Method and system for associating content with map zoom function
First Claim
1. A method for displaying point-of-interest (“
- POI”
)-related content on an electronic map, comprising;
providing an electronic device having a map display application that is coupled to the internet and a display for displaying a selected area of an electronic map;
receiving a zoom-in command;
determining if a pre-determined zoom level of the map has been reached if the pre-determined zoom level has been reached, displaying one or more POIs on the selected area of the display;
selecting one of the POIs on the selected area of the map;
transmitting information identifying the selected POI to a remote server;
receiving content for the selected POI from the remote server; and
displaying the content for the selected POI on the display.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Various methods, systems and apparatus for displaying content associated with a point-of-interest (“POI”) in a digital mapping system, are disclosed. One such method may include detecting a change in the zoom level of an electronic map displayed on a computing device, determining if the new zoom-level is at a pre-determined zoom level (e.g. at maximum zoom), identifying a POI on the map, retrieving content associated with the POI (“POI content”) and displaying the POI content. The method may further include detecting a change in the zoom, or pan, of the digital map while POI content is displayed, and removing the POI content in response. One apparatus, according to aspects of the present invention, may include means of detecting a change in the zoom level in a digital map displayed through an application (e.g. a web browser, an application on web-enabled cellular phones, etc., displaying a map generated by a service such as Google Maps®, Yahoo! Maps®, Windows Live Search Maps®, MapQuest®, etc.) on a computing device (e.g. personal computer, workstation, thin client, PDA, cellular phone/smart phone, GPS device, etc.) means of identifying a POI at the pre-determined zoom level, means of obtaining content associated with the POI, and means of displaying the POI content. POI content may be retrieved from a database (e.g. internet-based database); or, in an alternate embodiment, gathered by crawling websites associated with the POI. In one embodiment, POI content may be displayed as an image (e.g. a PNG file, GIF, Flash® component, etc.) superimposed on the digital map (e.g. as an overlay object on the map image.) In alternate embodiments, POI content may replace the digital map and may contain links to other content.
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Citations
36 Claims
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1. A method for displaying point-of-interest (“
- POI”
)-related content on an electronic map, comprising;providing an electronic device having a map display application that is coupled to the internet and a display for displaying a selected area of an electronic map; receiving a zoom-in command; determining if a pre-determined zoom level of the map has been reached if the pre-determined zoom level has been reached, displaying one or more POIs on the selected area of the display; selecting one of the POIs on the selected area of the map; transmitting information identifying the selected POI to a remote server; receiving content for the selected POI from the remote server; and displaying the content for the selected POI on the display. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
- POI”
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16. A method of displaying information on an electronic map, comprising:
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receiving a zoom-in command from the user of a map-display application on an electronic device; determining if a pre-determined zoom level has been reached; transmitting information identifying a point-of-interest (“
POI”
) on the electronic map to a remote server;receiving content associated with the POI on the electronic map from the remote server; and displaying the content association with the POI on the electronic map. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18)
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19. In an electronic communications system, a method for selecting and transmitting point-of-interest (“
- POI”
)-related information to a map display application on an electronic device, comprising;providing a server having a database for storing the POI-related information, wherein the server is in communication with a remote electronic device; receiving a request for POI-related information from a map-display application on the remote electronic device; retrieving the requested POI-related information; and transmitting the requested POI-related information to the map display application on the electronic device. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
- POI”
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26. A method for selecting information to display in an electronic map display application, comprising:
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displaying an electronic map generated by the electronic map display application; receiving a user input; determining if the user input is a zoom-in command; determining if the displayed map in the electronic map-display application is at a predetermined zoom level; if the user input is the zoom-in command and the electronic map is determined to be displayed at the predetermined zoom level or higher, receiving and displaying point-of-interest (“
POI”
)-related content. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A method for displaying point-of-interest (“
- POI”
)-related content on an electronic map, comprising;providing an electronic device having a map display application that is coupled to the internet and a display for displaying a portion of an electronic map; transmitting location information for the portion of the electronic map that is displayed to a remote server; receiving information identifying one or more POIs located on the portion of the electronic map that is displayed, from the remote server; marking on the display, the POIs identified in the information identifying the POIs. - View Dependent Claims (32)
- POI”
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33. An apparatus for providing information pertaining to a POI displayed in an area of an electronic map, comprising:
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means for detecting a change in the zoom level of the electronic map; means for determining whether the zoom level of the electronic map corresponds to a pre-determined zoom level; means for identifying the POI displayed in the area of the electronic map; means for transmitting identification information of the POI to a remote server; means for receiving information associated with the POI from the remote server; means for displaying the information associated with the POI. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36)
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Specification