| Method involving electronic notes and spatial domains -> Monitor Keywords |
|
|
  Method involving electronic notes and spatial domainsUSPTO Application #: 20080109713Title: Method involving electronic notes and spatial domains Abstract: A computer-implemented method of interacting with a user, the method involving: enabling a user to post an electronic note with user specified contents; enabling the user to associate the electronic note with a location within a domain with a metric; and publishing the electronic note on a web page that enables people to access its contents. (end of abstract) Agent: Wilmerhale/boston - Boston, MA, US Inventors: John R. Frank, Erik M. Rauch, Ursula Rauch USPTO Applicaton #: 20080109713 - Class: 715230000 (USPTO) The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20080109713. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
[0001] This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 11/147,033, filed Jun. 7, 2005, which is a divisional of application Ser. No. 09/791,533, filed Feb. 22, 2001, which also claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Applications No. 60/183,971, entitled "Metacarta: Map-based Information Search Engine and Catalog," filed Feb. 22, 2000; and No. 60/201,839, entitled "Method and System for Associating Information with Physical Objects and Locations; and Methods of Expanding a Database," filed May 3, 2000, all of which are incorporated herein by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] This invention relates to computer systems, and more particularly to spatial databases, document databases, search engines, and data visualization. BACKGROUND [0003] There are many tools available for organizing and accessing documents through different interfaces that help users find information. Some of these tools allow users to search for documents matching specific criteria, such as containing specified keywords. Some of these tools present information about geographic regions or spatial domains, such as driving directions presented on a map. [0004] These tools are available on private computer systems and are sometimes made available over public networks, such as the Internet. Users can use these tools to gather information. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0005] In a computer system that presents a map interface to a user, the invention enables a user, among other things, to pose a query via the map interface and to be able to inspect a representation of the query results arranged on the map as icons. The map and the icons are responsive to further user actions, including changes to the scope of the map, changes to the terms of the query, or closer examination of a subset of the results. [0006] The targets of the query are documents. Examples of documents include text-based computer files, as well as files that are partially text-based, files containing spatial information, and computer entities that can be accessed via a document-like interface. Documents can contain other documents and may have other interfaces besides their document-like interfaces. Every document has an address. In the case of world wide web documents, this address is commonly a URL. [0007] The documents exist on computer systems arrayed across a computer network, such as a private network or the Internet. The documents may be hyperlinked, that is, may contain references (hyperlinks) to an address of another document. Copies of the documents may be stored in the page repository. [0008] A spatial recognizer process examines documents for spatial information content. When the spatial recognizer determines that a document has spatial information content, the document is added to a spatial document collection. [0009] A document ranking process assigns a spatial relevance score to each document in the spatial document collection. The spatial relevance score is a measure of the degree to which the document relates to the spatial location mentioned in its spatial information content. In cases where the document has more than one instance of spatial information content, the document is scored against each instance. [0010] The spatial-keyword document indexer examines each document in the spatial document collection and represents it in an spatial-keyword document index data structure. The spatial-keyword document indexer indexes a document both by keywords and by at least one instance of spatial information content. The spatial-keyword document index enables unusually fast responses by the computer system to queries that combine spatial criteria with keyword criteria. [0011] The crawler extends the collection of known documents by examining the hyperlinks contained in the known documents. When a hyperlink references a previously unknown document, the crawler adds the unknown document to the collection of known documents and examines them, in turn, for new hyperlinks to follow. [0012] The crawler may prioritize the hyperlinks it follows based in part on spatial relevance scores. [0013] The computer system includes a metasearcher process for initializing the collection of known documents. This initializing step is known as bootstrapping and is known in the art. The metasearcher queries predetermined search engines known to store information about other computer systems and document sources, such as search engine web sites on the Internet. The human administrators of the metasearcher provide it with a collection of known spatial locations. The metasearcher formulates queries based on these spatial locations and directs the queries to the search engines. After each query, the results are compared to the collection of known documents and are added if new. [0014] However, it is common for search engines to cap the maximum number of results returnable to a single query. The metasearcher is able to respond to a results cap by issuing follow-on queries which are progressively more spatially focused. An example of a progressively more spatially focused series might be "New York state," "New York, N.Y.," "Times Square, New York, N.Y.," etc. By progressively narrowing the scope of its queries, the metasearcher reduces the number of results until the results number fits within the cap. The progressive spatial focus produces information more closely matched to a specific spatial location, as well as a more exhaustive sample of the results available from a given search engine. At the same time, the generality of early queries casts a net as broad as possible, so as not to miss any results. As a result, the documents found by the metasearcher form a diverse yet highly spatially-qualified sample for the crawler to start from. [0015] In general, in one aspect, the invention is an interface program stored on a computer-readable medium for causing a computer system with a display device to perform a set of functions. The functions are accepting search criteria from a user including a free text entry query and a domain identifier identifying a domain; in response to accepting the search criteria from the user, retrieving a plurality of record identifiers each of which identifies a corresponding record which: (1) has associated therewith a location identifier that locates it at a specific location within the domain identified by the domain identifier; and (2) contains information that is responsive to the free text entry query; displaying a representation of the domain on the display device; and displaying on the display device a plurality of icons as representations of the records identified by the plurality of record identifiers. For each of the plurality of record identifiers, a corresponding one of the plurality of icons is displayed within the representation of the domain that is being displayed on the display device. The corresponding icon for each of the plurality of record identifiers is positioned within the representation of the domain at a coordinate within the domain that corresponds to the location identifier for the corresponding record. [0016] Preferred embodiments include one or more of the following features. The domain is a geographical region and the representation is a multi-dimensional map of the geographical region. More specifically, the representation is a two-dimensional map of the geographical region. The step of accepting input further includes accepting a designation by the user of a designated category, wherein each of the records corresponding to the plurality of retrieved record identifiers also includes information that falls within the designated category. The step of accepting the designation by the user of a category includes presenting to the user a list of predefined categories and accepting as the designated category a selection by the user from that list. The interface program also is for causing the computer to perform the further functions of, after displaying the corresponding icon for each of the plurality of record identifiers, accepting further search criteria from the user. The further search criteria are selected from the group of search criteria types consisting of a domain identifier input type, a free text entry query input type, and a category type. It also causes the computer, in response to accepting the further search criteria from the user, to perform the functions of: (1) retrieving a subset of the plurality of record identifiers, wherein the subset of the plurality of record identifiers identifies all record identifiers among the plurality of record identifiers that fall within the further search criteria; (2) displaying a two-dimensional map of a revised geographical region on the display device that is responsive to the further search criteria; (3) for each of the record identifiers of the subset of plurality of record identifiers, displaying a corresponding icon within the displayed map, wherein the corresponding icon for each of the record identifiers of the subset of the plurality of record identifiers is positioned within the displayed map at a coordinate that corresponds to the location identifier for the corresponding record; and (4) storing as a filter the first-mentioned search criteria in combination with the further search criteria, wherein the stored filter is retrievable for use by the user in specifying a future search through the interface. The first-mentioned search criteria in combination with the further search criteria is an ordered sequence of inputs and the stored filter is the ordered sequence of inputs preserving the order of the sequence of inputs. [0017] Preferred embodiments may also include one or more of the following features. The interface program also causes the computer to perform the further functions of: presenting to the user via the display device a map; and enabling the user to input the domain identifier as part of the search criteria by interacting with the displayed map. The plurality of icons include an icon of a first icon class and an icon of a second icon class; and the icon of the first icon class has first visual characteristics and the icon of the second icon class has second visual characteristics that are different from the visual characteristics associated with the first icon class. At least some of the records identified by the plurality of record identifiers are of a first type and at least some of the other records identified by the plurality of record identifiers are of a second type and the records of the first type are displayed using the icon of the first icon class and records of the second type are displayed using the icon of the second icon class. At least one of the icons of the plurality of icons represents multiple of the records identified by the plurality of record identifiers, wherein each of the multiple of the records having a location identifier that locates that record within a neighborhood about a central location. [0018] Also in preferred embodiments, the interface program causes the computer to perform the further functions of: accepting a change of scale request from the user; in response to accepting the change of scale request, consolidating at least some of the plurality of icons with each other to form a second plurality of icons that is fewer in number than the number of icons in the first-mentioned plurality of icons; and in response to accepting the change of scale request, redisplaying the domain using a decreased scale and also using the second plurality of icons to identify the locations of the records identified by the plurality of record identifiers. In addition, it also causes the computer to perform the further functions of: accepting from the user a specification of an electronic note which has an associated location within the map; and displaying a sticky-note icon on the map at position that corresponds to the associated location. The electronic note comprises a web page with its own externally accessible address which enables people to electronically access its contents through that address. [0019] In general, in another aspect, the invention is a method that performs the functions described above. [0020] In general, in yet another aspect, the invention is a database system stored on a computer-readable medium for causing a computer system to perform the functions of: accepting search criteria including at least one of: (1) text; (2) a domain identifier identifying a domain; and (3) a filter identifier identifying a filter; and retrieving a plurality of record identifiers each of which identifies a corresponding record which has associated therewith the text, domain identifier, or layer identifier of the search criteria, where the retrieving is performed with a spatial-keyword document index. [0021] In general, in still another aspect, the invention is a method of retrieving a plurality of record identifiers each of which identifies a corresponding record which has associated therewith at least one of a text, a domain identifier, and a layer identifier as specified by search criteria, wherein such retrieving is performed with a spatial-keyword document index. Continue reading... Full patent description for Method involving electronic notes and spatial domains Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Method involving electronic notes and spatial domains patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like Method involving electronic notes and spatial domains or other areas of interest. ### Previous Patent Application: Method, system, and program product supporting automatic substitution of a textual string for a url within a document Next Patent Application: Capturing screen information Industry Class: Data processing: presentation processing of document ### FreshPatents.com Support Thank you for viewing the Method involving electronic notes and spatial domains patent info. IP-related news and info Results in 0.82055 seconds Other interesting Feshpatents.com categories: Medical: Surgery , Surgery(2) , Surgery(3) , Drug , Drug(2) , Prosthesis , Dentistry |
||
