Patent ID: 6985929

Claim:
A method of building and maintaining an object-oriented spatial database of worldwide geospatial data from at least two or more data formats, the method comprising: instantiating objects of the object-oriented database, using at least two of Vector Product Format (VPF), Raster Product Format (RPF), Text Product Standard (TPS), Environmental System Research Institute (ESRI) shape, Generic Sensor Format (GSF), Naval Oceanographic Office text (NAVOCEANO), and temporal information databases; initializing spatial and non-spatial feature data of the object-oriented database; spatially indexing data among objects from the at least two VPF, RPF, TPS, ESRI, GSF, NAVOCEANO and temporal information databases into the single, object-oriented spatial database; receiving from a client computer in the database network an area of interest from a visual image, representing active data objects, displayed on a computer on the network; identifying to the client computer data available for the area of interest; responsive to a request for the data, querying over the network data objects in at least one database associated with the area of interest; receiving from at least one remote computer over the network data objects in the at least one database associated with the area of interest and creating an object-oriented database of geospatial data using object models; transmitting a web-based applet to the client computer for viewing the data objects overlaid on a map display; and converting two dimensional data objects to three dimensional data objects and displaying the converted three dimensional data objects, wherein a three dimensional image is generated using digital terrain elevation data from an object oriented database on a remote computer and two dimensional feature data stored on a server and retrieved by the applet.