US Patent 10338222 Augmented three dimensional point collection of vertical structures

Automated methods and systems are disclosed, including a method comprising: capturing images and three-dimensional LIDAR data of a geographic area with an image capturing device and a LIDAR system, as well as location and orientation data for each of the images corresponding to the location and orientation of the image capturing device capturing the images, the images depicting an object of interest and the three-dimensional LIDAR data including the object of interest; storing the three-dimensional LIDAR data on a non-transitory computer readable medium; analyzing the images with a computer system to determine three dimensional locations of points on the object of interest; and updating the three-dimensional LIDAR data with the three dimensional locations of points on the object of interest determined by analyzing the images to create a 3D point cloud.