Method and system for storing, retrieving, and managing data for tags

• US 20070273518A1
• Filed: 01/24/2007
• Published: 11/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motedata Corporation
• Original Assignee: Jay Kesan, Peter Cappello, Peter Lupoli
• Inventors: Lupoli, Peter, Cappello, Peter, Kesan, Jay
• Granted Patent: US 7,956,742 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/572.100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/211 Schema design and management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24564 Applying rules; Deductive queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/81 Indexing, e.g. XML tags; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10366 the interrogation device being adapted for miscellaneous applications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management

Abstract

This invention relates generally to a method and system for storing, retrieving, and managing data for tags that are associated in some manner to any type of object. More particularly, the present invention writes data to these tags, reads data from these tags, and manages data that is written to and/or read from these tags. In addition, the invention accesses and/or stores data associated with tags from or into repositories, constructs and maintains data structures from these repositories and responds to queries using the data structures.

Claims

1. A method for accessing and organizing tag-related data, comprising:

accessing data associated with one or more entities, said entities associated with one or more tags having one or more identifiers, said data being stored in one or more data repositories;

accessing data associated with one or more tags having one or more identifiers, said data associated with the one or more tags being stored in one or more data repositories; and

linking the accessed data associated with the one or more entities together with the accessed data associated with the one or more tags using said one or more tag identifiers.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data associated with the one or more entities and the data associated with the one or more tags is represented with a physical markup language.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

constructing one or more data structures to organize said data associated with the one or more entities and the data associated with the one or more tags.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more data structures comprise at least one database and at least one index.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said at least one index comprises one or more of the following index types:

a primary index, a secondary index and an inverted index.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

storing the accessed data associated with the one or more entities in said one or more data structures; and

storing the accessed data associated with the one or more tags in said one or more data structures.

7. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

populating the one or more data structures with electronic addresses of the data associated with the one or more entities; and

populating the one or more data structures with electronic addresses of the data associated with the one or more tags.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving at least one query; and

responding to said query with data from said one or more data structures.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of accessing data associated with the one or more entities is triggered by an event notification.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of accessing data associated with the one or more tags is triggered by an event notification.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of accessing data, linking data and storing data comprise crawling through said one or more repositories.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving at least one query or at least one keyword search;

retrieving data that matches said at least one query or said at least one keyword search, said data being stored in one or more repositories;

determining at least one tag identifier that is associated with said matching data; and

retrieving additional data that is associated with said at least one determined tag identifier, said additional data being stored in one or more repositories.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising responding to said query or at least one keyword search with at least a portion of said retrieved additional data.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said responding comprises posting a response on a web page.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein said responding comprises mailing a response electronically.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising ordering one or more responses to said query or to said keyword search according to one or more criteria.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein said at least one query or said at least one keyword search comprises one or more of the following types:

spatial comparison and temporal comparison.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving at least one query or keyword search;

determining one or more of said tag identifiers that satisfy said query or keyword search; and

aggregating data for at least one of said determined tag identifiers over one or more of said repositories.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

ranking said aggregated data for at least one of said determined tag identifiers;

forming an ordered list of aggregated data; and

responding to said query or keyword search with said ordered list.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of said repositories has a first owner and at least another of said one or more repositories has a second owner that is different than said first owner.

21. The method of claim 12, wherein said at least one query or keyword search is a standing query or a standing keyword search.

22. The method of claim 3, wherein the constructing one or more data structures is distributed.

23. A method as in claim 1 further comprising:

receiving at least one query or keyword search;

determining one or more of said tag identifiers that satisfies said query or keyword search; and

aggregating data for at least one of said determined tag identifiers over one or more of said repositories.

24. A method as in claim 23 further comprising:

ranking said aggregated data for at least one of said determined tag identifiers to form an ordered list of aggregated data; and

responding to said query or keyword search with said ordered list.

25. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving at least one query or at least one keyword search;

retrieving data that matches said at least one query or said at least one keyword search, said data being stored in one or more repositories;

determining at least one tag identifier that is associated with said matching data; and

retrieving additional data that is associated with said at least one determined tag identifier, said additional data being stored in said one or more data structures.

26. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving at least one query or keyword search;

determining one or more of said tag identifiers that satisfy said query or keyword search; and

aggregating data for at least one of said determined tag identifiers over one or more of said data structures.

27. A system for retrieving and organizing data that is associated with one or more tags having one or more identifiers from a plurality of repositories comprising:

means for retrieving said data from one or more of said repositories; and

means for linking together at least one portion of said data that is associated with at least one of said one or more identifiers.

28. A system as in claim 27 further comprising:

means for receiving at least one query or keyword search;

means for determining one or more of said tag identifiers that satisfies said query or keyword search; and

means for aggregating data for at least one of said determined tag identifiers over one or more of said repositories.

29. A system as in claim 27 further comprising:

means for ranking said aggregated data for at least one of said determined tag identifiers to form an ordered list of aggregated data; and

means for responding to said query or keyword search with said ordered list.

30. A method for accessing and organizing tag-related data, comprising:

accessing data associated with one or more entities, said entities associated with one or more tags having one or more identifiers, said data being stored in one or more data repositories;

accessing data associated with one or more other entities, said other entities associated with one or more tags having one or more identifiers, said data being stored in one or more data repositories;

linking the accessed data associated with the one or more entities together with the accessed data associated with the one or more other entities using said one or more tag identifiers;

constructing one or more data structures to organize said data associated with the one or more entities and the data associated with the one or more other entities, wherein said one or more data structures comprise at least one database and at least one index; and

populating one or more data structures with the linked data.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

receiving at least one query or at least one keyword search;

determining one or more of said tag identifiers that satisfy said query or keyword search; and

aggregating data for at least one of said determined tag identifiers over one or more of said repositories.

32. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

ranking said aggregated data for at least one of said determined tag identifiers;

forming an ordered list of aggregated data; and

responding to said query or keyword search with said ordered list.