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US 11,988,549 B2Granted
Apparatus, methodologies and software applications for determining a level of direct sunlight
AssigneeHook Mountain Software Develoment, Inc.
InventorGeorge Koulomzin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A software application is provided to easily determine an indication of an amount of light available at a location at a given point in time. The software application may be used indoors or outdoors and is configured to be easy to use and highly accurate.
Claims19
An apparatus for guiding user collection of data and determining a predicted amount of daily direct sunlight at a location of the apparatus over a specified period of time which encompasses a plurality of days, the apparatus comprising:
- a handheld computer device including a camera for collecting image data;
- and
- software running on the computer device,
- wherein the software controls operation of components of the handheld computer device to provide means for guiding the user collection of image data using the camera to determine the amount of daily direct sunlight at the location of the apparatus over the specified period of time by:
- computing a plurality of possible paths of the sun across the sky during the specified period of time,
- mathematically transforming the plurality of possible paths into a representation for output on a display of the handheld computer device to guide scanning by the user using the camera of the computer device across the plurality of possible paths,
- outputting the representation to guide the user collection of data, wherein the output representation is output on the display to guide the user scanning and includes a representation of an encompassing region that encompasses the computed plurality of possible paths, wherein the representation of the encompassing region is subdivided into a plurality of segments that collectively total the entire encompassing region but do not overlap each other, wherein each segment is small enough so that a plurality of segments fit into a field of view of the camera,
- capturing, via scanning, of images of sky and any obstructions which block sun light from reaching the handheld computer device's location during the period of time, whereby the capturing of images of the sky captures image data that covers all possible paths of the sun during the period of time, wherein the displayed segments in the output representation used to guide the user collection of data and capture of images of sky and obstructions are altered iteratively in response to the user performing each capture so that the output representation indicates a degree that the image capture is complete until all of the computed plurality of possible paths of the sun during the specified period of time have been captured, and
- determining the predicted amount of daily direct sunlight at a location of the apparatus over the specified period of time based on the captured image data, and
- outputting the determined predicted amount of daily direct sunlight at the location of the apparatus as an average number of hours of direct sunlight that would impinge on the apparatus's location during the specified interval, absent cloud cover, smoke, or other transient phenomena.
7 more elements
A method for guiding user collection of data and determining a predicted amount of available light at a particular location over a specified period of time which encompasses a plurality of days using a handheld computer device that guides the user collection of data for determination of the amount of daily direct sunlight, the method comprising:
- a handheld computer device including a camera collecting image data under control of a user;
- and
- guiding the user collection of image data using the camera software running on the computer device to determine the amount of daily direct sunlight at the location of the apparatus over the specified period of time by:
- computing a plurality of possible paths of the sun across the sky during the specified period of time,
- mathematically transforming the plurality of possible paths into a representation for output on a display of the handheld computer device to guide scanning by the user using the camera of the computer device across the plurality of possible paths,
- outputting the representation to guide the user collection of data, wherein the output representation is output on the display to guide the user scanning and includes a representation of an encompassing region that encompasses the computed plurality of possible paths, wherein the representation of the encompassing region is subdivided into a plurality of segments that collectively total the entire encompassing region but do not overlap each other, wherein each segment is small enough so that a plurality of segments fit into a field of view of the camera,
- capturing, via scanning, of images of sky and any obstructions which block sun light from reaching the handheld computer device's location during the period of time, whereby the capturing of images of the sky captures image data that covers all possible paths of the sun during the period of time, wherein the displayed segments in the output representation used to guide the user collection of data and capture of images of sky and obstructions are altered iteratively in response to the user performing each capture so that the output representation indicates a degree that the image capture is complete until all of the computed plurality of possible paths of the sun during the specified period of time have been captured, and
- determining the predicted amount of daily direct sunlight at a location of the apparatus over the specified period of time based on the captured image data, and
- outputting the determined predicted amount of daily direct sunlight at the location of the apparatus as an average number of hours of direct sunlight that would impinge on the apparatus's location during the specified interval, absent cloud cover, smoke, or other transient phenomena.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.