METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR UNIVERSAL AND UNIFIED LOCATION REPRESENTATION AND ITS INTERACTION WITH GPS DEVICES

• US 20090234570A1
• Filed: 03/13/2009
• Published: 09/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Gil Sever
• Original Assignee: Gil Sever
• Inventors: Sever, Gil
• Application Number:
  US12/403,899
• Publication Number:
  US 20090234570A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/200
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/005 with correlation of navigation data from several sources, e.g. map or contour matching G01C21/30 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9554 by using bar codes

Abstract

Location information is translated from a variety of formats to a common uniform format and then fed into a GPS device in an easy and automatic manner. A global canonical and unique numeric representation of a specific location is created. This involves a global bi-directional translation method between an address, which may reside or presently exist in one of many possible formats, into a uniform standardized canonical representation of location. The uniform location representation can be read by, and later transferred into, a GPS device. Advantageously, this eases the process of finding desired destinations in various ways, and the ease of storing location data regarding those destinations.

Claims

1. A method for creating a canonical representation for a physical location, the canonical representation operating as a uniform identifier for a variety of descriptive location forms, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving location descriptive information for a particular location from an input device;

parsing the location descriptive information by a processing unit to identify address characteristics;

normalizing the location descriptive information by a processing unit mapping the identified characteristics to common synonyms; and

converting the normalized location descriptive information by a processing unit into the canonical representation.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of embodying the canonical representation into a form that can be used to control a navigation device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of delivering the canonical representation to a navigation device for controlling the operation of the navigation device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of printing the canonical representation onto a bar code.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of storing the canonical representation into an RFID tag.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of storing the canonical representation into a digital memory device.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

entering the canonical representation to a navigation device;

translating the canonical representation by the navigation device into a physical location; and

using the physical location at input to a navigational operation provided by the navigational device.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of storing a plurality of canonical representations, with each corresponding to a physical location, into a database that can be accessed over a network.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

embodying the canonical representation into a tangible medium;

reading the canonical representation from the tangible medium by a processing device; and

transferring the canonical representation to a navigation device to control the operation of the navigation device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of embodying the canonical representation into a tangible medium further comprises creating a barcode and, the step of reading the canonical representation by a processing device further comprises taking a digital image of the barcode with a digital camera in a mobile telephone and converting the digital image into the canonical representation.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of embodying the canonical representation into a tangible medium further comprises creating a textual representation and, the step of reading the canonical representation by a processing device further comprises taking a digital image of the textual representation with a digital camera in a mobile telephone and converting the digital image into the canonical representation.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of transferring the canonical representation to the navigation device further comprises transmitting signals over a wireless communication channel.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of transferring the canonical representation to the navigation device further comprises sending a text message to the navigation device.

and allocating that representation to each and every location world wide.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of associating the canonical representation with a plurality of representations for the particular location.

15. A navigational apparatus comprising:

an input device for receiving a canonical representation for a physical location created using the method of claim 1; and

a display for displaying a graphical depiction of the physical location and a current location;

16. The navigation apparatus of claim 15, wherein the input device is a wireless receiver.

17. The navigational apparatus of claim 15, wherein the input device is a digital cameral.

18. The navigational apparatus of claim 15, wherein the input device is a barcode reader

19. The navigational apparatus of claim 15, wherein the input device is a keyboard.

20. A method for creating a canonical representation for a physical location, the canonical representation operating as a uniform identifier for a variety of descriptive location forms, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a plurality of location descriptors from an input device, each being associated with a particular location;

parsing each of the location descriptors by a processing unit to identify address characteristics;

normalizing the location descriptors by a processing unit mapping the identified characteristics to common synonyms;

identifying physical locations associated with the normalized location descriptors;

converting the normalized location descriptor by a processing unit into canonical representations;

associating the canonical representations with the physical location; and

storing the canonical representation and the association into a database.