Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01C—MEASURING DISTANCES, LEVELS OR BEARINGS; SURVEYING; NAVIGATION; GYROSCOPIC INSTRUMENTS; PHOTOGRAMMETRY OR VIDEOGRAMMETRY
  • G01C21/00—Navigation; Navigational instruments not provided for in groups G01C1/00 - G01C19/00
  • G01C21/26—Navigation; Navigational instruments not provided for in groups G01C1/00 - G01C19/00 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
  • G01C21/34—Route searching; Route guidance
  • G01C21/36—Input/output arrangements for on-board computers
  • G01C21/3679—Retrieval, searching and output of POI information, e.g. hotels, restaurants, shops, filling stations, parking facilities
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F16/00—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
  • G06F16/90—Details of database functions independent of the retrieved data types
  • G06F16/95—Retrieval from the web
  • G06F16/953—Querying, e.g. by the use of web search engines
  • G06F16/9537—Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G09—EDUCATION; CRYPTOGRAPHY; DISPLAY; ADVERTISING; SEALS
  • G09B—EDUCATIONAL OR DEMONSTRATION APPLIANCES; APPLIANCES FOR TEACHING, OR COMMUNICATING WITH, THE BLIND, DEAF OR MUTE; MODELS; PLANETARIA; GLOBES; MAPS; DIAGRAMS
  • G09B19/00—Teaching not covered by other main groups of this subclass
  • G09B19/0061—Geography
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L67/00—Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
  • H04L67/50—Network services
  • H04L67/52—Network services specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L69/00—Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass
  • H04L69/30—Definitions, standards or architectural aspects of layered protocol stacks
  • H04L69/32—Architecture of open systems interconnection [OSI] 7-layer type protocol stacks, e.g. the interfaces between the data link level and the physical level
  • H04L69/322—Intralayer communication protocols among peer entities or protocol data unit [PDU] definitions
  • H04L69/329—Intralayer communication protocols among peer entities or protocol data unit [PDU] definitions in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Definitions

• the invention relates to a method and a device for specifying and searching points of interest.
• a "point of interest” refers to objects at a specific location on the earth's surface, such as company headquarters, churches, airports, train stations, street lights, traffic lights, electricity meters, ATMs, lakes or nature reserves.
• the WGS84 coordinate system was developed, by means of which geocoordinates can be displayed in a neutral, global coordinate system in order to bring about a global exchange of geocoordinates, regardless of the means and in which local coordinate system the geocoordinates were determined.
• the WGS84 coordinate system is based on an ellipsoid model of the earth, with the angular velocity and the mass of the earth being further parameters. Furthermore, a gravitational model of the earth is part of the overall model in order to determine the orbits of GPS satellites.
• NavTech Navigation Technologies
• Rosemont Illinois
• Tele Atlas Gent
• the invention is therefore based on the technical problem of creating a method and a device for specifying and searching points of interest, by means of which objects and information about objects can be determined in a more targeted and concise manner from a database.
• object specifications for a point of interest are read in from a server on which geodesics and / or algorithms for assigning geodesics are stored, at least one object specification having at least one geographical reference, from which means a geocoordinate for the point of interest is determined for the geodesics and / or algorithms for assigning geodesics, the server generating a unique identifier for the point of interest and the object specifications and the geocoordinate being stored under the identifier.
• a kind of database of points of interest is created, each of which comprises at least one geocoordinate as object specification, which enables a targeted spatial or geographic search for points of interest.
• the server can be a single computer or an entire intranet.
• the object specifications can be read in fully automatically or manually. For example, it is possible to successively read in a CD-ROM with business addresses and to determine a geocoordinate from the postal address using the geodesics or the algorithms for assigning geodesics. If the direct, immediate assignment of a geocoordinate to the address from the geodesics is not possible, the algorithm for assigning geodesics first determines an area within which the point of interest must be located. For this purpose, for example, the area subdivisions can be used when assigning the postcodes. The center of gravity coordinate is then formed from this surface, for example. This first geo-coordinate can then be specified using further information such as street names. Another option for automatic reading can be a list of Internet addresses or W3 addresses.
• the associated addresses of the domain owners can then be determined by querying the databases of the responsible awarding bodies, so that the method can then subsequently be carried out analogously to that described above.
• object specifications manually, there are basically two options for entering georeferences, which can also be combined.
• the postal address can be entered again as described above, or on the other hand the position of the point of interest can be marked directly on a georeferenced map.
• the relevant section of the georeferenced map is first determined on the basis of the postal address and made available to the user. The user can then increase the accuracy of the geocoordinate by entering it in the map section.
• this includes from the server Generating identifier a country code, a POI ID or run number and a parity point.
• the geocoordinate is stored in the format of a global and neutral coordinate system, preferably the WGS84 system.
• a neutral coordinate system has the advantage that the system can be designed to be completely open and, in addition, geodesics determined using a wide variety of methods become compatible with one another.
• the geocoordinate is assigned various geographical area details which are stored as further attributes. These different area specifications can have the form, for example, of the district, city, district, state, or country, or they can include regular geometric areas. This ensures that a suitable identifier can be found more quickly when specifying certain geographic search terms in the server.
• two different approaches are to be distinguished in particular, namely the direct search for a point of interest or its object specifications or the search for a class of point of interest with geographic reference using a search engine.
• the direct search for a point of interest takes place, for example, by entering search terms in the server.
• searching for object specifications the point of interest is already known and the user would like to receive further information.
• an icon is used in a website of a point of interest, which, after its activation, determines the associated URL or WS address of the website and transmits it to the server.
• Icon is understood here to mean any activation element for the execution of the described method.
• the existing identifiers or their identifiers are then stored on the server transmit the assigned object specification of the point of interest with the matching URL or W3 address back to the user, so that the user can obtain comprehensive information about the point of interest, the geographic position of the point of interest by means of a georeferenced map by the user Geocoordinate is displayed.
• this icon for determining and transmitting the URL or W3 address is integrated in the respective browser.
• the georeferenced map additionally includes an input option for a location position of the user, which is transmitted to the server, which calculates a route from the location position to the geocoordinate of the identifier and transmits this route to the user, the The route is preferably displayed using a georeferenced map.
• the user can either use a georeferenced map or enter his address, in which case the associated geocoordinate is then calculated using the algorithms described above.
• Another way to search for points of interest is to do a direct search using a georeferenced map. To do this, the user first selects the geographic area on the georeferenced map in which the user is looking for points of interest. Then he then enters a search term and the appropriate points of interest in this geographic area are then displayed with their object specifications.
• Another preferred area of application is the targeted georeferenced search of points of interest in global networks using known search engines.
• the user enters at least one search term as before.
• the user enters at least one geographic reference.
• the entered search terms and geographical references are then transferred to the search engine.
• the search engine then routes the geographic references to the server, where all identifiers of points of interest are compiled with a geo-coordinate within the geographic reference. If necessary, a different geographic search area can also be generated from the geographic reference.
• the W3 and / or URL addresses are extracted from the associated object specifications and transmitted to the search engine.
• the search engine itself searches all W3 addresses or URL addresses that contain the search term as content and compiles a hit list. This hit list is then intersected with the W3 addresses found on the server and the intersection is transmitted to the user as a search result, so that a significant improvement in the search result can be achieved.
• the geocoordinate and the various geographic areas of the identifier are stored as additional keywords in the search engine index.
• a search query is then carried out with geo-reference, the geographic area information is directly available to the search engine, so that no connection to the server has to take place during the search process.
• This query of the search engine in advance of the actual search by a user has two significant advantages. On the one hand, the actual search algorithms of the search engine do not have to be changed. On the other hand, there are limits to the formation of the intersection according to the previously described method. The reason for this is that a search engine actually only makes the URL address available for a limited number of hits. For example, the search engine displays 100,000 hits, but only provides the url address of the first 100 hits available. However, this also means that the intersection is limited to the first 100 URL addresses.
• the geographic reference entered in the search engine does not correspond to the geographic area information stored in the index, the geographic reference is extracted using a parser and transmitted to the server, where the geographic reference is assigned at least one geographic area information, which is then sent to the search engine as a new search term is transmitted.
• Search engines and specialist portals are primarily managed via their advertising revenue.
• the geographical resolution of the points of interest gives the search engine the opportunity to place advertisements regionally. For the mass of small and medium-sized companies, this has the value that they can be easily found on the Internet due to their georeferencing. Their actual geographical location loses weight and businesses with an unfavorable location can compensate for this competitive disadvantage. Spatial disparities dissolve, and presence and advertising on the Internet open up completely new dimensions. This increases the importance and acceptance of the Internet even for inexperienced users. This option of regional assignment on the Internet enables a wide range of other services such as event notifications or news to be integrated.
• Fig. 1 shows a first input request to generate an identifier
• Fig. 2 shows a georeferenced map with a point of interest
• FIG. 3 a representation of a point of interest by means of the object specifications stored under the identifier
• FIG. 4 an input mask of a conventional search engine (state of the art
• FIG. 6 shows a search result with a conventional search engine (state of the art
• FIG. 7 a search result of a search engine with georeferencing.
• a first geocoordinate is first generated on the server from the postal entries by means of an algorithm for generating geocoordinates. In the simplest case, this can be done using look-up tables, where a geocoordinate is assigned to certain address areas. Another possibility is the calculation using areas with center of gravity.
• the area belonging to the postcode is first formed and then the center of gravity is calculated.
• This coordinate of the center of gravity is then blended with the street and house number, if any, using the data from an associated georeferenced map 6, so that the result is the first geocoordinate of the point of interest based on the postal entries.
• This geocoordinate is visually highlighted by means of a symbol 7, for example in the form of a flag, which is shown in FIG. 2.
• the georeferenced map 6 from FIG. 2 is transmitted together with a second input request from the server to the user.
• the user can then use a suitable control element of his user interface, preferably using a mouse, to move the flags symbolizing the geocoordinate on the georeferenced map 6.
• the user fills in the input fields 8-15.
• a company logo or the like to the input request, for which the user clicks on the command line 16 "Upload pictogram".
• the georeferenced map 6 and the completed input request are transmitted back to the server by clicking the button 17.
• the previously described method step can also be automated, with the exception of the modification of the geocoordinate. For example, address directories on data media or in databases such as the DNS (Domain Name Service) databases could be used.
• an identifier for the point of interest is then generated on the server.
• the actual identified is preferably composed of three components, namely a country code, a counter and a single-digit checksum to ensure the consistency of the code.
• the country code is preferably three digits according to ISO 3166-1.
• the counter is, for example, a six-digit base 36, each country having its own continuous counter.
• the object specifications of the point of interest from the second input request are now added to this identifier together with the geocorrdinate as an attribute and are stored together.
• the geocoordinate is preferably saved in a format of a global and neutral coordinate system such as the WGS84 in order to achieve the greatest possible openness and compatibility.
• the geocoordinate is carefully designed not as a component of the identifier but only as an attribute, so that later updates are possible without modification of the identifier due to more precise methods.
• the identifier can also contain other geographical areas be assigned. Examples of this are grid squares or cell IDs of a mobile radio company.
• mobile point of interests can also be integrated into the system, the geocoordinate of which is then adapted cyclically depending on the location, in that the mobile points of interest send their location position and their identifier to the server.
• Examples of such mobile points of interest are motor vehicles, containers, airplanes, cell phones, handhelds or other multimedia devices.
• Mobile phone companies divide the region in which a cell phone is received into cell phone cells (Cell-ID).
• These cell IDs are stored in the server as a geographical area specification or converted into a geographical area specification.
• the server can find all identifiers that have the same geographical area specification and, if necessary, sort them out according to further criteria, such as brackets. If the mobile radio company then determines that the cell ID has been changed by the cell phone user, this new cell ID is transmitted to the server. Depending on the request, this then delivers the searched points of interest within the geographic area of the Cell-ID. In this way, the user can have various services and content with position determination switched via the WAP technology. Depending on the functionality of the cell phone, the determined points of interest can possibly be shown on a map. The information can be actively called up by the user via so-called pull services or sent to the user by means of push services and via SMS.
• a special area of application is created for cell phones, palm tops or handhelds. In the future, these will be equipped with GPS receivers, which enable precise position determination.
• Various parameters such as location coordinates (determined by GPS), the direction of the cell phone in degrees, an opening angle and a range can then be transmitted to the server.
• a determination is made of the geographical area (sector beam) and the points of interest contained therein according to customer and / or topic-specific aspects, which are then transmitted to the cell phone. This enables an improved selection of the points of interest of interest.
• 3 shows a point of interest as a display result after a query from the server.
• the representation comprises a georeferenced map 6 in which the location or the geocoordinate of the point of interest is highlighted by means of the symbol 7.
• Object specifications are arranged above the georeferenced map.
• these are the name of the point of interest, the contact person, address, telephone and fax number as well as the email address.
• the user is offered a navigation menu to the point of interest. To do this, the user only has to enter his postal address and either click on the command line "shortest route" or "fastest route”. The entries are then transferred to the server. The latter then again determines a geocoordinate from the postal address. A corresponding route between the geocoordinate of the user and the point of interest is then calculated. This route was then transmitted to the user with a corresponding georeferenced map.
• the algorithms for calculating the route reference can be made to the known navigation devices from motor vehicle technology.
• various local advertising banners 18 are arranged, which are additionally highlighted in the georeferenced map 6 by their numbers. Because of the geo-referenced query of point of interest, advertising banners 18 with only regional importance can thus be displayed in a targeted manner. Customers can assign a geocoordinate or an area such as a city to their advertising banner, so that the advertising banner is only displayed if a matching geo-reference is requested when queried on the server.
• FIG. 4 The input mask of such a conventional search engine is shown in FIG. 4.
• the input mask comprises an input field 19 for at least one search term and a button 20 for transferring the search term or terms entered.
• the search terms can be logically linked in various ways become. In the example shown, the search terms "hotel", “+ berlin” and “+ charlottenburg” are entered, whereby the + sign means that these terms must be available on the website.
• An exemplary hit list of a search with the above search terms is shown in FIG. 6, the hits shown being partially anonymized. As can be seen, the hit list comprises 1135 Internet pages, so that a user cannot usually do much with such a search result, especially if he is looking for a hotel in Berlin-Charlottenburg, but would like to compare several hotels with one another before booking.
• FIG. 5 shows an exemplary input mask of a search engine that communicates with the server according to the invention.
• the input mask has a further input field 21 for georeferences. If, as shown, the search terms "berlin” and “charlottenburg" are entered as geo references and transferred to the search engine, the search engine forwards the geo references to the server. The server then searches the entire inventory of identifiers for a matching geo-coordinate. The associated W3 addresses are compiled and transmitted to the search engine. The search engine itself searches for all W3 addresses on whose pages the search term appears and also compiles them. Then the intersection between the two W3 address lists compiled by the server and search engine is formed. The result is then transmitted to the user as a hit list.
• FIG. 7 An exemplary anonymized hit list for the selected search term and geo references is shown in FIG. 7.
• the hit list comprises only 13 websites, so that the user can easily search for the information sought.
• Using the geo coordinates a significant improvement in the search results according to local points of interest can thus be achieved.
• the entered geographic reference is transferred directly to the server.
• this process can also be carried out largely in isolation in the search engine.
• additional geographic area information is first added to the individual geo-coordinates of the identifiers as additional attributes.
• this additional geographical area information can be grid squares, for example, grids of different square sizes are placed over a geographical area such as Germany, the division becoming ever finer.
• this additional geographic area information is then stored as additional keywords in the search engine index. This takes advantage of the fact that a search engine indexes websites according to keywords, these being determined using a crawler and provided with pointers to the corresponding URL address.
• a new indexing takes place if the crawler detects a change in the website. With such a new indexing, the URL address is then transmitted to the server. The server then determines the identifier assigned to the URL address, if it exists, and transmits this or the geocoordinate with the further geographical area information to the search engine, where these geospatial references are stored as further keywords. If a search query is then carried out with a geographic reference, the geographic area information is directly available to the search engine, so that no connection to the server has to take place during the search process. This query of the search engine in advance of the actual search by a user has two significant advantages. On the one hand, the actual search algorithms of the search engine do not have to be changed.
• Geographic reference "This makes it very easy to extract the geographic reference using a parser. If the geographic reference does not match the selected geographical area information, it can be transmitted to the server, where it can then be assigned one or more geographic area information which are then transferred to the search engine as new search terms.
• a link to the associated identifier is offered for the hits in the hit list.
• the user can thus have the business card displayed directly as shown in FIG. 3 without first switching to the associated website.
• the search engine transmits the URL address to the server, which then responds with the associated identifier.
• This function can also be integrated into the browser, so that an additional menu item "Identifier" is made available in the popup menu. To trigger this function, the user moves the mouse over a link of the entry of interest, clicks the right mouse button and selects the additional menu item. Calling the menu item transfers the stored URL address to the server, which then responds again with the associated identifier.
• Search engines are currently unable to determine which region a user comes from.
• the existing possibility of using an IP backtrace to determine the dial-in point by tracing IP addresses is extremely imprecise.
• This can now be solved in that the user always transmits his identifier or attributes of the identifier added as geographic area information to the search engine in a search query.
• This already enables a multitude of information flows tailored to the user.
• the homepage of the Answer search engine regionally specific. This answer could be given by the correct placement of national languages, regional advertising and surrounding activities.
• Another possibility would be to sort the hit list according to the distance of the hits to the dial-in location.
• This function can also be integrated into the browser as a plugin. In the simplest case, your own URL address is simply sent to the search engine as an attachment. The search engine then transmits this URL address to the server and receives an assigned geographical area indication of the user.
• search engine and the server are separate.
• server can also be integrated directly into the search engine.

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Cited By (3)

Citations (4)

• 2000
  • 2000-12-19 DE DE10064907A patent/DE10064907A1/de not_active Withdrawn
• 2001
  • 2001-12-13 WO PCT/DE2001/004732 patent/WO2002050495A2/de not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2001-12-13 AU AU2002226298A patent/AU2002226298A1/en not_active Abandoned

Patent Citations (4)

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