Geocoding method using multidimensional vector spaces

• US 20060245572A1
• Filed: 12/27/2005
• Published: 11/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Eslambolchi, Hossein, Stewart, Harold J., Asher, Michael, Giddens, Charles
• Granted Patent: US 7,627,545 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/220.10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases

Abstract

A process for evaluating and geocoding of GIS data elements utilizes a plurality of “locate” tests and a weighting scheme to express the match results as a multidimensional vector. Multiple inputs and data sources, as well as ambiguous and partial input data, are used to generate an output with improved precision by applying a weighting function to each input element and generating a set of test vectors (i.e., the input data element weighted by the known accuracy of the element/source). A sum of a plurality of tests is then generated as the “characteristic vector” of the test set. By using two (or more) different sets of test, two (or more) characteristic vectors are formed. Various well-known algebraic techniques can then be used to evaluate the results of each set of tests and select the “best match” result.

Claims

1. A method of geocoding input geographic data into an output address match result, the method comprising the steps of:

selecting a set of n “

locate”

tests to be used to convert the input geographic data into the output address match result;

determining a certainty value (1-u) associated with each test in the selected set;

determining a weighting constant (w) associated with each test in said selected set; and

generating a characteristic vector defining the likelihood of the output address match to the input geographic data, the characteristic vector defined as the sum of each certainty value multiplied by its associated weighting constant;

2. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein the method further comprises the step of determining the length of the characteristic vector, wherein the length of the characteristic vector is directly proportional to the degree of match between the input geographic data and the output address match.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the method is repeated for at least a second set of “

locate”

tests to generate at least a second characteristic vector.

4. The method as defined in claim 3 wherein the method is repeated for a multiple of N sets of “

locate”

tests to generate a plurality of N characteristic vectors.

5. The method as defined in claim 3 wherein the method further comprises the steps of

determining the length of each characteristic vector to find the longest characteristic vector;

and

defining the longest characteristic vector as associated with the best address match to the input geographic data.