Geographic location referencing system and method

Claim 3

The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of: selecting a first selected location by identifying one of said cells within one of said districts; and creating a first universal location address (ULA) by appending said unique cell number to said unique district name associated with said first selected location.

Claim 4

The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of: converting said first ULA to the well-known geographical referencing system by mathematically applying said unique cell number to said reference point corresponding to said associated unique district name in accordance with the arbitrary orientation and scale factors from said saving step.

Claim 5

The method of claim 2, further comprising the steps of: dividing at least one of said cells into a plurality of smaller cells, each having a predefined size, wherein each of said smaller cells is identified by a second unique cell number in accordance to its relative position within said at least one of said cells; and storing said predefined size of said smaller cells.

Claim 6

The method of claim 4, further comprising the steps of: selecting a second particular address by identifying one of said smaller cells; and creating a second ULA by appending said second unique cell number of said one of said smaller cells to said first ULA.

Claim 7

The method of claim 4, wherein said dividing and storing steps are repeated until a desired address resolution is achieved.

Claim 8

The method of claim 4, further comprising the steps of: selecting a second selected location by identifying one of said smaller cells; creating a second ULA by appending each of said second unique cell numbers associated with said second selected location to said first ULA in an order corresponding to the second selected cell's hierarchy.

Claim 9

Navigational apparatus comprising: a GPS receiver by means of which global coordinates of a first selected location within a geographical area can be provided; an input device by means of which a locational address of a second selected location within the geographical area can be provided, the locational address comprising a specific locational address appended to general position information; a storage device in which data descriptive of a plurality of pre-defined grids is stored, each of the grids corresponding to a geographical area and having a plurality of cells; a reference location; global coordinates of the reference location; and at least one parameter defining cell size and orientation; a processor coupled to the GPS receiver, the input device and the storage device, said processor being configured such that at least one of the plurality of grids is selectable based on the general position information; the global coordinates of the second selected location are determinable based on the data descriptive of the selected grid and the specific locational address; and an indicator which is determinable by comparing the global coordinates of the first selected location with the global coordinates of the second selected location; and an output device coupled to the processor, wherein the indicator can be output by means of the output device.

Claim 10

Navigational apparatus comprising: a GPS receiver by means of which global coordinates of a first selected location within a geographical area can be provided; an input device by means of which a locational address of a second selected location within the geographical area can be provided, the locational address comprising a specific locational address appended to general position information; a storage device in which data descriptive of a plurality of pre-defined grids is stored, each of the grids corresponding to a geographical area and having a plurality of cells; a reference location; global coordinates of the reference location; and at least one parameter defining cell size and orientation; a processor coupled to the GPS receiver, the input device and the storage device, said processor being configured such that at least one of the plurality of grids is selectable based on the general position information; the global coordinates of the second selected location are determinable based on the data descriptive of the selected grid and the specific locational address; and an indicator which is determinable by comparing the global coordinates of the first selected location with the global coordinates of the second selected location; and an output device coupled to the processor, wherein the indicator can be output by means of the output device.

Claim 11

Apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the specific locational address consists of a plurality of hierarchical codes.

Claim 12

Apparatus according claim 9, wherein each grid cell is subdivided into a plurality of sub-cells.

Claim 13

Apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the specific locational address is a proprietary name, locational information of the second selected location associated with the proprietary name is stored in the storage device, and the global coordinates of the second selected location are determinable further based on the locational information.

Claim 14

Apparatus according claim 11, wherein each grid cell is subdivided into a plurality of sub-cells.

Claim 15

Apparatus according claim 8, wherein each grid cell is subdivided into a plurality of sub-cells.

Claim 16

Apparatus according to any of the claims 13 to 12, wherein a specific locational address of a third selected location within the geographical area can be provided by means of the input device; the processor is further configured such that the global coordinates of the third selected location are determinable based on the data descriptive of the selected grid and the specific locational address of the third selected location; and a second indicator which is determinable by comparing the global coordinates of the first selected location with the global coordinates of the third selected location and; the second indicator can be output by means of the output device.

Claim 17

Apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the global coordinates are latitude and longitude coordinates.

Claim 18

Apparatus according claim 15, wherein a specific location address is acceptable by means of the input device, and said processor being further configured such that a complete locational address can be created by combining the known general position information with the specific locational address.

Claim 19

Apparatus according to claim 14 wherein the second indicator is selected from the group comprising a distance indicator, a direction indicator, and a distance and direction indicator.

Claim 20

Apparatus according to claim 8 wherein the indicator is selected from the group comprising a distance indicator, a direction indicator, and a distance and direction indicator.

Claim 23

The method according to claim 19, wherein the specific locational address consists of a plurality of hierarchical codes.

Claim 24

The method according to claim 20, wherein each grid cell is subdivided into a plurality of sub-cells.

Claim 25

The method according to claim 19, wherein the specific locational address is a proprietary name, the method further comprises the step of storing locational information of the second selected location associated with the proprietary name, and wherein the step of determining the global coordinates of the second selected location is further based on the locational information.

Claim 26

The method according to claim 22, wherein each grid cell is subdivided into a plurality of sub-cells.

Claim 27

The method according to claim 19, wherein each grid cell is subdivided into a plurality of sub-cells.

Claim 29

The method according to claim 25, wherein the global coordinates are latitude and longitude coordinates.

Claim 30

The method according to claim 26, further comprising the steps of accepting a specific locational address, and creating a complete locational address by combining the known general position information with the specific locational address.

Claim 31

The method of claim 25 wherein the second indicator is selected from the group comprising a distance indicator, a direction indicator, and a distance and direction indicator.

Claim 32

The method of claim 19 wherein the indicator is selected from the group comprising a distance indicator, a direction indicator, and a distance and direction indicator.