Patent Document ID: 20180120105
Application ID: 15845200
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A method of obtaining digital images related to geographic locations, the method comprising: providing a moving vehicle having thereon a computer having a computer clock interconnected with a GPS transceiver and distance measurement structure configured to measure a distance traveled by the vehicle from a first geographic position, the computer operatively interconnected with a digital camera having a camera clock mounted on the vehicle; receiving into the computer the first geographic position from the GPS transceiver; receiving into the computer a measurement of the distance traveled by the vehicle relative to the first geographic position from the distance measurement structure; selecting a pre-determined distance based on a distance between a subject of a photo to be acquired and the camera; determining when the pre-determined distance has been traveled by the vehicle based on the measurement of distance; generating a photo request using the computer on the vehicle for the digital camera on the vehicle at the pre-determined distance, the photo request having an associated photo request time comprising a computer time value obtained from the computer clock, the photo request resulting in a shutter release by the digital camera; taking a digital photo using the camera on the vehicle based on the shutter release, the digital photo having an associated photo time comprising a camera time value obtained from the camera clock; repeating the steps of receiving into the computer the measurement of distance traveled by the vehicle, determining when the pre-determined distance has been traveled, generating a photo request using the computer resulting in a shutter release by the digital camera and taking a digital photo using the camera on the vehicle based on the shutter release; receiving into the computer a second geographic position from the GPS transceiver; storing the photos, associated photo times, photo requests, associated photo request times, first and second geographic positions and distance measurements; conducting a processing step comprising: associating each photo with the photo request used to generate that photo by comparing camera time values of a plurality of photos with computer time values of a plurality of photo requests; determining a computer time value associated with each photo based on the computer time value of the photo request; and, obtaining a location of each photo based on the computer time value of the photo.