Determining geographic locations for place names

• US 10,459,955 B1
• Filed: 02/08/2018
• Issued: 10/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Vespe, David J., Hogue, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Chau T
• Application Number:
  US15/891,613
• Time in Patent Office: 628 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5846 using extracted text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/279 Recognition of textual entities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/295 Named entity recognition

Abstract

A system and method for tagging place names with geographic location coordinates, the place names associated with a collection of objects in a memory of a computer system. The system and method process a text string within an object stored in memory to identify a first potential place name. The system and method determine whether geographic location coordinates are known for the first potential place name. The system and method identify the first potential place name associated with an object in the memory as a place name. The system and method tag the first identified place name associated with an object in the memory with its geographic location coordinates, when the geographic location coordinates for the first identified place name are known. The system and method disambiguate place names when multiple place names are found.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

identifying a fact from a document, the fact having an attribute and a value;

determining that the attribute indicates that the value includes a place name; and

in response to the determining;

identifying the place name based on the value,

determining two or more possible geographic location coordinates for the place name,

disambiguating between the two or more possible geographic location coordinates to select geographic location coordinates for the place name by identifying an other fact in the document related to the fact and selecting the geographic location coordinates for the place name based on distance from the selected geographic location coordinates to geographic location coordinates associated with the other fact, and

presenting the document with a tag that associates the fact with the geographic location coordinates.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting the document with the tag includes tagging the place name of the fact with the geographic location coordinates.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein tagging includes converting the place name into a hyperlink to a map view.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein disambiguating between the possible geographic location coordinates includes examining the document for context.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining two or more possible geographic location coordinates for the place name includes examining a plurality of place names, each of the plurality of place names having been tagged previously with its respective geographic location coordinates.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographic location coordinates for the place name include geographic location coordinates for a bounding area.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein disambiguating between the two or more possible geographic location coordinates includes:

determining an object related to the fact;

identifying a second fact related to the object, the second fact including an identified place name;

comparing the two or more possible geographic location coordinates for the place name with geographic location coordinates for the identified place name of the second fact; and

selecting the geographic location coordinates for the place name from the two or more possible geographic location coordinates based on the selected geographic location coordinates having overlapping bounding areas with the geographic location coordinates for the identified place name of the second fact.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining geographic location coordinates for the place name includes comparing the two or more possible geographic location coordinates for the place name with geographic location coordinates for an identified place name from the document.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the geographic location coordinates for the place name in a memory, the storing including associating the geographic location coordinates with the fact.

10. A system comprising:

at least one processor; and

memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to perform operations including;

identifying a fact from a document, the fact having an attribute and a value;

determining that the value includes a place name; and

in response to the determining;

determining two or more possible geographic location coordinates for the place name,

disambiguating between the two or more possible geographic location coordinates to select geographic location coordinates for the place name based at least in part on context retrieved by examining the document and by identifying an other fact in the document related to the fact and selecting the geographic location coordinates for the place name based on distance from the selected geographic location coordinates to geographic location coordinates associated with the other fact, and

presenting the document with a tag that associates the fact with the geographic location coordinates.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the context includes an origin of the document.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein determining geographic location coordinates for the place name includes examining a plurality of place names, each of the plurality of place names having been tagged previously with its respective geographic location coordinates.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the geographic location coordinates for the place name include geographic location coordinates for a bounding area.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein disambiguating between the two or more possible geographic location coordinates includes:

determining an object related to the fact;

comparing the two or more possible geographic location coordinates for the place name with geographic location coordinates for an identified place name of a second fact also related to the object; and

selecting the geographic location coordinates for the place name from the two or more possible geographic location coordinates based on the selected geographic location coordinates having overlapping bounding areas with the geographic location coordinates for the identified place name of the second fact.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein presenting the document with the tag includes tagging the place name of the fact with the geographic location coordinates.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the memory further stores instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to perform operations including displaying a fact associated with the geographic location coordinates with a web page.

17. A computer-implemented method comprising:

identifying a fact from a document, the fact having an attribute and a value;

determining that the attribute of the fact indicates that the value of the fact includes a potential place name; and

in response to the determining;

identifying the place name based on the value of the fact;

determining geographic location coordinates for the place name by examining frequencies with which the geographic location coordinates are associated with variations of the place name in a fact repository that includes a plurality of objects and a plurality of facts associated with the plurality of objects; and

presenting the document along with a tag associated with the geographic location coordinates.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein presenting the document along with the tag includes tagging the place name of the fact with the geographic location coordinates.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein tagging includes converting the place name into a hyperlink to a map view.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

storing the geographic location coordinates for the place name in a memory, the storing including associating the geographic location coordinates with the fact.