Companies and individuals looking for real estate to rent, buy, insure or finance have historically had to physically travel to the property in order to visually verify the condition of the property. With the advent of the Internet, it has become possible for individuals to view photographs of properties on-line in the comfort of their home or office. One such example is the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) database, which can be accessed by the public through Internet sites such as www.realtor.com. The MLS database typically includes one or more photographs and additional data regarding the property such as the number of bedrooms and the square footage. More advanced systems may include short video clips constituting virtual tours of the property in question. While such systems may also show views of a property from the street, they do not give a user a sense of the neighborhood in which the property is located. Accordingly, in order to determine if the area surrounding the property of interest is desirable, a user may often be required to physically travel to the property in order to view the state of the neighborhood.
In order to overcome the deficiencies of present systems of the type described above, it would be desirable to provide a system that would enable a user to view the surrounding neighborhood as well as the property itself. Such a system would enable the creation of a complete on-line database of street-level video data, hereinafter referred to as “video drive-by” data, which can be made available to end users via the Internet. Preferably, the video data would be encoded with GPS coordinates as well as conventional street addresses and map coordinates to provide instant street level video of any location upon request. For example, such a system would be extremely useful if a user could query the system by submitting GPS coordinates, street addresses or by “clicking” on a map overlay showing streets in the desired neighborhood.
The ability of a system to provide data associated with the neighborhood, as well as a particular property in question, would be extremely desirable in a number of government and commercial applications. Aiding in the process of appraising a property, for example, is just one application in which such a system can provide benefits. Mortgage lenders currently purchase several types of appraisal products as part of their financing decision process. The lowest cost appraisal is an automated valuation model (AVM), whereby county parcel data of subject property can be compared to the county parcel data of a list of nearby properties (called “comps” which is short for comparables) with a similar lot size, square footage, and amenities (such as waterfront access). A comp list typically includes average per square foot calculations of the similar properties that enables the creation of approximate value of the subject property. The next lowest cost appraisal is a Desk Review whereby an appraiser reviews the AVM data on behalf of the mortgage company and evaluates the relevance of the data presented in the AVM in conjunction with what they personally know regarding the area the subject is located in. A separate class of field appraisals includes both a Drive By Appraisal and a Full Interior Appraisal. A Drive By Appraisal is where an appraiser drives by and shoots a photograph from the street of a subject property and it's comps. These photographs are linked to county parcel data and AVM calculations to provide a more accurate report to the mortgage company. Finally, for a Full Interior Appraisal which is the most expensive and considered most accurate appraisal, an appraiser will tour the interior of a property taking numerous photographs, measuring and sketching a floor plan as well as notating the general quality of construction and upkeep, this data is then presented as a multi property report which includes tabular data of subject and comp data with comp photos.
In the case of three of four appraisal types, however, a mortgage banker must wait several days before receiving the information from an appraiser. If a system were available to allow quick access to all properties within a neighborhood, a mortgage banker could obtain photographs of a subject property and its comps and confirm that the comparables as selected by the AVM represents properties that have the same visual appearance of the subject property, thereby providing faster loan commitments and closings while at the same time lowering costs. Similarly, instant Drive By Appraisals could be provided thereby eliminating the costs and delays associated with an appraiser driving to manually photograph a subject property and its comps.
Images of geographic areas created on a local basis have been created in numerous formats. Photographs, movie cameras, video camera recorders, and more recently digital recorders have all been utilized to capture moving images of a geographic parcel. Photographs can be useful because they are easily associated with a particular real estate parcel; however, they are limited in the scope of the subject matter that they can include. In addition, photographs must be manually acquired and docketed in order to be associated with a property and subsequently retrieved. Panoramas can increase the scope of the subject matter to a point, but are limited by a point of capture of the panoramic views.
Movie cameras, video recorders and digital recorders and other “motion pictures” provide for increased scope of image capture. However, it is sometimes difficult to locate and view a particular portion of interest of images captured as motion pictures. In addition, correlation of particular portions of a motion picture with a particular real estate parcel can be difficult if the motion picture includes more than one real estate parcel. For example, it is relatively difficult to locate and view a particular real estate parcel in the context of its neighborhood setting, or particular aspects of its setting. Aerial images, such as satellite pictures of geographic areas have also been captured, and specific parcels of land or landmarks can be located on the aerial images.
In addition, methods and apparatus have been known for generating point clouds and generating representations of particular objects from processing of the point clouds.
However, prior to the present invention, there has not been a mechanism for generating a continuum of object representations based upon point cloud data. Nor has there been a mechanism for accurately correlating ground level images with substantial portions of an aerial image in a consistent and orderly format that allows for the identification of a particular parcel of land and provide both aerial and ground level views of the parcel, as well as a surrounding area of the parcel. Similarly, prior to the present invention, there has not been a method for correlating geopolitical indicators, such as property lot lines, or tax map parcels with aerial images and ground level video images.
Substantial portions of ground level images have not been correlated with aerial images or with geopolitical indicators, in part, because there has not been any image vehicle capable to providing a format of high quality and accurate representations of street level images capable of being matched to macro level image data.