Patent ID: 8903643

Claim:
An apparatus to facilitate collection of information regarding underground utilities while walking or standing erect on ground, pavement or other surface above the underground facilities, the apparatus comprising: an elongated hand-held housing; a paint canister holder coupled to the elongated hand-held housing to hold a marker dispenser configured to dispense at least one marker; a location tracking system, disposed within or coupled to the elongated hand-held housing, including a receiver to determine a geographic location of the location tracking system; a memory disposed within or coupled to the elongated hand-held housing; and a processor, disposed within or coupled to the elongated hand-held housing and communicatively coupled to the location tracking system and the memory, to receive from the location tracking system location data relating to the geographic location of the location tracking system and to store in the memory the received location data, and to further receive information relating to at least one characteristic of the at least one marker and store in the memory at least some of the information relating to the at least one characteristic of the at least one marker when the marker dispenser is disposed in the paint canister holder.