Methods and systems for storing aerial images on a data storage device

A method for storing a captured aerial image on a data storage device that stores a plurality of compressed files and retrieving a target aerial image from the data storage device, the method comprising:

• accessing the captured aerial image and a corresponding captured aerial image metadata file, the captured aerial image metadata file comprising captured geospatial data indicative of a location of a first zone of interest imaged on the captured aerial image and of a location of a second zone of interest imaged on the captured aerial image;
• selecting a first compressed file among the plurality of compressed files stored on the data storage device in response to the first zone of interest imaged on the captured aerial image overlapping at least a portion of the first zone of interest imaged on the first compressed file;
• extracting a first sequence of stored aerial images from the selected first compressed file stored on the data storage device, the first sequence of stored aerial images comprising at least one stored aerial image, and the selected first compressed file being associated with a corresponding stored aerial image metadata file, the stored aerial image metadata file comprising stored geospatial data indicative of a location of a corresponding first zone of interest imaged on the selected first compressed file;
• determining a first position for inserting the captured aerial image in the first sequence of stored aerial images;
• updating the first sequence of stored aerial images by inserting the captured aerial image in the first sequence of stored aerial images at the first position;
• after updating the first sequence of stored aerial images, encoding the selected first compressed file by applying an encoding algorithm to the first sequence of stored aerial images;
• storing the selected first compressed file on the data storage device;
• receiving instruction from a user to retrieve a target aerial image from the data storage device, the instruction comprising an identification of a target user-related tag and a target temporal tag;
• identifying a target compressed file among the plurality of compressed files stored on the data storage device based on the identification of the target user-related tag;
• extracting the target aerial image from a sequence of stored aerial images of the target compressed file based on the target temporal tag;
• and
• transmitting the target aerial image to the user.

A method for retrieving a target aerial image from a data storage device, the data storage device storing compressed files, the method comprising:

• accessing a retrieval instruction comprising an identification of:
• a target user-related tag,
• target geospatial data, and
• a target time of capture of the target aerial image;
• accessing the compressed files from the data storage device, each of the compressed files being a compressed form of a sequence of stored aerial images and being associated with a metadata file, the metadata file comprising:
• a user-related tag indicative of an identification of at least one user having access rights,
• stored geospatial data indicative of a location of a corresponding zone of interest imaged, and
• indication of times of capture;
• identifying a target compressed file from the compressed files, the identifying being based on at least one of:
• a comparison of the target user-related tag with the user-related tag of each of the compressed files;
• and/or
• a comparison of the target geospatial data and the stored geospatial data of each of the compressed files;
• applying a decoding algorithm onto the target compressed file to extract the sequence of stored aerial images from the target compressed file;
• identifying the target aerial image among the stored aerial images of the sequence based on a comparison of the target time of capture and times of capture of the stored aerial images;
• and
• returning the target aerial image.