Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-21
2001-04-10
Choules, Jack (Department: 2177)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06216130
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for organizing and retrieving geographic information, geographically related or linked information, and geographically associated programs. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for making geographic information available for display to a user by compiling reference information specifying retrieval addresses and display formats of geographic information, applications, and associated tabular data located at multiple data sources that are accessible via the Internet or other wide area or local area networks.
2. Prior State of the Art
Managing, organizing, and displaying geographic information using computers has become increasingly common. Such use of geographic information has proved to be valuable in many industries and organizations, such as governmental agencies, public utilities, and the like. Computer display of geographic information allows vast amounts of information to be efficiently communicated to users and also allows the geographic information to be easily edited.
With the recent explosive growth of the Internet, numerous geographic information resources at remote sites around the world have become instantly available to users, regardless of their location. Along with the increasing availability of geographic information, there has been a corresponding increase in the difficulty and complexity of referencing, organizing, and managing geographic resources. In order to retrieve geographic information using the Internet, the user or the retrieving computer must know the uniform resource locator (URL) or another address associated with the information. In addition, because there is no universally accepted display format for geographic data types, they may be configured according to any of a large number of display formats. Accordingly, in order to retrieve and display geographic information, a geographic information system (GIS) must have reference information relating to the geographic information and specifying at least the address and display format thereof.
Some basic GIS applications require the user to remember the location of relevant geographic information and to manually type in the information from (human) memory or hard copy in order to retrieve and display the information. There are also custom GIS applications which do not require user interaction to determine the location of information, but they are limited to a predefined set of data sources. Such approaches are inconvenient from the standpoint of the user or are restricted in the amount and variety of information that may be accessed. Several major geographic information system vendors have recently marketed open GIS applications, which include open platforms and which are compatible with a large number of display formats. While such open standards increase the amount of geographic information that is accessible to a user using a single application, they do nothing to facilitate the organization and interrelation of various geographic information sources and geographic data structures.
Many of the problems that are impeding the full potential and applicability of geographic information systems have not been adequately addressed by conventional approaches. There still exists the difficulty of sharing and making freely available geographic information to all interested users within an organization. Moreover, there is no geographic information system that can adequately coordinate the use and execution of multiple applications that may be needed to display geographic information originating from different data sources.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need in the art for systems and methods of organizing geographic information located at remote sources in such a way that it is easily accessible and displayable to users. It would be a further advantage if such methods could conveniently facilitate the exchange and distribution of geographic information to multiple users within an organization.
SUMMARY AND OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to systems and methods for referencing, accessing, and displaying geographic information. According to the invention, a GIS administrator can create a body of reference information relating to geographic data structures stored at remote sources in order to make the data structures readily available to multiple users in an organization. The administrator can also define relationships between the referenced geographic data structures. The reference information and the defined relationships establish a framework by which the geographic data structures can be retrieved and displayed to users.
The reference information compiled by the administrator may relate to various properties and features of the geographic data structures. For example, the reference information may include address information allowing a user application executed by the user's computer to retrieve the geographic data structure from a remote source on the Internet or another wide area network. The reference information may also include display information defining the display format to be used by the user application to display the geographic data structure to the user.
The reference information can contain application information indicating the application to be used to display or edit the geographic data structure. The executable code associated with the application may be stored locally by the computer executing the user application, or instead may be stored at a remote site on the Internet or another wide area network. The administrator may also compile, as part of the reference information, user access filters defining the access credentials of various users in an organization and context filters that permit the user to obtain only the information that is relevant at the time of the user's request. Metadata, which is data describing when the geographic data structure was created, by whom it was created, how it can be used, or other information about the geographic data structure, may be included in the reference information.
By compiling the reference information and establishing the relationships between referenced geographic data structures, the administrator has organized the data structures so that they can be conveniently retrieved and displayed by the user application. In particular, the user application presents menu choices, lists, or other selection mechanisms to the user indicating what geographic information is available to the user. When the user selects the geographic information to be retrieved, the user application receives the reference information associated with the relevant geographic data structures. The user application then establishes communication with the remote sources that store the geographic data structures using the address information. The geographic data structures and any applications not already stored locally are retrieved from the remote sources. Using the display information, the user application displays the geographic information to the user. In addition to geographic information, the systems and methods of the invention can be used to organize, manage, retrieve, and display tabular data and other data, such as graphics, audio and video.
Compiling the reference information and establishing the relationships between referenced geographic data structures in the foregoing manner provides significant advantages not available using prior art systems and methods. The selection of tabular data sources, or databases, can be based on the nature of the data in the database and its usefulness for presenting on a map the significance or attributes of one or more specific geographic features. For example, the data contained in the database can be used to draw a map in a specified way, or it can be displayed tabularly (in writing) as pertaining to particular map features.
In addition, the geographic data, tabular data, and applications are typically selected by the administrator based on the relat
Hougaard Todd R.
Royer Burk
Schimmelpfenning Steven
Choules Jack
InGeo Acquisitions, Inc.
Workman & Nydegger & Seeley
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