Patent ID: 8630463

Claim:
An apparatus for facilitating generation of an electronic manifest of at least one physical locate mark applied to a ground surface by a technician at an excavation site prior to excavation activities, the apparatus comprising: a communication interface; a display device; a memory to store processor-executable instructions; and a processing unit coupled to the communication interface, the display device, and the memory, wherein upon execution of the processor-executable instructions by the processing unit, the processing unit: controls the display device so as to display at least one photographic image of a geographic area including the excavation site, wherein the at least one photographic image comprises at least one of: a street level photographic image; a topographical image; a satellite image; and an aerial image; further controls the display device to add to the displayed at least one photographic image at least one digital representation of the at least one physical locate mark, the at least one physical locate mark applied to the ground surface at the excavation site by the technician to indicate a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility at the excavation site; further controls the display device to add to the photographic image offset information relating to a distance between the at least one physical locate mark and at least one landmark in the at least one photographic image, so as to generate a marked-up image including the at least one photographic image, the at least one digital representation of the at least one physical locate mark, and the offset information; and controls the communication interface and/or the memory to electronically transmit and/or electronically store information relating to the marked-up image so as to generate the electronic manifest.