PROVIDING COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE DATA WITH MAP DATA

• US 20100223551A1
• Filed: 03/01/2010
• Published: 09/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Slingshot Technologies LLC
• Original Assignee: S Aqua Semiconductor LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Arad, Amit, Twig, Ilan
• Granted Patent: US 9,542,701 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/712
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0259 based on store location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds

Abstract

Disclosed are methods and systems for downloading map data. A database of layers of map data is maintained. The map data may be representative of at least one map image of a geographic area. Each layer may provide progressively more detailed display information. Map data is downloaded to a client computer, and the may data may be sufficient to allow a user to navigate within a geographic area without requiring new map data to be downloaded.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising a server and a computer-readable storage device storing a computer program, the computer system configured to perform operations comprising:

storing geographical map data with data pertaining to commercial enterprises at geographical locations represented by said geographical map data, said geographical map data representative of at least one map image of a geographic area;

receiving from a user client communicatively coupled to said server a search request pertaining at least one of the commercial enterprises; and

providing said user client with an image of a geographical map including a representation of said at least one of the commercial enterprises, wherein each of said at least one of the commercial enterprises is presented at one of a plurality of levels of visibility, wherein a level of visibility of said at least one of the commercial enterprise is determined from one of the plurality of levels of visibility, according to at least one selection criterion provided by a user of said user client or said server.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said at least one selection criterion is a geographical location.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said level of visibility is a function of a graphical display size of said image.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein each of said at least one of the commercial enterprises matching said search request is positioned in said image according to its respective location on the geographical map.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said server is configured to manage an affiliation of said user to consumer clubs associated with at least one of said commercial enterprises.

6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said level of visibility is a function of a color of one of the commercial enterprises.

7. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said level of visibility is a function of an animation of one of the commercial enterprises.

8. A method of downloading map data from a map server to a client computer communicatively coupled to the map server, said method comprising

maintaining a database of layers of map data, said map data representative of at least one map image of a geographic area, each layer providing progressively more detailed display information;

and

downloading to the client computer map data sufficient to allow a user to navigate within said geographic area without requiring new map data to be downloaded from the map server.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said map data comprises minimized vector format data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said minimized vector format data comprises minimal sorted groups, each of said minimal sorted groups comprising a map object and an object type.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein said map data comprises descriptive information in text format.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein said layers of map data comprise groupings of map objects.

13. A method of downloading map data from a map server to a client computer communicatively coupled to the map server, said method comprising:

sending to the map server a request for map data, said map data representative of at least one map image of a geographic area and comprising at least two layers, each layer providing progressively more detailed display information;

receiving said map data; and

displaying at least part of the map data on a display device of the client computer.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising receiving navigation commands and responding thereto by displaying different parts of the map data without downloading new map data from the map server.

15. A tangible computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions, the instructions comprising:

instructions for maintaining a database of layers of map data, said map data representative of at least one map image of a geographic area, each layer providing progressively more detailed display information; and

instructions for downloading to the client computer map data sufficient to allow a user to navigate within said geographic area without requiring new map data to be downloaded from the map server.

16. A system for downloading map data from a map server to a client computer communicatively coupled to the map server, comprising:

means for maintaining a database of layers of map data, said map data representative of at least one map image of a geographic area, each layer providing progressively more detailed display information; and

means for downloading to the client computer map data sufficient to allow a user to navigate within said geographic area without requiring new map data to be downloaded from the map server.