Patent ID: 8566737

Claim:
An apparatus for facilitating a locate operation to detect a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility within a dig area, wherein at least a portion of the dig area may be excavated or disturbed during excavation activities, the apparatus comprising: a communication interface; a display device; a user input device; a memory to store processor-executable instructions; and a processing unit coupled to the communication interface, the display device, the user input device, and the memory, wherein upon execution of the processor-executable instructions by the processing unit, the processing unit: controls the communication interface to electronically receive source data representing at least one input image of a geographic area including the dig area; controls the display device to display at least a portion of the at least one input image; acquires at least one first user input from the user input device to provide a reference for performing the locate operation; generates a marked-up image based-on the user input, the marked-up image including at least one reference indicator for performing the locate operation; acquires at least one second user input from the user input device, the at least one second user input providing a description of the locate operation to be performed with reference to the at least one reference indicator for performing the locate operation; adds the description of the locate operation to be performed to the marked-up digital image as a textual description; and further controls the communication interface and/or the memory to electronically transmit and/or electronically store information relating to the marked-up digital image together with information relating to the description of the locate operation so as to facilitate the detection of the presence or the absence of the at least one underground facility within the dig area.