Zillow, Inc.

Mftb Holdco, Inc.

Zillow Group, Inc.

Mfib Holdco, Inc.

Mitchell David Dawson

Li Guan

Andrew H Otwell

Dun-Yu Hsiao

Sing Bing Kang

Sean P Cier

Pierre Moulon

Techniques are described for using computing devices to perform automated operations to control acquisition of images in a defined area, including obtaining and using data from one or more hardware sensors on a mobile device that is acquiring the images, analyzing the sensor data (e.g., in a real-time manner) to determine the geometric orientation of the mobile device in three-dimensional (3D) space, and using that determined orientation to control the acquisition of further images by the mobile device. In some situations, the determined orientation information may be used in part to automatically generate and display a corresponding GUI (graphical user interface) that is overlaid on and augments displayed images of the environment surrounding the mobile device during the image acquisition process, so as to control the mobile device's geometric orientation in 3D space.

Automated control of image acquisition via use of mobile device user interface

Techniques are described for using multiple devices to automatically determine the acquisition location of an image from a camera device, such as within a building interior and by using data from the multiple devices (e.g., visual data from the camera device's image, and additional data captured by a separate mobile computing device in the same area as the camera device), and for subsequently using determined image acquisition location information in one or more further automated manners. The image may be a panorama image or of another type, and the determined acquisition location for such an image may be at least a location on the building's floor plan&#x2014;in addition, the automated image acquisition location determination may be further performed without having or using information from any depth sensors or other distance-measuring devices about distances from an image's acquisition location to walls or other objects in the surrounding building.

Automated determination of image acquisition locations in building interiors using multiple data capture devices

Automated control of image acquisition via use of mobile device interface

Automated control of image acquisition via use of hardware sensors and camera content

Techniques are described for using a smart phone or other mobile device to perform automated operations for generating panorama images of building environments and for subsequently using the generated panorama images in further automated manners. In at least some situations, the generation of a panorama image by a mobile device is based at least in part on automatically acquiring multiple constituent images on the mobile device in multiple directions from an acquisition location and on concurrently combining acquired constituent images on the mobile device, such as in a real-time manner relative to the constituent image capture, to generate a panorama image with 360&#xb0; of horizontal coverage of the view from that acquisition location. Information about such identified building floor plans may be used in various automated manners, including for controlling navigation of devices (e.g., autonomous vehicles), for display on client devices in corresponding graphical user interfaces, etc.

Automated generation on mobile devices of panorama images for building locations and subsequent use

Automated control of image acquisition via acquisition location determination

Automated control of image acquisition via use of acquisition device sensors

Growing community of inventors

Redmond, WA, United States of America

Mitchell David Dawson