Displaying map layers in order

• US 9,286,021 B2
• Filed: 06/22/2012
• Issued: 03/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Appleton, Benjamin Charles, McGill, James Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): Brier, Jeffery A
• Application Number:
  US13/531,469
• Publication Number:
  US 20130342545A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,362 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3667 Display of a road map G01C21/3614 takes precedence; guidance using 3D or perspective road maps G01C21/3635
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/367 Details, e.g. road map scale, orientation, zooming, illumination, level of detail, scrolling of road map or positioning of current position marker
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/40 Scaling of whole images or parts thereof, e.g. expanding or contracting
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/4038 Image mosaicing, e.g. composing plane images from plane sub-images
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/007 using computer methods
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/122 Tiling
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/022 Centralised management of display operation, e.g. in a server instead of locally

Abstract

A system and method for displaying map layers in order. First vector data which defines one or more features of a first layer of a map is received from a server. Second vector data which defines one or more features of a second layer of the map is received from the server. A first order for displaying the one or more features of the first layer relative to the one more features of the second layer is received. The first vector data and the second vector data are rendered for display based on the received first order, to display the one or more features defined by the first layer relative to the one or more features defined by the second layer based on the received first order.

Claims

1. A machine-implemented method of displaying map layers in order, the method comprising:

receiving from one or more servers, by one or more processors, map tiles in response to a first tile request including first vector data which defines one or more features of a first layer of a map and second vector data which defines one or more features of a second layer of the map, the one or more features of the first layer corresponding to a first type of point of interest and the one or more features of the second layer corresponding to a second type of point of interest;

sending to the one or more servers, by the one or more processors, a viewport and zoom level for rendering the map tiles of the first tile request;

receiving from the one or more servers, by the one or more processors, a thinning cookie including a sampling rate defined for a viewport and zoom level for rendering the map tiles of the first tile request;

receiving from the one or more servers, by the one or more processors, map tiles in response to a second tile request, wherein the second tile request comprises requested map tiles and the thinning cookie appended to each requested map tile in the second tile request such that the one or more servers are configured to deterministically sample the features within the map tiles of the second tile request by the sampling rate included in the thinning cookie;

wherein the receiving map tiles in response to a first tile request, the sending a viewport and zoom level, the receiving a thinning cookie, and the receiving map tiles in response to a second tile request collectively comprise a double fetch operation to reduce inconsistent thinning across boundaries of the map tiles including the first and second vector data;

receiving, by the one or more processors, a first order for displaying the one or more features of the first layer relative to the one more features of the second layer; and

rendering, by the one or more processors, the first vector data and the second vector data for display based on the first order, such that the one or more features defined by the first layer are overlaid on top of the one or more features defined by the second layer;

receiving, by the one or more processors, user selection of one feature from among the one or more features in the second layer; and

rendering, by the one or more processors, in response to receiving the selection of the one feature, the first vector data and the second vector data for display in a second order, the second order being different than the first order, such that the one or more features corresponding to the second type of point of interest are overlaid on top of the one or more features corresponding to the first type of point of interest, wherein the rendering of the first vector data and the second vector data for display in the second order is done without having to refetch any data from the server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the first vector data, the receiving the second vector data and the rendering are performed by an application on an electronic device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the application is a web browser.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first type of point of interest and the second type of point of interest correspond to respective search queries by the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first order is a user-specified value.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first order is specified by a hover event associated with a feature in either the first layer or the second layer.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing for differentiated display of the one or more features of the first layer relative to the one or more features of the second layer based on the first order.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the providing for differentiated display comprises changing at least one of color, size, style, text, highlighting or animation of at least one feature, so as to differentiate the one or more features of the first layer relative to the one or more features of the second layer.

9. A system for displaying map layers in order, the system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by the processors, cause the processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving, from one or more servers, map tiles in response to a first tile request including first vector data which defines one or more features of a first layer of a map and second vector data which defines one or more features of a second layer of the map, the one or more features of the first layer corresponding to a first type of point of interest and the one or more features of the second layer corresponding to a second type of point of interest;

sending to the one or more servers, a viewport and zoom level for rendering the map tiles of the first tile request;

receiving, from the one or more servers, a thinning cookie including a sampling rate defined for a viewport and zoom level for rendering the map tiles of the first tile request;

receiving, from the one or more servers, map tiles in response to a second tile request, wherein the second tile request comprises requested map tiles and the thinning cookie appended to each requested map tile in the second tile request such that the one or more servers are configured to deterministically sample the features within the map tiles of the second tile request by the sampling rate included in the thinning cookie;

wherein the receiving map tiles in response to a first tile request, the sending a viewport and zoom level, the receiving a thinning cookie, and the receiving map tiles in response to a second tile request collectively comprise a double fetch operation to reduce inconsistent thinning across boundaries of the map tiles including the first and second vector data;

receiving a first order, corresponding to a user-specified value, for displaying the one or more features of the first layer relative to the one more features of the second layer; and

rendering the first vector data and the second vector data for display based on the first order, such that the one or more features defined by the first layer are overlaid on top of the one or more features defined by the second layer;

receiving user selection of one feature from among the one or more features in the second layer; and

rendering, in response to receiving the selection of the one feature, the first vector data and the second vector data for display in a second order, the second order being different than the first order, such that the one or more features corresponding to the second type of point of interest are overlaid on top of the one or more features corresponding to the first type of point of interest, wherein the rendering of the first vector data and the second vector data for display in the second order is done without having to refetch any data from the server.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the receiving the first vector data, the receiving the second vector data and the rendering are performed by an application on an electronic device.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the first type of point of interest and the second type of point of interest correspond to respective search queries by the user.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the first order is specified by a hover event associated with a feature in either the first layer or the second layer.

13. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

providing for differentiated display of the one or more features of the first layer relative to the one or more features of the second layer based on the first order.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the providing for differentiated display comprises changing at least one of color, size, style, text, highlighting or animation of at least one feature, so as to differentiate the one or more features of the first layer relative to the one or more features of the second layer.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by a system, cause the system to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from one or more servers, map tiles in response to a first tile request including first vector data which defines one or more features of a first layer of a map and second vector data which defines one or more features of a second layer of the map, the one or more features of the first layer corresponding to a first type of point of interest and the one or more features of the second layer corresponding to a second type of point of interest;

sending to the one or more servers, a viewport and zoom level for rendering the map tiles of the first tile request;

receiving, from the one or more servers, a thinning cookie including a sampling rate defined for a viewport and zoom level for rendering the map tiles of the first tile request;

receiving, from the one or more servers, map tiles in response to a second tile request, wherein the second tile request comprises requested map tiles and the thinning cookie appended to each requested map tile in the second tile request such that the one or more servers are configured to deterministically sample the features within the map tiles of the second tile request by the sampling rate included in the thinning cookie;

wherein the receiving map tiles in response to a first tile request, the sending a viewport and zoom level, the receiving a thinning cookie, and the receiving map tiles in response to a second tile request collectively comprise a double fetch operation to reduce inconsistent thinning across boundaries of the map tiles including the first and second vector data;

receiving a first order for displaying the one or more features of the first layer relative to the one more features of the second layer; and

rendering the first vector data and the second vector data for display based on the first order, such that the one or more features defined by the first layer are overlaid on top of the one or more features defined by the second layer;

receiving user selection of one feature from among the one or more features in the second layer; and

rendering, in response to receiving the selection of the one feature, the first vector data and the second vector data for display in a second order, the second order being different than the first order, such that the one or more features corresponding to the second type of point of interest are overlaid on top of the one or more features corresponding to the first type of point of interest, wherein the rendering of the first vector data and the second vector data for display in the second order is done without having to refetch any data from the server.