Ground tracking apparatus, systems, and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9928613-B2
Application number	US-201514752834-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 27, 2015
Priority date	Jul 1, 2014
Publication date	Mar 27, 2018
Grant date	Mar 27, 2018

Abstract

Apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed for tracking movement over the ground or other surfaces using two or more spaced apart cameras and an associated processing element to detect ground features in images from the cameras and determine tracking parameters based on the position of the detected ground features in the images.

First claim

We claim:

1. A ground tracker for tracking movement over a surface, comprising:
a housing;
a first camera element disposed on or in the housing;
a second camera element disposed on or in the housing offset in position relative to the first camera element; and
a processing element coupled to an output from the first camera element and the second camera element, the processing element programmed to:
receive an image from the first camera element and an image from the second camera element, wherein the first camera element image and the second camera element image are captured with the ground tracking apparatus at a first position;
detect a ground feature in both the image from the first camera element and the image from the second camera element;
determine, based on a position of the ground feature in the image from the first camera element and a position of the ground feature in the image from the second camera element, a height value of the ground tracker above the ground feature at the first position; and
store the height value at the first position in a non-transitory memory;
determine, based on one or both of the image from the first camera element and the image from the second camera element, the height value at the first position, and one or both of another image from the first camera element captured at a second position and another image from the second camera element captured at the second position, a change in position of the ground tracker relative to the first position; and
store data associated with the change in position as a tracking parameter in the non-transitory memory.

2. The ground tracker of claim 1 , wherein the image from the first camera element and the image from the second camera element are captured at substantially the same time.

3. The ground tracking apparatus of claim 1 , wherein both of another image from the first camera element and another image from the second camera element are captured at the second position, and wherein the processing element is further programmed to:
determine, based on a position of the ground feature in the another image from the first camera element and a position of the ground feature in the another image from the second camera element, a second height value corresponding to the height of the ground tracker above the ground feature at the second position; and
store the second height value in the non-transitory memory.

4. The ground tracker of claim 3 , wherein the another image from the first camera element and the another image from the second camera element are captured at substantially the same time.

5. The ground tracker of claim 3 , wherein the change in position is further based on the second height value.

6. The ground tracker of claim 1 , wherein the data associated with the change of position includes a relative distance and/or direction between the first position and the second position.

7. The ground tracker of claim 6 , wherein the processing element is further programmed to:
determine a time difference between capture of one or both of the images from the first camera element and the second camera element and the another image;
based on both a determined relative distance and a determined relative direction between the first position and the second position, determine a velocity vector associated with movement of the ground tracker between the first position and the second position; and
store the velocity vector as a tracking parameter in the non-transitory memory.

8. The ground tracker of claim 6 , wherein the processing element is further programmed to:
determine a time difference between capture of one or both of the images from the first camera element and the second camera element and the another image;
based on a determined relative distance between the first position and the second position, determine a speed associated with movement of the ground tracker between the first position and the second position; and
store the speed as a tracking parameter in the non-transitory memory.

9. The ground tracker of claim 1 , wherein the data associated with the change of position includes coordinates of the second position relative to the first position.

10. The ground tracker of claim 1 , wherein the ground feature is detected in the image from the first camera element and the image from the second camera element by correlating pixels of the image from the first camera element and pixels of the image from the second camera element.

11. The ground tracker of claim 1 , wherein the change in position of the ground tracker is determined by correlating pixels of the image from the first camera element and the another image from the first camera element, or by correlating pixels of the image from the second camera element and the another image from the second camera element, or by correlating pixels of the image from the first camera element and the another image from the first camera element and correlating pixels of the image from the second camera element and the another image from the second camera element.

12. The ground tracker of claim 1 , wherein the processing element is disposed in the housing.

13. The ground tracker of claim 1 , wherein the ground tracker is configured to be operatively coupled to a locator.

14. The ground tracker of claim 13 , wherein the processing element is disposed in the locator.

15. A ground tracker for tracking movement over a surface, comprising:
a housing;
a first camera element disposed on or in the housing;
a second camera element disposed on or in the housing offset in position relative to the first camera element; and
a processing element coupled to an output from the first camera element and the second camera element, the processing element programmed to:
receive an image from the first camera element and an image from the second camera element, wherein the first camera element image and the second camera element image are captured with the ground tracking apparatus at a first position;
detect a ground feature in both the image from the first camera element and the image from the second camera element;
determine, based on a position of the ground feature in the image from the first camera element and a position of the ground feature in the image from the second camera element, a height value of the ground tracker above the ground feature at the first position;
store the height value at the first position in a non-transitory memory;
receive another image from the first camera element and another image from the second camera element, wherein the another images are captured at a second position different from the first position;
detect a ground feature in the another image from the first camera element and the another image from the second camera element;
determine, based on a position of the ground feature in the another image from the first camera element and a position of the ground feature in the another image from the second camera element, a height value of the ground tracker above the ground feature at the second position; and
store the height value at the second position in a non-transitory memory.

16. The ground tracker of claim 15 , wherein the processing element is further programmed to:
determine, based on one or both of the image from the first camera element and the image from the second camera element, the height value at the first position, the height value at the second position, and one or both of the another image from the first camera element and the another image from the second camera element captured at a second position, a change in posit

Assignees

• Olsson Mark S
• Powell Scott A
• Smith Nicholas A
• Newby Garrett A
• Levin Ryan B
• Kok Thomas R
• Martin Michael J
• Seescan Inc

Inventors

• Olsson Mark S
• Powell Scott A
• Smith Nicholas A
• Newby Garrett A
• Levin Ryan B
• Kok Thomas R
• Martin Michael J

Classifications

• H04N23/51

  Housings · CPC title

• H04N23/57

  Mechanical or electrical details of cameras or camera modules specially adapted for being embedded in other devices · CPC title

• H04N23/45

  for generating image signals from two or more image sensors being of different type or operating in different modes, e.g. with a CMOS sensor for moving images in combination with a charge-coupled device [CCD] for still images · CPC title

• G06T7/248 Primary

  involving reference images or patches · CPC title

• H04N5/2252

  Electricity · mapped topic