Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-30
2001-09-25
Black, Thomas (Department: 2171)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C101S004000, C101S005000, C101S101000, C101S102000, C101S104000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06295528
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to databases, and more particularly to geographic database queries that convert a geographic location to a direct marketing area.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Database queries are common in today's computing world. Many database queries have geographic locations specified as query criteria, or input parameters. For example, a user may wish to perform a query of a White Pages database to obtain the people named “Smith” located in “Redmond, Wash.” A typical database query will simply use “Redmond” and “Wash.” directly as query inputs for city and state fields, respectively. The database query will return records of those people living within the city limits of Redmond, Wash.
However, the user may not desire the query to be based on the city limits. An alternative is a query with a range. An example query with a range is to locate all of the database entries that are within a specific distance (e.g., 30 miles) from a specific geographic coordinate. The specific geographic coordinate may be specified directly as a latitude/longitude, or some other geographic coordinate system, or first converted (for example, from a specified city/state), to a specific geographic coordinate. Another query is then performed to obtain all of the records within the specified range from the geographic coordinate
Regions known as direct marketing areas have been defined by Nielsen for the continental United States. These areas are based on television signal areas. This division is useful for business people for marketing and advertising purposes.
It is desirable to interject the use of direct marketing areas into database queries with geographic inputs. The present invention is directed to converting a geographic query input to a direct marketing area so as to accomplish this result.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, a method, apparatus and computer-readable medium for converting a geographic location query input parameter to a direct marketing area, are provided.
In accordance with other aspects of the present invention, a geographic location/direct marketing area database is defined. Defining a geographic location/direct marketing area database may be, simply a reference to an existing database, such as the Nielsen database. The Nielsen database maps a city and a state to a direct marketing area. Geographic location formats, other than city/state, can also be mapped to a direct marketing area, for example, zip code, county, or area code. Defining a geographic location/direct marketing area database can also be accomplished by other methods, such as creating a database that maps geographic coordinates (e.g., latitude and longitude) to direct marketing areas.
In accordance with still other aspects of the present invention, if a query request with a geographic location input is received, the geographic location is converted to a direct marketing area before performing the requested query.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5627549 (1997-05-01), Park
patent: 5878126 (1999-03-01), Velamuri et al.
patent: 5904727 (1999-05-01), Prabhakaran
patent: 5930474 (1999-07-01), Dunworth et al.
patent: 5963951 (1999-10-01), Collins
Garbe Darrell
Marcus Kevin
Black Thomas
Christensen O'Connor Johnson & Kindness PLLC
Claiborne Anthony B.
Do Thuy
InfoSpace, Inc.
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