Method and system for providing a web-sharable personal database
First Claim
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1. A system for creating a database that may be spatially searched, the system comprising:
- a database manager to receive data from a network and process the data into a series of records for the database;
a spatial indexer to recognize address information in the data and generate spatial indices for records based on the address information to associate a geographic location with each of the records; and
a storage to store the data with the spatial indices in a form accessible over the network that permits spatial searching.
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Abstract
A method and system for providing a flexible, web-sharable database with proximity searching capability. A processor receives data from a remote source. A database manager assembles the data into a database dynamically conforming to the form of the data received. An address extraction extracts addressing information from the data received and supplies the addressing information to a geocoder. The geocoder generates a geocode corresponding to the addressing information and associates the geocode with the addressing information.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. A system for creating a database that may be spatially searched, the system comprising:
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a database manager to receive data from a network and process the data into a series of records for the database;
a spatial indexer to recognize address information in the data and generate spatial indices for records based on the address information to associate a geographic location with each of the records; and
a storage to store the data with the spatial indices in a form accessible over the network that permits spatial searching. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
an address extractor to extract the address information from the data; and
a geocoder to geocode the address information.
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4. The system defined in claim 1 further comprising a map generator to generate a map illustrating a location associated with a selected record.
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5. The system defined in claim 4 wherein the spatial indexer updates the spatial index for the selected record in response to an individual repositioning the location on the map.
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6. The system defined in claim 1 wherein data may be accessed from the World Wide Web for inclusion in the database and the database may be accessed via the World Wide Web.
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7. The system defined in claim 1 further comprising a password security module to provide multiple privilege levels to access the database.
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8. The system of claim 1 wherein the database manager scans for an e-mail address and a web page address and makes a hot link of each of the e-mail and the web page addresses if found.
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9. The system of claim 1 further comprising:
a metatable to store a metadata corresponding to the layout of the data in the database.
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10. The system of claim 1 wherein the database manager associates a map with an entry of the database if an address is successfully extracted and geocoded.
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11. A method comprising:
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accepting data of unknown format from a remote source;
identifying if address information is present in the data;
geocoding the address information if identified; and
accumulating the data and any geocoded address information into a database sharable over a widely accessible computer network. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
permitting a user to supply a preference for presentation of the database; and
maintaining an association between a database name and the preference supplied.
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13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:
dynamically generating a web page containing information from the database display consistent with the preference and the data in the database.
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14. The method of claim 11 further comprising establishing a confidence factor for the geocoding.
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15. The method of claim 14 further comprising associating a map with a record containing geocoded address information if the confidence factor reaches a predetermined level.
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16. The method of claim 14 further comprising:
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permitting a user to reposition an icon corresponding to the address information on the map; and
adjusting the geocoding responsive to repositioning of the icon.
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17. The method of claim 11 wherein accepting data comprises creating a data structure having a field corresponding to each field in an imported record.
Specification