Smartphone mounting apparatus and imaging methods for asset tagging and utility mapping as used with utility locator devices

Abstract

Methods for mapping utility lines and identifying and tagging assets relating to utility lines as well as a smartphone mounting apparatus are disclosed. The smartphone mounting apparatus may couple to a utility locator device in a known position and orientation for use in tagging assets in a utility locating operation. Such assets along the ground surface may be captured by the camera(s) of the smartphone and/or cameras of the utility locator device and the resulting still images and/or video may be correlated with geolocation data of the tagged asset. Further, methods using Deep Learning/artificial intelligence are included to recognize patterns and make predictions related to underground utilities including utility line type classification.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.