Patent Document ID: 8558850
Application ID: 12244065
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of assigning coordinate system information to a geographic data file for which coordinate system information is unavailable, the geographic data file representing a portion of the earth's surface, said method comprising: obtaining a raster image comprising a view of the represented portion of the earth's surface corresponding to said geographic data file, wherein said raster image does not contain coordinate system information, and wherein said raster image comprises a plurality of pixels; correlating said raster image to the earth's surface by assigning known reference points from a reference map of the represented portion of the earth's surface having a known coordinate system to a plurality of corresponding pixels of said raster image by comparing selected pixels from the raster image to the reference map to create a reference area; generating a list of possible coordinate systems for said raster image using a database containing numerous coordinate systems, wherein each possible coordinate system comprises an area of use corresponding to the represented portion of the earth's surface; ranking the list of possible coordinate systems as a function of a characterization of the reference area with a respective possible coordinate system; and assigning the coordinate system information of one of the possible coordinate systems to the geographic data file as a function of the ranking.