- Manual “free-hand” paper sketches of the geographic area (which may include one or more buildings, natural or man-made landmarks, property boundaries, streets/intersections, public works or facilities such as street lighting, signage, fire hydrants, mail boxes, parking meters, etc.);
- Various maps indicating surface features and/or extents of geographical areas, such as street/road maps, topographical maps, military maps, parcel maps, tax maps, town and county planning maps, call-center and/or facility polygon maps, virtual maps, etc. (such maps may or may not include geo-encoded information);
- Architectural, construction and/or engineering drawings and virtual renditions of a space/geographic area (including “as built” or post-construction drawings);
- Land surveys, i.e., plots produced at ground level using references to known points such as the center line of a street to plot the metes and bounds and related location data regarding a building, parcel, utility, roadway, or other object or installation;
- A grid (a pattern of horizontal and vertical lines used as a reference) to provide representational geographic information (which may be used “as is” for an input image or as an overlay for an acquired “real world” scene, drawing, map, etc.);
- “Bare” data representing geo-encoded information (geographical data points) and not necessarily derived from an acquired/captured real-world scene (e.g., not pixel information from a digital camera or other digital image acquisition device). Such “bare” data may be nonetheless used to construct a displayed input image, and may be in any of a variety of computer-readable formats, including XML); and
- Photographic renderings/images, including street level, topographical, satellite, and aerial photographic renderings/images, any of which may be updated periodically to capture changes in a given geographic area over time (e.g., seasonal changes such as foliage density, which may variably impact the ability to see some aspects of the image).

It should also be appreciated that source data representing an input image may be compiled from multiple data/information sources; for example, any two or more of the examples provided above for input images and source data representing input images, or any two or more other data sources, can provide information that can be combined or integrated to form source data that is electronically processed to display an image on a display device.

Various examples of input images as discussed above are provided inFIGS. 9-14. For example,FIG. 9 shows asketch1000, representing an exemplary input image;FIG. 10 shows amap1100, representing an exemplary input image;FIG. 11 shows a construction/engineering drawing1300, representing an exemplary input image;FIG. 12 shows aland survey map1400, representing an exemplary input image;FIG. 13 shows agrid1500, overlaid on the construction/engineering drawing1300 ofFIG. 11, representing an exemplary input image; andFIG. 14 shows astreet level image1600, representing an exemplary input image.

IV. DISPLAYING FACILITIES MAP INFORMATION AND/OR OTHER IMAGE INFORMATION ON A MARKING DEVICE

In some embodiments, markingdevice110 may display various information relating to one or more facilities maps or one or more input images ondisplay146. For example, processor(s)118 may access facilities map data (e.g., from a file or a database) stored inlocal memory122 or may retrieve facilities map data stored onremote computer150 and may display ondisplay146 facilities maps based on the facilities map data.

In some embodiments,processor118 may execute amap viewer application113 for displaying facilities maps and/or input images. Themap viewer application113 may be a custom application or any conventional viewer application that is capable of reading in electronic facilities maps data or other input images, and rendering all or a portion of the electronic facilities maps data/input images to an image that can be viewed ondisplay146. Examples of conventional map viewer applications suitable for purposes of some embodiments of the present invention include, but are not limited to, the Bentley® viewer application from Bentley Systems, Inc. (Exton, Pa.) and the ArcGIS viewer application from Environmental Systems Research Institute (Redlands, Calif.). While the discussion below initially focuses on the display of facilities map information for purposes of illustrating some of the inventive concepts disclosed herein, it should be appreciated that the various concepts discussed below apply generally to the display of other types of image information as well.

Processor

118 may select a map to be displayed ondisplay146 in any of variety of ways. In some embodiments, a technician using the marking device may manually select a map to be displayed. For example, the technician may access a list of facilities maps available inlocal memory122 and/or stored on remote computer using user interface126 (e.g., via a menu-driven graphics user interface on the user interface126) and may select a desired map from the list. In response,processor118 may access the corresponding map data and render an image of the map or a portion of the map on display146 (e.g., using the map viewer application113). The technician may then also adjust the particular portion of the map that is displayed ondisplay146 by usinguser interface146 to pan or scroll to the desired portion of the map, and may additionally select the desired zoom level at which the portion of the map is displayed.

In some embodiments,processor118, in addition to or instead of providing the capability for a user/technician to manually select facilities map information to be displayed ondisplay146, may also automatically select a facilities map and display all or a portion of the selected facilities map ondisplay146. A variety of techniques may be used to automatically select a facilities map to be displayed ondisplay146, as well as a default pan and/or zoom for the selected map, and the invention is not limited to any particular technique.

In some embodiments, a facilities map may be automatically selected for display based, at least in part, on the type of facility being marked by the marking device and/or the current location of the marking device (e.g., obtained from the location tracking system).

For example, in some embodiments,processor118 may determine the type of facility being marked by the marking device (e.g., using marking material detection mechanism132) and select a facilities map based on that facility type. As discussed above, marking material detection mechanism may determine the type of facility being marked by determining the color of the marking material loaded into and/or being dispensed by the marking device. Because each marking material color corresponds to a particular type of facility, the color of the marking material may be used to select a facilities map. Table 1 shows an example of the correspondence of marking material color to the type of facility to be marked.

TABLE 1

Correspondence of color to facility type

Marking
material color	Facility Type

Red	Electric power lines, cables or conduits, and lighting
	cables
Yellow	Gas, oil, steam, petroleum, or other hazardous liquid or
	gaseous materials
Orange	Communications, cable TV, alarm or signal lines,
	cables, or conduits
Blue	Water, irrigation, and slurry lines
Green	Sewers, storm sewer facilities, or other drain lines
White	Proposed excavation
Pink	Temporary survey markings
Purple	Reclaimed water, irrigation and slurry lines
Black	Mark-out for errant lines

Thus, for example, ifprocessor118 determines from marking material detection mechanism that the color of the marking material loaded into and/or being dispensed by the marking device is red, then electric power lines may be determined as the type of facility being marked. As another example, ifprocessor118 determines from marking material detection mechanism that the color of the marking material loaded into and/or being dispensed by the marking device is yellow, then gas lines may be determined as the type of facility being marked.

In some embodiments, rather than determine the type of facility being marked based on the color of the marking material,processor118 may prompt, viauser interface126, the technician using the marking device to manually input the type of facility being marked, and may accept the technician's input as the type of facility being marked. In yet another embodiment, facility type information may be derived from the ticket information, discussed above in section I; in particular, ticket information typically includes one or more member codes representing facility owners of different types of facilities, and available ticket information may be parsed to determine relevant facility types based on one or more member codes present in the ticket information. Accordingly, in some implementations, one or more appropriate facilities maps may be selected, before the marking operation and independently of the marking material and/or other manual input from the user, based on facility type information derived from the ticket information.

In some embodiments, once the type of facility being marked has been determined,processor118 may select a facilities map or facilities map data to render a display ondisplay146 by determining the current geo-location of the marking device and selecting a facilities map or facilities map data corresponding to the facility type being marked based on the current location of the marking device.Processor118 may determine the current geo-location of the marking device fromlocation tracking system130 and may select a facilities map or facilities map data for the type of facility being marked that includes the current geo-location. For example, if the current location of the marking device is 2650.9348,N,08003.5057,W, and the type of facility is electric power lines,processor118 may access facilities map data that covers an area including 2650.9348,N,08003.5057,W and includes data indicating the location of electric power lines in this area, and may render a map image ondisplay146 showing the area and location of the electric power lines in that area.

Other techniques for automatically selecting a facilities map or facilities map data to render a displayed image may be used. For example, in some embodiments,processor118 may select a facilities map or facilities map data to be displayed using information from the ticket for a particular locate operation. For example, an address from the ticket may be used to select facilities map data that covers the geographic area in which the address is located. In some embodiments, one or more member codes from the ticket may be used to determine a facility type that is to be marked and automatically select the appropriate facilities map data for that facility type. For example, if a ticket includes a member code for the gas company,processor118 may automatically select gas facilities map data. In some situations, a ticket may include multiple member codes corresponding to different utility types. In such situations, standard operating procedure may be used to determine which facilities map to automatically select first. For example, a ticket may include member codes for the gas company and the electric company. Standard operating procedure may be specify that gas is to be marked before electric and, as such,processor118 may automatically select the gas facilities map data to be displayed first and, once the gas locate and marking operation is complete, may automatically select the electric facilities map to be displayed next.

In some embodiments, information about the entity that requested that the locate operation be performed may be used in automatically selecting facilities map data. For example, if the electric company requested that the locate operation be performed,processor118 may automatically select the electric facilities map data to be visually rendered and displayed.

In addition, in some embodiments, facilities map data may be selected based on a virtual white line (VWL) image that includes markings imposed on an image that delimit an area in which excavation is planned. Thus, for example,processor118 may select facilities map data that includes the area indicated by the markings.

In some embodiments, once facilities map data has been automatically selected, a portion of the facilities map or facilities map data to render an image ondisplay146 may be identified. That is, the facilities map data that has been automatically selected may cover an area significantly larger than the work site/dig area at which a locate and/or marking operation is being conducted, and thus only a portion of the selected map data needs to be displayed ondisplay146. Accordingly, in some embodiments, themap viewer application113 executing onprocessor118 may display only a portion of the facilities map data ondisplay146. The portion of the facilities map to be displayed may be selected in a variety of ways. For example, in some embodiments, a technician may have the ability to manually select the portion of a facilities map that is desired to be displayed ondisplay146. As an example, once a particular facilities map has been automatically selected, the facilities map may be displayed ondisplay146 at a default zoom level, centered at the current geo-location of the marking device. If the technician desires to a view a different portion of the map or adjust the zoom level, the technician may pan or scroll to a different part of the map and adjust the zoom level using the controls ofuser interface126.

In some embodiments, in addition to or instead of providing a technician with the capability to manually select a portion of a facilities map data to be displayed,processor118 may automatically select a portion of the facilities map data to be displayed. For example, in some embodiments,processor118 may select a portion of the selected facilities map data to be displayed based on one or more aspects of the ticket information pursuant to which the locate and/or marking operation is being performed. In particular, as noted above, the ticket information generally includes some description of the work site/dig area (in which excavation, digging or otherwise disturbing the ground is anticipated). While conventionally such information about the work site/dig area may be included as text comments in the ticket information, in some instances the ticket information may include a digital image (e.g., an aerial image) of a geographic area surrounding/proximate to the work site, on which are placed (e.g., via an electronic drawing tool) one or more dig area indicators to indicate or delimit a dig area. These marked-up digital images may be saved together with metadata pertaining to various information in the images.

An example of a drawing application that may be used to create such marked-up images including dig area indicators is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/366,853 filed Feb. 6, 2009, entitled “Virtual white lines for delimiting planned excavation sites;” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/475,905 filed Jun. 1, 2009, entitled “Virtual white lines for delimiting planned excavation sites of staged excavation projects;” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/422,364 filed Apr. 13, 2009, entitled “Virtual white lines (VWL) application for indicating a planned excavation or locate path.” Each of these patent applications is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

In one example, the dig area indicators in a marked-up image may include two-dimensional (2D) drawing shapes, shades, points, symbols, coordinates, data sets, or other indicators to indicate on a digital image the dig area in which excavation is to occur. To generate the electronic image having dig area indicators, an image (e.g., an aerial image) of the work site may be sent to an excavator via a network, the excavator may use a computing device executing the drawing application to create a marked-up image by marking up the image to include one or more dig area indicators precisely delimiting one or more dig areas within the work site and, in response, the marked-up image may be received from the excavator via the network.

As noted above, a marked-up image may include metadata corresponding to any markings or content in the image; in particular, geographic information including geographic coordinates (e.g., latitude and longitude values) for any dig area indicators on the marked-up image may accompany or be included in an image file as metadata, and these geographic coordinates may be employed in a variety of manners to select a portion of the facilities map data to be displayed ondisplay146.

For example, in some embodiments, the portion of the facilities map data to be displayed may be selected to include all or a portion of the dig area as indicated on the marked-up image. In particular, in one exemplary implementation, geographic coordinates associated with a single dig area indicator may be used to select facilities map contents that relates only to a geographic area including the geographic coordinates for the dig area indicator, or contents that falls within a predetermined radius of the geographic coordinates for the dig area indicator or a polygon-shaped buffer zone around the geographic coordinates for the dig area indicator. In yet another example, geographic coordinates associated with multiple dig area indicators that delimit a specific dig are may be used to select only contents of the facilities map that corresponds to the delimited dig area. In yet another embodiment, the contents of the facilities map that corresponds to the delimited dig area may be displayed with a “buffer frame” around the delimited dig area (e.g., to provide some margins for the viewed subject matter). Accordingly, it should be appreciated that in some embodiments, the dig area indicator coordinates may identify a plurality of points along a perimeter of the delimited dig area, and these coordinates may be used to select specific geographic information from the facilities maps (e.g., filter out geographic information outside of the delimited dig area). In other embodiments, the dig area indicator coordinates may identify a single point, in which case the coordinates may be used to select particular information based at least in part on the coordinates for the single point.

In some embodiments, themap viewer application113 executing onprocessor118 may automatically select an orientation of the map or portion of the map that is displayed ondisplay146 based on the direction in which a technician of the marking device is moving. In some conventional techniques for displaying map information, a displayed map generally is oriented so that north is at the top of the display and south is at the bottom of the display. However, the inventors have appreciated that when displaying a facilities map or portion thereof on a marking device during a locate and/or marking operation, orienting the map such that the direction in which the technician is moving is at the top of the map may aid the technician in identifying the location of underground facilities relative to his or her current position. Thus, for example, if the technician is walking north, then the map viewer application may display the selected portion of the map such that north is at the top of the screen. If the technician turns left and is walking west, then the map viewer application may re-orient the selected portion of the map such that west is at the top of the screen. In this manner, themap viewer application113 executing onprocessor118 may update the portion and/or the orientation of the facilities map that is being displayed ondisplay146 in essentially real-time (e.g., update one or more of pan, zoon, and orientation as the technician moves from one place to another during the operation).

Themap viewer application113 may determine the direction in which a technician is walking using any of a variety of techniques. For example, in some embodiments,processor118 may monitor the current geo-location of the marking device as indicated bylocation tracking system130, determine the direction in which the marking device is moving based on changes in the geo-location, and provide this direction to the map viewer application. For example, in someembodiments processor118 may determine the direction in which the marking device is moving by obtaining the current heading from the electronic compass.

In some embodiments, markingdevice110 may include other devices that may be used to determine the direction in which the marking device is moving, such as a compass, an accelerometer, and/or an inclinometer. Thus, in some embodiments,processor118 may use these devices instead of or in addition tolocation tracking system130 to determine the direction in which the marking device is moving. For example, in some embodiments, the compass may be used to determine a heading in which the marking device is moving. In other embodiments, the accelerometer and/or inclinometer may be used to determine the direction in which the marking device is moving.

To demonstrate the concept of automatically orienting and positioning a portion of a facilities map based on technician/device movement and heading,FIG. 15 illustrates an example of avideo frame sequence400 that may be displayed ondisplay146 of markingdevice110 as a technician moves the marking device to different geo-locations during a locate and/or marking operation. To illustratevideo frame sequence400,FIG. 15 shows an example facilities map410, which is the facilities map to be displayed ondisplay146. Facilities map410 shows, for example, anintersection412 of Roosevelt Avenue, which runs east and west, and Walnut Street, which runs north and south. Installed along Roosevelt Avenue and/or Walnut Street is a firstunderground facility414 and a secondunderground facility416. By way of example,video frame sequence400 shows a frame sequence that is presented on display146 (e.g., by the map viewer application113) to the technician while in the process of locating and/or marking the firstunderground facility414. Each frame ofvideo frame sequence400 represents a segment of facilities map410 that is being displayed.

Referring toFIG. 15, as the locate technician moves in a northerly direction along Walnut Street,frame1 ofvideo frame sequence400 that is displayed ondisplay146 showsunderground facility414 at the south end of Walnut Street with respect to facilities map410. Additionally,frame1 is oriented ondisplay146 with a north heading.

As the locate technician continues to move in a northerly direction along Walnut Street,frame2 ofvideo frame sequence400 that is displayed ondisplay146 showsunderground facility414 while approachingintersection412 of facilities map410. Additionally,frame2 is still oriented ondisplay146 with a north heading.

As the locate technician continues to move in a northerly direction throughintersection412,frame3 ofvideo frame sequence400 that is displayed ondisplay146 showsunderground facility414 atintersection412. Additionally,frame3 is still oriented ondisplay114 with a north heading.

As the locate technician changes direction and moves in a westerly direction along Roosevelt Avenue,frame4 ofvideo frame sequence400 that is displayed ondisplay146 showsunderground facility414 while exitingintersection412 along Roosevelt Avenue. Additionally,frame4 the orientation of facilities map410 ondisplay146 has been updated from a north heading to a west heading.

As the locate technician continues to move in a westerly direction along Roosevelt Avenue,frame5 ofvideo frame sequence400 that is displayed ondisplay146 showsunderground facility414 at the west end of Roosevelt Avenue with respect to facilities map410. Additionally,frame5 is still oriented ondisplay146 with a west heading.

The inventors have appreciated that, in some situations where the locate technician is moving in a particular direction, the locate technician may reach a location that is at the end of a the portion of the map that is currently being displayed, such that if the technician were to continue to move along a vector that includes a component in that direction, his or her location will no longer be a location on the portion of the map that is currently being displayed, but rather may be a location that is in a different map portion.

Thus, in some embodiments, when a location technician moves from a location that is on the map portion currently being displayed to a location that is not on the map portion that is currently being displayed,processor118 may determine that the technician has moved off the map portion that is currently being displayed.Processor118 may then identify and select additional map data (e.g., stored in thelocal memory122 of the marking device, or retrieved from a library/archive stored on remote computer150) that includes the location to which the technician has moved and cause themap viewer application113 to display this other map, in a manner similar to that discussed above in connection with appropriate selection of maps/images for display.

In addition, in some embodiments, it may be desired to display a map such that the current location of the technician is roughly centered on the display. In this way, as the technician moves, the portion of the map that is displayed is adjusted so that the geographic location of technician on the map is displayed roughly in the center of the display. In such embodiments, the technician may be at a geographic location that is near or at the end of the currently displayed map portion. Thus, if the current location of the technician were to be displayed at roughly the center of the display, then a portion of the display may be left blank because the map data that belongs in that portion of the display is not in the map currently being displayed. Thus, in some embodiments, to address this issue,processor118 may determine when the technician is at a location that warrants additional map data to be displayed on the display at the same time, determine which additional map data includes the desired data, stitch together a map image using the additional map data, and cause this “stitched together” image to be displayed on the display.

While the concepts described immediately above (e.g., updating pan, zoom and or orientation of displayed content based on technician/device movement and heading) were discussed for purposes of illustration using facilities map information, it should be appreciated that the foregoing discussion applies similarly to other types of image information (e.g., from one or more of the input images discussed above in Section III).

FIG. 16 illustrates a flow diagram of aprocess500 for selecting and viewing facilities map information or other image information on a marking device, according to one embodiment of the present invention.Process500 begins atact512 where the type of facility to be marked is established manually or automatically using, for example, any of the techniques discussed above. The process then continues to act514, where the location tracking system of the marking device is queried for the current geo-location information. The geo-location data fromlocation tracking system158 may be provided, in a variety of different formats, including for example, in degrees, minutes, and seconds (i.e., DDD° MM′ SS.S″), degrees and decimal minutes (DDD° MM.MMM′), decimal degrees (DDD.DDDDD°), and/or any combination thereof.

The process next continue to act516, where facilities map data that matches the determined facility type determined inact512 and the geo-location determined inact514 is identified. The process then continues to act518, where the map viewer application reads in the identified facilities map data, preparing to present an image of this facilities map on the display of the marking device. The processor then continues to act520, where the current heading (i.e., the direction in which the marking device is moving) is determined from, for example, the location tracking system, compass, inclinometer, and/or accelerometer. Once the current heading is determined, the process continues to act522, where a map or map image segment is oriented according to the determined heading and centered according to the current gee-location of the marking device, and the facilities map image is presented on the display of the marking device.

In some embodiments, the marking device may alert the technician when he or she is at a location of a facility line, as indicated by the facilities map data. Thus, in some embodiments, the process may continue to act524, where an alert to the locate technician may be generated based on comparing current gee-location of the marking device to the geo-location of the facilities of the displayed facilities map. In particular, in one exemplary implementation, the geo-location of the facilities of the displayed facilities map constitutes “reference information,” to which “field information” in the form of the geo-location of the marking device (e.g., respective geo-locations of dispensed marking material) may be compared. Various methods and apparatus for comparing field information in the context of locate and marking operations to reference information derived from facilities maps is discussed in U.S. application Ser. No. 12/571,356, filed Sep. 30, 2009, and entitled, “Method And Apparatus For Analyzing Locate And Marking Operations With Respect To Facilities Maps,” which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

In one example,processor118 may compare the geo-location data oflocation tracking system130 to the geo-location information in the displayed facilities map. When the two geo-locations substantially match (within a certain acceptable tolerance), an audible indicator, such as a buzzer or alarm may be activated, a tactile indicator such as a device that vibrates the handle of the marking device, and/or a visual indicator, such as an LED ofuser interface126, may be activated in order to alert the locate technician that he or she is at or near the location of the target facility to be marked.

In other embodiments, if the location of the marking device differs from the location at which the facilities map(s) indicate the facility line to be marked is located by at least a threshold distance (e.g. six feet or any other suitable threshold distance),processor118 may cause an alert (e.g., an audible indicator, a tactile indicator, and/or a visual indicator) to the technician to be activated. In addition, any discrepancies between the locations at which marking material was dispensed and the locations of the facility lines to be marked as indicated on the facilities map may be logged and later evaluated to determine whether the discrepancy is a result of facilities map inaccuracy or locate technician error.

As shown inFIG. 16, the acts ofprocess500 may repeat any number of times and at any programmed frequency (e.g., every 100 milliseconds) until the locate operation is complete. With each iteration of the acts ofprocess500, the map viewer application updates (or refreshes) the display with the current facilities map information in order to reflect any changing geo-location and/or heading of the marking device as the technician performs the locate operation.

IV. OVERLAY OF MARKING INFORMATION ON DISPLAYED FACILITIES MAP INFORMATION OR OTHER IMAGE INFORMATION

The inventors have appreciated that, as a technician using a marking device dispenses marking material during a locate and marking operation, it may be useful to overlay, on displayed facilities map information or other displayed image information, electronic marks that indicate where the marking material was dispensed. This provides the locate technician with a visual representation of where marking material was dispensed relative to the location of facility lines shown on the facilities map, and may accordingly provide a sense of how close the marking material that he or she dispensed is to the location of the facility lines, as indicated on the map. In addition, in some situations, it may be desirable to overlay one or more indicators, such as a “you are here” icon or a pointer icon on the displayed facilities map or other image information to provide the technician with a visual representation of his or her current location on the displayed portion of the map.

FIG. 17 is an example of a process that may be used to overlay data, such as electronic markings indicative of geo-locations at which marking material was dispensed, a present location indicator or a “you are here” icon indicative of the current location of the marking device, or any other type of data, on displayed facilities map information or other image information, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

The process ofFIG. 17 begins atact901, where the geo-location data of the marking information to be overlaid (e.g., geo-location data corresponding to physical locate marks, or a current location mark) is determined/collected. For example, if the information to be overlaid is a current location mark or “you are here” icon indicative of the current location of the marking device, the current location of the marking device may be determined fromlocation tracking system130. If the information to be overlaid is an electronic mark indicative of a geo-location at which marking material was dispensed (e.g., to create a physical locate mark on ground, pavement or other surface), the geo-location data at which marking material was dispensed may be collected from thelocation tracking system130 in response to actuation of the marking device and/or determined, for example, from theelectronic record135 generated and stored by the marking device. That is, as discussed above, in some embodiments, each time themarking device110 is actuated, the location tracking system may be polled to provide one or more geo-location data points that may be overlaid on displayed facilities map information or other image information essentially in real-time as the data is collected, and/or the geo-location data may be logged as data event entries in theelectronic record135 and theelectronic record135 may be accessed thereafter to obtain geo-location data for overlaying on displayed facilities map or other image information.

Table 2 below shows another example of marking device data that may be captured as the result of, for example, one or more actuations of a marking device. Specifically, Table 2 illustrates multiple “actuation data sets” of an electronic record of a marking operation as generated by a marking device, in which each actuation data set includes information associated with multiple actuation event entries logged during a corresponding actuation of the marking device and dispensing of marking material. Table 2 shows three actuation data sets of an electronic record, corresponding to three actuations of the marking device (e.g., act-1, act-2, and act-3). As may be appreciated from the information shown in Table 2, in some embodiments multiple pieces of geo-location data may be logged for each actuation of a marking device (in addition to various other information). However, it should be appreciated that the present invention is not limited in this respect, and that multiple pieces of geo-location data per actuation are not necessarily required for overlay on displayed facilities map or other image information.

TABLE 2

Example actuation data set for act-1

act-1	Service provider ID	0482
	User ID	4815
	Device ID	7362
	T1 timestamp data	12-Jul-2008; 09:35:15.2
	T2 timestamp data	12-Jul-2008; 09:35:16.1
	Duration (Δt)	00:00:00.9
	T1 geo-location data	2650.9348, N, 08003.5057,W
	1^stinterval location data	2650.9353, N, 08003.5055,W
	2^ndinterval location data	2650.9356, N, 08003.5055, W
	.	.
	.	.
	.	.
	Nth interval location data	2650.9246, N, 08003.5240, W
	T2 geo-location data	2650.9255, N, 08003.5236, W
	Product data	Color = Red, Brand = ABC, Type/Batch = 224B-1
	Locate request data	Requestor: XYZ Construction Company,
		Requested service address: 222 Main St, Orlando, FL

Example actuation data set for act-2

act-2	Service provider ID	0482
	User ID	4815
	Device ID	7362
	T1 timestamp data	12-Jul-2008; 09:35:17.5
	T2 timestamp data	12-Jul-2008; 09:35:18.7
	Duration (Δt)	00:00:01.2
	T1 geo-location data	2650.9256, N, 08003.5234,W
	1^stinterval location data	2650.9256, N, 08003.5226,W
	2^ndinterval location data	2650.9256, N, 08003.5217, W
	.	.
	.	.
	.	.
	Nth interval location data	2650.9260, N, 08003.5199, W
	T2 geo-location data	2650.9266, N, 08003.5196, W
	Product data	Color = Red, Brand = ABC, Type/Batch 224B-1
	Locate request data	Requestor: XYZ Construction Company,
		Requested service address: 222 Main St, Orlando, FL

Example actuation data set for act-3

act-3	Service provider ID	0482
	User ID	4815
	Device ID	7362
	T1 timestamp data	12-Jul-2008; 09:35:18.7
	T2 timestamp data	12-Jul-2008; 09:35:19.8
	duration (Δt)	00:00:01.1
	T1 geo-location data	2650.9273, N, 08003.5193,W
	1^stinterval location data	2650.9281, N, 08003.5190,W
	2^ndinterval location data	2650.9288, N, 08003.5188, W
	.	.
	.	.
	.	.
	Nth interval location data	2650.9321, N, 08003.5177, W
	T2 geo-location data	2650.9325, N, 08003.5176, W
	Product data	Color = Red, Brand = ABC, Type/Batch = 224B-1
	Locate request data	Requestor: XYZ Construction Company,
		Requested service address: 222 Main St, Orlando, FL

Thus, the geo-location(s) at which marking material was dispensed may be obtained from these electronic records, and/or may be collected essentially in real-time as the marking operation is being performed. Once the geo-location data to be overlaid on the displayed information is determined, the process continues tooptional act903, where this go-location data may be converted, if necessary, to the spatial reference frame used by the facilities map (or other image) from which the information displayed on thedisplay146 is derived.

As known in the relevant art, a geographic or “global” coordinate system (i.e., a coordinate system in which geographic locations on Earth are identified by a latitude and a longitude value, e.g., (LAT,LON)) may be used to identify geographic locations of locate marks and a facility line. In a “geocentric” global coordinate system (i.e., a coordinate system in which the Earth is modeled as a sphere), latitude is defined as the angle from a point on the surface of a sphere to the equatorial plane of the sphere, whereas longitude is defined as the angle east or west of a reference meridian between two geographical poles of the sphere to another meridian that passes through an arbitrary point on the surface of the sphere. Thus, in a geocentric coordinate system, the center of the Earth serves as a reference point that is the origin of the coordinate system. However, in actuality the Earth is not perfectly spherical, as it is compressed towards the center at the poles. Consequently, using a geocentric coordinate system can result in inaccuracies.

In view of the foregoing, the Earth is typically modeled as an ellipsoid for purposes of establishing a global coordinate system. The shape of the ellipsoid that is used to model the Earth and the way that the ellipsoid is fitted to the geoid of the Earth is called a “geodetic datum.” In a “geodetic” global coordinate system, the latitude of a point on the surface of the ellipsoid is defined as the angle from the equatorial plane to a line normal to the reference ellipsoid passing through the point, whereas the longitude of a point is defined as the angle between a reference plane perpendicular to the equatorial plane and a plane perpendicular to the equatorial plane that passes through the point. Thus, geodetic latitude and longitude of a particular point depends on the geodetic datum used.

A number of different geodetic global coordinate systems exist that use different geodetic datums, examples of which include WGS84, NAD83, NAD27, OSGB36, and ED50. As such, a geographic point on the surface of Earth may have a different latitude and longitude values in different coordinate systems. For example, a stop sign at the corner Maple St. and Main St. may have a latitude and longitude of (LAT₁, LON₁) in the WGS84 coordinate system, but may have a latitude and longitude of (LAT₂, LON₂) in the NAD83 coordinate system (where LAT₁≠LAT₂and/or LON₁≠LON₂). Thus, when comparing one geographic point to another geographic point to determine the distance between them, it is desirable to have both geographic points in the same global coordinate system.

Additionally, when determining a geographic location based on information derived from a map (e.g., a facilities map), the coordinate system provided by the map may not be a global coordinate system, but rather may be a “projected” coordinate system. As appreciated in the relevant art, representing the curved surface of the Earth on a flat surface or plane is known as a “map projection.” Representing a curved surface in two dimensions causes distortion in shape, area, distance, and/or direction. Different map projections cause different types of distortions. For example, a projection could maintain the area of a feature but alter its shape. A map projection defines a relation between spherical coordinates on the globe (i.e., longitude and latitude in a global coordinate system) and flat planar x,y coordinates (i.e., a horizontal and vertical distance from a point of origin) in a projected coordinate system. A facilities map may provide geographic location information in one of several possible projected coordinate systems.

Thus, to overlay geo-location data (e.g., obtained from thelocation tracking system130 of the marking device) on displayed facilities map information (or other image information), it is desirable to have the geo-location data and the facilities map information represented in the same geodetic global coordinate system or projected coordinate system (projected from the same geodetic geographical coordinate system). For example, in some embodiments, the geo-location data points obtained by the location tracking system of the marking device may be provided as geo-location data in the WGS84 coordinate system (i.e., the coordinate system typically used by GPS equipment), whereas the facilities map information may be expressed in the NAD83 coordinate system. Thus, atact903, the geo-location data coordinates provided by the location tracking system of the marking device may be converted to the NAD83 coordinate system so that they may be appropriately overlaid on the displayed facilities map information.

The process next continues to act905, where the data, converted if/as appropriate, may be overlaid on the information displayed ondisplay146, such thatdisplay146 displays both the facilities map/image information and the overlaid data. For example, if the technician dispensed marking material at 2650.9273,N,08003.5193,W (decimal degrees) in the coordinate system used by the facilities map, an electronic mark may be overlaid on the displayed facilities map at the portion of the facilities map that corresponds to 2650.9273,N,08003.5193,W. Similarly, if the current location of the marking device is 2680.5243,N,08043.4193,W in the coordinate system used by the facilities map, then a “you are here” icon may be overlaid on the displayed facilities map at the portion of the facilities map that corresponds to 2680.5243,N,08043.4193,W.

Any one of a number of different techniques may be used to overlay data on the displayed facilities map or image. In some embodiments, the data to be visually rendered on the facilities map or image is mapped to a display field of the display device to ensure that the geo-location data for the data to be overlaid is displayed over the proper place on the displayed facilities map or image. For example, in one exemplary implementation, a transformation may be derived using information relating to the available display field (e.g., a reference coordinate system using an appropriate scale for a given display field of a display device) to map data points in the geo-location data for the data to be overlaid to the available display field. Once such a transformation is derived, the data to be overlaid may be rendered in the display field by applying the transformation to the geo-location data for the data to be overlaid.

In the illustrative processes ofFIGS. 16 and 17, a separate facilities map may be selected for each facility type (or facility company). However, in some embodiments, rather than using a separate facilities map for each facility type or facility company, an aggregated facilities map or facilities map database may be generated by combining data from multiple facilities maps, and data from the aggregated facilities map database may be selected and displayed on the display of the marking device. For example, if gas lines, water lines, and power lines are to be marked during a locate and/or marking operation in a particular location, an aggregated facilities map database may be generated by accessing the facilities map from the gas company for the location, the facilities map from the water company for the location, and the facilities map from the electric company from the location, extracting information about the location of map features (e.g., facility lines, streets, and/or other map features) from each of these facilities maps, converting the locations to a common frame of reference (e.g., using the techniques discussed above), and combining the extracted features into a database (e.g., from which a single aggregated map may be derived). Thus, rather than performing the process ofFIG. 16 or17 three times with three separate facilities maps (i.e., once using the gas facilities map, once using the water facilities map, and once using the electric facilities map), the aggregated facilities map may be used each time.

As with a facilities map for a single type of facility, in some embodiments, an electronic representation of the physical locate marks dispensed on the ground, an electronic representation of the current location of the technician (e.g., a you are here icon), or other information may be generated and rendered visually (i.e., overlaid) on the aggregated facilities map.

In some embodiments, the map or image data and the data to be overlaid (e.g., the electronic representation of the physical locate marks dispensed on the ground or the electronic representation of the current location of the technician), may be displayed as separate “layers” of the visual rendering, such that a viewer of the visual rendering may turn on and turn off displayed data based on a categorization of the displayed data. For example, all facilities map or image data may be categorized generally under one layer designation (e.g., “Reference”), and independently enabled or disabled for display (e.g., hidden) accordingly. Similarly, all overlaid data may be categorized generally under another layer designation (e.g., “Field”) and independently enabled or disabled for display accordingly. Respective layers may be enabled or disabled for display in any of a variety of manners; for example, in one implementation, a “layer directory” or “layer legend” pane may be included in the display field (or as a separate window selectable from the display field of the visual rendering), showing all available layers, and allowing a viewer to select each available layer to be either displayed or hidden, thus facilitating comparative viewing of layers.

Furthermore, any of the above-mentioned general categories for layers may have sub-categories for sub-layers, such that each sub-layer may also be selectively enabled or disabled for viewing by a viewer. For example, under the general layer designation of “Field,” different facility types that may have been marked (and indicated in the field data by color, for example) may be categorized under different sub-layer designations (e.g., “Field—Electric;” “Field—Gas;” etc.); in this manner, a viewer may be able to hide the electric field data while viewing the gas field data, or vice versa, in addition to having the option to view or hide all field data.

In some embodiments, a variety of other sub-layers may be used. For example, sub-layers may be provided for certain types of map metadata. In one example, landmarks (e.g., poles, pedestals, curbs, hydrants, street lights, and/or other types of landmarks) may be a separate sub-layer that can be toggled on and off from the display. In another example, sub-layers for a particular facility type may be provided. As one example, within the sub-layer “Field—Electric,” a sub-layer may be provided for aerial electric lines, and another sub-layer may be provided for underground electric lines. As another example, for a sub-layer for telephone lines (e.g., “Field—Telephone”), sub-layers may be provided for the type of material used. For example, one sub-layer may be provided for copper telephone lines, while another sub-layer may be provided for fiber lines.

FIG. 18 shows ageneric display device3000 having adisplay field3005 with exemplary content for purposes of explaining some concepts germane to display layers, according to one embodiment. For example, all marking information may be categorized generally under one layer designation3030 (“marking layer”) and independently enabled or disabled for display accordingly, all landmark information may be categorized generally under yet another layer designation3040 (“landmark layer”) and independently enabled or disabled for display accordingly, and all reference information may be categorized generally under yet another layer designation3050 (“reference layer”) and independent enabled or disabled for display. Respective layers may be enabled or disabled for display in any of a variety of manners; for example, in one implementation, a “layer directory” or “layer legend”pane3010 may be included in the display field3005 (or as a separate window selectable from the display field of the visual rendering), showing all available layers, and allowing a viewer to select each available layer to be either displayed or hidden, thus facilitating comparative viewing of layers.

Furthermore, any of the above-mentioned general categories for layers may have sub-categories for sub-layers, such that each sub-layer may also be selectively enabled or disabled for viewing by a viewer. For example, under the general layer designation of “marking layer,” different facility types that may have been marked during a locate and/or marking operation (and indicated in the locate information by color, for example) may be categorized under different sub-layer designations (e.g.,designation3032 for “marking layer—electric;”designation3034 for “marking layer—gas;” etc.); in this manner, a viewer may be able to hide only the electric marking information while viewing the gas marking information, or vice versa, in addition to having the option to view or hide all marking information. Under the layer designation of “landmark layer” different types of landmarks may be categorized under different sub-layer designations (e.g.,designation3042 for water/sewer landmarks,designation3044 for cable TV landmarks, anddesignation3045 for buildings). Under the layer designation of “reference layer” different types of reference information may be categorized under different sub-layer designations (e.g.,designation3052 for base map information,designation3054 for dig area indicators,designation3056 for facility lines).

As shown in the example ofFIG. 18, of the marking, landmark, and reference layers, only the electric sub-layer of the marking layer and the buildings sub-layer of the landmark layer are enabled for display. Accordingly, inFIG. 18, only theelectronic markings1010 indicating where marking material for a power line was dispensed and building950 appear in theelectronic rendering1000A shown inFIG. 18.

Virtually any characteristic of the information available for display may serve to categorize the information for purposes of displaying layers or sub-layers. In particular, with respect to information obtained during performance of a locate and/or marking operation, any of a variety of exemplary constituent elements of such information (e.g., timing information, geographic information, service-related information, ticket information, facility type information) may be categorized as a sub-layer, and one or more sub-layers may further be categorized into constituent elements for selective display (e.g., as sub-sub-layers). For example, timing information may be used to categorize the marking information based on a time at which marking material was dispensed, such that one sub-layer may include an electronic representation of the locations at which marking material was dispensed during a particular time window. Geographic information may be used to categorize the marking information based on a location at which marking material was dispensed, so that one sub-layer may include electronic representations of the locations at which marking material was dispensed for a particular geographic area.

Ticket information may include a ticket number identifying the ticket, a party identifier representing a party requesting the locate and/or the marking operation, a facility identifier representing a type and/or number of one or more facilities to be detected and/or marked in the locate and/or the marking operation, and/or a ground type identifier representing a ground type for a work site and/or dig area at which the locate and/or the marking operation is performed. Any such ticket information may be used to categorize the marking information into one or more sub-layers.

In some embodiments,processor118 may automatically select which sub-layers in the “Reference” layer and/or the “Field” layer are displayed. For example, in some embodiments,processor118 may automatically select particular sub-layers to be displayed based on the type of facility being marked. As discussed above,processor118 may determine the type of facility being marked in a variety of ways, including for example, based on the color of the marking material in the marking material dispenser of the marking device. Based on the color of the marking material,processor118 may automatically select certain sub-layers to be displayed and may select certain other sub-layers to not be displayed. For example,processor118 may automatically select sub-layers related to facility type corresponding to the color of the marking material to be displayed, and may select sub-layers not related to that facility type to not be displayed. As one example, if the marking material in the marking material dispenser of the marking device is red, thenprocessor118 may automatically select for display one or more sub-layers for the “Field” layer that pertain to electric lines and may not display sub-layers related to other utility types.Processor118 may also select sub-layers for the “Reference” layer that pertain to electric lines and may not display sub-layers related to other utility types.

In general, it should be appreciated that any constituent element of information from the field (e.g., marking information and/or landmark information) may be used as a basis for automatically selecting/enabling for display one or more sub-layers of reference/image information. For example, if landmark information indicates that acquired landmark geo-location data is associated with a hydrant, a “water facilities” sub-layer and/or a “water landmarks” sub-layer may be automatically selected from the “Reference” layer for display in the display field. Similarly, if marking information indicates that a gas main is being marked, a “gas facilities” sub-layer and/or a “gas landmarks” sub-layer may be automatically selected from the “Reference” layer for display in the display field. The foregoing are merely illustrative examples of automatic selection/enabling of Reference sub-layers, and the inventive concepts discussed herein are not limited in these respects.

V. CONCLUSION

While various inventive embodiments have been described and illustrated herein, those of ordinary skill in the art will readily envision a variety of other means and/or structures for performing the function and/or obtaining the results and/or one or more of the advantages described herein, and each of such variations and/or modifications is deemed to be within the scope of the inventive embodiments described herein. More generally, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that all parameters, dimensions, materials, and configurations described herein are meant to be exemplary and that the actual parameters, dimensions, materials, and/or configurations will depend upon the specific application or applications for which the inventive teachings is/are used. Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able to ascertain using no more than routine experimentation, many equivalents to the specific inventive embodiments described herein. It is, therefore, to be understood that the foregoing embodiments are presented by way of example only and that, within the scope of the appended claims and equivalents thereto, inventive embodiments may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described and claimed. Inventive embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to each individual feature, system, article, material, kit, and/or method described herein. In addition, any combination of two or more such features, systems, articles, materials, kits, and/or methods, if such features, systems, articles, materials, kits, and/or methods are not mutually inconsistent, is included within the inventive scope of the present disclosure.

The above-described embodiments can be implemented in any of numerous ways. For example, the embodiments may be implemented using hardware, software or a combination thereof. When implemented in software, the software code can be executed on any suitable processor or collection of processors, whether provided in a single computer or distributed among multiple computers.

Further, it should be appreciated that a computer may be embodied in any of a number of forms, such as a rack-mounted computer, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, or a tablet computer. Additionally, a computer may be embedded in a device not generally regarded as a computer but with suitable processing capabilities, including a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a smart phone or any other suitable portable or fixed electronic device.

Also, a computer may have one or more input and output devices. These devices can be used, among other things, to present a user interface. Examples of output devices that can be used to provide a user interface include printers or display screens for visual presentation of output and speakers or other sound generating devices for audible presentation of output. Examples of input devices that can be used for a user interface include keyboards, and pointing devices, such as mice, touch pads, and digitizing tablets. As another example, a computer may receive input information through speech recognition or in other audible format.

Such computers may be interconnected by one or more networks in any suitable form, including a local area network or a wide area network, such as an enterprise network, and intelligent network (IN) or the Internet. Such networks may be based on any suitable technology and may operate according to any suitable protocol and may include wireless networks, wired networks or fiber optic networks.

The various methods or processes outlined herein may be coded as software that is executable on one or more processors that employ any one of a variety of operating systems or platforms. Additionally, such software may be written using any of a number of suitable programming languages and/or programming or scripting tools, and also may be compiled as executable machine language code or intermediate code that is executed on a framework or virtual machine.

In this respect, various inventive concepts may be embodied as a computer readable storage medium (or multiple computer readable storage media) (e.g., a computer memory, one or more floppy discs, compact discs, optical discs, magnetic tapes, flash memories, circuit configurations in Field Programmable Gate Arrays or other semiconductor devices, or other non-transitory medium or tangible computer storage medium) encoded with one or more programs that, when executed on one or more computers or other processors, perform methods that implement the various embodiments of the invention discussed above. The computer readable medium or media can be transportable, such that the program or programs stored thereon can be loaded onto one or more different computers or other processors to implement various aspects of the present invention as discussed above.

The terms “program” or “software” are used herein in a generic sense to refer to any type of computer code or set of computer-executable instructions that can be employed to program a computer or other processor to implement various aspects of embodiments as discussed above. Additionally, it should be appreciated that according to one aspect, one or more computer programs that when executed perform methods of the present invention need not reside on a single computer or processor, but may be distributed in a modular fashion amongst a number of different computers or processors to implement various aspects of the present invention.

Computer-executable instructions may be in many forms, such as program modules, executed by one or more computers or other devices. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Typically the functionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments.

Also, data structures may be stored in computer-readable media in any suitable form. For simplicity of illustration, data structures may be shown to have fields that are related through location in the data structure. Such relationships may likewise be achieved by assigning storage for the fields with locations in a computer-readable medium that convey relationship between the fields. However, any suitable mechanism may be used to establish a relationship between information in fields of a data structure, including through the use of pointers, tags or other mechanisms that establish relationship between data elements.

Also, various inventive concepts may be embodied as one or more methods, of which an example has been provided. The acts performed as part of the method may be ordered in any suitable way. Accordingly, embodiments may be constructed in which acts are performed in an order different than illustrated, which may include performing some acts simultaneously, even though shown as sequential acts in illustrative embodiments.

All definitions, as defined and used herein, should be understood to control over dictionary definitions, definitions in documents incorporated by reference, and/or ordinary meanings of the defined terms.

The indefinite articles “a” and “an,” as used herein in the specification and in the claims, unless clearly indicated to the contrary, should be understood to mean “at least one.”

The phrase “and/or,” as used herein in the specification and in the claims, should be understood to mean “either or both” of the elements so conjoined, i.e., elements that are conjunctively present in some cases and disjunctively present in other cases. Multiple elements listed with “and/or” should be construed in the same fashion, i.e., “one or more” of the elements so conjoined. Other elements may optionally be present other than the elements specifically identified by the “and/or” clause, whether related or unrelated to those elements specifically identified. Thus, as a non-limiting example, a reference to “A and/or B”, when used in conjunction with open-ended language such as “comprising” can refer, in one embodiment, to A only (optionally including elements other than B); in another embodiment, to B only (optionally including elements other than A); in yet another embodiment, to both A and B (optionally including other elements); etc.

As used herein in the specification and in the claims, “or” should be understood to have the same meaning as “and/or” as defined above. For example, when separating items in a list, “or” or “and/or” shall be interpreted as being inclusive, i.e., the inclusion of at least one, but also including more than one, of a number or list of elements, and, optionally, additional unlisted items. Only terms clearly indicated to the contrary, such as “only one of” or “exactly one of,” or, when used in the claims, “consisting of,” will refer to the inclusion of exactly one element of a number or list of elements. In general, the term “or” as used herein shall only be interpreted as indicating exclusive alternatives (i.e. “one or the other but not both”) when preceded by terms of exclusivity, such as “either,” “one of,” “only one of,” or “exactly one of.” “Consisting essentially of,” when used in the claims, shall have its ordinary meaning as used in the field of patent law.

As used herein in the specification and in the claims, the phrase “at least one,” in reference to a list of one or more elements, should be understood to mean at least one element selected from any one or more of the elements in the list of elements, but not necessarily including at least one of each and every element specifically listed within the list of elements and not excluding any combinations of elements in the list of elements. This definition also allows that elements may optionally be present other than the elements specifically identified within the list of elements to which the phrase “at least one” refers, whether related or unrelated to those elements specifically identified. Thus, as a non-limiting example, “at least one of A and B” (or, equivalently, “at least one of A or B,” or, equivalently “at least one of A and/or B”) can refer, in one embodiment, to at least one, optionally including more than one, A, with no B present (and optionally including elements other than B); in another embodiment, to at least one, optionally including more than one, B, with no A present (and optionally including elements other than A); in yet another embodiment, to at least one, optionally including more than one, A, and at least one, optionally including more than one, B (and optionally including other elements); etc.

In the claims, as well as in the specification above, all transitional phrases such as “comprising,” “including,” “carrying,” “having,” “containing,” “involving,” “holding,” “composed of,” and the like are to be understood to be open-ended, i.e., to mean including but not limited to. Only the transitional phrases “consisting of” and “consisting essentially of” shall be closed or semi-closed transitional phrases, respectively, as set forth in the United States Patent Office Manual of Patent Examining Procedures, Section 2111.03.