System and method for accessing compactly stored map element information from memory
First Claim
1. In a computer system comprising a display device, a processing unit, a user input device, and a memory comprising a plurality of blocks of memory, each block of memory comprising a plurality of memory locations, the display device operable for displaying a computerized road map comprising a plurality of map elements, a method for retrieving information stored in at least one block of memory associated with at least one map element, comprising the steps of:
- selecting at least one map element in the electronic map using the user input device,wherein each map element is selected from the group consisting essentially from a thoroughfare on the computerized roadmap or an endpoint connected to the thoroughfare on the computerized roadmap;
retrieving an identification reference associated with the map element in response to selecting the map element, the identification reference comprising;
a block number associated with at least one block of memory location containing the information associated with the map element, andan offset value defining at least one memory location within a memory that contains the information associated with the map element;
retrieving the block of memory defined by the block number;
reconstructing the block of memory in a virtual memory; and
retrieving the information associated with the map element from the block of memory location defined by the offset value.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Accessing compactly stored map element information from memory using a received encoded identification reference which identifies a map element, such as a link or a node. A link represents a thoroughfare on a map and a node represents an end point of a thoroughfare on the map. A block number is determined and an offset value is determined from the map element'"'"'s identification reference. The block number provides a memory address for the beginning of a block of memory representing a region of the map. The offset value is a memory offset relative to the block'"'"'s memory address. If the block referenced by the block number has not yet been loaded, the block having information about the map element is loaded. Once loaded, the information about each link type of map element in the region is read. The link information is stored within a designated part of a block data structure. Additionally, the link information is used to reconstruct information about the map region'"'"'s node type of map elements. Once reconstructed, the node information is stored within another part of the block data structure. The block data structure remains in a memory cache so that information about the map element can be quickly accessed while information about the map element remains compactly stored in the block of memory.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. In a computer system comprising a display device, a processing unit, a user input device, and a memory comprising a plurality of blocks of memory, each block of memory comprising a plurality of memory locations, the display device operable for displaying a computerized road map comprising a plurality of map elements, a method for retrieving information stored in at least one block of memory associated with at least one map element, comprising the steps of:
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selecting at least one map element in the electronic map using the user input device, wherein each map element is selected from the group consisting essentially from a thoroughfare on the computerized roadmap or an endpoint connected to the thoroughfare on the computerized roadmap; retrieving an identification reference associated with the map element in response to selecting the map element, the identification reference comprising; a block number associated with at least one block of memory location containing the information associated with the map element, and an offset value defining at least one memory location within a memory that contains the information associated with the map element; retrieving the block of memory defined by the block number; reconstructing the block of memory in a virtual memory; and retrieving the information associated with the map element from the block of memory location defined by the offset value. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A computer-readable medium containing computer executable instructions for accessing information about a plurality of link elements related to a region of a computerized road map, a plurality of node elements related to the region of the computerized road map, comprising the steps of:
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retrieving a first block of memory from a storage device associated with the region of the computerized road map; reconstructing the first block of memory in a virtual memory; retrieving information associated with at least one link element from the reconstructed first block of memory, the information comprising; a partial identification reference associated with first node element in the computerized road map, the partial identification reference comprising a first offset value defining a memory location within the reconstructed first block of memory that contains information associated the first node element, and a full identification reference associated with a second node element in the computerized road map, the identification reference comprising a block number associated with second block of memory associated with the second node element and a second offset value defining a memory location within the second block of memory that contains information associated the second node element; reconstructing information about each of the node elements from the information about the link elements; and loading the reconstructed information into a new block data structure. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method for creating a block data structure comprising a plurality of link elements and a plurality of node elements associated with a computerized road map, the link element comprising a plurality of link information and the plurality of node elements comprising a plurality of node information, comprising the steps of:
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retrieving the plurality of link information associated with each link element from a memory device; storing the plurality of link information within a first part of the block data structure for each link element; for each link element performing a sequence comprising the steps of; determining every node element associated with the link element; retrieving the plurality of node information associated with each node element associated with the link element from the memory device; reconstructing the plurality of node information associated with each node element associated with each link element; and storing the reconstructed information associated with each node elements within a second part of the block data structure. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A system for accessing information about a plurality of map elements associated with a region of a computerized road map, wherein each map element is associated with an identification reference, comprising:
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a processor; a cache of memory coupled to the processor, the cache of memory for maintaining a block data structure; a storage device coupled to the processor, the storage device for maintaining a block of memory; and the processor being operative to; receive a user input signal selecting at least one of the plurality of map elements; retrieve the identification reference associated with the selected map element, the identification reference comprising a block number representing a memory storage location of the block of memory within the storage device and an offset value representing a memory location within the block data structure of information about the one of the map elements; load the block of memory from the storage device having information about the map elements related to the region into a virtual memory, create the block data structure in the cache of memory, store information related to a link type of the map elements in a first part of the block data structure, reconstruct information related to a node type of the map elements and store the reconstructed information in a second part of the block data structure, and access the information about the map elements within the block data structure.
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Specification