System and method of virtualizing physical locations
First Claim
1. A system for storing and retrieving information comprising:
- a first collection of electronic information pertaining to physical locations, each physical location being identified by a physical address stored in at least one data field;
a second collection of electronic information having information related to at least one of the physical locations within the first collection of electronic information;
a third collection of electronic information pertaining to users of the system;
and a host server interconnected by a computer network to the first collection of electronic information, the second collection of electronic information, and the third collection of electronic information, and configured to receive a network address that has, within the network address, at least one physical address associated with at least one of the physical locations, to identify, based on the physical address, at least one of the physical locations, and to display information about the identified physical location.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The system and method provide an intuitive and user-friendly way to store information about physical locations on a computer network. In particular, a physical location information collection is created and stored on a computer network at a network address that corresponds to the physical address of the physical location to which the information pertains. The network address for information about the physical location at 123 Main Street, for example, incorporates at least a portion of 123 Main Street. The physical address can be incorporated into a Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”) domain name, such as, for example, www.123mainstreet.com. Alternatively, the physical address can be incorporated into another portion of a network address, such as, for example, www.buildingaddress.com/123mainstreet/.
183 Citations
81 Claims
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1. A system for storing and retrieving information comprising:
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a first collection of electronic information pertaining to physical locations, each physical location being identified by a physical address stored in at least one data field;
a second collection of electronic information having information related to at least one of the physical locations within the first collection of electronic information;
a third collection of electronic information pertaining to users of the system;
and a host server interconnected by a computer network to the first collection of electronic information, the second collection of electronic information, and the third collection of electronic information, and configured to receive a network address that has, within the network address, at least one physical address associated with at least one of the physical locations, to identify, based on the physical address, at least one of the physical locations, and to display information about the identified physical location. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method of retrieving information related to a physical location comprising:
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receiving over a network a user request including a network address that has within the network address at least a portion of a physical address;
extracting the physical address from the network address and identifying, from the physical address, at least one information collection comprising information about a physical location corresponding to the physical address;
aggregating information from the information collection with information related to the physical location stored in at least one other information collection; and
transmitting the information about the physical location and the information related to the physical location to a user. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54)
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55. A geographical information system comprising:
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a collection of information relevant to a geographical location, the collection being connected to a network;
an interface to the collection configured to provide user access to the collection over the network, such access being provided, at least in part, by receiving, over the network, a network address that identifies the collection, the network address comprising, as a host name of the network address, at least a portion of a physical street address; and
an output module configured to retrieve information from the information collection and transmit the information to a user;
wherein the system provides a variable level of access for users wherein a user is allowed to alter varying quantities of content in the information collection based on user attributes stored in the information collection. - View Dependent Claims (56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61)
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62. A method of virtualizing physical locations comprising:
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associating a plurality of physical location information collections with physical addresses such that each collection comprises data related to a physical location identified by at least one physical address;
receiving a network address that includes a physical address;
identifying at least one of the collections based on the physical address included in the network address; and
transmitting a portion of the data related to a physical location from the identified collection. - View Dependent Claims (63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71)
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- 72. A geographical information system comprising a plurality of physical location information collections connected to a computer network, each collection comprising data related to a physical location identified by at least one physical address, the geographical information system configured to receive a user request comprising a network address that includes a physical address, to identify, based on the physical address included in the network address, one of the collections, and to transmit to the user at least a portion of the data related to the physical location identified by the physical address.
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76. A program storage device storing instructions that when executed perform the process comprising:
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associating a plurality of physical location information collections with physical addresses such that each collection comprises data related to a physical location identified by at least one physical address;
receiving a network address that includes a physical address;
identifying at least one of the collections based on the physical address included in the network address; and
transmitting a portion of the data related to a physical location from the identified collection. - View Dependent Claims (77, 78)
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79. A system for virtualizing physical locations comprising:
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means for associating a plurality of physical location information collections with physical addresses such that each collections comprises data related to a physical location identified by at least one physical address;
means for receiving a network address that includes a physical address;
means for identifying at least one of the collections based on the physical address included in the network address; and
means for transmitting a portion of the data related to a physical location from the identified collection. - View Dependent Claims (80, 81)
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Specification