Systems and methods for generating planar geometry

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10769847-B2
Application number	US-202016832403-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 27, 2020
Priority date	Nov 5, 2008
Publication date	Sep 8, 2020
Grant date	Sep 8, 2020

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for adjusting planar geometry derived from point cloud data associated with a building object by identifying major aspects like vertices and edges of the underlying structure within the point cloud and adjusting an average planar fit for simplified geometries created from the point cloud. Combining the planar geometry or point cloud with orthogonal or street level views improves accuracy and use cases of the planar geometry.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of modeling planar surfaces, the method comprising:
receiving a three dimensional point cloud of data points associated with a building object;
identifying a plurality of vertices defining edges of at least one single planar surface of the building object within the point cloud;
outlining the at least one single planar surface based on the identified plurality of vertices;
creating a simplified façade geometry for the at least one single planar surface based on the outlined single planar surface;
correlating data points within the point cloud to the outlined single planar surface;
averaging a planar fit for the outlined single planar surface based on the correlated data points; and
adjusting a position of the simplified façade geometry based on the average planar fit.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating the three dimensional point cloud from ground-level capture device sensors.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the capture device is a smartphone.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the capture device is a tablet device.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving an orthogonal image for the building object;
identifying a plurality of orthogonal vertices of the orthogonal image;
correlating at least two of the plurality of orthogonal vertices with the adjusted simplified façade geometry; and
constructing a building model representing all surfaces of the building object using at least the correlated plurality of orthogonal vertices.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising applying a texture to the at least one planar surface.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the applying a texture comprises mapping at least one ground-level image to the at least one planar surface.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein correlating data points within the point cloud comprises applying a proximity buffer to identify data points proximate one another.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying a plurality of vertices defining edges further comprises matching boundaries of the building object from at least one ground-level image.

10. A system for modeling planar surfaces, the system comprises:
a computer system for receiving, from a capture device, a three dimensional (3D) point cloud of data points associated with a building object;
a database for storing the received 3D point cloud of data points associated with the building object;
an image processor, operative with the image database and configured to:
identify a plurality of vertices defining edges of at least one single planar surface of the building object within the 3D point cloud;
outline the at least one single planar surface based on the identified plurality of vertices;
create a simplified façade geometry for the at least one single planar surface based on the outlined single planar surface;
correlate data points within the 3D point cloud to the outlined single planar surface;
average a planar fit for the outlined single planar surface based on the correlated data points; and
adjust a position of the simplified façade geometry based on the average planar fit.

11. The system of claim 10 , further comprising a ground capture device operatively coupled to the computer system, the ground capture device configured to generate the 3D point cloud.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the capture device is a smartphone.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the capture device is a tablet.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the database is further configured to receive an orthogonal image for the building object.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the image processor is further configured to:
identify a plurality of orthogonal vertices of the orthogonal image;
correlate at least two of the plurality of orthogonal vertices with the adjusted simplified façade geometry; and
construct a building model representing all surfaces of the building object using at least the correlated plurality of orthogonal vertices.

16. The system of claim 10 further comprising applying a texture to the at least one planar surface.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the applying a texture comprises mapping at least one ground-level image to the at least one planar surface.

18. The system of claim 10 , further comprising a proximity buffer configured to identify data points proximate one another for correlation to determine an average planar fit.

19. The system of claim 10 , wherein the database further stores ground-level images of the building object.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the processor is further configured to identify the plurality of vertices defining edges by matching boundaries of the building object from at least one ground-level image.

Assignees

• Hover Inc

Inventors

• Sun Shaohui
• Pavlidis Ioannis
• Altman Adam J

Classifications

• G06T19/003

  Navigation within 3D models or images · CPC title

• G06T15/20

  Perspective computation · CPC title

• G06T2210/04

  Architectural design, interior design · CPC title

• G06T15/04 Primary

  Texture mapping · CPC title

• G06V20/176

  Urban or other man-made structures · CPC title