System, method and monument for land surveying

Abstract

A monument usable for locating stationary geographical positions and/or assets includes a housing, comprising a body and a cap; at least one permanent magnet mounted on or in the housing; and at least one electronic marker located on or in the housing. The magnet has a magnetic field of sufficient strength for its location to be readily identified from outside the housing using a portable magnetic locator and the electronic marker includes an electronic transceiver for receiving and/or transmitting electronic information unique to the geographical location and/or functional properties of the monument or an asset associated with the monument.

I claim: 
     
         1 . A monument for locating stationary geographical positions and assets comprising:
 a housing;   at least one permanent magnet provided on the housing and having a magnetic field of sufficient strength for a location of the at least one permanent magnet relative to a portable magnetic locator to be readily identified from outside the housing using the portable magnetic locator; and   at least one electronic marker coupled to a metal backing plate and provided on the housing, the at least one electronic marker for receiving and/or transmitting one or more radio frequency (RF) signals which include information unique to a geographical location and/or a functional property of a monument or an asset associated with the monument, wherein the at least one electronic marker is adapted to transmit and/or receive the one or more radio frequency (RF) signals in the presence of the magnetic field of the at least one permanent magnet.   
     
     
         2 . The monument of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the at least one permanent magnet and the at least one electronic marker are each positioned within the housing;   at least one of a body and a cap of the housing is formed of metal or other material resistant to the passage of electronic frequencies, the body including at least one opening adjacent to the at least one electronic marker for facilitating passage of the one or more radio frequency (RF) signals from and to the at least one electronic marker.   
     
     
         3 . The monument of  claim 2 , wherein the monument is adapted to be located below ground level and the housing is adapted to substantially prevent external physical contact with the at least one permanent magnet and the at least one electronic marker. 
     
     
         4 . The monument of  claim 3 , wherein the housing includes a breakaway portion, and wherein the at least one permanent magnet and the at least one electronic marker and associated metal backing plate are provided in the breakaway portion. 
     
     
         5 . The monument of  claim 4 , wherein the breakaway portion is formed of a plastic material which permits the radio frequency (RF) signals to pass therethrough. 
     
     
         6 . The monument of  claim 2 , wherein the housing comprises a hollow-tube shaped body having opposed openings and the at least one electronic marker is supported within the hollow tube-shaped body of the housing between the opposed openings of the body, and wherein the housing comprises a cover which comprises a shell conforming to an outer surface of the tube-shaped body. 
     
     
         7 . The monument of  claim 1 , wherein the housing comprises a peripheral shell formed of at least one piece of material which permits the passage of the radio frequency (RF) signals therethrough, and wherein the at least one electronic marker is provided within the peripheral shell. 
     
     
         8 . The monument of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one electronic marker comprises an RFID tag, and wherein the RFID tag is encased within a plastic body which provides a base for the housing, and wherein the plastic body encasing the RFID tag is mounted on the metal backing plate. 
     
     
         9 . The monument of  claim 8 , wherein the at least one permanent magnet is mounted on the base provided by the plastic body encasing the RFID tag, and the cap is mounted on the RFID tag plastic body to enclose the at least one permanent magnet. 
     
     
         10 . The monument of  claim 1 , wherein the housing comprises a base plate, which base plate supports the at least one permanent magnet, and a cap which is formed of plastic and mounted on the base plate to cover the at least one permanent magnet, the cap further internally supporting the at least one electronic marker and the metal backing plate. 
     
     
         11 . The monument of  claim 10 , wherein the base plate is engaged on a projection which extends downwardly from the base plate. 
     
     
         12 . The monument of  claim 1 , wherein the housing comprises a base plate, which base plate supports the at least one permanent magnet and the metal backing plate, and a cap formed of plastic mounted on the base plate which cap covers the magnet, the backing plate and the at least one electronic marker. 
     
     
         13 . The monument of  claim 1 , wherein a plastic housing cap is mounted on a top side of the metal backing plate to cover the at least one electronic marker, and the permanent magnet is attached to a bottom side of the metal backing plate. 
     
     
         14 . A method of monument location and identification comprising: perceiving a magnetic field emitted by a permanent magnet of a monument;
 locating the monument based on the perceived magnetic field;   sending an electronic signal to an electronic tag of the monument, wherein the electronic tag is provided on a metal backing plate and the electronic signal is received by the electronic tag in the presence of the magnetic field emitted by the permanent magnet of the monument;   receiving an electronic signal transmitted by the electronic tag in the presence of the magnetic field emitted by the permanent magnet of the monument, the electronic signal received representing information unique to the monument.   sending a signal to a server, wherein the signal sent to the server is related to at least one of the signal received from the electronic tag and the information unique to the monument;   querying a database of the server based on the signal sent to the server; and   receiving information from the server based on the query to the database.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein perceiving the magnetic field emitted by the permanent magnet of the monument comprises probing a location with the magnetic locator until the magnetic field is detected by the magnetic locator. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein identifying the location of the monument based on the perceived magnetic field comprises probing a location with the magnetic locator until the perceived magnetic field reaches a maximum value. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein sending the electronic signal to the electronic tag of the monument comprises sending a radio frequency signal to a RFID tag of the monument; and wherein receiving an electronic signal transmitted by the electronic tag comprises receiving a radio frequency signal& from the RFID tag of the monument. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein receiving the electronic signal from the electronic tag of the monument comprises receiving an electronic signal representing an identification number of the monument. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein sending the signal to a server comprises sending the identification number of the monument to the server. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein querying the database of the server comprises looking up one or more records stored in the database related to the identification number of the monument; and
 wherein receiving information from the server based on the query to the database comprises receiving the one or more records related to the identification number of the monument.