Patent ID: 7876967

Claim:
A method for assigning, in a vector system, path address-form location codes to objects represented using an aperture 3 hexagon discrete global grid system where each hexagon in a first resolution has seven hexagons associated therewith in a next finer resolution to the first resolution, said seven hexagons being centered on each of the vertices of the first resolution hexagon and on the center of the first resolution hexagon, the method comprising the steps of: a) with a computer, assigning a hexagon in a first resolution as an open generator type or a closed generator type; b) with a computer, specifying a linear code for the first resolution hexagon; c) if the first resolution hexagon is an open generator type, generating a single hexagon in the next finer resolution to the first resolution, said single hexagon being a closed generator type hexagon and centered in the first resolution hexagon; d) if the first resolution hexagon is a closed generator type, generating seven hexagons in the next finer resolution to the first resolution, the seven hexagons including a closed generator hexagon centered in the first resolution hexagon and the remaining six hexagons each being an open generator type and centered on the vertices of the first resolution hexagon, the seven hexagons in the next finer resolution covering an area extending beyond an area defined by the first resolution hexagon; e) with the computer, assigning an identifier to each of the hexagons in the next finer resolution generated from the first resolution hexagon; and f) with the computer, iteratively applying steps c) through e) to further finer resolutions until a desired resolution is achieved, wherein at each iteration a previously generated hexagon in the next finer resolution is used as the first resolution hexagon.