SPATIAL INDEXING OF DOCUMENTS

• US 20080228729A1
• Filed: 10/30/2007
• Published: 09/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Metacarta, Inc.
• Inventors: Rauch, Ursula, Rauch, Manfred, RAUCH, Erik M., FRANK, John R.
• Granted Patent: US 9,201,972 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99937 Sorting
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99938 Concurrency, e.g. lock management in shared database
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A computer-implemented method involving: gathering a set of files from one or more computers; analyzing the set of files to identify a plurality of files among the set of files that contain spatial information; storing information about the plurality of files, the stored information indicating that the identified files contain spatial information; and causing to be displayed to a user an indication that the identified files contain spatial information.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

gathering a set of files from one or more computers;

analyzing the set of files to identify a plurality of files among the set of files that contain spatial information;

storing information about the plurality of files, said stored information indicating that the identified files contain spatial information; and

causing to be displayed to a user an indication that the identified files contain spatial information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the displayed indication comprises for each identified file a visual representation of spatial information that was found in that identified file.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein gathering the set of files from one or more computers involves gathering the set of files from computers arrayed across a computer network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the files of the set of files are text-based computer files.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the files of the set of files are non-text files.

6. The method of claim 1, causing to be displayed to the user a multi-dimensional representation of a domain on which the visual representations are displayed at coordinates that correspond to at least some of the spatial information that was found in the identified files.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the set of files to identify the plurality of files involves opening each file among the set of files and scanning that file for spatial identifiers.

8. The method of claim 1, determining a spatial relevance score for each of the files among the plurality of files.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein storing information about the plurality of files involves spatially indexing the plurality of documents.

10. A computer system comprising program storage which stores code which when executed on the computer system causes the computer system to:

gather a set of files from one or more computers;

analyze the set of files to identify a plurality of files among the set of files that contain spatial information;

store information about the plurality of files, said stored information indicating that the identified files contain spatial information; and

cause to be displayed to a user an indication that the identified files contain spatial information.