Patent ID: 9372117
Filing Date: 2016-06-21
CPC Classification: G01B,G01C,G01J,G01S,G01V

Claim Text:
1. A method of tracking movement of a buried utility locator over a surface, comprising: determining in the buried utility locator, based on received magnetic field signals emitted from a buried utility below the surface, an estimated depth of the buried utility; generating an output light; providing the output light to the surface; receiving a portion of the output light that is reflected from the surface at one or more color light sensors; generating, in a processing element, information associated with a user-applied movement of the locator over the surface, including speed and/or direction information relative to a previous position of the buried utility locator, based at least in part on output signals from the one or more color light sensors and corresponding to the received reflected portion of the output light; associating the information associated with a user-applied movement with the estimated depth of the buried utility; and storing the information associated with a user-applied movement of the locator and the estimated depth of the buried utility in a memory of the locator.