System and method to automatic equipment placement at remote sites

• US 6,473,762 B1
• Filed: 10/31/2000
• Issued: 10/29/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Rakuten, Inc. (Rakuten Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MCI Communications Corporation (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Knoblock, Terry, Carlson, Gregory G., Golobay, Paul Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Corrielus, Jean M.
• Application Number:
  US09/702,184
• Time in Patent Office: 728 Days
• Field of Search: 707/10, 707/200, 707/100, 707/104
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/13 Architectural design, e.g. computer-aided architectural design [CAAD] related to design of buildings, bridges, landscapes, production plants or roads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A system and method for placing articles of manufacture or pieces of equipment at a remote site uses a central database and graphical representations. A site hierarchy, comprising a site, a building at the site, and a floor within the building, is created in the central database. The user can then create graphical objects on a floor at a building, which are also represented in the central database as sequences of points. Specifically, graphical objects are created for a floor within a structure, a zone within the floor, a planning unit within the zone, a row segment within the planning unit, and a footprint (where the article or piece of equipment is placed) within the row segment. The central database can also store tabular (non-graphical) data, regarding the physical characteristics of physical objects (such as the actual area of a row), as well as particular information for each footprint (such as an installation date, an activation date, etc.). Once the graphical objects are established in the hierarchy, a user can modify or view both the graphical data or the non-graphical data from the database.

Claims

1. A method for graphically placing an item in a representative space corresponding to an actual location, comprising:

enabling a user to create at least one higher level hierarchically related data object for storing non-graphical data;

enabling said user to create for display at least one hierarchically related graphical object;

initially revising said graphical object in a non-graphical format in at last one lower level hierarchically related data object;

enabling said user to initially revise non-graphical data relating to said at least one graphical object in at least one corresponding one of said at least one higher level hierarchically related data object and said at least one lower level hierarchically related data object.

2. A computer readable medium including instructions for execution by a computer, the instructions instructing the computer to perform the steps of:

providing to a user at least one of a pre-defined and a user-defined product catalog including a plurality of products each having three-dimensional size information associated therewith;

providing to the user a representation of an environment to be populated by products from the product catalog; and

constructing a map representative of three-dimensional space, at least in part, by associating a plurality of user-selected products from the product catalog with selected locations within the environment.

3. The computer readable medium according to claim 2, said steps further comprising:

associating the map and the product catalog with at least one of a pre-defined and a user-defined logic to notify the user of a user-defined map configuration that violates the logic.

4. The computer readable medium according to claim 2, said steps further comprising:

evolving the map based, at least in part, on at least one user-defined modification.

5. A computer implemented method of mapping a three-dimensional environment, said method comprising the steps of:

providing to a user at least one of a pre-defined and a user-defined product catalog including a plurality of products each having three-dimensional size information associated therewith;

providing to the user a representation of an environment to be populated by products from the product catalog; and

constructing a map representative of three-dimensional space, at least in part, by associating a plurality of user-selected products from the product catalog with selected locations within the environment.

6. The method according to claim 5, and further comprising:

associating the map and the product catalog with at least one of a pre-defined and a user-defined logic to notify the user of a user-defined map configuration that violates the logic.

7. The method according to claim 5, and further comprising:

evolving the map based, at least in part, on at least one user-defined modification.

8. A data processing system for mapping a three-dimensional environment, said data processing system comprising:

means for providing to a user at least one of a pre-defined and a user-defined product catalog including a plurality of products each having three-dimensional size information associated therewith;

means for providing to the user a representation of an environment to be populated by products from the product catalog; and

means for constructing a map representative of three-dimensional space, at least in part, by associating a plurality of user-selected products from the product catalog with selected locations within the environment.

9. The data processing system according to claim 8, and further comprising:

means for associating the map and the product catalog with at least one of a pre-defined and a user-defined logic to notify the user of a user-defined map configuration that violates the logic.

10. The data processing system according to claim 8, and further comprising:

means for evolving the map based, at least in part, on at least one user-defined modification.