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    • 专利摘要:
    The present disclosure relates generally to handheld electronic devices equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers or other location-determining subsystems. The invention is particular useful in the construction industry where multiple worksites are in play that do not necessarily correlate predefined locations in the available map data. Some embodiments of the invention relates to a construction site image management system with a server having a construction site database for a set of construction sites comprising and a user interface allowing a user to graphically define a detection area so that subsequently received images from the field can be assigned to the sites in the database based on the recorded image-location. The system typically has multiple mobile terminals adapted to capture images and the location of capture as well as features prompt the user to approve or reject the captured image and transmit approved images to the server which then assigns them. This enables the server to provide a quasi-live status for all the sites.
    公开号:DK201400507A1
    申请号:DKP201400507
    申请日:2014-09-05
    公开日:2015-08-10
    发明作者:Michael Christensen；Kim Fonnesbæk Bang
    申请人:Localtowers Aps；
    IPC主号:
    专利说明:

    Construction site image management system and method Technical Field
    The present disclosure relates generally to handheld electronic devices equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers or other location-determining subsystems. The invention is particular useful in the construction industry where multiple worksites are in play that do not necessarily correlate with predefined locations in the available map data.
    Background
    Some of the new generation of handheld electronic devices include both a camera and a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver chipset. Examples of these handheld electronic devices include GPS-enabled wireless communications devices, PDA Pocket PCs or tablets, GPS-enabled cameraphones or smart phones, and GPS-enabled cameras. These devices can be made "location-aware" by virtue of a GPS receiver that is either embedded as a GPS chipset or connected externally, e.g. a Bluetooth™-enabled GPS puck.
    The combination of GPS and camera features enables "geotagging" (or "geocoding") of digital photographs, i.e. tagging digital photos with geographical information indicative of the location at which the photo was taken. For example, the geotagging may involve appending coordinates of longitude and latitude to a metadata tag, e.g. an Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF) tag that is associated with the digital photo. Other forms of data (notes, blogs, audio clips, video clips, etc.) can also be geotagged in a similar fashion.
    Once photos (or other data) are geotagged, the user can, at a later date, manually annotate the photos (or other data) with textual descriptions such as "Dad's 50th birthday", "My trip to Hawaii 2007", etc. However, manually annotating (i.e. manually labelling) the photos (or other data) is time consuming as this requires the user to retrieve the position coordinates from the metadata file associated with each geotagged photo (or other type of data set) and then use that set of coordinates (and possibly also the timestamp) to figure out where and in what context the photo was taken.
    Even with modern tools such as reverse geocoding, annotating a large batch of photos (or other sets of geotagged data) can be a very laborious process.
    In the construction industry photos are typically used for documentation of work. United States Patent 7,756,883 describes a method where a user at a remote work site can create an issue directly on the network database via a network-connected module arranged inside the electronic device without the login window. Once the user has connected to the network, an issue about the image, a location, a construction site or a piece of machinery can then be created in the database. Wherein the step of creating the issue includes: setting up location codes for a construction site or a piece of machinery, uploading an image, and storing the image on the network database. Any prior engineering information can thus be modified in accordance with the location codes and the images. In WO07103491 image locations are elected via pull-down menus (see e.g. Fig. 18) although GPS information may also be annotated with GPS position data.
    Summary
    In order for digital photographs/images to be useful as documentation of a construction process there can be no doubt as to which construction site it belongs, in the prior art cited above this challenge is met by a high degree of user interaction on site required to select the location and specify object in the image. However, the inventors have found that such work processes are often too time consuming to be performed accurately by the construction workers themselves and instead requires dedicated inspectors to perform the documentation. While this may be acceptable on larger construction projects it is often not practical when a construction firm performs multiple smaller distributed projects such as setting up cell-towers or maintaining rail-road sections. Another problem of such projects is that they are often not located at a specific address or otherwise correlate with a location in the available map data as the extent and the shape of the area that is relevant for the individual project may vary greatly. Furthermore, particularly for a company performing many distributed projects, it is preferably if progress at the various sites can be monitored in relatively near real-time projects without having to disturb the construction team working at the site.
    Map data may be provided from a number of sources. In some embodiments the map data is available directly in the server i.e. in a storage device in the server. This may make the server operation more robust as the server is not dependent on the performance of the network. Some or all of the map data may be provided via a network connection such as from the internet. This may be advantageous as the server is not required to store large amounts of map data. Map data is typically available from governmental institutions, Survey companies and/or projects conglomerating map data from several sub-providers.
    In some embodiments the invention relates to a construction site image management system comprising a server, said server comprising a construction site database for a set of construction sites and said database comprising for each member of the set i) a case identifier, and ii) a set of geographic data defining a detection area for said site, a server user interface arranged to, for a member of the set of construction sites and/or in the process of adding a new member to the set, iii) graphically displaying a map section comprising said construction site, iv) allowing a user to graphically define said detection area on said map section e.g. by using a pointing device, an image receiving module arranged to receive a construction site image-file comprising a geotag corresponding to an image-file position, a detection module arranged to determining that the image-file position is within the detection area of a member of the set of construction sites and assigning said image file to that member. The server will typically further comprise a storage module for storing said image file. In this way the server is arranged to receive a user defined area for each construction site by allowing a user to draw the relevant area on a map and subsequently receive images and automatically assign images to the construction site based on image location (such as via a geotag in the image-file) and the detection area.
    The term module is used to signify a piece of computer code and/or hardware arranged to perform the descriptive function, so that e.g. a storage module is a conglomerate of hardware and software that allows the server store data, such as a harddrive, RAID array, a file-server etc. Typically all components of a module is located in the server or at least at the same location; however, in some embodiments the module may comprise network connected components such as file-server accessible over a network (such as local network).
    In some embodiments the server is arranged to allow the detection area to deactivated and potentially activated again. It may be relevant to deactivate a detection area when a project at a construction site is complete so that no new images are added to the case. Once a new project is initiated at the same site the detection are may be activated again or a new case may be created.
    The case identifier should be unique for each site in the database. As an example this may be achieved by generating a unique character sequence based on the system clock at the time of generating the site as an entry into the database. Typically the site database contains one or more descriptive identifiers either as the case identifier or addition to the case identifier. Such examples include address data, phone number and client data. One advantage of the system of these embodiments is that the server can be set up to provide automatic image assignment for any method of receiving the image-file. For example, the receiving module may be arranged to accept images received via various kinds of network connection (such as e.g. e-mail, ftp, and sftp), to retrieve all images in a folder and/or to retrieve images from a connected memory such as a USB connected memory or the memory of a connected camera.
    Similarly, in some embodiments the invention relates to a method of siteassigning construction site images using one of the embodiments of the disclosed construction site image management systems of the invention comprising - providing a construction site database for a set of construction sites comprising inputting or generating for each member of the set i) a case identifier, and ii) a set of geographic data defining a detection area for said site by utilizing the server user interface for each member of the set of construction sites to graphically define a detection area on a map section e.g. by using a pointing device, - using a mobile terminal to capture a construction site image from a member of the set of construction sites and acquiring the image-file position inside the detection area of said member, - subsequently to which the system assign the construction site image to said member by applying the detection module, the image-file position and the corresponding detection area.
    In some embodiments capturing a construction site image further comprises placing a scale next to an object in the picture. In this size of the object may be accurately assessed. For example, when working with casting-in-place concrete casting it is sometimes required to document the type and size of the steel reinforcements. To this end a scale may be placed next to the steel frame before capturing an image of the steel frame in place on site.
    As previously noted the invention may be particularly advantageous for a large number of construction sites, such as when the set of construction sites comprises more than 2 sites, such as more than 5 sites, such as more than 10 sites, such as more than 25 sites, such as more than 50 sites, such as more than 100 sites.
    As mentioned above, one advantage of the invention is the ability to monitor one or more sites in near real-time (i.e. the images at hand provides and update on the actual progress at the site). Accordingly, in some embodiments the invention relates to a Method of displaying quasi live update on the progress of a construction site using one of the embodiments of the disclosed construction site image management systems of the invention and further to the method cited above storing said image and applying display module (as discussed below) to provide a quasi-live image from a member of the construction sites.
    In the context of the present invention assigning the image to a member of the construction site database refers to providing a link between the two upon which the image and/or the member of the database may be subsequently retrieved. In other words the server may apply the link to present the image as belonging to the member of the database and/or present the member of the construction site database as the site of origin of the image. This may for example be performed by recording a link between the image and the member of the set of construction sites such as appending the case identifier to the image, saving the image in the database itself, storing the image in an electronic folder dedicate to images related to the member of the set of construction images and/or keeping a list of images belonging to each members of the construction such as by keeping such as list in the database record of the individual site in the set. In one embodiment the file name of the image files is made unique e.g. by using the time capture in combination with a random number generator algorithm which makes is either impossible or at least very unlikely that two image obtain the same file name. One way of assigning such images is simply to store a list of image files names in the member of the construction site database.
    As noted in relation to the method above a mobile terminal may integrate with the system so that in some embodiments the system further comprises a mobile terminal comprising - a camera for capturing an image of an object at a construction site and forming an image file representing said image; - a location information module for acquiring current location information of the mobile terminal; and a controller for driving the location information module to obtain the image-file location when the camera is driven and for tagging or otherwise assign the image-file location information to the captured image. In this way the mobile terminal can record and assign a location to the image.
    In some embodiments the detection module is placed in the mobile terminal and the assignment of the image file is performed by the mobile terminal. In such a system the detection areas are transmitted to the mobile terminal. Such an approach may be an alternative to the system described above or may in combination there with. However, as will be recognized by a skilled person, unless otherwise clear the individual features may be applied to any embodiments of the invention. Accordingly, in some embodiment the invention relates to construction site image management system comprising a server and a mobile terminal, said server comprising - a construction site database for a set of construction sites comprising for each member of the set i) a case identifier, and ii) a set of geographic data defining a detection area for said site, - a server user interface arranged to, for a member of the set of construction sites and/or in the process of adding a new member to the set, i) graphically displaying a map section comprising said construction site, ii) allow a user to graphically define said detection area on said map section e.g. by using a pointing device, and - an image transceiver module arranged to i) transmitting a least part of said construction site database to the mobile terminal comprising the detection area of on one or more members of the construction site database ii) receive a site image-file iii) storing said image file; and the mobile terminal comprising - a camera for capturing an image of a subject a construction site, - a location information module for acquiring current location information of the mobile terminal, - a controller for driving the location information module to obtain the image location when the camera is driven and optionally for tagging or otherwise assign the acquired location information to captured image and - a detection module arranged to determine that the image-file position is within the detection area of a member of the set of construction sites.
    In the context of this text tagging is interpreted as assigning the metadata (typical GPS coordinates i.e. a geotag) with the image by creating a link between the position and the data. As discussed above this may preferably be performed by appending the metadata to the file itself which has the advantage that the image and the metadata are bundled together. However, other ways of assigning the metadata may be applied as long as the image is linked to the metadata in the system and appending should also be understood in that way. For example, the metadata may be transmitted in the same bundle of data as the image file to indicate the link (e.g. in an e-mail containing image and metadata) or a database of image-file names (as long as these are unique) and metadata may be transmitted to the server with file names linked to the metadata. The location module may be an internal or external module such as a GPS module which is often the most accurate. However, it should be understood that another type of locationdetermining subsystem can be used, even if it is less precise than GPS, including those location-determining subsystems that determine an approximate location of the device by radiolocation or triangulation techniques (e.g. angle of arrival (AOA), time difference of arrival (TDOA), location signature). Alternatively, an approximate location can be determined by identifying the closest base station or Wi-Fi access point, or combinations the foregoing techniques. Typically examples of mobile terminals was presented in the first paragraphs of the Background such as camera phones and smart phones, tablets computers with an integrated camera, cameras with integrated geo-tagging capabilities. As mentioned above one option is to transfer photos to the server via a cabled connection or by connecting the server to the memory of the mobile terminal; however, it is preferable that the mobile terminal comprises a module for transmitting the images to the server’s receiving unit wirelessly such as via a wireless network or via a mobile broadband connection (such as Edge, 3G or 4G (LTE)). Accordingly, in one embodiment mobile terminal further comprises a transmission module arranged to transmit said image-file wirelessly to said receiving module such as via e-mail, FTP, HTTP and/or s-FTP. In one embodiment HTTP is used to make a catalog of images on the mobile terminal available to the receiving module and the receiving module being arranged to download new images from the mobile terminal.
    In some embodiments it is an advantage that the transmission module uses general purpose software so that special adaptation of the mobile terminal is not required or may be simplified. For example, in an embodiment where the mobile terminal is a general purpose smart-phone its e-mail software may be utilized to transmit image files as attachments to the server’s receiving unit which has been assigned an e-mail address. In some embodiments a general purpose back-up app on a camera enabled smartphone may be applied to wirelessly back-up images to a network location in connection with or part of the receiving module. Similarly, a camera which is wireless network enabled (such via a Canon WFT-E2/E2A/E3/E3A/E4/E4A pack with FTP and FITTP file transfer capabilities and which is able to connect to an external GPS device via USB) may already have the capability to automatic transmit new image-files via FTP and mobile network access may be provided by a mobile broadband modem. Implementation of the invention may be performed without a specialized terminal but with a specialized server.
    In some embodiments it is preferable that the mobile terminal comprises an accept feature available to receive activation subsequent to capturing an image. In this way the operator of the mobile terminal may assist in ensuring that the quality of the image is suitable for documenting the work. Typically the accept feature will be a button such as button on a touch screen or a hardware button on the terminal but may in general be any input device suitable for receiving a user input of accept. Once the accept feature is activated the image-filed is caused to be transmitted to the receiving module. Depending on the method of transmission the transmission may occur immediately or later such during a subsequent synchronization cycle. In some embodiments the accept feature is part of a dedicated adaptation of the mobile terminal such as an app for a smartphone dedicated to provide a user interface for the capturing and transmitting the image-files. In some embodiments the mobile terminal also comprises a reject feature available to receive activation subsequent to capturing an image and that once activated causes said image not to be transmitted to the receiving module such as deleted. The reject feature may be implemented similarly to the accept feature and by having accept and reject features the quality of the captured images that are transmitted the server may be improves. Further, to ensure that the operator of the terminal proceeds to either rejecting or accepting an image the unit is arranged so that subsequent to capturing an image the terminal is locked from transmitting any images to the receiving module until either said accept or said reject feature is activated. In some embodiments further options such as “save for later” or “save in different folder” are available and will also cause the mobile terminal to be able to capture further images. In some embodiments the mobile terminal may be able to capture images using a different access such where a dedicated app is used only image capture within the app is locked whereas a general purpose camera app may still be able to capture images. In some embodiments the mobile terminal is prevented from capturing images until a user input (such as accept or reject”) has been receive in response to the captured image (e.g. accept or reject). This enforces a more strict control on the images captured and may improve the quality of the captured images because the user is not allowed to progress before the image has been considered. In some of such embodiments the terminal has one or more administrator overrides.
    In some embodiments the mobile terminal comprises a stay-updated function which ensures updating of the location information available from the location information module. Depending on the location information module (i.e. typically a GPS module), the distance and time to the previous location the time required to obtain an accurate location may be extensive. Accordingly, in some embodiments the mobile terminal comprises a stay-updated function which ensures updating of the location information available from the location information module e.g. with a set time interval. In this way the location information may deliver a relatively accurate location at a short notice. In some embodiment this mean delivering the latest location whereas in another embodiment this means reacquiring the location just before, during or after the image is captured. The latter will typically be more accurate but more time consuming.
    In some embodiments the mobile terminal is arranged to query the location information module whether a reliable location can be obtained or is available. In some embodiments the mobile terminal is arranged to block for capturing of an image until said query results in an affirmative response from the location information module, such as the margin of error being less than a threshold such as less than 200m, such as less than 100m, such as less than 50 m, such as less than 20 m, such as less than 10m, such as less than 5 m, such as less than 1m. This may be used to ensure that a reliable location is attached to the image so that the image can be assigned to the correct construction site by the server. To ensure that image may be captured even if an accurate location is not available the mobile terminal may be arranged so that the block can be overridden by manual entry of the location either by activating an overriding feature or if a predetermine number of queries fails. The manual entry may for instance comprise selecting the construction site from a list of construction sites.
    The location module may have a reporting feature which provides the accuracy of the obtained location. In some embodiments this accuracy measure is provided along with the image location. The mobile unit may be arranged to provide feedback to the user based on this accuracy measure such as block for capturing an image as discussed above. However, the accuracy may also by applied by the detection module in the determination of whether an image could have been inside a detection area. In some embodiments the image is assigned to a member of the construction site database if it could have been inside the detection area and it could not have been in two detection areas in the database.
    Several advantages of the invention becomes more prominent the more construction sites that are to be manages simultaneously so that in one embodiments the system comprises more than 3 mobile devices, such as more than 5 mobile devices, such as more than 10 mobile devices, such as more than 20 mobile devices, such as more than 50 mobile devices, such as more than 100 mobile devices, such as more than 150 mobile devices, such as more than 1000 mobile devices, such as more than 10000 mobile devices, such as more than 50000 mobile devices. In some embodiments such as those just cited) the server is arranged to serve more than one contracting firms or other relevant entities (referred to as a master user) for which the invention may beneficial. In such cases the server may be arranged to handle multiple master users having one or more users assigned which can access the user interface of the server but cannot access the data of other master users. The data of each master user may be separated into individual databases or joined in a common database where a user restriction is incorporated into the server user interface. Furthermore, the user interface itself may be customizable to the individual user or master user. In some of such embodiments the system is arranged to handle multiple master users such as more than 3 master users, such more than 5, such as more than 10, such as more than 50, such as more than 100, such as more than a 1000.
    In some embodiments (the server comprises the data multiple database each assign to a construction company each having a number of users and multiple members in the database.
    User may be user of the mobile terminal and/or server user interface. The user interface may comprise settings to adjust the features available to the individual users. For example, users of the server user interface may or may not be allowed administrations rights, such as being able to setup new construction sites in the database, delete them or setup and delete new users. Others may be restricted to allow only inspection of images.
    As discussed above the detection area should have a suitable shape to allow accurate detection of images related to the corresponding construction site. The system and the user interface may be arranged to allow definition of the detection area so as to define the shape (plus optionally a surrounding margin) of one or more (such as all) from the group of a section of rail road, a section of a road, a cellular mast and a road. Examples of detections areas includes location data defining a rectangle such as the corners of the rectangle, location data defining a polygon such as the corners of the polygon, a set of circles such as a set of centers and radii and a line (curved or straight) with a margin to one or both sides of this line. Defining the detection area as a set of centers and radii provides for a particular simple method of detecting whether the image location is within the detection, i.e. by calculating the distance to the center and checking whether this distance is less than the radius of this circle of the detection area.
    As discussed above the application of the invention may require that the detection area is not correlated to location information in the available map data. For instance, the detection area may in one instance cover at least partially two or more address location (such as defined by a plot of land) and in another no address locations. Similar to addresses map data may comprise postal code areas, rivers, roads and railways. In some embodiments the detection area comprises a sub-section of one or more geographical items selected an address area, postal code area, river, stream, road and railway as defined in the map data.
    In some embodiments the server user interface of the server allows the user to select said map section from a larger map such as by zooming in/out and scrolling in said larger map. This is practical to allow the user to accurately define the detection area.
    In some embodiments the server user interface is further arranged to, for a member of the set of construction sites, to receive an approximate or proximal location to the construction site such as an address, street name and/or a city. This is practical as this allows the server to present a section of the map containing the proximal location which may be used as a starting point for locating the construction site. The user may work directly in the presented map section or, if that is not sufficient, use the controls discussed above to select an appropriate map selection.
    In some embodiments the user interface may be accessible remotely. For example the server may generate a web-page comprising the user interface and allow external access to this page e.g. via a URL and a user name and password. In general, the server comprises a display module which may be used to show the user interface and/or the images of the database. This is practical as the interface may be accessed from multiple types of devices such as stationary computers, laptop computers, mobile handheld devices etc. In some embodiments this display model provides a remotely accessible user interface such as a web-page. In some embodiment the display module provides the display on a local monitor in directly connected to the server i.e. without a multi-point network in between the two. In one embodiment the display module and the server are integrated such as in a table computer or another remote device.
    In some embodiments the system is further arranged to time-stamp the construction site images (i.e. assign a time and/or date of capture) in order to document the time of capturing the image. This may be useful in disputes where evidence of a situation on a construction site may have to be presented. In some embodiments, the system is further arranged to calculate and append or otherwise assign a checksum to the image based on properties of the image. Such a checksum may be used to determine whether the image has later been modified as such proof that the image has not been altered may be important if the image is used as evidence. The checksum may be saved at a remote location of kept in safe-keeping by the provider of the server or an outside authority which can represent the authenticity of the check sum. Other methods which may be used as alternatives or supplement may be to transmit the all images to such outside authority and/or transmitting backups of the image archive to document that the image has not been altered and/or arranging the server so that images cannot be deleted or altered on the server. The construction company using the database may therefore rely on the integrity of the server provided to provide evidence that the images are authentic. The mobile terminals of the system may further provide proof of authenticity as in some embodiments the captured image cannot be edited prior to transmission the server.
    To save bandwidth in the transmission of images and/or storage space on the server the mobile terminal (such as the transmission module) and/or the server (such as the receiving module) may be arrange to down-sample or otherwise compress the image. For construction site images comprising a scale as discussed above the respective module may be arranged to identify this scale and adjust the compression and/or down-scale ratio so as to allow a clear reading of the scale. In some embodiment the module may further ensure that a copy of the original image is saved on the server and/or at an alternate storage.
    Brief description of the drawings
    Fig. 1 shows an exemplary schematic process flow of entering a member of a construction site database (i.e. adding it to the set) in a system according to some embodiments of the invention,
    Fig. 2 shows an exemplary schematic process flow of capturing a construction site image and assigning it to a member of the database according to some embodiments of the invention,
    Fig. 3 shows an exemplary schematic overview of the system according to some embodiments of the invention including an exemplary mobile terminal 100 with controller circuit 102 controlling the various modules and features of the terminal,
    Fig. 4-12 shows various aspects of an exemplary user interface displayed as a web-page (i.e. an internet browser accessible page) of the server of the system according to some embodiments of the invention. Specifically,
    Fig. 4 shows an overview page for a construction site database for a single master user showing a map section and indicators which points to the detection areas (proximal locations may also be used) of the detection areas for a section or all of the members of the construction site database of that master user,
    Fig. 5 shows a page of the user interface listing the users assigned to the master user,
    Fig. 6 shows an entry page of the user interface where a proximal address for a member of the construction site database can be provided and tested,
    Fig. 7shows a page of the user interface showing the proximal address in a map section and the detection area may be defined graphically,
    Fig. 8 shows a page of Fig. 7 after the detection has been defined,
    Fig. 9 shows a page of the user interface providing an overview of the member of the construction site database,
    Fig. 10 shows a page of the user interface providing and overview of the members of the construction site database,
    Fig. 11 shows the page of Fig. 9 where digital images captured from the construction site are shown,
    Fig. 12 shows a page of the user interface providing a larger view of an individual image as well as an input box where a description of the image can be stored.
    Fig. 13 a) and b) shows aspects of an exemplary mobile terminal of the invention showing the accept and reject features.
    The following figures and related discussion discloses one embodiment of the invention. Flowever, as will be recognized by a skilled person, unless otherwise clear the individual features may be applied to any embodiments of the invention.
    As shown in Fig. 1 the process 1 of entering a member of a construction site database may start by entering title or other natural language identifier 11. This should preferable be a title that recognizable and descriptive for the users accessing the database such as users assigned to the master user owning the database. Entry of an optional title is followed by providing 12 a proximal address to allow the system to provide a relevant map section to the user. As discussed this step is optional because the user may find the map section manually e.g. by zooming in on a larger map. Other proximal items available in the map data could also be used, such as cities, roads etc. The order of the entry of title and the proximal address is typically not important. Such entry 11, 12 are performed on the page 600 of the user interface shown in Fig. 6. The page 600 has a boxes for entry of the title 603, street and house number of the address 604, postal code 605, city 606, country 607 and any relevant description 608 (such as a short description of work scope). The entry in the construction site database is created when pressing the button 610. An instruction to the user is provided 601 along with a button 609 for testing the validity of the address before creating the entry. Pushing the button 609 provides feedback to user of the validity of the address or information that the address is unknown - in this case a valid address is indicted by repeating the address to the user in the field 611. A flawed address prompts a message to that effect (not shown). Furthermore, the page 600 comprises buttons 403, 404, 502 and 602 which respectively will take the user to main pages of the following sections of the user interface: • 403: “employees” (the page 500 shown in Fig. 5). The button 403 is indicated by 503 when shown in other figures as highlighted. • 404: “photos” (not shown) which is a page where images that for some reason cannot be assigned by the server atomically. As an example this may occur because the image was not acquired from a construction site in the database or because the image position is faulty. Such images may be assigned to present members of the database manually or automatically assigned to a new member of the construction site database. The button 404 is indicated by 1201 when shown in other figures as highlighted. • 502: “overview” (the page 400 shown in Fig. 4). The button 502 is indicated by 401 when shown in other figures as highlighted. • 602: “projects” (the page 1000 shown in Fig. 10). The button is highlighted by reversing the background color and the font color relative to the other buttons of this list. This is to indicate that the present page 600 is part of project-section of the user interface as the user here defines a project.
    The button 602 is indicated by 402 when shown in other figures as unhighlighted.
    The web-address 411 relating to the present page is shown.
    In the present embodiment a case identifier is created as the button 610 is pressed based on a random number generator and the time. The title or other data input may also be applied as identifier in which uniqueness of the title should be checked. As will be recognized by the skilled person the sequence of generating/inputting the case identifier relative to other steps in the procedure may be changed.
    The server then obtains and presents a map section to the user 13 as shown on the page 700 of the user interface (see Fig. 7). The map section 706 show the location of the proximal address 702. The page 700 further comprises controls 704 for zooming in and out of the map section or scrolling the map section in either direction as well as controls 705 for changing between showing the map section as a corresponding section of a satellite image or as a traditional map. An instructional text 701 is also provided to the user.
    The user then proceeds to define the detection area 15, 801 graphically on the map section 706 (see Fig. 8). In the present embodiment this is done by pointing and clicking on a position in the map section 706. For each click a circle is placed on the map section 706 with a radius which may be adjusted via the tool 703 (in this case a pull-down menu showing selectable values for the radius radius). Clicking on the center of a circle removes the circle again. The combined circles form the detection area 801. In this embodiment the proximal address is also included in the detection area per default.
    Depending on the typical requirements of the contractor the proximal address may be more or less relevant as detection area so in other embodiments the proximal address is not part of the detection area at least as a default. It is noted that there is no pre-requisite in this embodiment that the circles must be overlapping or adjacent so the detection may be given any relevant shape and may even comprises multiple separated areas. In Fig. 8 the detection area shown covers a sub-section of two roads and their intersection. This detection area could for example be relevant for a project of renovating the fence and curb around adjacent to a series of houses. Such a shape of the detection area is not defined as a component in the available map data and the system therefore provides the means for providing accurate and automatic case assignment based on the image location for construction sites which traverse and/or sub-divides the normal objects identified in a map.
    After defining the detection area 801 the initial entry of the member of the construction site database is complete 16 and the user is directed to an overview page 900 where the member of the construction site database may be viewed and edited. Instructional text 901 directs the user to press the button 902 for editing address information and will take the user back to the page 600 where the address and title information may be edited (which is one advantage of not using this information as identifier). Instructional text 903 directs the user to press the button 904 for editing the detection area which will take the use back to the page 700 in the form shown in Fig. 8 where the detection area is visible. Instructional text 905 directs the user to press the button 905 for adding photos manually to the member of the construction database. This brings up a window where the image file for such as photo may be selected. The overview section 908 provides a map section 912 showing in this case the proximal address but may alternatively or in addition show the detection area. The proximal address is shown 910 and the description provided in box 608 is shown at 909. Finally, the coordinates of the proximal address is provided (specifically in this case as decimal degrees following the WGS84 standard).
    Fig. 2 shows an exemplary schematic process flow of capturing a construction site image and assigning it to a member of the database. Optionally the user of the mobile terminal 100 places a scale (not shown) next to the object to make the dimensions of the object in the captured image identifiable 20 and captures the image 22. The image 1300 as seen by the camera 124 of the mobile terminal is shown on the display 112 of the mobile terminal acting as viewfinder of the mobile terminal 100 is shown in Fig. 13a. The image can then be captured when pressing the button 1301. At some point relative to capturing the image the location module 110 acquires the position of the mobile terminal 100 so that it can be appended to the captured image. As discussed above the location may be obtained e.g. via GPS satellite(s) 400 and/or via using a location databases of wireless network base stations 210 and/or triangulation to such. As an example this acquisition may occur at regular intervals and the position used as the image location may be the latest position acquired and/or the position may be acquired after capturing the image where the latest acquired position may be used of the location module 110 is unable to obtain a position. Once captured, the captured image is then presented to the user 23 as a static image 1304 and may be accepted or rejected 24 by pressing the accept feature/button 1303 or the reject feature/button 1302. In the present embodiment the mobile terminal is in the form of a smartphone running an application to link the smartphone to the remaining system. In some embodiments the user may exit the application and turn to the underlying operation system of the smartphone and potentially access the camera 124 and capture further images in this way the user cannot obtain further images inside the application before either accepting or rejecting the image. In some embodiments the mobile terminal is locked so that the user cannot capture more images e.g. by exiting to the operating system. If the user rejects the image 24, 1304 the image is discarded and the user is returned to the viewfinder mode of Fig. 13a to allow capturing of another image. If the user accepts the image 24, 1304 the images is transmitted to the server 26 or 29 and the user is similarly returned to the viewfinder mode. Following the acceptance 24 Fig. 2 describes two methods for assigning the image either by using the flow of steps 28, 29 and 30 or step 25, 26, 27 and 30. In some embodiments the system is capable of performing both methods. The two flows may be described as: the detection module either of the server 250 or the mobile terminal 100 is applied to assign the image 27, 29 either subsequently or prior to transmission of the image to the server 250, respectfully. As depicted in the exemplary network shown in FIG. 3, the mobile terminal 100 communicates over the air via a wireless network 200 having a base station 210. The wireless network is optionally connected to a data network 300 such as the Internet via an applications gateway 310 which performs various mappings and transformations on the data from the data network 300 in order to optimize it for wireless transport.
    As noted, Fig. 4 shows an overview page 400 for a construction site database such as a database for a master user. In some embodiments the same database is applied to contain the data of multiple master users and in other embodiments each master user has an allocated database. The overview page 400 shows a map section 406 and indicators 409 and 410 which points to the detection areas and/or proximal locations of the detection areas for a section or all of the members of the construction site database of that master user. A list 405 of the latest changes to the database is shown. Buttons 401-407 provides navigation options to access other pages of the user interface. Further to the buttons 401-404 described above a button 407 brings the user to the page 600 for entering a new member of the construction site database. The page 400 also comprises the button 408 which takes the user to a page for entering information relating to a new user of the user interface and/or of a mobile terminal of the system.
    Fig. 5 shows a page 500 of the user interface listing the users in a list 501 assigned to the master user in this case 2 users. The page 500 further comprises a button 504 arranged to direct the user to a page for adding further users as well as button 509 for each user in the list arranged to direct the user of the user interface to a page where the data relating to a specific user can be edited. Column 508 list optional pin codes for each employee and column 507 provides the date of entry of each user. A tick mark in column 505 indicates whether the user has administrator rights such as access to the user interface of the server. A tick mark in column 506 indicates whether the user is also expected to register time spend on the case of each member of the construction site database. In some embodiments that feature is a part of the mobile terminal and in some embodiments the detection module is applied to assist the user of the terminal enter his time spend on the correct case. This detection module may be in the mobile terminal and/or a detection module in the server receiving the location of the mobile terminal 100 from the location module 110. In some embodiments of the invention the detection area is applied to log when the user of the mobile terminal is inside the detection area of a case which is potentially billable time on that case. This is preferably performed via a detection module in the terminal as this reduces the necessary transmissions between the server and the terminal. However, it may sometimes be preferable to use the detection module on the server as this is may be more up to date than that of the terminal and the detection relative to a detection area may be computational intensive and better carried out by a server. The registered time on site may in some embodiments further be compared to manual entries from the user to ensure validity of the entries and discover any discrepancies. Once identified such discrepancies may for instance be reasoned in necessary pauses in the work on site which are not billable or trips off site related to the same case which are billable. However, such function allows a careful management to ensure that the correct time is billed to a customer and provides a way to document the time spend on a case. This feature of monitoring users of the mobile terminal may be used instead of or in combination with the invention related to image management discussed through the remainder of this text. Accordingly, in one embodiment the invention relates to a construction site time management system comprising a server and a mobile terminal, said server comprising - a construction site database for a set of construction sites comprising for each member of the set i) a case identifier, and ii) a set of geographic data defining a detection area for said site, - a server user interface arranged to, for a member of the set of construction sites and/or in the process of adding a new member to the set, i) graphically displaying a map section comprising said construction site, ii) allow a user to graphically define said detection area on said map section e.g. by using a pointing device, and - an image transceiver module arranged to i) transmitting a least part of said construction site database to the mobile terminal comprising the detection area of on one or more members of the construction site database, and the mobile terminal comprising - a location information module for acquiring current location information of the mobile terminal, - a controller for driving the location information module to obtain the location and - a detection module arranged to determining that the location within the detection area of a member of the set of construction sites and logging this time.
    This embodiment may be combined with any of the other embodiments described throughout this text and/or the appended set of claims.
    Fig. 10 shows a page of the user interface providing an overview of the members of the construction site database with a row 1007 for each case and furthermore a button 1008 directing the user to create a new record or entry related to a new construction site member via the pages 600 and 700. The buttons 1006 provides access to page 900 for existing entries for closer inspection or editing (via buttons 902, 904 or 907). Column 1004 provides the addresses for the proximal locations of each construction sites and the column 1003 provides the number of images saved. The column 1002 provides the dates of creating the record of the construction site in the database and the column 1001 shows the present weather conditions at the site.
    Fig. 11 shows the page of Fig. 9 where digital images 1101, 1102 captured from the construction site have been assigned to this member of the database. Note that the images, address information and are exemplary and not otherwise related to each other and not to a real construction site. The image 1102 shows an image of a radio tower and the image 1101 show a mesh of rebar beams laid out. In a real case those two images would often be related so that the rebar beam image documents the status and/or the reinforcing steel used in e.g. the base structure for the tower. As previously noted, a scale is preferably placed in the image of the rebar beams to document the dimensions of the mesh and/or the individual beams. The page 900 further comprises controls 1103 so that the images may be viewed in various sizes in an array. As noted above the view of the most recent assigned images provide a quasi-live view of the construction site i.e. a substantially updated view of the status of the work at the work site provided that the workers or other users of the mobile terminal are trained to capture images at suitable intervals. In some embodiment the mobile terminal further comprises a reminder or notification means (such as a audial or vibrational alarm) which is arranged to remind the user of the mobile terminal to capture an image. In some embodiments this may be activated via the server’s user interface so that user or operator of the mobile terminal can be requested to capture and updated image. The system provides this quasi-live view because the images may be approved (at the mobile terminal), transmitted and automatically assign as soon as they are received. Note that the buttons 502, 602, 403 and 404 are not shown in the screenshot of Fig. 11 but also available on the page by scrolling the page down. The page 900 also provides a button 1104 for deleting the image and a button 1108 for adding image attributes. These buttons appear when hovering over the image with the mouse pointer. Clicking anywhere else on the image causes the full size image to open in the browser. Clicking the button 1104 for deleting the image provides the dialog box 1105 prompting the user to approve deletion of the picture by clicking the button 1106 or cancelling the deletion by clicking the button 1107. Clicking the button 1108 brings the user to page 1200 shown in Fig. 12. On this page 1200 a larger view of the image 1102 is provided along with a box 1203 for providing a description of the image and pull-down menu 1204 allowing the user to manually assign the image to another member of the database. The buttons 1205 and 1206 saves or disregards the updated attributes for the image, respectively. In some embodiments the addition of comments is available on the mobile terminal prior to transmission of the image to the server.
    This new technology has been described in terms of specific implementations and configurations which are intended to be exemplary only. The scope of the exclusive right sought by the Applicant is therefore intended to be limited solely by the appended claims as well as any further invention disclosed in this text and/or drawings.
    权利要求:
    Claims (11)
    [1] 1. construction site image management system comprising a server comprising - a construction site database for a set of construction sites comprising for each member of the set i) a case identifier, and ii) a set of geographic data defining a detection area for said site and - a server user interface arranged to, for a member of the set of construction sites and/or in the process of adding a new member to the set, i) graphically displaying a map section comprising said construction site, ii) allowing a user to graphically define said detection area on said map section e.g. by using a pointing device and - an image receiving module arranged to receive a construction site image-file comprising a geotag corresponding to an image-file position, a detection module arranged to determining that the image-file position is within the detection area of a member of the set of construction sites and assigning said image file to that member and wherein said system further comprises a mobile terminal said terminal comprising - a camera for capturing an image of an object at a construction site and forming an image file representing said image; - a location information module for acquiring current location information of the mobile terminal; and - a controller for driving the location information module to obtain the image-file location when the camera is driven and for tagging or otherwise assign the image-file location information to the captured image.
    [2] 2 The system of claim 1 wherein said mobile terminal further comprises a transmission module arranged to transmit said image-file wirelessly to said receiving module such as via e-mail, ftp and/or s-ftp.
    [3] 3 The system of claim 1 or 2 wherein said mobile terminal comprises an accept feature available to receive activation subsequent to capturing an image and that once activated causes said image file to be transmitted to the receiving module.
    [4] 4 The system of any of the preceding claims wherein said mobile terminal comprises a reject feature available to receive activation subsequent to capturing an image and that once activated causes said image not to be transmitted to the receiving moduie such as deleted.
    [5] 5 The system of any of the preceding claims wherein said detection area is formed by one or more of - Location data defining a Rectangle, - Location data defining a polygon, - Location data defining a set of circles such as a set of centers and radii.
    [6] 6 The system of any of the preceding claims wherein said map data comprises a set of address locations and said detection area comprises two or more address locations and/or wherein said map data comprises a set of address locations and said detection area comprises no address locations.
    [7] 7 The system of any of the preceding claims wherein said user interface is arrange so that the detection area may be defined as the shape (plus a surrounding margin) of an object in the map data selected from the group of a section of train rails, a section of a road, a cellular mast, a stand-alone cellular mast.
    [8] 8 The system of any of the preceding claims wherein said assigning the image comprises one or more of - recording a link between the image and the member of the set of construction sites, -- appending said case identifier to the image and - storing said image in a corresponding electronic folder dedicate to images related to the member of the set of construction images.
    [9] 9 The system of any of the preceding claims wherein the server further comprises a display module arranged to (preferably selectively) displaying image(s) for a member of the set of construction sites and wherein said displaying and/or said user interface is provided via a network such as by providing a web-page.
    [10] 10. method of site-assigning construction site images using a construction site image management system of claims 1 to 10 comprising - providing data to the construction site database for a set of construction sites comprising for each member of the set i) generating or inputting a case identifier, and ii) defining a detection area for said site by utilizing the server user interface for each member of the set of construction sites to graphically define a detection area on a map section e.g. by using a pointing device - using a mobile terminal of any one of claims 1 to 1 to capture a construction site image from a member of the set of construction sites and acquiring the image-file position inside the detection area of said member, - subsequently to which the system assign the construction site image to said member by applying the detection module, the image-file position and the corresponding detection area.
    [11] 11 The method of claim 10 wherein capturing a construction site image further comprises placing a scale next to an object in the picture and said scale is arrange to indicate the type of object.
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    同族专利:
    公开号 | 公开日
    DK178501B1|2016-04-18|
    WO2015113568A1|2015-08-06|
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    法律状态:
    2017-04-24| PBP| Patent lapsed|Effective date: 20160930 |
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    DK201400048|2014-01-29|
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