Building a geographic database

• US 20040103117A1
• Filed: 11/27/2002
• Published: 05/27/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Segler, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,478,784 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/104.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases

Abstract

A system receives output geographic information en masse from a server. The output geographic information corresponds to input geographic information provided to the server en masse. The system builds a database that indexes at least some of the output geographic information to at least some of the input geographic information, attempts to locate specific output geographic information in the database, and determines the specific output geographic information by calculation if the specific output geographic information cannot be located in the database.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving output geographic information en masse from a server, the output geographic information corresponding to input geographic information provided to the server en masse;

building a database that indexes at least some of the output geographic information to at least some of the input geographic information;

attempting to locate specific output geographic information in the database; and

determining the specific output geographic information by calculation if the specific output geographic information cannot be located in the database.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein attempting comprises attempting to locate specific output geographic information that corresponds to specific input geographic information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining comprises calculating a straight-line distance using the specific input geographic information if the specific output geographic information cannot be located in the database.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein calculating comprises calculating the straight-line distance using geographic coordinates as the specific input geographic information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving and building are performed by maintenance software and attempting and determining are performed by application software.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein building comprises indexing the output geographic information in the database based on the geographic server that provided the output geographic information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein building comprises indexing the output geographic information in the database by geographic region.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the geographic region comprises at least one of an area of a country, a country, and a continent.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the input geographic information comprise sets of locations and the output geographic information comprise routes between the sets of locations and travel durations between the sets of locations.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the sets of locations are defined in terms of geographic coordinates.

11. A system comprising:

a server; and

a computer system;

wherein the computer system comprises at least one memory that stores executable instructions and at least one processor that executes the instructions to;

receive output geographic information en masse from the server, the output geographic information corresponding to input geographic information provided to the server en masse;

build a database that indexes at least some of the output geographic information to at least some of the input geographic information;

attempt to locate specific output geographic information in the database; and

determine the specific output geographic information by calculation if the specific output geographic information cannot be located in the database.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein attempting comprises attempting to locate specific output geographic information that corresponds to specific input geographic information.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein determining comprises calculating a straight-line distance using the specific input geographic information if the specific output geographic information cannot be located in the database.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein calculating comprises calculating the straight-line distance using geographic coordinates as the specific input geographic information.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein receiving and building are performed by maintenance software and attempting and determining are performed by application software.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein building comprises indexing the output geographic information in the database based on the geographic server that provided the output geographic information.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein building comprises indexing the output geographic information in the database by geographic region.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the geographic region comprises at least one of an area of a country, a country, and a continent.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the input geographic information comprise sets of locations and the output geographic information comprise routes between the sets of locations and travel durations between the sets of locations.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the sets of locations are defined in terms of geographic coordinates.