Patent ID: 8620023

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a platform; an object detector associated with the platform and configured to detect a number of objects; a distance measurement system associated with the platform and configured to measure a number of distances to the number of objects detected by the object detector; a location system associated with the platform and configured to identify a location of the platform; an orientation identification system associated with the platform and configured to identify an orientation of the distance measurement system; and a controller associated with the platform and configured to identify a number of geographic locations for the number of objects using the number of distances, the location of the platform, and the orientation of the distance measurement system, wherein the controller is configured to identify a center for each object in the number of objects to form a number of centers and direct the distance measurement system to measure the number of distances to the number of centers for the number of objects, wherein the geographic location for each object is identified based on the controller measuring an elevation angle measured with respect to a line of sight between the location of the platform and each object and a first plane formed by a first axis defined through the location of the platform and the center of the earth, and a second axis orthogonal to the first axis and being parallel to a line of latitude, and an azimuth angle measured with respect to the line of sight between the location of the platform and a second plane formed by the first axis and a third axis orthogonal to the first axis and being parallel to a line of longitude.