System and method for using universal location referencing objects to provide geographic item information
First Claim
1. A method for providing geographic item information for a location, using universal location referencing objects, comprising the steps of:
- accessing a file-of-reference that comprises geographic item information, wherein the file-of-reference comprises geographic item information, including a geographic item associated with a location;
accessing a third-party file, wherein the third-party file comprises additional geographic item information that can be associated with the location; and
in response to a request for information for a particular location,retrieving a universal location reference object for the particular location, wherein the universal location reference object comprises a universal location reference code that uniquely identifies the particular location, and further comprises identifying information for the particular location,traversing links to the additional geographic item information in the third-party file,associating the geographic item information in the file-of-reference with the additional geographic item information in the third-party file, to create a resultant information, andproviding the resultant information as a response to the request.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system for creating and/or using a universal location referencing object (ULRO) with electronic files including electronic maps. ULROs establish traversable links between a file-of-reference and third-party-files. In accordance with an embodiment, the ULRO comprises a universal location referencing code uniquely corresponding to the location, together with several optional components, including: a set of name information; a super-set of coordinates; a file-of-reference pointer field comprising a file-of-reference pointer; a third-party-file pointer field comprising one or more third-party-file pointers; a file-of-reference back-pointer field comprising a file-of-reference back-pointer; a third-party-file back-pointer field comprising one or more third-party-file back-pointers; and a metadata field. ULROs allow recognition of equivalence of features in different maps, and facilitate dynamic combination or linking of multiple maps into one virtual map, with traversable connectivity for a wide variety of map formats.
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Citations
11 Claims
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1. A method for providing geographic item information for a location, using universal location referencing objects, comprising the steps of:
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accessing a file-of-reference that comprises geographic item information, wherein the file-of-reference comprises geographic item information, including a geographic item associated with a location; accessing a third-party file, wherein the third-party file comprises additional geographic item information that can be associated with the location; and in response to a request for information for a particular location, retrieving a universal location reference object for the particular location, wherein the universal location reference object comprises a universal location reference code that uniquely identifies the particular location, and further comprises identifying information for the particular location, traversing links to the additional geographic item information in the third-party file, associating the geographic item information in the file-of-reference with the additional geographic item information in the third-party file, to create a resultant information, and providing the resultant information as a response to the request. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method of creating a data structure that uses universal location referencing objects to enable the providing of geographic item information for a location, comprising:
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storing in a data structure a pointer to a file-of-reference, wherein the file-of-reference comprises geographic item information, including a geographic item associated with a location; storing in the data structure a pointer to a third-party file, wherein the third-party file comprises additional geographic item information that can be associated with the location; storing in the data structure a universal location reference object, wherein the universal location reference object includes a universal location reference code that uniquely identifies the location, identifying information for the location, and links to the additional geographic item information in the third-party file; and using the combination of pointer to a file-of-reference, pointer to a third-party file, and universal location reference object, to allow a universal location reference object to be retrieved for a particular location, and the links traversed in that universal location reference object to associate the additional geographic item information in the third-party file with the geographic item information in the file-of-reference for that particular location.
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Specification