Displaying content associated with electronic mapping systems

• US 20100146436A1
• Filed: 12/02/2009
• Published: 06/10/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gabriel Jakobson, Steven Rueben
• Original Assignee: Gabriel Jakobson, Steven Rueben
• Inventors: Rueben, Steven, Jakobson, Gabriel
• Granted Patent: US 8,490,025 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/800
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3682 output of POI information on a road map G01C21/3614, G01C21/3685 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/006 Representation of non-cartographic information on maps, e.g. population distribution, wind direction, radiation levels, air and sea routes

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. A POI may be a specific point of interest; or, an entire geographic region of a map displayed at a high zoom level. The method may further include detecting a change in the zoom, or pan, of the digital map while POI content is displayed, and removing or repositioning 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.

Claims

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 interne 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 electronic map;

selecting one of the POIs on the selected area of the electronic 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.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the content for the selected POI is associated with the entire geographic region of the displayed selected area of the electronic map.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the content for the selected POI is a photographic image.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the zoom-in command is received from an input device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the input device is a touch screen programmed to transmit to the map display application a zoom-in command.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the POI-related content is displayed on top of the selected area of the electronic map.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the POI-related content is displayed in place of the selected area of the electronic map.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein in response to receiving an additional zoom command or a pan command, the POI-related content is removed from the display.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein in response to receiving an additional zoom command or a pan command, the POI-related content is zoomed or panned, respectively.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein in the selecting the POI step, the POI associated with user preferences is selected automatically.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein in the selecting the POI step, a determination is made on which one or more POI(s) displayed on the electronic map has associated POI-related content on the remote server;

and automatically selecting the POI-related content most relevant to the one or more POI(s).

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the POI-related content most relevant to the one or more POI(s) is an image associated with the entire selected area of the electronic map.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein in the determining if the pre-determined zoom level has been reached step, the pre-determined zoom level corresponds to the maximum zoom level of the selected area of the map.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein in the receiving the POI-related content step, the POI-related content is one or more map tiles.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein in the receiving POI-related content step, the POI-related content received from the remote server includes information for a plurality of the POIs.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the POI-related content is an image deemed to be collectively relevant to the plurality of the POIs.

17. 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.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the receiving the request for POI-related information includes the longitude/latitude data of the POI.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein a POI is a visible portion of an electronic map displayed in the map display application.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein in the retrieving the POI-related information stage, POI information is retrieved from the database that stores the POI-related information.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein in the retrieving the POI-related information stage, POI information is retrieved from a website associated with the POI.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein in the retrieving the POI-related information stage, POI information applicable to an entire section of a displayed map is retrieved.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein in the receiving step, the request is generated by a zoom-in command in the map-display application on the electronic device.

24. An apparatus for providing information pertaining to a POI comprising a displayed area of an electronic map, comprising:

means for detecting a change in a 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 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.

25. The apparatus in claim 24 wherein said means for receiving information further comprises:

means for the remote server to correlate the identification information of the POI with the information associated with the POI.

26. The apparatus in claim 24, wherein the information associated with the POI comprises one or more images.

27. The apparatus in claim 24, wherein the one or more images applies to the displayed area of the electronic map.

28. The apparatus in claim 24, wherein the POI is a portion of the electronic map displayed at the requested zoom level.