Source: http://www.google.fr/patents/US9279602
Timestamp: 2018-01-17 18:35:12
Document Index: 799724809

Matched Legal Cases: ['Application No. 2', 'Application No. 201180048808', 'Application No. 10', 'Application No. 1', 'art 3', 'application No. 2013025572', 'Application No. 2010', 'Application No. 10', 'Application No. 2011312140', 'Application No. 2014202326', 'Application No. 1']

Brevet US9279602 - System and method for provisioning energy systems - Google Brevets
The invention provides systems and methods for provisioning a site with an energy system such as a solar energy system. A system according to an embodiment of the invention comprises a user interface module providing a graphical user interface for receiving information from a user, for example a potential...http://www.google.fr/patents/US9279602?utm_source=gb-gplus-shareBrevet US9279602 - System and method for provisioning energy systems
Numéro de publication US9279602 B2
Autre référence de publication CA2701645A1, CA2701645C, CN101918767A, CN101918767B, EP2215409A1, EP2215409A4, EP3056836A2, EP3056836A3, US20110205245, WO2009046459A1, WO2009046459A8
Numéro de publication 12681375, 681375, PCT/2008/79003, PCT/US/2008/079003, PCT/US/2008/79003, PCT/US/8/079003, PCT/US/8/79003, PCT/US2008/079003, PCT/US2008/79003, PCT/US2008079003, PCT/US200879003, PCT/US8/079003, PCT/US8/79003, PCT/US8079003, PCT/US879003, US 9279602 B2, US 9279602B2, US-B2-9279602, US9279602 B2, US9279602B2
Cessionnaire d'origine Sungevity Inc.
Citations de brevets (80), Citations hors brevets (35), Classifications (12), Événements juridiques (6)
US 9279602 B2
1. A system for measuring a real world structure to be provisioned with solar panels using images including the real world structure, the system comprising:
a display unit configured to display a first image and a second image including the real world structure;
metadata for the first image representing a scale of the first image with respect to the real world;
a displayable, user-adjustable measuring tool capable of providing measurements adequate for installing a solar panel, the measuring tool calibrated in accordance with the scale such that user adjustment of the measuring tool with respect to the displayed first and second images of the real world structure provides a measurement of the real world structure, wherein the user adjustment of the measuring tool includes at least one of positioning, rotating, and scaling the measuring tool to match at least a portion of the real world structure in both the displayed first and second images when the adjusted measuring tool is superimposed over the real world structure in the displayed first and second images, wherein the second image is of a different direction than the first image.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein the displayed first and second images including the real world structure include a roof of the real world structure and wherein the measuring tool is operable to measure an area of at least a portion of the roof.
3. The system of claim 1 wherein the displayed first and second images including the real world structure include a roof of the real world structure and wherein the measuring tool is operable to measure pitch of the roof.
a source of images of real world structures, wherein the system is configured to receive and display selected images of the real world structure from the source of images;
a source of corresponding scale information for the images, the system configured to receive corresponding scale information for at least one of the selected images; and
the measuring tool calibrated in accordance with the received corresponding scale information.
5. The system of claim 4 further comprising an image acquisition unit including an input for receiving structure location information from a user, the image acquisition unit selecting the first and second images of the real world structure from the source of images based on the received structure location information.
6. The system of claim 5 wherein the image acquisition unit includes an input for receiving the structure location information from a user computer system via the Internet.
a specification unit communicating with the measuring tool;
a source of energy consumption information for the real world structure, communicating with the specification unit; and
the specification unit providing specifications for the solar panels based on information received from the source of energy consumption information and the measurement of the real world structure provided by the measuring tool.
8. The system of claim 7 further comprising a source of solar panel information configured to communicate with the specification unit to provide information about selected solar panels for installation on the real world structure, the information selected based at least in part on the specifications.
9. The system of claim 8 wherein the information provided by the source of solar panel information includes an image of the selected solar panels and wherein the image is provided to the display unit for superimposed display with the displayed first and second images of the real world structure.
10. The system of claim 1 wherein the measuring tool further comprises at least one displayed length-adjustable line segment extendable along a roof edge of the real world structure to measure a length of the roof edge.
11. The system of claim 1 wherein the displayed first and second images of the real world structure include an image of a roof and wherein the adjustable measuring tool comprises two line segments and wherein adjustment by a user of a length of one of the two line segments results in an automatic corresponding adjustment of the other of the two line segments in accordance with the scale, such that the user is enabled to measure an area of the roof by adjusting the measuring tool.
12. A method for measuring a real world structure for installation of solar panels comprising:
displaying a first image of the real world structure on a display device;
providing an interactive measuring tool capable of providing measurements adequate for installing a solar panel for display on the display device;
displaying the interactive measuring tool on the display device;
enabling a human operator to manipulate the interactive measuring tool with respect to the displayed first image of the real world structure to indicate a dimension of the real world structure displayed in the first image, wherein manipulating the measuring tool includes at least one of positioning, rotating, and scaling the measuring tool to match at least a portion of the real world structure when the adjusted measuring tool is superimposed over the real world structure in the displayed first image;
displaying a second image of the real world structure on the display device;
enabling the human operator to manipulate the interactive measuring tool with respect to the displayed second image of the real world structure such that the measuring tool also matches the portion of the real world structure when the adjusted measuring tool is superimposed over the real world structure in the displayed second image, wherein the second image is of a different direction than the first image; and
providing a measurement of the real world structure based on the manipulation of the measuring tool with respect to the displayed first and second images.
13. The method of claim 12 wherein enabling the human operator to manipulate the interactive measuring tool to indicate the dimension comprises enabling the human operator to align the interactive measuring tool along a roof edge in the displayed first and second images of the real world structure.
14. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving scale information for at least one of the first and second images of the real world structure, and
wherein providing a measurement is carried out based, at least in part, on the received scale information and at least in part on the indicated dimension of the real world structure displayed in the first and second images.
15. The method of claim 12 further comprising automatically determining components to comprise an installed solar energy system based, at least in part on the provided measurement.
16. The method of claim 15 further comprising receiving energy use information for the real world structure, and
wherein automatically determining components is based at least in part on the measurement of the real world structure and at least in part on the received energy use information for the real world structure.
17. The method of claim 15, further comprising enabling the human operator to manipulate the interactive measuring tool to measure roof pitch.
18. A method for rapidly provisioning a real world structure with solar panels comprising:
receiving structure location information from a first human operator system;
selecting a first image and a second image of the real world structure for display to a second human operator on a first display device;
displaying an interactive measuring tool capable of providing measurements adequate for installing a solar panel on the first display device and enabling the second human operator to generate the measurements of the real world structure adequate for installing the solar panel by manipulating the displayed interactive measuring tool with respect to the displayed first and second images of the real world structure, wherein manipulating the measuring tool includes at least one of positioning, rotating, and scaling the measuring tool to match at least a portion of the real world structure when the adjusted measuring tool is superimposed over the real world structure in both of the displayed first and second images, wherein the second image is of a different direction than the first image; and
evaluating the real world structure for provisioning with the solar panels based, at least in part on the measurements.
19. The method of claim 18, further comprising displaying an image of the real world structure to the first human operator system on a second display device.
20. The method of claim 18, further comprising receiving energy consumption information from the first human operator system and evaluating the real world structure for provisioning with the solar panels based, at least in part, on the energy consumption information.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Provisioning Systems and Methods Definitions
In response to receiving the user information data, geophysical data is downloaded from a source of geophysical data at step 2725. The downloaded geophysical information is determined based on the information provided by the customer. The geophysical information includes, for example, an image of the customer's residence including a view of the customers roof. In one embodiment of the invention the image is obtained using a satellite image geo-coding software. One embodiment of the invention employs a GIS service (for example Google Earth™) to obtain images to locate and view properties. In other embodiments of the invention only one image is retrieved from a source of images. In other embodiments of the invention, for example, for embodiments relying on 3-dimensional models, more than one image is retrieved from a source of images. In other embodiments of the invention, site images are accessed without the need to download images from a source of images. For example, images are rendered on a display device of a computer system of a user.
An alternative embodiment of sizing subsystem 500 is illustrated in FIGS. 11-19. FIG. 11 illustrates an example GUI displaying a top plan view of a roof image 600 displayed via a viewport 1100. An installation area comprising roof side surface 640 is to be measured. An interactive measuring tool 1107 is displayed in viewport 1100. User manipulation of measuring tool 1107 allows tool 1107 to be positioned with respect to first and second images depicting the same roof 600 from different directions. The measuring tool is rotatable and scalable by user 507 to align with the object, for example a roof side surface 640, to be measured. An alternative embodiment of measuring tool 1107 is illustrated at 1117. Tool 1117 includes side 1137 and side 1127.
A roof ridge 641 is marked by user 507 dragging a line tool along ridge 641 within the perimeter of measuring tool 1107. When the ridge line has been drawn, user 507 initiates a reading of dimensions of measuring tool 1107. In addition, an orientation of measuring tool with respect to axes 1105 is determined.
FIG. 16 illustrates placement of measuring tool 1107 (e.g., indicated in FIG. 15) in viewport 1300 (e.g., indicated in FIG. 13) with respect to roof 600. Once placed in an appropriate orientation, side lengths of tool 1107 are adjusted to conform to side lengths of roof 600, as illustrated in FIG. 17. Measuring tool 1107 is positioned in FIG. 17 such that a side of measuring tool 1107 aligns with base b of roof 600. When measuring tool 1107 is positioned as illustrated in FIG. 17, 2nd measurements are obtained using measuring tool 1107. In addition information about orientation of measuring tool 1107 with respect to a reference axis (X-Axis, Y-Axis, Z-Axis illustrated in FIG. 16) is provided to modeling tool 1107. Transform/translation unit 596 uses information thus provided, in addition to information provided by scaling unit 592, to determine ‘real world’ measurements for roof 600.
FIGS. 18 and 19 illustrate measuring tool 1107 as used to measure displacement (d) of a ridge 641 of a roof 600 from a roof base 635. The displacement information is used by modeling unit 591 (FIG. 5) to determine pitch of roof 600. As illustrated in FIG. 18 user 507 displaces measuring tool 1107 in the (Z-Axis) direction from its position illustrated in FIG. 17 to the position illustrated in FIG. 18, i.e., displaced by a distance d from base 635 to ridge 641. FIG. 19 illustrates a difference d between placement of measuring tool 1107 in FIG. 17 and placement of measuring tool 1107 in FIG. 18. The difference measurement d is provided to modeling unit 591. Transform/translation unit 596 determines height H of ridge 641 with respect to base 635 of real world roof 600 (best illustrated in FIG. 9). Once the real world height is known, pitch of the roof is determined.
Eqt=equation of time (min)
Surface Area×Solar Insulation×Energy reduction due to pitch & azimuth=Potential Solar Energy. Eq. 1
In some embodiments of the invention sizing subsystem 200 (also illustrated in FIG. 1 at 500) receives energy consumption data related to the user specified location, from a source of energy consumption data 117 (illustrated in FIG. 1). According to some embodiments of the invention sizing module 200 receives user provided system criteria information from user system 2406, for example, a percentage of total energy user 2407 desires to supply using a solar energy system. Based on the information about energy consumption received from database 117 and the desired energy production of a solar energy system as indicated by user 2407, and further on the energy specification provided by energy specification subsystem 300, package analyzer 2487 determines at least one package comprising components matching the criteria as closely as possible.
FIG. 26 illustrates steps of a method for quoting energy systems according to an embodiment of the invention. At step 2601 site dimensions are received, for example, from a sizing subsystem such as subsystem 500 illustrated in FIG. 1. At step 2611 energy specifications are generated for the site based on the site dimensions. The specifications are generated, for example, by an energy system specification generator such as generator 2300 illustrated in FIG. 21. At step 2613 components are automatically selected from a component database based on the site dimensions and the energy system specifications. In cases where a plurality of possible component configurations are suitable for meeting an energy system specification, a plurality of package options comprising various arrangements of suitable energy system components are determined. The package options are displayed on a display device of potential system buyer at step 2621.
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Classification internationale G06Q50/06, F24J2/40, G06T11/20, G06Q10/10
Classification coopérative Y02B10/20, G06F2217/78, G06F17/5004, Y02E10/40, G06Q50/06, F24J2200/04, F24J2/40, G06Q10/10