Patent Document ID: 8755632
Application ID: 12548495
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium with an executable program for real-time video-to-ground anchoring of video sequence by updating a geographically anchored bank of images for each newly received image from an image sequence source said program comprising the steps of: a. obtaining an image sequence source (ISS) comprising images are taken from a plurality of locations; b. creating a bank adapted for (i) storage of images; and (ii) storage of additional data for each image in said bank, said additional data comprising at least (i) a ground to image transformation adapted to transform three-dimensional coordinates to corresponding image coordinates; and (ii) the quality value of said transformation; c. capturing a new image I.sub.0 from said ISS; d. attempting to calculate a ground to image transformation by applying an image to ground anchoring algorithm to said new image I.sub.0; e. repeating steps (c) and (d) until a ground to image transformation has been calculated successfully; f. adding said new image I.sub.0 and the computed ground to image transformation of I.sub.0 and a quality value to said bank; g. capturing a new image I.sub.n from said ISS; h. attempting to calculate a ground to image transformation by applying an image to ground anchoring algorithm to said new image I.sub.n; i. calculating a ground to image transformation if said ground to image transformation is not known for new image I.sub.n by matching said new image I.sub.n to at least one overlapping image already in said bank; j. adding said new image I.sub.n and the computed ground to image transformation of I.sub.n and a quality value to said bank; k. performing an iterative self-correction procedure, thereby improving the quality value of the transformations of said images in said set, said procedure comprising the step of altering said ground to image transformation of a set of images within said bank if at least one of the following conditions is met: (i) said new image overlaps at least two previously captured video frames within said bank, (ii) a ground to image transformation of said new image was successfully computed by said image to ground anchoring algorithm; and, l. repeating steps (g)-(k) until a “stop” command is received; wherein said step of performing an iterative self-correction procedure for producing said geographically anchored back of images from said ISS comprising images captured from a plurality of locations such that a ground to image transformation of an image most recently stored in said ISS device is computed, allowing real-time online video-to-ground anchoring of each newly received video image.