CREATING A DATABASE THAT STORES INFORMATION ABOUT INDIVIDUAL HABITABLE UNITS

• US 20120066275A1
• Filed: 08/11/2011
• Published: 03/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Expedia Inc. (Expedia Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Room 77, Inc. (Lexyl Travel Technologies LLC)
• Inventors: Gerstner, Brad, Yang, Calvin, Fliess, Kevin, Jones, Hee-Jung, Abbas, Syed
• Granted Patent: US 8,930,334 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/825
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/444 Spatial browsing, e.g. 2D maps, 3D or virtual spaces

Abstract

Techniques for creating and searching a database that stores information about a plurality of individual habitable units (IHUs) are provided. An example of an IHU is a hotel room. Image data that depicts where a plurality of IHUs reside relative to each other is placed on a base image, such as a satellite/map image. The base image is associated with a mapping that maps points on the base image to spatial (e.g., geographical) coordinates. The coordinates of the IHU may be used to generate a computer-rendered view from a window of an IHU. Also, label input is received that labels each IHU reflected in the image data with certain information. Each label indicates a value of an attribute of an IHU, such as its size, price, distance from elevators, etc. A query that targets information about each IHU may be processed and results returned that are ranked based on criteria associated with the query.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving input that indicates boundaries of a plurality of individual habitable units;

receiving input that establishes a correlation between the boundaries and a base image of a geographic area on which resides the plurality of individual habitable units;

receiving a mapping between points on the base image and a plurality of spatial coordinates;

based on the input, the correlation, and the mapping, determining a set of spatial coordinates for each individual habitable unit of the plurality of individual habitable units;

wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the base image is a satellite image of the geographic area.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the base image depicts some but not all boundaries of the plurality of individual habitable units; and

the boundaries indicated in the input indicates at least one boundary that is not depicted in the base image.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to receiving the input, displaying a floor plan image of a floor plan that includes the boundaries of the plurality of individual habitable units, wherein the input is received while the floor plan image is displayed.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising, after determining a set of spatial coordinates for a particular individual habitable unit of the plurality of individual habitable units:

receiving a visual information that depicts a possible view from a window of the particular habitable unit; and

storing data that associates the visual information with the particular habitable unit.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the visual information is one of video, a computer-rendered image, or a digital photo.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising, prior to receiving the visual information, sending, to a third party service, a request that includes the set of spatial coordinates for the particular individual habitable unit, wherein the visual information is received from the third party service.

22. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 1.

23. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 2.

24. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 3.

25. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 4.

26. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 5.

27. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 6.

28. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 7.

8. A method comprising:

while displaying a first image of a floor plan that includes a plurality of individual habitable units, receiving first input that establishes a first correlation between the floor plan and boundaries of each individual habitable unit of the plurality of individual habitable units;

receiving second input that establishes a second correlation between the floor plan and a base image that reflects a specific geographic area; and

receiving third input that specifies, for each individual habitable unit of the plurality of individual habitable units, one or more values for one or more attributes about the individual habitable unit; and

storing, in a database, data that associates each individual habitable unit, of the plurality of individual habitable units, with the corresponding geographic area and the corresponding one or more values for the one or more attributes;

wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising generating a second image based on the first input and the floor plan, wherein the step of receiving second input includes receiving input that aligns a display of the second image relative to a display of the base image such that contents depicted in the second image are displayed in alignment with corresponding contents depicted in the base image.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more values include a room number for said each individual habitable unit.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more values indicate a type of each bed of one or more beds in said each individual habitable unit.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

after receiving the second input, determining, based on the boundaries of each individual habitable unit of the plurality of individual habitable units and the base image, a size of said each individual habitable unit;

wherein the one or more attributes include a size of said each individual habitable unit.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein:

the plurality of individual habitable units include a first individual habitable unit and a second individual habitable unit;

the first individual habitable unit is of a first type and the second individual habitable unit is of a second type that is different than the first type;

the one or more values indicate, for the first individual habitable unit, a first category that indicates the first type and, for the second individual habitable unit, a second category that indicates the second type.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising, after receiving the second input, for each individual habitable unit of a subset of the plurality of individual habitable units:

receiving visual information that depicts a possible view from a window of said each individual habitable unit; and

storing data that associates the visual information with said each individual habitable unit.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the visual information is received from a third party in response to a request for the visual information, wherein the request includes multiple geographical coordinates.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

determining an elevation of a particular individual habitable unit, wherein the request includes the elevation.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein receiving visual information comprises receiving, for a particular individual habitable unit of the plurality of individual habitable units, a plurality of visual information items that each depicts a different possible view from a window of the particular individual habitable unit.

18. The method of claim 8, further comprising, after receiving the second input:

receiving an image that depicts an actual view from a window of a particular individual habitable unit of the plurality of individual habitable units; and

storing data that associates the image with the particular individual habitable unit.

19. The method of claim 8, further comprising, after generating the second image, receiving fourth input that rotates and scales the second image.

20. The method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of individual habitable units comprise a first subset that are managed by a first establishment and a second subset that are managed by a second establishment that is different than the first establishment.

21. The method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of habitable units are hotel rooms.

29. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 8.

30. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 9.

31. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 10.

32. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 11.

33. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 12.

34. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 13.

35. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 14.

36. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 15.

37. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 16.

38. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 17.

39. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 18.

40. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 19.

41. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 20.

42. One or more non-transitory storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 21.