EagleView’s Software Measures Rooftops With Photos From a Sky

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EagleView

EagleView Technologies was only awarded a U.S. obvious on a process to derive
roof measurements from aerial photos. Photograph pleasantness of EagleView

EagleView Technologies was only awarded a U.S. obvious on a process to derive
roof measurements from aerial photos. Photograph pleasantness of EagleView

Roofers once had to spend hours with
ladders and fasten measures to figure out a distance of a job. Now
they can get a accurate magnitude of roofs — a area of each
section, a pitch, a length of ridges and eaves — without
leaving their desks.

In new years, aerial and satellite photos have become
abundant and minute adequate to uncover many U.S. buildings from
several angles, and companies have emerged to spin those images
into useful renderings. “It takes a lot of time to go out and
measure a roof, so anything that will assistance with correctness is a
great idea,” says James Kirby, an designer with a National
Roofing Contractors Assn. EagleView Technologies was just
awarded a U.S. obvious on a process to get roof measurements
from aerial photos, an fulfilment that Chief Executive
Officer Chris Barrow hopes will give a three-year-old Seattle
company an corner over competitors such as RoofWalk, Pictometry,
and Aerialogics.

EagleView rags together minute roof renderings regulating aerial
photos from open sources, such as county land records, or
private databases. Its module matches adult edges, colors, and
shapes to emanate a three-dimensional picture of a roof.
EagleView’s patent, formerly postulated abroad, will be issued
Dec. 13, according to a presentation from a U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office. Barrow, 48, says a process is some-more precise
and reduction unwieldy for roofers and word claims adjusters
than a out-of-date way. “It’s really formidable to get an
accurate magnitude with a fasten measure,” he says. “Five
[insurance] adjusters will give 5 opposite measurements.”

Barrow says EagleView, that has 200 employees, depends many of
the 25 largest U.S. word carriers as customers, and almost
20,000 constrictive businesses have used a service. That’s
about one-fifth of a thatch executive market, according to
an guess by marketplace researcher IbisWorld. Barrow says
EagleView is essential on income of about $40 million this
year and expects to double that in 2012, as his sales team
reaches some-more roofers and insurers.

Creating a Report

When a patron puts an residence into EagleView’s website, the
company pulls existent aerial photos of that property. The
software uses them to beget a indication of a roof surface,
extrapolating measurements and slopes from images taken at
different angles. Then a technician reviews a renderings and
photos and e-mails a patron a report. The reports generally
take one day and cost $45, on average, yet elementary homes can
be finished for $20 and formidable roofs or blurb properties can
cost $80 or more.

The thought for EagleView came to module operative Chris Pershing
when his brother-in-law, roofer Dave Carlson, described how
tricky it is to magnitude a roof by hand. Pershing, who had worked
at Microsoft (MSFT) and other module companies, began trying
to write a module to emanate 3D models from photographs,
starting with a birdhouse on his kitchen table. They started the
company early in 2008 and brought on Barrow, a maestro tech
executive, a few months after to be CEO. They’ve given raised
nearly $8 million from angel investors.

The record has helped revoke disputes between roofers, who
have an inducement to high-ball roof magnitude to inflate
estimates, and insurers, who have an seductiveness in doing the
opposite. “The distance of a roof and a sum series of squares
is always a indicate of contention,” says Corry Novosel, director
of skill claims during Westfield Insurance in Westfield Center,
Ohio. (A “square” refers to 100 block feet of roof surface.)

Avoiding Ladders

Westfield uses EagleView especially after large storms, tornadoes, or
other inauspicious events that leave lots of roofs ripped adult and
many word claims to be processed. Novosel says his
adjusters can determine 8 claims a day regulating a automated
measurements, compared with 5 when they magnitude by hand. Many
times, they don’t even need to get on a ladder, if repairs is
visible from a ground. That reduces a risk that adjusters
will get injured, a consistent concern, Novosel notes, for people
who mount onto rooftops each day.

Joe Graham, a 28-year-old sales repute and estimator during Collis
Roofing in Longwood, Fla., started regulating EagleView reports
earlier this year for sales calls and estimates for people
getting new roofs. He says he continued to magnitude by palm for
several weeks, since he didn’t trust a software. Now, Graham
agrees that EagleView reports cut down on arguments with
insurers, since “most word carriers during this indicate treat
it as gospel.” In a past, when he came adult with a different
number than an word adjuster, “I’d have to spend hours out
there training them how to magnitude a roof,” he says.

While he still has to stand adult and check a roof to make an
estimate, Graham says a EagleView measurements let him spend
more time articulate to business and reduction time on tip of their
houses. It also creates his pursuit easier. “It’s good in the
summertime in Florida,” he says, “if we can save 15 mins on
a roof.”

To hit a contributor on this story: John Tozzi at
jtozzi2@bloomberg.net

To hit a editor obliged for this story: Nick Leiber at
nleiber@bloomberg.net

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