1. A method, in a data processing system, for determining the physical location of a physical asset in a physical area, comprising: controlling a plurality of physical assets to cause each physical asset to output a visual output pattern on one or more visual output elements of the physical asset; capturing at least one image of a target physical asset using an image capture device, wherein the at least one image comprises a current state of the one or more visual output elements of the target physical asset, wherein the image capture device is a mobile image capture device whose physical location is not fixed; determining an identification of the target physical asset based on the current state of the one or more visual output elements of the target physical asset; determining a physical location of the target physical asset based on a physical location of the image capture device when the at least one image of the target physical asset was captured; and storing location data identifying the determined physical location of the target physical asset in an asset database in association with configuration information for the physical asset.