Systems and methods for guiding a crane operator

A guidance system for guiding a crane operator to a location of a first building material object having a first identifying indicium and located within a shakeout field, the guidance system comprising:

• an imager mounted on a hook-block of a crane, the imager providing a sequence of overlapping images of the shakeout field;
• a GPS receiver coupled to the imager and the hook-block, wherein the GPS receiver is capable of providing a GPS location of the hook-block and a GPS location of the first building material object;
• a computer coupled to the imager and the GPS receiver, wherein the computer is configured to:
• generate an image of the shakeout field including the first building material object based on the sequence of overlapping images;
• recognize the first building material object within the image;
• recognize the first identifying indicium of the first building material object within the image;
• and
• provide a visual recognition to the crane operator for guiding the operation of the hook-block to the location of the first building material object based on of the GPS location of the first building material object.

A guidance system for guiding a crane operator to a location of a first building material object having a first identifying indicium and located within a shakeout field, the guidance system comprising:

• an imager mounted on a hook-block of a crane, wherein the imager is configured to generate one or more images of the shakeout field;
• a GPS receiver coupled to the imager and the hook-block, wherein the GPS receiver is capable of providing a GPS location of the hook-block and a GPS location of the first building material object;
• and
• a computer coupled to the imager and the GPS receiver, wherein the computer is configured to:
• generate a composite image of the shakeout field including the first building material object based on the one or more images;
• recognize the first identifying indicium of the first building material object within the composite image;
• recognize the first building material object within the shakeout field image based on the first identifying indicium;
• obtain the GPS position of the first building material object;
• and
• provide a visual recognition to the crane operator for guiding the operation of the hook-block to the location of the first building material object based on of the GPS location of the first building material object.

A guidance system for guiding a crane operator to a location of a first building material object having a first identifying indicium and located within a shakeout field, the guidance system comprising:

• means for providing one or more images of the shakeout field;
• a GPS receiver for providing a location of the hook-block and a GPS location of the first building material object;
• and a computer coupled to the imaging means and the GPS receiver, the computer configured to:
• generate a composite image of the shakeout field including the first building material object based on the one or more images;
• recognize the first building material object within the composite image using the first identifying indicium;
• obtain the GPS location of the first building material object and the GPS location of the hook-block;
• and
• provide a visual recognition to the crane operator for guiding the operation of the hook-block to the location of the first building material object based on of the GPS location of the first building material object.