Patent ID: 8018458

Claim:
A method for storing two-dimensional spatially organized data in one dimensional space on a computer storage medium, the method comprising: mapping attributes of a continuous state planar space to a multi-resolutional tessellation of close packed uniform aperture three hexagonal cells, a location of each cell being represented by a centroid and a voronoi region created by the boundary with adjacent centroids forming a closed area for which properties of the cell are represented; and uniquely identifying each cell with a sequential number including the identification of a parent cell, each parent cell at least partially encompassing a cluster of child cells in a spatial hierarchy, wherein relationships between parent cells and child cells are defined by the following rules: each parent cell whose centroid is not the centroid for any lower resolution cells defines a location of a single new child cell of a next highest resolution; each parent cell whose centroid is also the centroid for any lower resolution cells defines a location of multiple new child cells of the next highest resolution including one new child cell at the centroid of the parent cell and one new child cell located at each vertex of the parent's boundary edge; and during initial conditions, a parent cell is assigned a general hexagon shape with a starting centroid location that can be considered a planar origin.