Internet search engine

• US 20020156779A1
• Filed: 09/28/2001
• Published: 10/24/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Geo Insight International, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Geo Insight International, Inc.
• Inventors: Bell, David W., Elliott, Margaret E., Welch, James E.
• Application Number:
  US09/937,789
• Publication Number:
  US 20020156779A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/6
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries

Abstract

The invention disclosed is a spatial indexing intelligent agent that indexes information against a database of spatial language which is used in combination with a modified search engine that conducts searches using spatially relevant criteria and spatial analysis algorithms Alpha-numeric values from a mathematical system are used for identifying spatial locations, and can be arbitrary, geocentric, virtual, and galactic.

Claims

1. A search method for identifying spatially relevant information in proximity to a reference location comprising the steps of:

providing a spatial lexicography database containing locations which define the searchable universe, said database comprising;

a) coordinate information; and

, b) identifier information;

providing a second database which contains spatial information;

providing a search criteria comprising a reference location and a search radius about said reference location;

converting said reference location into a three dimensional coordinate;

thereafter, converting said search radius into a coordinate box surrounding said reference coordinate which sets the outer boundary for selecting identifier information;

selecting all identifier information from the spatial lexicography database which fall within the coordinate box; and

comparing the spatial information of said second database against the selected identifier information where matches of information from both databases identify spatially relevant information.

2. The search method of claim 1 wherein the spatial lexicography database further comprises attribute information associated with any of said locations;

and,

said search criteria further comprises the use of numerical and character string value parameters for comparison against said attribute information for further refining the selection of identifier information.

3. A spatial lexicography database for resolving different ways of identifying locations to one another, said database comprising:

a. a coordinate system selected from the group comprising;

arbitrary, geocentric, virtual, and galactic;

b. identifier information; and

c. attribute information.

4. A spider for parsing resources identified by web addresses located on the internet wherein the improvement comprises:

accepting a resource for deposit into a topical database only if the resource contains spatial information; and

, where said resource is thereafter indexed against a spatial lexicography database by identifier information.

5. The spider of claim 4 where the spider only searches a web resource if it obtained the web address of said resource from a previous resource containing spatial information.

6. A spider for parsing non-web data repositories comprising:

accepting a resource for deposit into a topical database only if the resource contains spatial information; and

, where said resource is thereafter indexed against a spatial lexicography database by identifier information.