Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US7962281?dq=5,884,272
Timestamp: 2014-11-24 18:07:39
Document Index: 239352267

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 3', 'Application No. 05729642', 'Application No. 200580013512', 'Application No. 200580013912', 'Application No. 2', 'Application No. 2', 'Application No. 2', 'Application No. 2', 'Application No. 200580013912', 'Application No. 05726046']

Patent US7962281 - Generating and serving tiles in a digital mapping system - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign inAdvanced Patent SearchPatentsDigital tile-based mapping techniques are disclosed that enable efficient online serving of aesthetically pleasing maps. In one particular embodiment, an image tile-based digital mapping system is configured for generating map tiles during an offline session, and serving selected sets of those tiles...http://www.google.com/patents/US7962281?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US7962281 - Generating and serving tiles in a digital mapping systemAdvanced Patent SearchPublication numberUS7962281 B2Publication typeGrantApplication numberUS 12/573,698Publication dateJun 14, 2011Filing dateOct 5, 2009Priority dateMar 23, 2004Also published asUS7599790, US20050270299, US20100020091Publication number12573698, 573698, US 7962281 B2, US 7962281B2, US-B2-7962281, US7962281 B2, US7962281B2InventorsJens Eilstrup Rasmussen, Lars Eilstrup Rasmussen, Stephen MaOriginal AssigneeGoogle Inc.Export CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManPatent Citations (107), Non-Patent Citations (33), Referenced by (5), Classifications (22), Legal Events (1) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetGenerating and serving tiles in a digital mapping systemUS 7962281 B2Abstract Digital tile-based mapping techniques are disclosed that enable efficient online serving of aesthetically pleasing maps. In one particular embodiment, an image tile-based digital mapping system is configured for generating map tiles during an offline session, and serving selected sets of those tiles to a client when requested. Also provided are solutions for handling map labels and other such features in a tile-based mapping system, such as when a map label crosses map tile boundaries. Various processing environments (e.g., servers or other computing devices) can be employed in the system.
RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation of U.S. Pat. No. 7,599,790, �Generating and Serving Tiles in a Digital Mapping System,� filed Mar. 23, 2005, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Nos. 60/650,840, filed Feb. 7, 2005, 60/567,946, filed May 3, 2004, and 60/555,501, filed Mar. 23, 2004. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 7,599,790 is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/051,534, filed Feb. 5, 2005, titled �A Digital Mapping System.� In addition, this application is related to U.S. application Ser. No. 11/088,677, filed Mar. 23, 2005, titled �Generating, Storing, and Displaying Graphics Using Sub-Pixel Bitmaps.� Each of these applications is herein incorporated in its entirety by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to mapping systems, and more particularly, to mapping systems in a digital environment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for generating map tiles for a tile-based digital mapping system. The system includes a map painter module for generating digital map images, a tile maker for generating map tiles from the digital map images, and a tile storage for storing map tiles generated by the tile maker. In one such embodiment, the map painter module is operable to request and receive geographical data for a given area from which the digital map images are generated. Here, a map data storage can be used for storing one or more sets of the geographical data for a given area that is accessible by the map painter module. The map data storage may include, for example, a set of rich mapping format (RMF) files. In one particular configuration, a remote mapping engine (RME) library has an application program interface that allows the map painter module to access the geographical data.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a tile-based digital mapping system configured in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Digital tile-based mapping techniques are disclosed that enable efficient online serving of aesthetically pleasing maps. In one particular embodiment, an image tile-based digital mapping system is configured for generating map tiles during an offline session, and serving selected sets of those tiles to a client when requested. Also provided are solutions for handling map labels and other such features in a tile-based mapping system, such as for example when a map label or other feature crosses map tile boundaries. Various processing environments (e.g., servers or other computing devices) can be employed in the system.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a processing environment that can be employed in the system of FIG. 1. For instance, computing device 103, or any servers included in the serving systems 110, 115, and 120 can be configured using the illustrated processing environment. Numerous other processing environments can be used as well, and the present invention is not intended to be limited to any one such embodiment�FIG. 2 is merely provided as one possible example.
In the operation of one embodiment, the computing device 103 requests map information that is stored in the tile serving system 115. A front-end server (included in tile serving system 115) responds to queries submitted by the computing device 103 or �client-side� by returning a web page that contains instructions (e.g., in JavaScript or another scripting language) accessed by the client-side browser. In this way, the client computing device 103 requests map tiles as needed from the tile serving system 115, which serves the tiles associated with the requested map image. The requested map image is then displayed at the computing device 103, by combining together in the web browser the set of tiles that form the requested map image. The map tiles can be �pre-rendered� meaning that they are produced during an off-line phase that will be discussed with reference to FIG. 3.
To reproduce any sub-area view of the large raster image as a map image on a user's web browser, a browser-side script can be used that uses only the smallest set of tiles that together covers the desired view. Thus, the user can view a served section of map, and then change the section of map being viewed (e.g., by dragging the map in one direction using the cursor of input device 225), thereby causing new map tiles to be served that fill in the new map locations now within the browser window. The effect is a virtually endless map that can be zoomed in/out and further adjusted to new locations as desired. This feature as well as others that are enabled by a tile-based digital mapping system configured in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention are further discussed in detail in the previously incorporated parent application, titled �A Digital Mapping System.� For any given implementation, the size of the tiles can be determined heuristically, given the following trade-off: (1) larger tiles tend to increase the total size (in both pixels and bytes) of the tiles needed to produce a given view; while (2) smaller tiles tend to increase the number of separate requests (e.g., HTTP requests) needed to produce a given view.
Alternatively, rather than using a database of tiles on the server side (e.g., tile serving system 115), each tile can be stored in a separate file, accessible using unique URLs such as: http://<domain>/7/-18/1/-145�12�7.gif, where the directory path 7/-18/1 in this example depends solely on the tile coordinates, which in this case are equal to (−145, 12, 7). For simplicity, the first tile of each zoom-level z can be located such that the tile's upper-left pixel has coordinates (0, 0, z). This setup facilitates assignment of a unique coordinate triplet to each tile by integer-dividing the pixel x and y coordinates of the tile's upper-left pixel by the width and height of the tile, respectively. Note that in some embodiments, a total of three coordinate systems are thus utilized: latitude/longitude coordinates, pixel (x, y, z) coordinates, and tile (x, y, z) coordinates. This particular choice of coordinate systems is not intended to limit the present invention, and was chosen to aid in describing the algorithms used in some embodiments. In general, any consistent coordinate or indexing system can be used here. In turn, each pixel belongs to a unique tile, the coordinates of which can be easily computed.
One solution, which is further discussed with reference to FIG. 6, is to force labels and other problematic features to be drawn only fully inside the area currently being drawn�this solution prevents partially drawn labels, but it can decrease the quality of the map image along borders, since it limits the range of possibilities for placing such features. For instance, a road crossing such a border between two separately drawn areas could have the same label placed on both sides of the border, much closer than the labels would otherwise be placed. Another solution, which is further discussed with reference to FIG. 7, is to save the decisions for placing problematic features along borders, and then take these decisions into account when drawing subsequent areas. This can be done simply to avoid placing features in unfortunate ways on each side of a border, or it can allow features to be placed independently of borders (e.g., by allowing such features to cross borders).
As previously discussed, the RME library 315 is a commercially available piece of software that can be used to query data from RMF (rich mapping format) files. The RME library 315 supports spatial queries that request information involving the geographic relation of two or more items. Example queries are �What map features fall within a given area?� or �What map features fall within a given area that have a priority level higher than a certain threshold?� The result of the spatial query is used to generate map images and ultimately map tiles. RMF files are generated by compiling other map formats to RMF. The benefit of this process is that the full range of map data file formats that can be compiled into RMF files can be queried in a consistent manner through the RME library 315. Note that any combination of file formats and libraries can be used in the described system; the only requirement is that there is a service that the map painter module 310 can use to get the geographical data for a given area.
Since mapping system embodiments may deal with large areas (e.g., on the scale of countries, continents, or even planets), having access to a full area bitmap at one time may not be practical. To address this issue, as previously explained, it may be desirable to divide the full area into smaller sub-areas, and to generate the tiles for one sub-area at a time. To do this without introducing errors into the full map image, one embodiment addresses the issue of continuity across tiles and sub-areas. FIG. 4 illustrates a typical label placement problem, where a map label (�Main Street�) crosses map tile boundaries (referred to as the sub-area border), while FIG. 5 illustrates a problem that may appear when each sub-area is drawn independently.
For instance, assume that there are 20 TBEs, and each is capable of caching 1/20 of an overall map. Thus, any one request for map data could be processed by a corresponding TBE using its cache memory. If one TBE fails, then its load can be distributed among the remaining 19 TBEs. In such a case, the cache memory of each remaining TBE would eventually grow (after a period of �learning�) to include its share of the failed TBE's load.
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Backside of Exchange2000 (Caf� www.exchange2000j.com)", BackOffice World, Oct. 1, 2000, pp. 91-97 vol. 3, IDG Japan.Referenced byCiting PatentFiling datePublication dateApplicantTitleUS8359157 *Apr 7, 2008Jan 22, 2013Microsoft CorporationComputing navigation device with enhanced route directions viewUS8799799 *Jun 13, 2013Aug 5, 2014Palantir Technologies Inc.Interactive geospatial mapUS20080166071 *Jan 9, 2008Jul 10, 2008Alexandru SerbanescuData processing method & deviceUS20090254268 *Apr 7, 2008Oct 8, 2009Microsoft CorporationComputing navigation device with enhanced route directions viewUS20120254780 *Mar 28, 2011Oct 4, 2012Microsoft CorporationPredictive tiling* Cited by examinerClassifications U.S. Classification701/429, 340/995.14International ClassificationG01C21/30, G01C21/36, G09B29/10, G06T11/40Cooperative ClassificationG09B29/10, G01C21/32, G01C21/36, G06T3/40, G01C21/3673, G06F17/3087, G09B29/106, G06T17/05European ClassificationG09B29/10C, G01C21/36, G01C21/36M2, G06T3/40, G09B29/10, G01C21/32, G06F17/30W1S, G06T17/05Legal EventsDateCodeEventDescriptionOct 6, 2009ASAssignmentOwner name: GOOGLE INC., CALIFORNIAFree format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:RASMUSSEN, JENS EILSTRUP;RASMUSSEN, LARS EILSTRUP;MA, STEPHEN;REEL/FRAME:023331/0912;SIGNING DATES FROM 20050809 TO 20050810Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:RASMUSSEN, JENS EILSTRUP;RASMUSSEN, LARS EILSTRUP;MA, STEPHEN;SIGNING DATES FROM 20050809 TO 20050810;REEL/FRAME:023331/0912RotateOriginal ImageGoogle Home - Sitemap - USPTO Bulk Downloads - Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - About Google Patents - Send FeedbackData provided by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services©2012 Google