Patent ID: 8233741

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for reducing the lean of at least one building in a stitched image, comprising: accessing, by a processor-based system, a plurality of digital images of a geographic area, each image of the plurality of digital images at least partially overlapping one or more other images of said plurality of digital images and containing at least a partial view of the building; calculating, by the processor-based system, a pixel preference cost for each pixel region of a plurality of pixel regions in said each image, wherein the pixel preference cost includes a view alignment cost based on an angle between an intended view direction of a camera capturing the respective image and the respective pixel region; selecting, by the processor-based system, a pixel region from the plurality of digital images for each of a plurality of pixel region positions in the geographic area by reducing a cost function including the pixel preference cost of the selected pixel region for each of said pixel region positions; and assigning, by the processor-based system, the respective selected pixel region to each of the pixel region positions to create the stitched image containing the building with reduced lean.