Method and system for associating content with map zoom function

• US 20090198767A1
• Filed: 02/01/2008
• Published: 08/06/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gabriel Jakobson, Steven Rueben
• Original Assignee: Gabriel Jakobson, Steven Rueben
• Inventors: Jakobson, Gabriel, Rueben, Steven
• Granted Patent: US 8,504,945 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3679 Retrieval, searching and output of POI information, e.g. hotels, restaurants, shops, filling stations, parking facilities G01C21/3611 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/106 using electronic means

Abstract

Various methods, systems and apparatus for displaying content associated with a point-of-interest (“POI”) in a digital mapping system, are disclosed. One such method may include detecting a change in the zoom level of an electronic map displayed on a computing device, determining if the new zoom-level is at a pre-determined zoom level (e.g. at maximum zoom), identifying a POI on the map, retrieving content associated with the POI (“POI content”) and displaying the POI content. The method may further include detecting a change in the zoom, or pan, of the digital map while POI content is displayed, and removing the POI content in response. One apparatus, according to aspects of the present invention, may include means of detecting a change in the zoom level in a digital map displayed through an application (e.g. a web browser, an application on web-enabled cellular phones, etc., displaying a map generated by a service such as Google Maps®, Yahoo! Maps®, Windows Live Search Maps®, MapQuest®, etc.) on a computing device (e.g. personal computer, workstation, thin client, PDA, cellular phone/smart phone, GPS device, etc.) means of identifying a POI at the pre-determined zoom level, means of obtaining content associated with the POI, and means of displaying the POI content. POI content may be retrieved from a database (e.g. internet-based database); or, in an alternate embodiment, gathered by crawling websites associated with the POI. In one embodiment, POI content may be displayed as an image (e.g. a PNG file, GIF, Flash® component, etc.) superimposed on the digital map (e.g. as an overlay object on the map image.) In alternate embodiments, POI content may replace the digital map and may contain links to other content.

Claims

1. A method for displaying point-of-interest (“

POI”

)-related content on an electronic map, comprising;

providing an electronic device having a map display application that is coupled to the internet and a display for displaying a selected area of an electronic map;

receiving a zoom-in command;

determining if a pre-determined zoom level of the map has been reached if the pre-determined zoom level has been reached, displaying one or more POIs on the selected area of the display;

selecting one of the POIs on the selected area of the map;

transmitting information identifying the selected POI to a remote server;

receiving content for the selected POI from the remote server; and

displaying the content for the selected POI on the display.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the zoom-in command is received from an input device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the input device is a touch screen programmed to transmit to the map display application a zoom-in command.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the POI-related content is displayed on top of the selected area of the electronic map.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the POI-related content is displayed in place of the electronic map.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein in response to receiving an additional zoom in command or a pan action command, the POI-related content is removed from the display.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein in the selecting the POI step, the POI closest to the center of the selected area of the electronic map is selected automatically.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein in the selecting the POI step, the POI associated with user preferences is selected automatically.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein in the selecting the POI step, a determination is made on which one or more POI(s) displayed on the electronic map has associated POI-related content on the remote server;

and automatically selecting from the one or more POIs having the associated POI-related content on the remote server, the POI closest to the center of the selected area of the electronic map.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein in the determining if the pre-determined zoom level has been reached step, the pre-determined zoom level corresponds to the maximum zoom level of the selected area of the map.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein in the receiving the POI-related content from the remote server step, the POI-related content is in the form of a computer media file.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the computer media file contains an image.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein in the receiving the POI-related content step, the POI-related content is one or more map tiles.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein in the receiving POI-related content step, the POI-related content received from the remote server includes information for a plurality of the POIs.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein a user can select the POI-related content to display from the plurality of the POIs on the selected area of the map.

16. A method of displaying information on an electronic map, comprising:

receiving a zoom-in command from the user of a map-display application on an electronic device;

determining if a pre-determined zoom level has been reached;

transmitting information identifying a point-of-interest (“

POI”

) on the electronic map to a remote server;

receiving content associated with the POI on the electronic map from the remote server; and

displaying the content association with the POI on the electronic map.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein in the determining step, the pre-determined zoom level corresponds to the maximum zoom level of a selected area of a map displayed by the map-display application.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the content associated with the POI is a media file supported by the map-display application.

19. In an electronic communications system, a method for selecting and transmitting point-of-interest (“

POI”

)-related information to a map display application on an electronic device, comprising;

providing a server having a database for storing the POI-related information, wherein the server is in communication with a remote electronic device;

receiving a request for POI-related information from a map-display application on the remote electronic device;

retrieving the requested POI-related information; and

transmitting the requested POI-related information to the map display application on the electronic device.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the receiving the request for POI-related information includes the longitude/latitude data of the POI.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the receiving request for POI-related information includes at least the name of the POI.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein in the retrieving the POI-related information stage, POI information is retrieved from the database that stores the POI-related information.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein in the retrieving the POI-related information stage, POI information is retrieved from a website associated with the POI.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein the received request for the POI-related information is received from a menu of the map-display application.

25. The method of claim 19, wherein in the receiving step, the request is generated by a zoom-in command in the map-display application on the electronic device.

26. A method for selecting information to display in an electronic map display application, comprising:

displaying an electronic map generated by the electronic map display application;

receiving a user input;

determining if the user input is a zoom-in command;

determining if the displayed map in the electronic map-display application is at a predetermined zoom level;

if the user input is the zoom-in command and the electronic map is determined to be displayed at the predetermined zoom level or higher, receiving and displaying point-of-interest (“

POI”

)-related content.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

if the user input is not the zoom-in command, or if the user input is the zoom-in command and the displayed map in the electronic map display application is not at the predetermined zoom level or higher, receiving map tiles from a remote mapping server.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the POI-related content is received from a remote mapping server.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein the POI-related content is received from a remote source.

30. The method of claim 26, wherein the POI-related content is received from a data store of POI content.

31. A method for displaying point-of-interest (“

POI”

)-related content on an electronic map, comprising;

providing an electronic device having a map display application that is coupled to the internet and a display for displaying a portion of an electronic map;

transmitting location information for the portion of the electronic map that is displayed to a remote server;

receiving information identifying one or more POIs located on the portion of the electronic map that is displayed, from the remote server;

marking on the display, the POIs identified in the information identifying the POIs.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein in response to receiving a zoom-in command from the user and determining that a predetermined zoom level of map has been reached, retrieving and displaying content associated with the POI closest to the center of the map.

33. An apparatus for providing information pertaining to a POI displayed in an area of an electronic map, comprising:

means for detecting a change in the zoom level of the electronic map;

means for determining whether the zoom level of the electronic map corresponds to a pre-determined zoom level;

means for identifying the POI displayed in the area of the electronic map;

means for transmitting identification information of the POI to a remote server;

means for receiving information associated with the POI from the remote server;

means for displaying the information associated with the POI.

34. The apparatus in claim 33 wherein said means for receiving information further comprises:

means for the remote server to correlate the identification information of the POI with information associated with the POI.

35. The apparatus in claim 33, wherein the information associated with the POI resides in a database comprising information data associated with a plurality of POIs.

36. The apparatus in claim 35, wherein at least some of the information data is gathered automatically via a web-crawling process.