Geographic feature name reduction using phonetic algorithms

• US 20070239460A1
• Filed: 03/16/2006
• Published: 10/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tomtom Global Content B.V (TomTom NV)
• Original Assignee: Tele Atlas North America (TomTom NV)
• Inventors: Sheridan, Jesse
• Granted Patent: US 7,925,677 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/277
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/919 Geographic

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention concern a way of using geographic-phonetic strings, such as modified geographic-phonetic strings, for constructing a geographic database for use with geographic applications.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

creating geographic-phonetic strings for geographic names;

determining sets of the geographic names that are associated with the same, or a portion of the same, geographic feature and that have the same geographic-phonetic string; and

selecting preferred geographic names for the sets.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising compiling geographic information including the geographic names from different sources.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting step includes using metadata associated with the geographic names.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the creating step includes modifying at least some of the geographic names to create intermediate names;

and creating geographic-phonetic strings of the intermediate name.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the modifying step includes converting all or part of a geographic name into a target language

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the modifying step includes ignoring a portion of a geographic name.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the converting step includes producing at least some numeric representations.

8. A geographic database constructed using the steps of:

creating geographic-phonetic strings for geographic names;

determining sets of the geographic names that are associated with the same, or a portion of the same, geographic feature and that have the same geographic-phonetic string; and

selecting preferred geographic names for the sets.

9. The geographic database of claim 8, further comprising compiling geographic information including the geographic names from different sources.

10. The geographic database of claim 8 wherein the selecting step includes using metadata associated with the geographic names.

11. The geographic database of claim 8, wherein the creating step includes modifying at least some of the geographic names to create intermediate names;

and creating a geographic-phonetic string of the intermediate names.

12. The geographic database of claim 8, wherein geographic names of the sets that are not preferred are removed from the database.

13. The geographic database of claim 8, wherein a flag indicates the preferred geographic names of the sets in the geographic database.

14. A computer readable medium containing code to implement the steps of:

creating geographic-phonetic strings for geographic names;

determining sets of the geographic names that are associated with the same, or a portion of the same, geographic feature and that have the same geographic-phonetic string; and

selecting preferred geographic names for the sets.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 14, further comprising compiling geographic information including the geographic names from different sources.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the selecting step includes using meta data associated with the geographic names.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the creating step includes modifying at least some of the geographic names to create intermediate names;

and creating geographic-phonetic strings of the intermediate names.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the modifying step includes converting all or part of a geographic name into a target language

19. The computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the modifying step includes stripping away a portion of a geographic name.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the converting step includes producing at least some numeric representations.

21. A method of producing representations for geographic names comprising:

modifying at least some of the geographic names to create intermediate names; and

creating geographic-phonetic strings of the intermediate names

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the modifying comprises converting all or part of a geographic name into a target language.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the modifying comprises ignoring a portion of a geographic name.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the stripping away comprises removing at least one word indicating a type of feature.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the type of feature is a road.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the type of feature is a geographic area.

27. The method of claim 21, wherein the modifying comprises converting an ordinal number to a cardinal number.

28. The method of claim 21, wherein the modifying comprises converting a spelled out number to a numeric representation.

29. The method of claim 21, wherein the method includes determining whether two numbers in the geographic name are to be combined.

30. The method of claim 21, wherein some of the geographic-phonetic strings are numeric representations.

31. The method of claim 21, wherein some of the geographic-phonetic strings are alphanumeric representations.

32. The method of claim 21, further comprising determining sets of the geographic names that are associated with the same, or a portion of the same, geographic feature and that have the same geographic-phonetic string.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein further comprising selecting preferred geographic names for the sets.

34. The method of claim 21, wherein the method is used to create a geographic database.

35. The method of claim 21, wherein the method is used to access a geographic database.

36. The method of claim 21, wherein the method is used as part of a geographic application.

37. A system comprising:

a geographic database constructed using the steps of;

creating geographic-phonetic strings for geographic names,

determining sets of the geographic names that are associated with the same, or a portion of the same, geographic feature and that have the same geographic-phonetic strings, and

selecting preferred geographic names for the sets; and

an application that uses the geographic database to provide a user output, the user output including a preferred geographic name which is a member of one of the sets and not including another geographic name which is also a member of the one of the sets.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein the application is a mapping program.

39. The system of claim 37, wherein the application is a navigation program.

40. The system of claim 37 wherein the preferred geographic names for the sets are indicated in the database.

41. The system of claim 37 wherein the user output is a visual display.

42. The system of claim 37 wherein the user output is a text display.

43. The system of claim 37 wherein the user output is a map display.

44. The system of claim 37 wherein the user output is audio output.

45. The system of claim 44, wherein phonetic information is used to produce the audio output.