Systems and methods for taking, processing, retrieving, and displaying images from unmanned aerial vehicles

Abstract

A method comprising receiving aerial images captured by one or more unmanned aerial vehicle; receiving metadata associated with the aerial images captured by the one or more unmanned aerial vehicle; geo-referencing the aerial images based on a geographic location of a surface to determine geographic coordinates of pixels of the aerial images; receiving a geographic location from a user; retrieving one or more of the aerial images associated with the geographic location based on the determined geographic coordinates; and displaying to the user one or more overview image depicting the geographic location and overlaid with one or more icons indicative of and associated with the retrieved aerial images associated with the geographic location.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method, comprising:
 receiving aerial images captured by one or more unmanned aerial vehicle;   receiving metadata associated with the aerial images captured by the one or more unmanned aerial vehicle;   geo-referencing the aerial images based at least in part on a geographic location of a surface to determine geographic coordinates of pixels of the aerial images;   receiving a geographic location from a user;   retrieving one or more of the aerial images associated with the geographic location based on the determined geographic coordinates of the pixels; and   displaying to the user one or more overview image depicting the geographic location and overlaid with one or more icons indicative of and associated with the retrieved aerial images associated with the geographic location.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the metadata includes orientation, attitude, and bearing of one or more image capture device that captured the one or more aerial image, and wherein geo-referencing the aerial images based at least in part on a geographic location of a surface to determine geographic coordinates is geo-referencing the aerial images based at least in part on a geographic location of a surface and using the orientation, attitude, and bearing of the image capture device to determine the geographic coordinates of objects depicted in the one or more aerial image. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving a selection from the user of one of the icons; and   displaying the retrieved aerial image associated with the icon.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the geographic location from the user is in a form of three or more geographic points forming a polygon. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising creating a three dimensional polygon based on the polygon and a predetermined height dimension; and wherein retrieving one or more of the aerial images associated with the geographic location based on the determined geographic coordinates further comprises retrieving one or more of the aerial images associated with the geographic location based on the three dimensional polygon. 
     
     
         6 . A method, comprising:
 receiving aerial images captured by one or more image capture device on one or more unmanned aerial vehicle, the aerial images depicting only objects above the ground;   receiving metadata associated with the one or more image capture device at the time the aerial images were captured, the metadata including latitude and longitude of the one or more image capture device and one or more of altitude, orientation, attitude, and bearing of the one or more image capture device;   receiving information indicative of a location of a region of interest; and   geolocating one or more of the aerial images, thereby associating one or more of the geolocated aerial images with the region of interest.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein geolocating the one or more aerial images is based at least in part on correlating the information indicative of the location of the region of interest and the metadata associated with the one or more image capture device at the time the aerial images were captured. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the metadata associated with the one or more image capture device further includes one or more of sensor size of the one or more image capture device, focal length of the one or more image capture device; pixel pitch of the one or more image capture device, and distortion parameters of the one or more image capture device. 
     
     
         9 . A method, comprising:
 receiving aerial images captured by one or more unmanned aerial vehicle and time data indicative of a time the aerial images were captured;   receiving metadata captured by the one or more unmanned aerial vehicle including time data indicative of when the metadata was captured;   associating the metadata with the aerial images based at least in part on matching the time data of the metadata with the time data of the aerial images;   geo-referencing the aerial images based on a geographic location of a surface to determine geographic coordinates of pixels for ground locations and objects depicted in the aerial images;   receiving a geographic location from a user;   retrieving one or more of the aerial images associated with the geographic location based on the determined geographic coordinates; and   displaying to the user one or more overview image depicting the geographic location and overlaid with one or more icons indicative of and associated with the retrieved aerial images associated with the geographic location.   
     
     
         10 . A method, comprising:
 receiving non-standardized metadata captured by an unmanned aerial vehicle and associated with one or more image captured by the unmanned aerial vehicle;   transforming the non-standardized metadata into a standardized format; and   storing the transformed metadata in a first database associated with the one or more image stored in a second database.   
     
     
         11 . A method for capturing aerial images, comprising:
 determining, with at least one of a controller of an unmanned aerial vehicle and a processor of a remote station, a flight plan of the unmanned aerial vehicle, the flight plan configured such that the unmanned aerial vehicle and fields of view of an image capture device of the unmanned aerial vehicle are restricted to an area within boundaries of a geographic location identified by coordinates of the geographic location;   executing, with the unmanned aerial vehicle, the flight plan; and   capturing, with the image capture device, one or more aerial images solely within the boundaries of the geographic location and restricted to fields of view within the boundaries while executing the flight plan.   
     
     
         12 . The method for capturing aerial images of  claim 11 , wherein executing the flight plan is carried out automatically by the controller of the unmanned aerial vehicle. 
     
     
         13 . The method for capturing aerial images of  claim 11 , wherein executing the flight plan is at least partially carried out by an operator utilizing a human-machine interface module of the remote station, and further comprising:
 receiving, by the remote station, one or more first non-transitory signal indicative of position of the unmanned aerial vehicle; and   transmitting, from the remote station to a communications system of the unmanned aerial vehicle, one or more second non-transitory signal indicative of instructions for navigation of the unmanned aerial vehicle to maintain the unmanned aerial vehicle within the boundaries.   
     
     
         14 . A method, comprising:
 receiving aerial images captured by one or more unmanned aerial vehicle;   receiving metadata associated with the aerial images captured by the one or more unmanned aerial vehicle;   geo-referencing the aerial images based at least in part on a geographic location of a surface to determine geographic coordinates of pixels of the aerial images;   receiving a geographic location from a user based on selection by the user of one or more pixels of a first one of the aerial images, the geographic location being above the ground; and   retrieving one or more of second ones of the aerial images associated with the geographic location from the user based on the determined geographic coordinates of the pixels.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the geographic location from the user is in a form of three or more geographic points based on selection by the user of three or more pixels forming a polygon of the first one of the aerial images. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the first one of the aerial images includes a depiction of a structure and the geographic location from the user in the form of three or more geographic points forming a polygon is located on the structure in the first on of the aerial image. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the first one of the aerial images includes a depiction of a structure and the geographic location from the user in in a form of one or more elements of the structure chosen by the user in the first on of the aerial image. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the one or more elements of the structure are chosen from the group consisting of a wall, a roof plane, a roof, a floor, a door, an intersection, a cross-section, and a window.