Road level imagery may be collected using video cameras in a vehicle. Road level imagery provides adequate images of building facades around eye level or the level of the video cameras in the vehicle. However, larger buildings cannot be adequately imaged from vehicle-mounted cameras. Also, vegetation, road signs, or other obstacles may occlude building facades from the view of vehicle-mounted cameras.
Aerial photography from satellites and airplanes provide another view. Satellites orbit hundreds of miles to thousands of miles above the surface of the Earth and can provide only low detail images of wide geographic areas. Airplanes fly a minimum of four hundred feet above the surface of the Earth and also provide relatively low detail images. Airplanes are also incapable of adequately collecting images of the sides of buildings because of the angle of the line of sight. Images may be manually collected by static cameras as an operator moves along the road facade carefully ensuring that the road level imagery is adequately collected. However, this technique is too labor intensive. Another type of imagery collection is needed to provide the level of detail available in images collected by vehicle mounted cameras but from another perspective.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds