SYSTEM AND METHOD OF IDENTIFYING RELEVANCE OF ELECTRONIC CONTENT TO LOCATION OR PLACE

• US 20100205194A1
• Filed: 03/09/2009
• Published: 08/12/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emodo Inc. (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Original Assignee: 1020, Inc. (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Inventors: Parkes, Daniel, Bezancon, Anne
• Granted Patent: US 9,390,136 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/758
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases

Abstract

A system and method for processing electronic information that includes generating a plurality of identifier codes each of which corresponds to a location and/or a place, receiving a plurality of electronic information, wherein each electronic information has a relevancy to one or more locations and/or places, associating each of the received plurality of electronic information with any of the identifier codes that correspond to the one or more locations and/or places having the relevancy to the electronic information, receiving a query relevant to at least one of the locations and/or places, identifying any of the identifier codes that correspond to the at least one of the locations and/or places relevant to the query, and responding to the query by providing the electronic information that are associated with the identified identifier codes.

Claims

1. A method of processing electronic information, comprising:

generating a plurality of identifier codes each of which corresponds to a location and/or a place;

receiving a plurality of electronic information, wherein each electronic information has a relevancy to one or more locations and/or places;

for each of the received plurality of electronic information, associating the electronic information with any of the identifier codes that correspond to the one or more locations and/or places having the relevancy to the electronic information;

receiving a query relevant to at least one of the locations and/or places;

identifying any of the identifier codes that correspond to the at least one of the locations and/or places relevant to the query; and

responding to the query by providing the electronic information that are associated with the identified identifier codes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein for each of the received plurality of electronic information, further comprising:

storing at least a portion of the electronic information in a storage device; and

the providing includes retrieving the stored portion of the electronic information from the storage device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a plurality of users access rights to the stored electronic information in the storage device, wherein the access rights vary among the plurality of users.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the access rights vary based upon which of the plurality of users provided the stored portions of the electronic information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein for at least one of the received plurality of electronic information, further comprising.

storing a link to a location at which the electronic information can be accessed in a storage device;

and

the providing includes retrieving the stored link to the electronic information from the storage device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of electronic information includes a first electronic data and a second electronic data both of which are associated with a same one location and/or place, and wherein the first electronic data containing location and/or place information that contradicts that of the second electronic data, the method further comprising:

determining which of the contradictory location and/or place information is to be associated with the same one location and/or place.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the determining is based upon at least one of sources of the first and second electronic data, and a number of times each of the contradictory location and/or place information has been received.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the determining includes assigning a reliability value to each of the contradictory location and/or place information.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the associating of each of the received electronic information includes:

identifying location and/or place information within the received electronic information, and

matching the identified location and/or place information with one or more of the locations and/or places that correspond to the plurality of identifier codes.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the identified location and/or place information includes at least one of a syntactic expression that defines a point or an area, a street address, a geo-code, latitude/longitude coordinates, and a link ID identifying information about a street segment.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the identified location and/or place information includes at least one of a name, a phone number, a business brand, a category of business, business hours of operation, a floor number, a suite number, a unit number, and an apartment number.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving additional electronic information relevant to a specific location and/or place;

determining if the specific location and/or place corresponds with one or more of the identifier codes, wherein

if yes then associating the additional electronic information with the one or more identifier codes, and

if no then generating a new identifier code and associating the additional electronic information with the new identifier code.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the determining includes:

determining that location and/or place information of the additional electronic information partially, but not completely, matches that of one of the identifier codes;

assigning values to various components of the location and/or place information of the additional electronic information that matches that of the one identifier code;

determining if a sum of the assigned values meets a threshold.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the received electronic information includes an alias code, and the associating of the at least one received electronic information includes translating the alias code to one or more of the identifier codes corresponding to at least one location and/or place relevant to the alias code.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the query includes the alias code, and wherein the identifying of the identifier codes includes translating the alias code to one or more of the identifier codes corresponding to the at least one location and/or place relevant to the alias code.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the associating of at least one of the received electronic information includes:

identifying an alias code within the received electronic information, wherein the alias code has a predetermined correspondence with at least one location and/or place;

matching the alias code to one or more of the identifier codes having a relevancy to the at least one location and/or place based on the predetermined correspondence; and

associating the electronic information with the one or more identifier codes matched with the alias code.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the query includes the alias code, and the identifying of any of the identifier codes includes matching the alias code to one or more of the identifier codes having a relevancy to the at least one location and/or place based on the predetermined correspondence.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a second query requesting location and/or place information regarding additional electronic information that is relevant to a specific location and/or place;

associating the additional electronic information with any of the identifier codes that correspond to the specific location and/or place; and

responding to the second query by providing at least some of the electronic information that are associated with the any identifier codes associated with the additional electronic information.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a plurality of locations within a geographic region;

assigning to each of the plurality of locations a unique location code;

associating each of the identifier codes with one of the location codes that is assigned to the location that corresponds to the identifier code.

20. A system for processing electronic information, comprising:

an association module in communication with a network, the association module being configured to;

generate a plurality of identifier codes each of which corresponds to a location and/or a place,

receive a plurality of electronic information from the network, wherein each electronic information has a relevancy to one or more locations and/or places,

associate each of the received plurality of electronic information with any of the identifier codes that correspond to the one or more locations and/or places having the relevancy to the electronic information,

receive a query relevant to at least one of the locations and/or places,

identify any of the identifier codes that correspond to the at least one of the locations and/or places relevant to the query, and

respond to the query by providing the electronic information that are associated with the identified identifier codes.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising:

a storage module for storing at least a portion of each of the received plurality of electronic information and for retrieving the stored portions of the electronic information.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the storage module is configured to provide a plurality of users access rights to the stored electronic information in the storage device, wherein the access rights vary among the plurality of users.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the access rights vary based upon which of the plurality of users provided the stored portions of the electronic information.

24. The system of claim 20, wherein for at least one of the received plurality of electronic information, the storage device is configured to:

store a link to a location at which the electronic information can be accessed in a storage device; and

provide the stored link to the electronic information in response to a query.

25. The system of claim 20, wherein:

the plurality of electronic information includes a first electronic data and a second electronic data both of which are associated with a same one location and/or place;

the first electronic data containing location and/or place information that contradicts that of the second electronic data; and

the association module is configured to determine which of the contradictory location and/or place information is to be associated with the same one location and/or place.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the association module is configured to perform the determining based upon at least one of sources of the first and second electronic data, and a number of times each of the contradictory location and/or place information has been received.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the association module is configured to perform the determining by assigning a reliability value to each of the contradictory location and/or place information.

28. The system of claim 20, wherein the associating module is configured to perform the associating of each of the received electronic information by:

identifying location and/or place information within the received electronic information, and

matching the identified location and/or place information with one or more of the locations and/or places that correspond to the plurality of identifier codes.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the identified location and/or place information includes at least one of a syntactic expression that defines a point or an area, a street address, a geo-code, latitude/longitude coordinates, and a link ID identifying information about a street segment.

30. The system of claim 28, wherein the identified location and/or place information includes at least one of a name, a phone number, a business brand, a category of business, business hours of operation, a floor number, a suite number, a unit number, and an apartment number.

31. The system of claim 20, wherein the association module is further configured to:

receive additional electronic information relevant to a specific location and/or place;

determine if the specific location and/or place corresponds with one or more of the identifier codes, wherein

if yes then associate the additional electronic information with the one or more identifier codes, and

if no then generate a new identifier code and associate the additional electronic information with the new identifier code.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the association module is configured to perform the determining by:

determining that location and/or place information of the additional electronic information partially, but not completely, matches that of one of the identifier codes;

assigning values to various components of the location and/or place information of the additional electronic information that matches that of the one identifier code;

determining if a sum of the assigned values meets a threshold.

33. The system of claim 20, further comprising:

a translation module configured to translate an alias code included in at least one of the received electronic information to one or more of the identifier codes corresponding to at least one location and/or place relevant to the alias code.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the query includes the alias code, and wherein the translation module is configured to translate the alias code to one or more of the identifier codes corresponding to the at least one location and/or place relevant to the alias code.

35. The system of claim 20, further comprising:

a translation module configured to identify an alias code within at least one of the received electronic information wherein the alias code has a predetermined correspondence with at least one location and/or place, and to match the alias code to one or more of the identifier codes having a relevancy to the at least one location and/or place based on the predetermined correspondence; and

the association module configured to associate the electronic information with the one or more identifier codes matched with the alias code.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the query includes the alias code, and wherein the translation module is configured to match the alias code with one or more of the identifier codes having a relevancy to the at least one location and/or place based on the predetermined correspondence.

37. The system of claim 20, wherein the association module is further configured to:

receive a second query requesting location and/or place information regarding additional electronic information that is relevant to a specific location and/or place;

associate the additional electronic information with any of the identifier codes that correspond to the specific location and/or place; and

respond to the second query by providing at least some of the electronic information that are associated with the any identifier codes associated with the additional electronic information.

38. The system of claim 20, wherein the association module is further configured to:

identify a plurality of locations within a geographic region;

assign to each of the plurality of locations a unique location code;

associate each of the identifier codes with one of the location codes that is assigned to the location that corresponds to the identifier code.