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Application programming interface for geographic data in computer games

  • US 7,828,655 B2
  • Filed: 03/11/2004
  • Issued: 11/09/2010
  • Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2004
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A computer-game system comprising:

  • a map database containing geographic data including a plurality of road segment records that represent portions of roads in a real-world geographic locale, wherein each of the road segment records corresponds to navigation-related attribute data that support vehicle navigation-related functions for real-world navigation on the roads in the real-world geographic locale, the navigation-related attribute data including;

    (i) geographic coordinates,(ii) a street name,(iii) an address range,(iv) a turn restriction, and(v) road shape;

    a user interface;

    a game engine program configured for running on a computer platform and for providing a computer game to a user via the user interface;

    a computer processor presenting a game play scenario on the user interface from the game engine program based on the geographic data, wherein game play includes engaging game characters within the game play scenario, and wherein the game play scenario corresponds to a virtual position independent of the user'"'"'s actual physical location; and

    an application programming interface program configured for running on the computer platform and accepting requests for data from the game engine program, accessing the data from the map database, and providing the data in a suitable format to the game engine program;

    wherein the map database, the user interface, the game engine program, and the application programming interface program are stored on at least one computer-readable medium, andwherein individual road segment records are accessed from the map database during game play of the computer game to provide real time geographic data for display in the game play scenario.

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