Method and System for Collecting User Update Requests Regarding Geographic Data to Support Automated Analysis, Processing and Geographic Data Updates

• US 20080027937A1
• Filed: 07/31/2007
• Published: 01/31/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Tele Atlas North America (TomTom NV)
• Original Assignee: Tele Atlas North America (TomTom NV)
• Inventors: Brown, Roger, Brown, Tyler, Parker-Laflamme, Jennifer, Winberry, Mark, Gross, Christopher
• Application Number:
  US11/831,816
• Publication Number:
  US 20080027937A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/8
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3856 Data obtained from user input
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3859 Differential updating map data
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/387 Organisation of map data, e.g. version management or database structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases

Abstract

A system and method provide functionality for collecting user update reports of geographic inconsistencies between geographic data and the real world to enable automated processing of updates to the geographic data. A user'"'"'s input is collected and describes an anomaly, which is a geographic inconsistency between geographic data and the real world. The user'"'"'s input is stored as language neutral structured data that enables automated processing of updates to the geographic data. Automatic processes that process the structured data include an email agent, an incident agent, a geographic augmentation agent, a case generation agent, a clustering agent, an automatic validation agent, and a monitoring service. Automatic and manual processes combined together handle processing of anomalies, as well as other related processing, and ultimately handle processing of updates to the geographic data to resolve the anomalies reported by the users.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method that includes functionality for automatically processing updates to geographic data for collected user update reports of geographic inconsistencies between the geographic data and the real world, the computer implemented method comprising:

obtaining language neutral structured data that describes an anomaly;

performing, based on the language neutral structured data, one or more of the following;

determining, by a first automated process, whether the anomaly is actionable;

determining, by a second automated process, one of whether the anomaly is valid and whether the geographic data described by the anomaly was corrected;

emailing, by a third automated process, to an end user that described the anomaly, a request that the user perform one of confirm and deny that the anomaly was correctly addressed in updated geographic data;

grouping, by a fourth automated process, the anomaly with one or more other anomalies that represent the same geographic inconsistency as the anomaly;

clustering, by a fifth automated process, the anomaly with one or more other anomalies that are in close geographic proximity to, and that are of a similar type of geographic inconsistency as, the anomaly; and

producing, by a sixth automated process, one or more geographic extent names for the anomaly, each geographic extent name resulting from a geographic look-up procedure on a center point of anomaly map extents selected by the end user; and

wherein the anomaly comprises an inconsistency between the geographic data and the real world.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the anomaly is actionable further comprises:

checking whether the obtained structured data is complete, complete structured data requiring the type of geographic inconsistency, sufficiently precise map bounds, and supplemental data necessary to correct the geographic inconsistency;

wherein if the obtained structured data is complete, the anomaly is actionable; and

wherein if the obtained structured data is incomplete, the anomaly is not actionable.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the anomaly is valid further comprises:

determining that if a reported issue description contained in the structured data actually exists in the geographic data, the anomaly is valid; and

determining that otherwise the anomaly is invalid.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein emailing further comprises first checking that the anomaly has a status of closed and that the structured data contains the end user'"'"'s email address.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein emailing further comprises:

presenting updated geographic data in an application to the user who receives the email request from the third automated process and who uses the application; and

receiving a vote from the user in the application, the vote specifying that the anomaly is fixed if the user judges it was corrected in updated geographic data and not fixed if the user judges it was not corrected in updated geographic data.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein grouping further comprises prioritizing groups, wherein a group comprises meta-data for purposes of making one correction to the geographic data for the group'"'"'s two or more anomalies.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 6, further comprising prioritizing groups by number of anomalies in each group, the highest priority group including the largest number of anomalies.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein clustering further comprises prioritizing clusters, wherein a cluster comprises meta-data for purposes of correcting the geographic data for the cluster'"'"'s two or more related anomalies at the same time.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 8, further comprising prioritizing clusters by number of anomalies in each cluster, the highest priority cluster including the largest number of anomalies.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the automated processes are continuously running.

11. A computer implemented method that includes functionality for automatically processing updates to geographic data for collected user update reports of geographic inconsistencies between the geographic data and the real world, the computer implemented method comprising:

providing system scalability with one or more front ends that work with one back end, the back end comprising automated and interactive processes;

obtaining, from one of the plurality of front ends by the back end, language neutral structured data that describes an anomaly;

performing, based on the language neutral structured data, one or more automated processes by the back end; and

wherein the anomaly comprises an inconsistency between the geographic data and the real world.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 11, further comprising monitoring of the one or more front ends, by one or more automatic monitor services associated with the one or more front ends, each monitor service monitoring its respective front end to ensure that the anomaly is obtained by the back end.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 12, wherein the anomaly is a test anomaly periodically created by one of the one or more monitor services.

14. A system that includes functionality for automatically processing updates to geographic data for collected user update reports of geographic inconsistencies between the geographic data and the real world, the computer implemented method comprising:

language neutral structured data that describes an anomaly obtained from an end user;

one or more of the following automated processes, each process performed based on the language neutral structured data;

an incident agent that determines whether the anomaly is actionable;

an auto validation agent that determines one of whether the anomaly is valid and whether the geographic data described by the anomaly was corrected;

an email agent that emails, to an end user that described the anomaly, a request that the user perform one of confirm and deny that the anomaly was correctly addressed in updated geographic data;

a case generation agent that groups the anomaly with one or more other anomalies that represent the same geographic inconsistency as the anomaly;

a clustering agent that clusters the anomaly with one or more other anomalies that are in close geographic proximity to, and that are of a similar type of geographic inconsistency as, the anomaly; and

a geographic augmentation agent that produces one or more geographic extent names for the anomaly, each geographic extent name resulting from a geographic look-up procedure on a center point of anomaly map extents selected by the end user; and

wherein the anomaly comprises an inconsistency between the geographic data and the real world.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the anomaly is actionable if the obtained structured data is complete, such that complete structured data requires the type of geographic inconsistency, sufficiently precise map bounds, and supplemental data necessary to correct the geographic inconsistency, otherwise the anomaly is not actionable.

16. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

an anomaly status that is initialized to start after the structured data is obtained;

wherein the anomaly status is set to new, if the anomaly has a status of start and the anomaly is actionable; and

wherein the anomaly status is otherwise set to bad incident, if the anomaly has a status of start and the anomaly is not actionable.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the anomaly is valid if a reported issue description contained in the corresponding structured data actually exists in the geographic data, otherwise the anomaly is invalid.

18. The system of claim 16, further comprising:

the anomaly status is set to open, if the anomaly has a status of new and the anomaly is valid;

wherein the anomaly status is maintained as new, if the anomaly has a status of new and validity of the anomaly can not be determined; and

wherein the anomaly status is otherwise set to closed, if the anomaly has a status of new and the anomaly is invalid.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising the anomaly status set to closed, if the anomaly has a status of open and the geographic data described by the anomaly was corrected in updated geographic data.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising a check by the email agent that the anomaly has a status of closed and that the structured data contains the end user'"'"'s email address, the check performed prior to the email being sent.

21. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

a presentation of updated geographic data in an application to the user who receives the email request from the email agent and who uses the application; and

a vote received from the user in the application, the vote specifies that the anomaly is fixed if the user judges that it was corrected in updated geographic data and not fixed if the user judges that it was not corrected in updated geographic data.

22. The system of claim 14, further comprising a prioritization of groups, wherein a group comprises meta-data for purposes of making one correction to the geographic data for the group'"'"'s two or more anomalies.

23. The system of claim 22, further comprising a prioritization of groups by number of anomalies in each group, the highest priority group including the largest number of anomalies.

24. The system of claim 14, further comprising a prioritization of clusters, wherein a cluster comprises meta-data for purposes of correcting the geographic data for the cluster'"'"'s two or more related anomalies at the same time.

25. The system of claim 24, further comprising a prioritization of clusters by number of anomalies in each cluster, the highest priority cluster including the largest number of anomalies.

26. The system of claim 14, wherein the automated processes are continuously running.

27. A system that includes functionality for automatically processing updates to geographic data for collected user update reports of geographic inconsistencies between the geographic data and the real world, the system comprising:

a back end comprising automated and interactive processes;

one or more front ends that each work with the back end and that provide system scalability;

language neutral structured data that describes an anomaly obtained, by the back end, from a first one of the plurality of front ends;

wherein performance of one or more automated processes by the back end is based on the language neutral structured data; and

wherein the anomaly comprises an inconsistency between the geographic data and the real world.

28. The system of claim 27, further comprising one or more automatic monitor services to provide robustness of the system to failures in the connection between the one or more front ends and the back end, the one or more automatic monitor services associated with the one or more front ends, such that each monitor service monitors its respective front end to ensure that the anomaly is obtained by the back end.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the anomaly is a test anomaly periodically created by one of the one or more monitor services.

30. The system of claim 29, further comprising:

a plurality of test anomalies periodically created by each monitor service; and

verification, by each monitor service, that each respective test anomaly was sent by the respective front end.

31. A computer readable medium, including operations stored thereon that includes functionality for automatically processing updates to geographic data for collected user update reports of geographic inconsistencies between the geographic data and the real world that, when processed by one or more processors, causes a system to perform the steps of:

obtaining language neutral structured data that describes an anomaly;

performing, based on the language neutral structured data, one or more of the following;

determining, by a first automated process, whether the anomaly is actionable;

determining, by a second automated process, one of whether the anomaly is valid and whether the geographic data described by the anomaly was corrected;

emailing, by a third automated process, to an end user that described the anomaly requesting the user perform one of confirm and deny that the anomaly was correctly addressed in updated geographic data;

grouping, by a fourth automated process, the anomaly with one or more other anomalies that represent the same geographic inconsistency as the anomaly;

clustering, by a fifth automated process, the anomaly with one or more other anomalies that are in close geographic proximity to, and that are of a similar type of geographic inconsistency as, the anomaly; and

producing, by a sixth automated process, one or more geographic extent names for the anomaly, each geographic extent name resulting from a geographic look-up procedure on a center point of anomaly map extents selected by the end user; and

wherein the anomaly comprises an inconsistency between the geographic data and the real world.

32. A computer readable medium, including operations stored thereon that includes functionality for automatically processing updates to geographic data for collected user update reports of geographic inconsistencies between the geographic data and the real world that, when processed by one or more processors, causes a system to perform the steps of:

providing system scalability with one or more front ends that work with one back end comprising automated and interactive processes;

obtaining, from one of the plurality of front ends by the back end, language neutral structured data that describes an anomaly;

performing, based on the language neutral structured data, one or more automated processes by the back end; and

wherein the anomaly comprises an inconsistency between the geographic data and the real world.