Aerial Image Viewing System with Transparency Masking for Urban Agglomerations
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current aerial image systems face challenges in seamlessly displaying urban agglomerations across tile boundaries and efficiently updating databases with new aerial images, especially when multiple agglomerations are present in a single tile, leading to abrupt transitions and difficulties in managing diverse image sources.
Innovation Solution
An image viewing system and method that utilize a database with transparency-masked aerial images, where pixels outside urban agglomeration boundaries are set to full transparency, allowing for smooth transitions and superposition of images, along with metadata for separate handling and scaling of urban agglomerations, enabling flexible database updates and improved display of geographical regions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If aerial images are divided into tiles with strict boundaries, then database management becomes simpler, but urban agglomerations spanning multiple tiles cannot be displayed continuously
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by differentiating the treatment of image pixels based on their location relative to urban agglomeration boundaries. Pixels within urban agglomerations retain full opacity and image data, while pixels outside boundaries are set to full transparency. This allows the system to maintain simple tile-based database management while achieving seamless display of urban agglomerations across tile boundaries, as the transparency masking effectively hides the artificial tile boundaries.
2Device complexity
If a single aerial image covers the entire tile, then database structure is simplified, but multiple urban agglomerations in one tile cannot be separately displayed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing a single tile's aerial image into multiple distinct urban agglomeration regions, each treated as a separate selectable entity. Each urban agglomeration is identified by its outer boundary coordinates and can be independently selected and displayed. This allows the database to maintain a simple single-image-per-tile structure while providing the versatility to display, select, and manage multiple urban agglomerations within that tile through software-based region segmentation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by applying different transparency values to different regions within the same aerial image. Each urban agglomeration region can be independently masked with full transparency outside its boundaries, allowing selective display of individual agglomerations or combinations thereof. This enables the system to maintain a simplified database structure while achieving adaptable display of multiple urban agglomerations through regional transparency control.
3Adaptability or versatility
If aerial images from different suppliers are integrated, then image coverage increases, but database updates become more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by creating a standardized data structure and processing methodology that can handle aerial images from any supplier uniformly. The system uses universal coordinate systems for outer boundaries, standardized transparency masking procedures, and a consistent tile-based organization scheme. This universal approach allows images from different suppliers to be integrated without requiring supplier-specific processing logic, thereby increasing image coverage while maintaining ease of database updates through standardized procedures.
4Ease of operation
If transparency values are used to mask areas outside urban agglomerations, then seamless display across tiles is achieved, but image processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by modifying the transparency parameter (alpha channel) of image pixels based on their spatial relationship to urban agglomeration boundaries. Instead of complex image manipulation, the system simply changes the transparency parameter value: 0 (fully transparent) for pixels outside urban agglomerations and 255 (fully opaque) for pixels inside. This simple parameter-based approach achieves seamless display across tiles while minimizing image processing complexity, as it relies on straightforward coordinate comparison rather than sophisticated image algorithms.
Data Source
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AI summary
The present invention relates to an image viewing system (10) comprising - a database (11), the database containing a plurality of aerial images (20) of a geographical region that is divided into tiles (25), an aerial image (20) covering an geographical area of a tile (20), wherein when the aerial image shows an urban agglomeration (26) that is delimited from a surrounding geographical area by an outer boundary (27), the aerial image is configured such that an aerial view of the urban agglomeration (26) shown in the aerial image is limited to the urban agglomeration, wherein no aerial view is shown of the geographical area outside the outer boundary (27), - an image viewer (12) generating a display image of the aerial image.