System and method for geocoding diverse address formats

• US 7,039,640 B2
• Filed: 05/31/2002
• Issued: 05/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Precisely Software Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Mapinfo Corp.
• Inventors: Schwerin, Chuck, Miller, Julia K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Shahid
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ehichioya, Fred I.
• Application Number:
  US10/159,195
• Publication Number:
  US 20030225725A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,432 Days
• Field of Search: 706/6, 341/5, 345/764, 434/112, 707/1, 707/3, 707/4, 707/6, 707/9, 707/10, 707/100, 707/102, 701/201, 701/208, 348/1, 455/457, 705/1, 705/5, 705/14, 709/203, 709/204, 709/219, 709/227, 715/764
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/106 using electronic means
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A method and system for providing geocodes in response to complete or partial address information is disclosed. The disclosure teaches embodiments that are naturally upgraded to integrate changing spatial information due to addition of countries, better data, political changes, and other similar changes in geographical data. A single geocoding engine is capable of handling the various address formats in use in different countries and jurisdictions. The disclosed embodiments are error tolerant and capable of overcoming many errors due to spelling, variety of languages and formats used to provide and address. The diversity in addresses due to, for instance country-specific formats such as postal-codes are naturally integrated into existing database of geocoding information. Preferably, the embodiments are based on JAVA to allow platform independence and use XML based communication to use networks without requiring excessive resources while providing fast services.

Claims

1. A computer implemented system for providing spatial information to a plurality of users, the plurality of users employing a plurality of formats, the system comprising:

a generic matcher module for identifying at least one geocode corresponding to a query;

a generic interpolator module for determining at least one geocode datum in a database in response to receiving an input address;

at least one servlet implemented on a local server for managing local requests by preprocessing and forwarding an input received from a client to a geocode engine and receiving a response from the geocoding engine and forwarding the response to the client;

the geocode engine for coordinating at least one interpolator, at least one matcher module, and at least one database containing geocode data by determining whether customized data is available in preference to default data in response to the input received from the at least one servlet;

a parser coupled to the geocode engine for parsing a user request; and

a data constructor module for accepting input from a local data source and converting the data into at least one designated binary format suitable for a common database.

2. The system of claim 1 further including a local matcher module.

3. The system of claim 1 further including a local interpolator module.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the servlet is executing on a machine supporting multithreaded operations.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the servlet is executing on a machine supporting single threaded operations in a thread_safe^—

mode.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the servlet is executing on a machine having multiple processing units.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the geocode engine handles each input from the at least one servlet independently.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the geocode engine handles each input from the at least one servlet on a separate thread.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein a single geocoding engine handles all user requests for geocodes for addresses encompassing more than one country.

10. A computer implemented system for providing spatial information to a plurality of users, the plurality of users employing addresses in a plurality of formats, the system comprising:

a generic matcher module for identifying at least one geocode corresponding to an input address;

a generic interpolator module for determining at least one geocode datum in a database in response to receiving an input address;

at least one servlet implemented on a server for managing local requests by preprocessing and forwarding an input received from a client to a geocode engine and receiving a response from the geocoding engine and forwarding the response to the client;

the geocode engine for coordinating at least one interpolator, at least one matcher module, and at least one database containing geocode data by determining whether customized data is available in preference to default data in response to the input received from the at least one servlet;

a parser coupled to the geocode engine for parsing a user request; and

a data constructor module for accepting input from a local data source and converting the data into at least one designated binary format suitable for a common database.

11. The system of claim 10 further including a local matcher module.

12. The system of claim 10 further including a local interpolator module.

13. The system of claim 10 wherein the servlet is executing on a machine supporting multithreaded operations.

14. The system of claim 10 wherein the servlet is executing on a machine supporting single threaded operations in a thread_safe_mode.

15. The system of claim 10 wherein the servlet is executing on a machine having multiple processing units.

16. The system of claim 10 wherein the geocode engine handles each input from the at least one servlet independently.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the geocode engine handles each input from the at least one servlet on a separate thread.

18. The system of claim 10 wherein a single geocoding engine handles all user requests for geocodes for addresses encompassing more than one country.

19. The system of claim 10 further including a local server.

20. A computer implemented method for providing spatial information to a plurality of users employing addresses in a plurality of formats comprising the acts of:

receiving an input request from a user wherein said input request contains address data;

evaluating said request for identifying at least one geocode corresponding to said request, said identifying further comprising matching at least one geocode corresponding to an input address;

transmitting said request to a server comprising at least one servlet wherein said server being adapted to manage local requests by preprocessing and forwarding an input received from a user to a geocode engine and receiving a response from the geocoding engine and forwarding the response to the user;

determining at least one geocode datum in a database in response to receiving an input address;

determining through a geocode engine whether customized data is available in preference to default data in response to said request from said servlet wherein the geocode engine coordinates at least one interpolator, at least one matcher module, and at least one database containing geocode data;

receiving a response and forwarding said response to said user; and

accepting through a data constructor module input from a local data source and converting the data into at least one designated binary format suitable for a common database.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising evaluating a request to determine whether said request contains a country code.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein if a country code is detected, said request is stored in a country specific data structure.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein if a country code is not detected, a default country code is employed.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein said request is an XML message.