Patent ID: 6081802
Filing Date: 2000-06-27
Classification: G06T,Y10S

Abstract:
In a computer system comprising a display device, a processing unit, a user input device, and a memory comprising a plurality of blocks of memory, each block of memory comprising a plurality of memory locations, the display device operable for displaying a computerized road map comprising a plurality of map elements, a method for retrieving information stored in at least one block of memory associated with at least one map element, comprising the steps of:selecting at least one map element in the electronic map using the user input device,wherein each map element is selected from the group consisting essentially from a thoroughfare on the computerized roadmap or an endpoint connected to the thoroughfare on the computerized roadmap;retrieving an identification reference associated with the map element in response to selecting the map element, the identification reference comprising;a block number associated with at least one block of memory location containing the information associated with the map element, andan offset value defining at least one memory location within a memory that contains the information associated with the map element;retrieving the block of memory defined by the block number;reconstructing the block of memory in a virtual memory; andretrieving the information associated with the map element from the block of memory location defined by the offset value.