Patent ID: 8890863

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for applying photo texturing to a 3D model of a real-world object, the method comprising: accessing, with one or more computing devices, a 3D model having a geolocated point; executing, with the one or more computing devices, an instruction to automatically apply to a surface of the 3D model a photo texture; comparing, with the one or more computing devices, a 3D location of the surface of the 3D model to the real-world locations of a plurality of geolocated images to select one of the plurality of geolocated images to use to photo texture the surface, wherein comparing further comprises: determining a location of a center point of the surface; determining a default viewing position for the surface by determining a first point at a fixed distance form the center point along the normal of the surface and projecting the first point to a ground plane; determining one or more of the plurality of geolocated images captured from a nearest position to the default viewing position; and determining which of the one or more images was captured from angle most closely pointed at the center point of the surface; selecting, with the one or more computing devices, an area of the selected image to apply to the surface; and applying, with the one or more computing devices, the selected area of the selected image to the surface.