Patent ID: 6993538

Claim:
A computer-implemented process for identifying all nearby neighbor objects and/or points of interest in relation to a user-specified base point which reside within a search area around the base point based on information accessed from a database of geometric data which includes the location of said objects and/or points of interest, said process comprising the following process actions: dividing the geographic system defined by said geometric data into a plurality of zones each forming a strip of the same prescribed zone height and assigning an integer zone number to each strip; determining what zone each object or point in the database resides and assigning that zone number to the object or point; identifying the zone number of every zone intersected by the search area; and for each object or point associated with each zone number indentified as intersected by the search area, determining whether a first coordinate of the object or point under consideration defining its location along the width of the strip in which it resides is within the range of the first coordinate of the base point less a distance defining the extent of the search area in a first direction along the width of the strip in which the base point resides and the first coordinate of the base point plus the same direction defining the extent of the search area in the opposite direction along the width of the strip in which the base point resides, whenever it is determined that the first coordinate of the object or point under consideration is within the specific range, designating said object or point as a nearby neighbor candidate, determining if the candidate object or point is in the search area by computing the actual distance between the base point and the candidate object or point and ascertaining if said actual distance is equal to or less than said distance defining the extent of the search area in either direction along the width of the strip, and whenever it is ascertained that said actual distance is equal to or less than said distance difining the extent of the search area in either direction along the width of the strip, designating the candidate object or point as a nearby neighbor of the base point.