Patent Document ID: 9508002
Application ID: 13482889
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer-implemented method for animated visualization of geo-located objects in a geographic information system, comprising: determining, by one or more computing devices, a first position of a first moving object to be visualized at a first time in an interactive three-dimensional environment of the geographic information system based on past geographic positioning data associated with the first moving object over a past period of time; positioning, by the one or more computing devices, a graphical representation of the first moving object at the first time in the interactive three-dimensional environment according to the determined first position; determining, by the one or more computing devices, a second position of the first moving object to be visualized at a second time in the interactive three-dimensional environment based on the geographic positioning data associated with the first moving object; defining, by the one or more computing devices, a first path of a virtual camera in the interactive three-dimensional environment based on the determined first and second positions of the first moving object at the respective first and second times, the first moving object to be visualized in the interactive three-dimensional environment from a perspective of the virtual camera, wherein defining the first path further comprises selecting one or more keyframes along the first path, a focus-point of each keyframe being chosen adaptively based on an analysis of the first path, wherein the more keyframes selected will cause improved precision of the virtual camera following the first path; automatically generating in real-time, by the one or more computing devices, an animation of the graphical representation of the first moving object comprising a three-dimensional model in the interactive three-dimensional environment based on the defined first path of the virtual camera so as to visualize a smooth transition of the first moving object from the first position at the first time to the second position at the second time in the interactive three-dimensional environment; dynamically rendering, by the one or more computing devices, the generated animation and views of geographic information within the interactive three-dimensional environment on a display from the perspective of the virtual camera moving along the first path from the first position to the second position; enabling a user to manually adjust the rendered views of the geographic information in the interactive three-dimensional environment using a user interface control provided in the interactive three-dimensional environment, wherein the user interface control is a time slider control that enables the user to manually adjust the time window in the interactive three-dimensional environment; and dynamically updating in real-time the rendered animation and the rendered views of the geographic information on the display based on input received from the user via the provided user interface control, wherein the period of time is an adjustable time window in the interactive three-dimensional environment, and the dynamically updating comprises adjusting the time window in the interactive three-dimensional environment in accordance with the input received from the user via the time slider control and dynamically updating the rendered animation and the temporal view of the geographic information based on the adjusted time window.