Patent ID: 7482973
Filing Date: 2009-01-27
Classification: G01C,G01S,G01V,G06Q

Abstract:
1. A damage avoidance method comprising: storing, in a database, information about a plurality of utility assets, including utility location and utility type for each of the plurality of utility assets; identifying a current location; identifying one or more utility assets within a region; calculating a distance between the current location and each linear segment of each of the identified one or more utility assets within the region to determine an asset distance for each of the identified one or more utility assets, utilizing the stored information; dynamically determining a nearest utility asset to the current location based on the determined asset distances, as the current location changes; displaying a representation of an area comprising the current location and the determined nearest utility asset, and a representation of the determined nearest utility asset, the displayed representation of the area changing, in real-time, in accordance with at least one of a change of position and a change of direction associated with the current location; retrieving a warning zone for the nearest utility asset from the stored information; generating a warning signal in accordance with a relative distance between the current location and the nearest utility asset; and changing the warning signal as the relative distance between the current location and the nearest utility asset decreases.