Method, system and program product that utilize a hierarchical conceptual framework to model an environment containing a collection of items

• US 20050240605A1
• Filed: 05/27/2005
• Published: 10/27/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rakuten, Inc. (Rakuten Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MCI Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Knoblock, Terry, Mason, Willis, Carlson, Gregory G., Golobay, Mike
• Granted Patent: US 8,010,571 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/956 Hierarchical
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A method, system and program product for modeling an environment containing a collection of items are disclosed. In accordance with the method, an environmental hierarchy describing a model environment, a product catalog containing data describing a plurality of items that may be utilized to populate the modeled environment, and a configuration library containing data describing a spatial relationship between first and second items among the plurality of items in the product catalog are created. The modeled environment is then populated by storing, in a database, data representative of the spatial relationship between the environmental hierarchy and a collection of items including the first item.

Claims

1-70. -70. (canceled)

71. A system for maintaining a hierarchical conceptual framework, comprising:

a first storage for storing environment information, where the environment information includes information regarding a number of environment levels and information regarding hierarchical relationships between the environment levels;

a second storage for storing item information, where the item information includes information regarding a number of items for placement in the environment levels and information regarding hierarchical relationships between the number of items; and

a third storage for storing information regarding the placement of one or more items from the number of items within the number of environment levels.

72. The system of claim 71, wherein the first storage, the second storage, and the third storage together comprise a relational database.

73. The system of claim 71, wherein the information regarding hierarchical relationships between the number of items further includes item configuration information regarding groupings of items.

74. The system of claim 71, wherein the environment information includes spatial information regarding the environment levels and non-spatial information regarding the environment levels.

75. The system of claim 71, wherein the item information includes physical information regarding the number of items and non-physical information regarding the number of items.

76. The system of claim 71, further comprising a first tool for receiving user placement selections for placing items within the environment levels, where the first tool determines if a received user placement selection is valid based on environment level and item information contained within the first storage, the second storage, and the third storage.

77. The system of claim 76, further comprising a second tool for displaying graphical depictions of selected environment levels and items placed therein based on information stored in the first storage, the second storage, and the third storage.

78. The system of claim 77, wherein the first tool is further configured to receive user manipulations of the graphically depicted environment levels and items placed therein and to modify the information stored in the first storage, the second storage, and the third storage based on the manipulations.

79. The system of claim 71, wherein the information regarding the placement of one or more items from the number of items within the number of environment levels define footprints relating to the placement of items or groupings of items within the environment levels.

80. A method for generating a populated virtual environment, the method comprising:

receiving at least one environment element definition including spatial information regarding at least one environment element and non-spatial information regarding the at least one environment element;

receiving at least one item element definition including spatial information regarding at least one item element and non-spatial information regarding the at least one item element;

receiving configuration selections including groupings of item elements, where the configuration selections include information regarding relationships between item elements in the groupings of item elements; and

receiving environment population selections including information regarding placement of at least one configuration selection within the at least one environment element, where the environment population selections include spatial information regarding the placement of the at least one configuration selection within the at least one environment element and non-spatial information regarding the placement of the at least one configuration selection within the at least one environment element.

81. The method of claim 80, wherein environment elements are arranged hierarchically, such that some environmental elements are logically contained within other environmental elements and share corresponding attributes in common.

82. The method of claim 80, wherein the receiving at least one environment element definition further comprises:

providing a listing of potential environmental element attributes to a user; and

receiving one or more of the potential environmental element attributes from the user for association with the at least one environment element.

83. The method of claim 80, wherein the receiving at least one environment element definition further comprises:

receiving a graphical depiction of the at least one environment element;

translating the graphical depiction of the at least one environment definition into spatial information regarding the at least one environment element; and

receiving additional non-spatial information regarding the at least one environment element to be associated with the graphical depiction of the at least one environment definition.

84. The method of claim 80, wherein the groupings of item elements are arranged hierarchically, such that some item elements are logically contained within other item elements and share corresponding attributes in common.

85. The method of claim 80, wherein the configuration selections include both spatial and non-spatial information regarding the groupings of item elements.

86. The method of claim 80, wherein the receiving environment population selections further comprises:

graphically displaying an environment element;

receiving a graphical depiction of the placement of an item grouping within the displayed environment element; and

translating the graphical depiction of placement into spatial relationship information regarding the item grouping and the displayed environment element.

87. The method of claim 86, further comprising:

determining whether the placement is valid based on the spatial relationship information regarding the item grouping and the displayed environment element and the non-spatial information regarding the environment element and the items contained within the item grouping.

88. The method of claim 87, wherein determining whether the placement is valid, further includes determining whether the item grouping would physically conform to requirements of the proposed placement within the environment element.

89. The method of claim 80, wherein the receiving environment population selections further comprises:

receiving multiple environment population selections for distinct positions in time, such that item or item grouping placement within an environmental element may be mapped in time.

90. An environment modeling system, comprising:

means for receiving information regarding a plurality of environment levels, the information including information regarding relationships between the plurality of environment levels;

means for receiving information regarding a plurality of items to be placed within the plurality of environment levels, the information including information regarding relationships between the plurality of items;

means for receiving configuration information relating to groupings of one or more items from the plurality of items; and

means for receiving environment population information indicative of virtual placement of items or groupings of items within the plurality of environment levels.