes a marker, which is identified from the collected image data. The marker is analyzed to determine an operating characteristic of the aerial vehicle. In one example, the operating characteristic in the marker includes information for a flight instruction for the aerial vehicle. In another example, the operating characteristic in the marker includes information for the three dimensional relationship between the vehicles. The three dimensional relationship is used to combine images collected from the air and images collected from the street level.

The system and method provides for creating, storing and broadcasting interactive panoramic walk-through applications. The combination of images is determined by the array of possibilities for the user to choose the direction of displacement at each intersection point and from each point or geographical coordinate, to have a complete view from a first person's point of view. The system uses geo-streaming methods to optimize broadcast and real-time construction of panoramic applications. The system provides a visual perspective which approaches that of human vision.

The invention is concerned with a method for forest inventory and for determination of stand attributes. Stand information of trees, sample plots, stands and larger forest areas can be determined by measuring or deriving the most important attributes for individual trees. The method uses a laser scanner and overlapping images. A densification of the laser point clouds is performed and the achieved denser point clouds are used to identify individual trees and groups of trees. The invention is also concerned with a computer program for performing the method.

The invention relates to a space borne TDICCD camera integral timing and adjusting method, which comprises the following steps: (1) the orbit is simulated with high precision in which positions parameters of photographed spots of the satellite under drift angle control or at different swinging angles are outputted such as vector coordinates and oblique distances of the photographed spots as well as vector simulation data for the satellite position; (2) the vector simulation data for the satellite position are analyzed to come out with the shift speeds of the photographed spots; (3) eliminate the radial-directional speeds from the shift speeds of the photographed spots to become the image motion speeds; (4) utilize the image motion speeds and the oblique distances of the photographed spots to obtain the integral times. The invention also provides a design method for TDICCD related parameters as well as a real-time adjusting method for integral times on the satellite under control of ground commands. The space borne TDICCD camera integral timing and adjusting method realizes an organic combination of simulation modeling with high precision and positional vector differential method, which eliminates errors introduced into the deduction process in traditional geometric analysis and calculation and controls error delivery to improve calculation precision; the arrival real-time adjusting method for integral times on the satellite ensures a reliable integral synchronous control.

A method includes acquiring imaging data of a scene using an imaging tool. The method also includes extracting radio frequency identification (RFID) data stored in an RFID tag associated with the scene. The method further includes associating the RFID data with the imaging data.

A first-person immersive unmanned aerial vehicle driving system realized by virtue of virtual reality and a binocular vision technology and a driving method belong to the technical field of unmanned aerial vehicles and aim at solving the problems that a real-time flying state cannot be mastered through an existing unmanned aerial vehicle driving system, and errors are liable to occur. The driving system and the driving method are characterized in that an unmanned aerial vehicle body carries a binocular camera through an existing tri-axial cradle head stabilizer, an unmanned aerial vehicle image transmission module is equipped for image back transmission, and the tri-axial cradle head stabilizer and the actions of a driver on the ground are synchronized by virtue of a data transmission module and a pair of virtual reality goggles; the driver of the unmanned aerial vehicle on the ground wears the virtual reality goggles and sits in a simulating cabin approximate to a real helicopter driving cabin to feel pictures took by the binocular camera and aircraft flying information, and the flying of the unmanned aerial vehicle is controlled by adopting the data transmission module. The driving system and the driving method are suitable for manipulation of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

Provided is a method of spatially referencing a plurality of images captured from a plurality of different locations within an indoor space by determining the location from which the plurality of images were captured. The method may include obtaining a plurality of distance-referenced panoramas of an indoor space. The distance-referenced panoramas may each include a plurality of distance-referenced images each captured from one position in the indoor space and at a different azimuth from the other distance-referenced images, a plurality of distance measurements, and orientation indicators each indicative of the azimuth of the corresponding one of the distance-referenced images. The method may further include determining the location of each of the distance-referenced panoramas based on the plurality of distance measurements and the orientation indicators and associating in memory the determined locations with the plurality of distance-referenced images captured from the determined location.

An aerial photographing system, comprising a flying vehicle being remotely controlled, a camera (7, 8) tiltably supported in any direction via a gimbal (25), a retro-reflector (9) tilting integrally with the camera, being set in a known relation with the camera and used as an object to be measured, and a total station (3) for tracking the retro-reflector and for measuring position of the retro-reflector.

A method for characterizing a geometric element of an object includes positioning a calibrated target adjacent a calibration geometric element, the calibrated target having at least two differentially detectable features having a known geometric relationship to each other. Next a relationship of the calibrated target to the calibration geometric element is determined, and the calibrated target is moved adjacent a geometric feature of an object desired to be characterized. Then photogrammetry is applied to the calibrated target features and the desired geometric feature to spatially characterize the desired geometric feature. A system for characterizing a geometric element of an object includes the movable calibrated target and a photogrammetric analysis system for determining a relationship of the calibrated target to a calibration geometric element and for spatially characterizing the desired geometric feature using the calibrated target features.