Encoding geographic coordinates in a fuzzy geographic address

• US 7,007,228 B1
• Filed: 03/13/2000
• Issued: 02/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: MediaTek, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Carro, Fernando Incertis
• Primary Examiner(s): Paula, Cesar B
• Application Number:
  US09/523,811
• Time in Patent Office: 2,178 Days
• Field of Search: 715/501.1, 715/513, 715/760, 345/760, 345/135, 701/200, 340/995.1, 340/11, 340/990, 707/3
• US Class Current: 715/210
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A system and method for searching, accessing, retrieving, representing and browsing geographic or location related information from the Web (i.e.: HTML documents that describe physical places), including a geographic distribution of places where selectable types of resources are located or certain types of services provided. A user may select any one of the automatically mapped locations and browse the information for this location.

Documents accessible through the Web are tagged with the cartographic coordinates of the physical location referenced in the document and, optionally, with attributes of this physical location. Also provided is a method for searching and retrieving the tagged documents from a computer system by queries specifying parameters such as the cartographic coordinates of a reference location, the size of the geographic area to search around this reference location, and/or attributes of the locations to search inside that geographic area.

Claims

1. A method in a client system for searching documents in a network comprising one or a plurality of server systems, wherein

a document can be accessed on the server system from the client system, comprising information related to a geographic location, said document characterized in that it comprises a tag including a tag identifier and a geographic address, said geographic address comprising encoded geographic coordinates of the geographic location described or referenced in the document and said tag identifies the tag as being a geographical tag to enable geographic search capability of the tag,

said method comprising the steps of:

specifying a reference point;

determining geographic coordinates of said reference point;

encoding said geographic coordinates in a geographic address;

searching on the plurality of server systems for documents tagged with said geographic address;

specifying a geographic area around the reference point;

determining geographic coordinates of said geographic area;

encoding said geographic coordinates in a fuzzy geographic address;

searching on the plurality of server systems, for documents tagged with a geographic address corresponding to a geographic location within the geographic area;

wherein said step of encoding geographic coordinates of a geographic area in a fuzzy geographic address comprises the further steps of computing fuzzy geographic coordinates by replacing a wild card character for one or several less significant digits of absolute geographic coordinates (X_r, Y_r) of the reference point depending on a specified geographic area, said wild card character being interpreted as “

any trailing string”

, and including said fuzzy geographic coordinates in said fuzzy geographic address.

3. The document according to any one of claims 1 to 2 wherein:

said network is an Internet Protocol network;

said document is a hyper text markup language (HTML) document;

said one or plurality of server systems are Web servers;

said one or plurality of client systems are Web clients.

4. The method according to claim 1 or 2 wherein the geographic coordinates of the geographic location described or referenced in the document are:

bi-dimensional and expressed in terms of longitude and latitude;

or,

three dimensional and expressed in terms of longitude, latitude and altitude.

5. The document according to claim 1 or 2 wherein said encoded geographic coordinates of the geographic location include:

absolute geographic coordinates (X, Y) of said location, with X being an absolute longitude X and Y being an absolute latitude Y, wherein;

the absolute longitude X is length of an arc of a terrestrial parallel that goes from a Greenwich meridian to said location in a clockwise direction; and

,

the absolute latitude Y is length of another arc of a terrestrial meridian from a North Pole to said location.

6. The method according to claims 1 or 2 comprising the further steps of:

specifying one or a plurality of geographic attributes;

searching on the plurality of server systems, for documents tagged with said one or plurality of geographic attributes.

7. The method according to claims 1 or 2 wherein said step of encoding geographic coordinates of the reference point in a geographic address comprises the further steps of:

computing absolute geographic coordinates (X_r, Y_r) of said reference point, with X_r, being an absolute longitude X_r, and Y_r being an absolute latitude Y_r, wherein;

the absolute longitude X_r, is length of an arc of a terrestrial parallel that goes from a Greenwich meridian to said reference point in a clockwise direction; and

,

the absolute latitude Y_r is length of another arc of a terrestrial meridian from a North Pole to said reference point;

including said absolute geographic coordinates (X_r, Y_r) in said geographic address (gURL).

8. The method according to claims 1 or 2 wherein said step of specifying a reference point comprises the step of:

selecting the reference point on a digital map by means of any pointing device;

or specifying the reference point once for all;

or

specifying the reference point once for all;

or

measuring an actual position of the client system and using said actual position as the reference point.

9. A computer readable medium comprising instructions adapted for carrying out the method according to claims 1 or 2.

10. A method in a client system for displaying geographic information comprised in documents according to claims 1 or 2, said method comprising, for each document, the steps of:

retrieving absolute geographic coordinates from the geographic address tagged on the documents; and

,

mapping the geographic location according to said retrieved absolute geographic coordinates.

11. The method according to claim 10 comprising the further step of:

associating in a table in the client system, network address and the retrieved absolute geographic coordinates of each document.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein said step of mapping geographic locations comprises the further step of:

defining a scale according to;

the absolute geographic coordinates of documents; and

/or

some reference geographic coordinates and scales.

13. The method according to claim 10, wherein the documents are identified responsive to a search query, and wherein the step of mapping a geographic location comprises the step of:

displaying a sensible icon for;

pointing to the retrieved absolute geographic coordinates of the geographic location; and

,

pointing to the network address of the document.

14. The method according to claims 1 or 2 comprising the further step of:

mapping the reference point.

15. The method according to claim 11 comprising the further steps of:

pointing to an icon by means of any pointing device; and

accessing the document by means of the network address in the table.

16. The method according to claim 10, wherein the documents are identified responsive to a search query, and comprising the further steps of:

pointing to an icon resenting the geographic location by means of any pointing device; and

responsive to said pointing, retrieving a minimum information related to the geographic location associated with said icon, said minimum information comprising in particular;

a title or name of the geographic location;

a short description of said geographic location;

geographic coordinates of said geographic location.

17. The method according to claim 13, wherein said step of mapping geographic locations comprises the further step of:

displaying icons on a geographic map with the same scale and reference point that is used to display said sensible icon.

18. The method according to claim 10, wherein said step of mapping geographic locations comprises the further step of:

retrieving a geographic map from one or a plurality of server systems;

or

storing a geographic map in the client system.

20. A computer readable medium comprising instructions adapted for carrying out the method according to claim 10.

2. A method in a client system for searching documents in a network comprising one or a plurality of server systems, wherein

a document that can be accessed on the server system from the client system comprising information related to a geographic location, said document characterized in that it comprises a tag including a geographic address, said geographic address comprising encoded geographic coordinates of the geographic location described or referenced in the document, wherein said tag also includes one or a plurality of geographic attributes related to the geographic location described or referenced in the document to enable geographic search capability of both the geographic location and the geographic attributes,

said method comprising the steps of:

specifying a reference point;

determining geographic coordinates of said reference point;

encoding said geographic coordinates in a geographic address;

searching on the plurality of server systems for documents tagged with said geographic address

specifying a geographic area around the reference point;

determining geographic coordinates of said geographic area;

encoding said geographic coordinates in a fuzzy geographic address;

searching on the plurality of server systems, for documents tagged with a geographic address corresponding to a geographic location within the geographic area;

wherein said step of encoding geographic coordinates of a geographic area in a fuzzy geographic address comprises the further steps of computing fuzzy geographic coordinates by replacing a wild card character for one or several less significant digits of absolute geographic coordinates (X_r, Y_r) of the reference point depending on a specified geographic area, said wild card character being interpreted as “

any trailing string”

, and including said fuzzy geographic coordinates in said fuzzy geographic address.

19. A client system for searching documents in a network comprising a plurality of server systems, wherein

a document can be accessed on the server system from the client system, comprising information related to a geographic location, said document characterized in that it comprises a tag including a tag identifier and a geographic address, said geographic address comprising encoded geographic coordinates of the geographic location described or referenced in the document and said tag identifies the tag as being a geographical tag to enable geographic search capability of the tag,

said system comprising the means for:

specifying a reference point;

determining geographic coordinates of said reference point;

encoding said geographic coordinates in a geographic address;

searching on the plurality of server systems for documents tagged with said geographic address;

specifying a geographic area around the reference point;

determining geographic coordinates of said geographic area;

encoding said geographic coordinates in a fuzzy geographic address;

searching on the plurality of server systems, for documents tagged with a geographic address corresponding to a geographic location within the geographic area;

wherein said means for encoding geographic coordinates of geographic area in a fuzzy geographic address comprises further computing fuzzy geographic coordinates by replacing a wild card character for one or several less significant digits of absolute geographic coordinates (X_r, Y_r) of the reference point depending on a specified geographic area, said wild card character being interpreted as “

any trailing string”

, and including said fuzzy geographic coordinates in said fuzzy geographic address;

retrieving absolute geographic coordinates from the geographic address tagged on the documents; and

,

mapping the geographic location according to said retrieved absolute geographic coordinates.