Partial Point Cloud Terrain Updates via Base and New Data Fusion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current surveying technologies face impracticalities in frequently capturing entire terrain areas, as only small portions often change, leading to unnecessary full surveys and inefficiencies in monitoring terrain changes over time.
Innovation Solution
The system enables partial updates of point cloud terrain models by fusing a base point cloud with a new point cloud, determining overlaps, and updating only the changed areas, using methods like point cloud splatting and triangulation to construct raster maps for efficient data processing and memory management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If full terrain area is surveyed frequently, then terrain change monitoring accuracy is improved, but survey time and resource consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the terrain survey into two segments: a base point cloud covering the entire terrain area surveyed at low frequency, and a new point cloud covering only the changed portion surveyed at high frequency. This segmentation allows the system to maintain monitoring accuracy for the entire area while reducing survey time by only updating changed regions.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of performing complete terrain surveys at high frequency, the patent applies partial action by surveying only the changed portion of the terrain. The system identifies regions where changes have occurred and performs detailed surveys only in those areas, while maintaining the overall terrain context through the base point cloud.
2Reliability
If full terrain area is surveyed frequently, then up-to-date terrain data is obtained, but data processing and storage requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the point cloud data into a base point cloud stored at lower resolution and new point cloud data stored at higher resolution for changed regions only. This segmentation reduces overall data storage requirements while maintaining reliability by ensuring that changed areas have updated high-quality data.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by storing base point cloud data at a first (lower) resolution and new point cloud data at a second (higher) resolution. This allows the system to maintain up-to-date terrain data for changed regions with high resolution while using less storage space for unchanged regions.
3Measurement precision
If base point cloud resolution is increased, then terrain model accuracy is improved, but memory consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by using different resolutions for different portions of the point cloud data. The base point cloud is stored at a lower resolution to reduce memory consumption, while new point cloud data representing changed regions is stored at a higher resolution to maintain terrain model accuracy where it matters most.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, methods, devices, and non-transitory media of the various embodiments enable for updating a point cloud, such as a two-and-a-half-dimensional (2.5D) point cloud. Various embodiments include receiving two point clouds, such as a base point cloud of a terrain area and a new point cloud of the terrain area, and fusing the received two point clouds to generate an up-to-date point cloud, such as an up-to-date point cloud model of the terrain. Various embodiments may be especially useful in generating models of terrain areas, such as construction sites, earthwork projects, shorelines, etc., surveyed by surveying technologies, such as drone-based aerial photogrammetry systems, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) systems, etc.