Method and apparatus for retrieving data representing a postal address from a plurality of postal addresses

• US 7,917,544 B2
• Filed: 04/05/2010
• Issued: 03/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Experian Technology Ltd. (Experian plc)
• Original Assignee: QAS Ltd. (Experian plc)
• Inventors: Bellamy, David John, Ranson, David Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): Lewis; Cheryl
• Application Number:
  US12/754,547
• Publication Number:
  US 20100198851A1
• Time in Patent Office: 358 Days
• Field of Search: 707/802, 707/999.1, 382/101, 382/102
• US Class Current: 707/802
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/322 Trees
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90344 by using string matching techniques
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A method for retrieving a desired postal address from a plurality of postal addresses. The invention can feature receiving input data having input terms for finding the desired postal address from a first database of postal addresses where each postal address is formed of a plurality of postal address elements, searching a dictionary for entries in the dictionary corresponding to the input terms, determining that each entry in the dictionary that corresponds to the input terms corresponds to postal address elements of one or more postal addresses in the first database, and outputting data representing the desired postal address. The desired postal address is found in the first database if an address in that database has postal address elements that correspond with each of the entries of the dictionary that corresponds to one or more of the input terms.

Claims

1. A computerized method of populating a software application with a formatted address of an individual, the method comprising:

providing a data structure in a computer readable storage medium having a plurality of postal address elements selectively associated with a plurality of postal addresses such that each postal address is associated with a subset of the postal address elements that collectively indicate the respective postal address, wherein the postal address elements include at least postal code elements and house number elements;

receiving, via a keyboard of a computing device operated by a user, a postal code indicating a numeric or alphanumeric postal code associated with an individual;

identifying in the data structure a plurality of postal addresses associated with postal code elements matching the received postal code associated with the individual;

receiving, via the keyboard of the computing device operated by the user, a house number indicating a numeric and/or alphanumeric house number associated with the individual;

identifying in the data structure a single postal address of the identified plurality of postal addresses that is associated with a house number element matching the received house number; and

pasting the postal address elements associated with the single postal address into a user interface of a separate software application running on the computing device so that the single postal address is usable in the separate software application.

2. The computerized method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying the identified plurality of postal addresses on a display of the computing device.

3. The computerized method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying the identified single postal address on a display of the computing device and performing the pasting in response to receiving an authorization input from the user indicating that the displayed single address is the address of the individual.

4. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein the postal code element associated with the single postal address that is pasted into the user interface of the separate software application is formatted differently than the received postal code.

5. A computerized method comprising:

accessing, by a computing device, a data structure having a plurality of postal address elements selectively associated with a plurality of postal addresses such that each postal address is associated with a subset of the postal address elements that collectively indicate the respective postal address;

receiving, by the computing device, location information regarding an individual, the location information indicating one or more of (i) a city, (ii) a state, or (ii) a postal code;

identifying in the data structure a plurality of postal addresses associated with location elements matching the received location information;

receiving, by the computing device, at least a portion of a building number;

identifying in the data structure a matching postal address of the identified plurality of postal addresses that is associated with a building number element matching the received building number; and

providing postal address elements associated with the matching postal address to a user interface of a separate software application so that the matching postal address is usable in the separate software application.

6. A tangible computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions executable by a computing device in order to cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

accessing a data structure having a plurality of postal address elements selectively associated with a plurality of postal addresses such that each postal address is associated with a subset of the postal address elements that collectively indicate the respective postal address;

receiving location information regarding an individual, the location information indicating at least a portion of one or more of a city, a state, or a postal code;

receiving at least a portion of a building number associated with the individual;

identifying a postal address in the data structure that is associated with a location element substantially matching the received location information and is associated with a building number element substantially matching the received building number; and

providing postal address elements associated with the identified postal address to a separate software application so that the identified postal address is usable in the separate software application.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the data structure is stored on the computer readable medium.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the data structure is accessed via one or more network connections.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the data structure is organized in a tree structure.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein said identifying comprises searching the data structure for an exact match between a location element and the received location information and then, if an exact match is not located, searching the data structure for a close match between the location element and the received location information.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein close matches are identified by determining that Levenshtein distances between respective location elements and the received location meet a threshold.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein said identifying comprises searching the data structure for an exact match between a building number element and the received building number and then, if an exact match is not located, searching the data structure for a close match between the building number element and the received building number.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein close matches are identified by determining that Levenshtein distances between respective building number elements and the received building number meet a threshold.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

providing for display in a user interface at least portions of a plurality of postal addresses having location elements substantially matching the received location information.

15. A computing system comprising:

a processor configured to execute software instructions;

a computer readable medium storing software instructions configured for execution by the processor in order to cause the computing system to perform operations comprising;

accessing a data structure having a plurality of postal address elements selectively associated with a plurality of postal addresses such that each postal address is associated with a subset of the postal address elements that collectively indicate the respective postal address;

receiving location information regarding an individual indicating a location comprising a plurality of addresses;

receiving additional address information associated with the individual;

identifying an address in the data structure that is associated with a location element substantially matching the received location information and is associated with a data element substantially matching the additional address information; and

providing address elements associated with the identified address to a separate software application so that the identified address is usable in the separate software application, or storing the address elements associated with the identified address in a particular storage area.