123 results about "Aerial imagery" patented technology

A method for assigning of geocodes to addresses identifying entities on a street includes ordering a set of entity geocodes associated with a street segment based on ordering criteria such as the linear distance of the geocodes along the length of the street segment. Assignable addresses are matched with the ordered geocodes creating a correspondence between a numerical order of the assignable addresses and a linear order of the ordered set of geocodes, consistent with address range direction data and street segment side data. The geocodes may be implicit or explicit, locally unique or globally unique. The set of entity geocodes may be obtained by identifying image features in aerial imagery corresponding to streets and buildings and correlating this information with data from a street map database.

A method of generating a geodetic reference database product is disclosed The method comprises acquiring mobile mapping data captured by means of digital cameras, range sensors and position determination means including GPS and IMU mounted to a vehicle driving across the earth surface, the mobile mapping data comprising simultaneously captured image data, range data and associated position data in a geographic coordinate system. Linear stationary earth surface features are derived from the mobile mapping data by processing the image data, range data and associated position data. 3D-models are generated for the linear stationary earth surface features in the geographic coordinate system from the image data, range data and associated position data and stored in a database to obtain the geodetic reference database product. A 3D-model could include an image representing the colors of the surface of the 3D model or a set of smaller images representing photo-identifiable objects along the model. The 3D-models could be used to rectify aerial imagery, to correct digital elevation models and to improve the triangulation of digital elevation models.

A method and system for multi-spectral imagery acquisition and analysis, the method including capturing preliminary multi-spectral aerial images according to pre-defined survey parameters at a pre-selected resolution, automatically performing preliminary analysis on site or location in the field using large scale blob partitioning of the captured images in real or near real time, detecting irregularities within the pre-defined survey parameters and providing an output corresponding thereto, and determining, from the preliminary analysis output, whether to perform a second stage of image acquisition and analysis at a higher resolution than the pre-selected resolution. The invention also includes a method for analysis and object identification including analyzing high resolution multi-spectral images according to pre-defined object parameters, when parameters within the pre-defined object parameters are found, performing blob partitioning on the images containing such parameters to identify blobs, and comparing objects confined to those blobs to pre-defined reference parameters to identify objects having the pre-defined object parameters.

A system for aerial image detection and classification is provided herein. The system comprising_an aerial image database storing one or more aerial images electronically received from one or more image providers, and an object detection pre-processing engine in electronic communication with the aerial image database, the object detection pre-processing engine detecting and classifying objects using a disparity mapping generation sub-process to automatically process the one or more aerial images to generate a disparity map providing elevation information, a segmentation sub-process to automatically apply a pre-defined elevation threshold to the disparity map, the pre-defined elevation threshold adjustable by a user, and a classification sub-process to automatically detect and classify objects in the one or more stereoscopic pairs of aerial images by applying one or more automated detectors based on classification parameters and the pre-defined elevation threshold.

A miniature, unmanned aircraft having interchangeable data handling modules, such as sensors for obtaining digital aerial imagery and other data, and radio transmitters and receivers for relaying data. The aircraft has a microprocessor for managing flight, remote control guidance system, and electrical supply system. The data handling modules have an aerodynamic housing and manual fasteners enabling ready installation and removal. One or more data acquiring sensors or data transferring apparatus and support equipment such as batteries and communications and power cables are contained within the module. A plurality of different modules are preferably provided. Each module, when attached in a preferred location below the wing, does not significantly alter the center of gravity of the airframe. Preferably, each module contains the supervisory microprocessor so that the microprocessor need not be part of the airframe.

A system and method for determining the pervious and impervious area within parcels associated with a municipality for purposes of generating bills for storm water runoff to parcel owners. Aerial imagery, collected from an aircraft and/or satellite, of the relevant municipality, or portion thereof, is collected, processed, and analyzed to determine the amount of water impervious area associated with each relevant parcel within the municipality. This information for each parcel may then be used to determine an appropriate amount of money to be charged to the owner of each respective parcel. The amount of impervious area per parcel is calculated based on parcel boundary information specific to the municipality that may contain spatial domain errors.

A computer-implemented method for safely routing a soldier to a destination on the battlefield. The method includes a Threat Analyzer (100) for assessing threats to the soldier, a Graph Builder (102) for building a graph representing the battlefield, a Route Generator (104) for generating a route that avoids the threats, and a Route Presenter (106) for guiding the soldier along the route. The Threat Analyzer (100) includes an Enemy Analyzer (200) for determining the attack range of enemy units and an Obstruction Analyzer (202) for detecting obstructions in aerial imagery. The Graph Builder (102) includes a Cost Evaluator (712) that takes into account traversal speeds for soldiers across various types of terrain. The Route Presenter (106) overlays the route on live video in the soldier's heads-up display.

The invention discloses an optimal route selection method for overhead transmission line route. Onboard lidar equipment is adopted to acquire laser point cloud data and aerial digital photo data of the transmission line route corridor range; the onboard lidar data is processed after the wave filtering and the sorting of the laser point cloud data, and the points of the ground surface are made into a digital elevation model with high precision; then data processing is carried out by utilizing the data of the digital elevation model with high precision and ortho-rectification is carried out to the aerial photo by utilizing the internal and external orientation elements of the aerial digital photo to generate digital orthophoto maps; through the overlying of the digital elevation model and the digital orthophoto maps, the tridimensional visualization of the transmission line route corridor can be realized to optimize the transmission line route selection; finally prearrangement of power pole and power pole arrangement are carried out according to the data of plane cross sections. The route selection platform of the invention has simple operation and lifelike tridimensional scene, thus being convenient for full roaming and multi-view observation and greatly improving the efficiency of the inner plane cross section survey operation. Compared with the optimal route selection technology based on the aerial photographing measuring method, the efficiency of the inner plane cross section survey operation can be improved by about 75 percent.

Digital watermarking technology is used in conjunction with map data, such as is acquired by satellite and other aerial sensors, and as may be generated from databases based on such aerial data. The watermarks can be used, e.g., to track meta data, provide serialization and forensic tracing, and various other benefits. The disclosure also contemplates that incoming imagery is automatically geo-referenced and combined with previously-collected data sets so as to facilitate generation of revised composite maps.

A method, system and computer-readable medium are provided for performing a property inspection using aerial images, the method including the steps of receiving an indication of a request from a user to receive a quote regarding a property, identifying the property, retrieving one or more aerial images associated with the property, extracting information regarding the property from the one or more aerial images and providing an insurance decision for the property to the user according to the extracted information from the one or more aerial images in response to the request from the user.

The present invention relates to methods and apparatus to generate visualizations of aerial imagery capable of simulating movement as if the image capturing device had captured image frames at a much higher rate than the rate captured. More specifically, the visualizations of the aerial imagery which can include orthogonal approaching and departing view perspectives to generate simulated smooth flyby videos.

A method for searching a building roof facet and reconstructing a roof structure line, in which the searching is performed automatically and without limitation of how slope of the roof facet, and the building structure line is constructed through aerial imagery. At first, lidar point clouds on the roof are extracted to compose a roof facet by using coplanarity analysis, and the roof is differentiated to a possible flat roof and a pitched roof. An optimal roof facet is obtained by analyzing lidar point clouds to overcome the low pitched facet issue. A relationship of a roof facet on a 2-dimensional space is analyzed to ascertain an area of a roof structure line. An initial boundary is generated. Line detection is performed on the images and a roof structure line segment is composed. All the structure line segments are used to reconstructing a 3-dimensional building pattern in object space.

Computer-implemented methods of estimating insurance risk of one or more structures are described. The computer-implemented methods may be based on a combination of tree characteristic information and insurance loss data that are used together to calculate a Tree Proximity Score for the one or more structures through a computer processor. The tree characteristic information may include vegetation density data, tree height, tree geometric characteristics, and tree species information, and may be based on tree sensor data which may include satellite imagery, aerial imagery, or LiDAR. The insurance loss data may include wind loss data such as a wind loss frequency, severity, or ratio. The high level of correlation between the Tree Proximity Score and insurance loss data is shown in an example. The Tree Proximity Score may be used in the insurance industry in insurance policy implementation and underwriting.

Systems and methods for property feature detection and extraction using digital images. The image sources could include aerial imagery, satellite imagery, ground-based imagery, imagery taken from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), mobile device imagery, etc. The detected geometric property features could include tree canopy, pools and other bodies of water, concrete flatwork, landscaping classifications (gravel, grass, concrete, asphalt, etc.), trampolines, property structural features (structures, buildings, pergolas, gazebos, terraces, retaining walls, and fences), and sports courts. The system can automatically extract these features from images and can then project them into world coordinates relative to a known surface in world coordinates (e.g., from a digital terrain model).

A laser-point cloud and image fusion data classification method based on multi-characteristic comprises the following steps: 1, data preprocessing: preprocessing aviation image and unmanned plane laser-point cloud data; 2, sample extraction: fully utilizing geometry characteristics of the point cloud data and spectrum characteristics of the aviation images so as to carry out sample extraction of various types; 3, fusion data classification based on multi-characteristic: using a vector description model to classify the sample data; 4, precision evaluation: evaluating the precision of the classified data. The method is complete in surface object extraction and high in classification precision. The method starts from the angle of the fusion image spectrum information, carries out data fusionaccording to application purposes and surface object classification demands, sets corresponding classification rules for classification of main surface objects, and builds a corresponding relation between classification types and classification characteristics, thus extracting complete surface object areas, and reducing misclassification phenomenon.

The present inventors have developed a ground station that, when installed in a field, can collect upwelling and downwelling radiation, and GPS location coordinates, Data from remotely sensed imagery (RSI) can he used to monitor crop health. Use of the ground station can obviate the need for personnel to he deployed into the field during drone overflights for management of agriculture.