Patent ID: 7860269

Claim:
A method for the extraction, identification and comparison of skylines from imagery data for the purpose of accurately locating the position of a mobile platform for navigation purposes, said method comprised of: a. providing an image sensor capable of acquiring an image of a circumferential field of view; b. providing a processing means capable of processing the image acquired by the image sensor; c. obtaining one or more images of said skyline with said image sensor and transferring said images to said processing means; d. providing an algorithm implemented by the processing means, said algorithm including the following steps: i. identification and extraction of a first set of one or more skylines from a first set of one or more circumferential images obtained by said image sensor; ii. modeling and representation of said skylines; iii. assigning coordinates to the skylines in said first set, wherein the coordinates represent the location from which each image was taken; iv. storing said first set of skylines together with the coordinates assigned to it in a database; v. identification and extraction of a second skyline from a second circumferential image obtained by said image sensor; vi. modeling and representation of said second skyline; vii. comparing said second modeled skyline to the skylines of said first set of modeled skylines stored in said database to find a match between said second skyline and at least one of said skylines from said first set of skylines stored in said database; and viii. assigning said coordinates assigned to said first skyline to said second skyline, after a match is found.