Patent ID: 6954764

Claim:
Apparatus for performing location-dependent data processing operations comprising, in combination, a relational database management system for creating and updating data structures comprising a first set of one or more relational tables describing objects, said data structures including means for storing data specifying the geographic location of at least selected ones of said objects; means for storing reference data in a second set of one or more relational tables describing a plurality of system defined regions, said reference data including the specification of the geographic location of each given one of said system defined regions and a human interpretable description of each given one of said regions; a user-manipulated control, comprising: means for visually displaying to a user said human interpretable description for said system defined regions, means for accepting from said user an identification of a plurality of system defined regions, means for generating the specification of a new user defined region consisting of the combination of said plurality of system defined regions, means for storing reference data describing said new user defined region in said second set of tables, means for identifying a selected one of said regions described in said second set of tables, and means for transferring data specifying the geographic location of said selected one of said regions to said first set of tables to specify the geographic location of a specified one of said objects; and means responsive to said control for transferring selected items of said reference data to said means for storing geographic location data associated with one of said objects.