Georeferenced Soil Survey Symbol Detection and Data Extraction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for determining soil characteristics in a geographical area are inefficient due to reliance on manual processing of non-georeferenced, outdated data, making it difficult to accurately estimate soil properties and impractical for systematic implementation.
Innovation Solution
A method that uses georeferenced images to detect symbols representing soil data measurement points, calculates geographic coordinates, and identifies corresponding soil data from a database, enabling automatic, rapid, and reliable evaluation of soil characteristics through artificial intelligence models and interpolation techniques.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If manual processing of old soil survey data is used, then data availability is improved, but processing time and labor are excessive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical processing of soil survey data with automated optical character recognition (OCR) and image processing systems. Georeferenced images of soil surveys are automatically processed by computers to extract and digitize soil characteristics data, eliminating the need for manual transcription and significantly reducing processing time while maintaining data availability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates digital copies of physical soil survey documents through georeferenced imaging. These digital copies can be stored, reproduced, and processed automatically without handling the original physical documents, enabling rapid data extraction and analysis while preserving the original data sources.
2Ease of manufacture
If old soil survey data is used without georeferencing, then data processing is simpler, but local accuracy of soil property estimates is poor
Solution Approach 1:
The patent adds a spatial dimension to soil survey data by implementing georeferencing. Each soil survey location is associated with precise geographic coordinates, transforming two-dimensional document data into three-dimensional spatial data. This enables accurate localization and spatial analysis of soil properties while maintaining systematic processing capabilities.
3Measurement precision
If soil pits are dug systematically to observe soil profiles, then soil characteristic data quality is improved, but implementation becomes unrealistic due to depth and effort
Solution Approach 1:
The patent utilizes soil survey data that has already been collected from previous campaigns, eliminating the need for new fieldwork. By processing and reusing existing data with georeferencing and automated extraction, the system achieves comprehensive soil characteristic coverage without the time-consuming and labor-intensive process of digging new soil pits.
Data Source
Figure 1~2
AI summary
The invention relates to a method for determining at least one soil characteristic in a geographical area, the method being implemented by computer and comprising the steps: - detection, in at least one georeferenced image (8) associated with the geographical area, of at least one symbol (10) representative of a point of measurement of pedological data, and of an associated unique identifier; - for each symbol (10) detected: • calculation of the geographical coordinates of the corresponding measurement point, from the position of said symbol (10) in the image and the georeferencing of the image; • from the corresponding unique identifier, identification, in a pedological database associated with the geographical area, of the pedological data corresponding to the respective measurement point.