US6047280A — Interface layer for navigation system

Claim 1

Independent Claim 142 words

A computer program product for use in a navigation system wherein the navigation system includes a navigation application program that provides navigating features to a user of the navigation system and a geographic database stored on a physical storage medium in a computer-readable physical storage format, said computer program product comprising an interface layer comprising: programming that accepts and processes requests for geographic data from the navigation application program; programming that translates geographic data from said physical storage format and provides said geographic data to said navigation application program; and programming that provides a cursor to said navigation application program in response to a request for geographic data from said navigation application program, said cursor including multiple records, and wherein said programming that provides a cursor is responsive to said programming that translates and is adapted to receive said geographic data therefrom.

Claim 2

Dependent Claim 142 words

A computer program product for use in a navigation system wherein the navigation system includes a navigation application program that provides navigating features to a user of the navigation system and a geographic database stored on a physical storage medium in a computer-readable physical storage format, said computer program product comprising an interface layer comprising: programming that accepts and processes requests for geographic data from the navigation application program; programming that translates geographic data from said physical storage format and provides said geographic data to said navigation application program; and programming that provides a cursor to said navigation application program in response to a request for geographic data from said navigation application program, said cursor including multiple records, and wherein said programming that provides a cursor is responsive to said programming that translates and is adapted to receive said geographic data therefrom.

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 53 words

The invention of claim 1 wherein said programming that provides a cursor further comprises: programming that provides a first portion of said cursor in a logical data model format; and programming that provides an entity identifier to a first remainder of said cursor wherein said first remainder is maintained in a compressed format.

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 40 words

The invention of claim 2 wherein said programming that provides a cursor further comprises: a fetch next function that provides a second portion of said cursor in said logical data model format, said second portion comprised of said first remainder.

Claim 5

Dependent Claim 109 words

A computer program product for use in a navigation system wherein the navigation system includes a navigation application program for providing navigating features to a user of the navigation system and a geographic database stored on a physical storage medium in a compressed, computer-readable physical storage format, said computer program product comprising an interface layer located logically between said navigation application program and said geographic database, said interface layer comprising: programming that accepts and processes requests for geographic data from the navigation application program; and programming that decompresses geographic data from said physical storage format and provides said geographic data to said navigation application program in a decompressed format.

Claim 6

Dependent Claim 109 words

A computer program product for use in a navigation system wherein the navigation system includes a navigation application program for providing navigating features to a user of the navigation system and a geographic database stored on a physical storage medium in a compressed, computer-readable physical storage format, said computer program product comprising an interface layer located logically between said navigation application program and said geographic database, said interface layer comprising: programming that accepts and processes requests for geographic data from the navigation application program; and programming that decompresses geographic data from said physical storage format and provides said geographic data to said navigation application program in a decompressed format.

Claim 7

Dependent Claim 55 words

The invention of claim 1 wherein said interface layer further comprises: programming that manages indexes responsive to said programming that accepts and processes requests and to index information, said programming that manages indexes providing an identifier for obtaining geographic data on said physical storage medium for responding to said requests by said navigation application program.

Claim 8

Dependent Claim 54 words

The invention of claim 5 wherein at least a portion of said index information is located on said physical storage medium, and wherein said programming that manages indexes provides parcel identifiers for obtaining pointers to parcels on said physical storage medium containing geographic data for responding to said requests by said navigation application program.

Claim 9

Dependent Claim 39 words

The invention of claim 5 wherein said programming that manages indexes further comprises: an interface for translating a specific entity identifier passed from said navigation application program to a parcel identifier for a parcel on said physical storage medium.

Claim 10

Dependent Claim 38 words

The invention of claim 5 wherein said programming that manages indexes further comprises: an interface for taking an index specifier and query parameters from said programming that accepts and processes requests and returning a set of parcel identifiers.

Claim 11

Dependent Claim 38 words

The invention of claim 5 further comprising: programming that reads said index information from said physical storage medium into a buffer, wherein said programming that manages indexes is coupled to said buffer to obtain said index information therefrom.

Claim 12

Dependent Claim 54 words

The invention of claim 4 wherein the physical storage format of the geographic database organizes said geographic data into a plurality of parcels, and wherein said interface layer further comprises: programming for associating said requests with parcels in said physical storage format and causing said parcels to be read from said physical storage medium.

Claim 13

Dependent Claim 14 words

The invention of claim 4 wherein the physical storage medium comprises a CD-ROM disk.

Claim 14

Dependent Claim 65 words

The invention of claim 1 wherein said programming that decompresses geographic data further comprises: a first interface for translation of geographic database entities from the physical storage format into an intermediate format; and a second interface for translation of geographic database entities from said intermediate format to the decompressed format in which said geographic data are provided to said programming that accepts and processes requests.

Claim 15

Dependent Claim 70 words

The invention of claim 12 wherein said programming that decompresses further comprises: programming responsive to a metadata table on said physical storage medium and said first interface and adapted to translate said geographic data in said intermediate format at a first version level to an intermediate format at a second version level and provide said geographic data in said intermediate format at a second version level to said second interface.

Claim 16

Dependent Claim 67 words

The invention of claim 4 wherein said interface layer further comprises: programming that manages resources comprising: programming that allocates and frees memory of said navigation system for use as a memory pool by said interface layer; and programming that accesses a cache memory buffer in said memory pool that stores a parcel read from said physical storage medium, said parcel identified by means of a parcel identifier.

Claim 17

Dependent Claim 50 words

The invention of claim 14 wherein said programming that manages resources further comprises: programming that initiates an I/O transaction from the physical storage medium to read said parcel therefrom if said programming that accesses a cache memory buffer finds that said parcel is not stored in said cache memory buffer.

Claim 18

Dependent Claim 38 words

The invention of claim 14 wherein said programming that manages resources further comprises: programming that locks a cache memory when a parcel is stored therein and a buffer address is returned to said programming that decompresses geographic data.

Claim 19

Dependent Claim 29 words

The invention of claim 14 wherein said programming that manages resources further comprises: programming that resizes said memory pool in response to a call from said navigation application program.

Claim 20

Dependent Claim 50 words

The method of claim 4 wherein said programming that decompresses further comprises: programming that transforms said geographic data from said physical storage format into an intermediate decompressed format; and programming that transforms said geographic data from said intermediate decompressed format to said decompressed format usable by said navigation application program.

Claim 21

Dependent Claim 21 words

The invention of claim 4 wherein said geographic data is provided to said navigation application program in a generic ASCII format.

Claim 22

Dependent Claim 26 words

The invention of claim 4 wherein said geographic data is provided to said navigation application program as data entity records of fixed lengths without cross-reference information.

Claim 23

Dependent Claim 160 words

A computer program product for use in a navigation system wherein the navigation system includes a navigation application program that provides navigating features to a user of the navigation system and a geographic database stored on a physical storage medium in a computer-readable physical storage format, said computer program product comprising an interface layer comprising: programming that accepts and processes requests for geographic data from the navigation application program; and programming that translates geographic data from said physical storage format and provides said geographic data to said navigation application program in a logical data model format, wherein said logical data model format includes uncompressed entity records of fixed lengths, and wherein said programming that translates further comprises: programming that unpacks said geographic data from said physical storage format into a decompressed intermediate format; and programming that transforms said geographic data from said decompressed intermediate format into data entities in said logical data format for returning to said navigation application program.

Claim 24

Dependent Claim 160 words

A computer program product for use in a navigation system wherein the navigation system includes a navigation application program that provides navigating features to a user of the navigation system and a geographic database stored on a physical storage medium in a computer-readable physical storage format, said computer program product comprising an interface layer comprising: programming that accepts and processes requests for geographic data from the navigation application program; and programming that translates geographic data from said physical storage format and provides said geographic data to said navigation application program in a logical data model format, wherein said logical data model format includes uncompressed entity records of fixed lengths, and wherein said programming that translates further comprises: programming that unpacks said geographic data from said physical storage format into a decompressed intermediate format; and programming that transforms said geographic data from said decompressed intermediate format into data entities in said logical data format for returning to said navigation application program.

Claim 25

Dependent Claim 207 words

A computer program product for use in a navigation system wherein the navigation system includes a navigation application program that provides navigating features to a user of the navigation system and a geographic database stored on a physical storage medium in a computer-readable physical storage format, said computer program product comprising an interface layer comprising: programming that accepts and processes requests for geographic data from the navigation application program; programming that translates geographic data from said physical storage format and provides said geographic data to said navigation application program in a logical data model format, programming that allocates and frees memory of said navigation system for use as a memory pool by said interface layer; programming that accesses a cache memory buffer in said memory pool that stores a parcel read from said physical storage medium, wherein said parcel can be identified by means of a parcel identifier programming that initiates an I/O transaction from the physical storage medium to read said parcel therefrom if said cache memory buffer accessing means finds that said parcel is not stored in said cache memory buffer; wherein said programming that initiates an I/O transaction further comprises: stores parcel identifiers in a queue and reorders parcel identifiers while in said queue.

Claim 26

Dependent Claim 207 words

A computer program product for use in a navigation system wherein the navigation system includes a navigation application program that provides navigating features to a user of the navigation system and a geographic database stored on a physical storage medium in a computer-readable physical storage format, said computer program product comprising an interface layer comprising: programming that accepts and processes requests for geographic data from the navigation application program; programming that translates geographic data from said physical storage format and provides said geographic data to said navigation application program in a logical data model format, programming that allocates and frees memory of said navigation system for use as a memory pool by said interface layer; programming that accesses a cache memory buffer in said memory pool that stores a parcel read from said physical storage medium, wherein said parcel can be identified by means of a parcel identifier programming that initiates an I/O transaction from the physical storage medium to read said parcel therefrom if said cache memory buffer accessing means finds that said parcel is not stored in said cache memory buffer; wherein said programming that initiates an I/O transaction further comprises: stores parcel identifiers in a queue and reorders parcel identifiers while in said queue.

Claim 27

Dependent Claim 25 words

The invention of claim 22 wherein said programming that initiates an I/O transaction translates said parcel identifiers to physical media addresses while in said queue.

Claim 28

Dependent Claim 47 words

The invention of claim 22 wherein said navigation system further includes a media device driver and wherein said programming that initiates an I/O transaction obtains from said media device driver a physical read head position and uses said physical read head position when reordering said parcel identifiers.

Claim 29

Independent Claim 148 words

A method of using a computer-based navigation system wherein said navigation system includes navigation application program functions wherein said navigation application program functions are adapted to use a geographic database stored on a computer-readable medium in a physical storage format, the method comprising: accepting a request from one of said navigation application program functions for geographic data; using an index to identify the geographic data in said physical storage format for responding to said request; transforming geographic data stored in said physical storage format into a format usable by said navigation application program functions; and after a plurality of data entities are identified in response to said request from said one of said navigation application program functions, providing a first partial result set of said plurality of data entities in said format usable by said navigation application program functions to said one of said navigation application program functions.

Claim 30

Independent Claim 148 words

A method of using a computer-based navigation system wherein said navigation system includes navigation application program functions wherein said navigation application program functions are adapted to use a geographic database stored on a computer-readable medium in a physical storage format, the method comprising: accepting a request from one of said navigation application program functions for geographic data; using an index to identify the geographic data in said physical storage format for responding to said request; transforming geographic data stored in said physical storage format into a format usable by said navigation application program functions; and after a plurality of data entities are identified in response to said request from said one of said navigation application program functions, providing a first partial result set of said plurality of data entities in said format usable by said navigation application program functions to said one of said navigation application program functions.

Claim 31

Dependent Claim 72 words

The method of claim 25 further comprising the step of: if said plurality of data entities exceeds a first threshold, providing a first partial result set of said plurality of data entities up to said first threshold in said format usable by said navigation application program functions to said one of said navigation application program functions and maintaining entity identifiers for a portion of said plurality data entities exceeding said first threshold.

Claim 32

Dependent Claim 99 words

The method of claim 25 further comprising the steps of: if said plurality of data entities exceeds a first threshold and a second threshold greater than said first threshold, providing a first partial result set of said plurality of data entities up to said first threshold in said format usable by said navigation application program functions to said one of said navigation application program functions, maintaining entity identifiers for a portion of said plurality data entities exceeding said first threshold, and maintaining a reference cursor to reexecute said request for geographic data for data entities exceeding said second threshold.

Claim 33

Independent Claim 133 words

A method of using a computer-based navigation system wherein said navigation system includes navigation application program functions wherein said navigation application program functions are adapted to use a geographic database stored on a computer-readable storage medium in a physical storage format, the method comprising: reading a metadata file from said storage medium; storing a portion of said metadata file in memory; accepting a request from one of said navigation application program functions for geographic data; transforming geographic data stored in said physical storage format into a format usable by said navigation application including using said metadata file to translate from a version level of said physical storage format to a version level of said navigation application program functions; and providing said transformed geographic data to said one of said navigation application program functions.

Claim 34

Independent Claim 133 words

A method of using a computer-based navigation system wherein said navigation system includes navigation application program functions wherein said navigation application program functions are adapted to use a geographic database stored on a computer-readable storage medium in a physical storage format, the method comprising: reading a metadata file from said storage medium; storing a portion of said metadata file in memory; accepting a request from one of said navigation application program functions for geographic data; transforming geographic data stored in said physical storage format into a format usable by said navigation application including using said metadata file to translate from a version level of said physical storage format to a version level of said navigation application program functions; and providing said transformed geographic data to said one of said navigation application program functions.

Claim 35

Dependent Claim 59 words

The method of claim 28 wherein said metadata file comprises tables for different version levels, and wherein the method further comprises the step of: using a version level of a data access interface layer that performs the step of accepting a request from one of the navigation applications for geographic data to identify which of said tables to use.

Claim 36

Dependent Claim 31 words

The invention of claim 28 wherein said metadata file includes information that describes content of various data attributes and values appearing in a given database entity at a given version level.

Claim 37

Dependent Claim 38 words

The method of claim 28 wherein said step of transforming further comprises: converting from said physical storage format into a decompressed intermediate format; and converting from said decompressed intermediate format into the format useable by the navigation application.

Claim 38

Dependent Claim 32 words

The method of claim 28 wherein said step of transforming further comprises: using said metadata file to extract a data element relative to a beginning of a particular physical storage format entity.

Claim 39

Dependent Claim 24 words

The method of claim 28 wherein the step of reading a metadata file from said storage medium is performed through an operating system kernel.

Claim 40

Dependent Claim 37 words

The method of claim 28 wherein the step of reading a metadata file from said storage medium is performed through a physical devices subsystem that includes an operation system isolation layer and a media device isolation layer.

Claim 41

Dependent Claim 21 words

The method of claim 28 wherein the step of reading a metadata file from said storage medium is performed at initialization.

Claim 42

Dependent Claim 38 words

The method of claim 28 further comprising the step of: maintaining the metadata file in memory during operation of the navigation system so that said metadata file can be used during subsequent data accesses from said storage medium.

Claim 43

Dependent Claim 138 words

A computer program product for use in a navigation system wherein the navigation system includes a navigation application program that provides navigating features to a user of the navigation system and a geographic database stored on a physical storage medium in a computer-readable physical storage format, said computer program product comprising an interface layer comprising: programming that accepts and processes requests for geographic data from the navigation application program; and programming that translates geographic data from said physical storage format and provides said geographic data to said navigation application program, wherein said programming that translates is responsive to metadata provided with said geographic data and which is used to translate said geographic data at a first version level to a second version level and provide said geographic data at said second version level to said navigation application program.

Claim 44

Dependent Claim 138 words

A computer program product for use in a navigation system wherein the navigation system includes a navigation application program that provides navigating features to a user of the navigation system and a geographic database stored on a physical storage medium in a computer-readable physical storage format, said computer program product comprising an interface layer comprising: programming that accepts and processes requests for geographic data from the navigation application program; and programming that translates geographic data from said physical storage format and provides said geographic data to said navigation application program, wherein said programming that translates is responsive to metadata provided with said geographic data and which is used to translate said geographic data at a first version level to a second version level and provide said geographic data at said second version level to said navigation application program.

Claim 45

Dependent Claim 14 words

The invention of claim 37 wherein said metadata comprises tables for different version levels.

Claim 46

Dependent Claim 25 words

The invention of claim 38 wherein said tables are provided for each data version level from an earliest version level to a current version level.

Claim 47

Dependent Claim 18 words

The invention of claim 37 wherein said storage medium comprises one of a CD-ROM disk and PCMCIA card.

Claim 48

Dependent Claim 14 words

The invention of claim 37 wherein said metadata is used to provide backward compatibility.

Claim 49

Dependent Claim 24 words

The invention of claim 37 wherein said metadata allows a newer navigation application software program to use an older version of a geographic database.

Claim 50

Independent Claim 118 words

A method by which navigation systems implemented on different hardware platforms can use copies of a geographic database having a same format, the method comprising the steps of: providing copies of interface layer programming to manufacturers of said navigation systems implemented on different hardware platforms, wherein said interface layer programming provides a common interface from which a navigation application in each of said navigation systems implemented on different hardware platforms can request geographic data contained in a geographic database associated therewith, wherein the geographic database associated with each of said navigation systems is in said same format; and installing said copies of said interface layer programming in each of said navigation systems implemented on said different hardware platforms.

Claim 51

Independent Claim 118 words

A method by which navigation systems implemented on different hardware platforms can use copies of a geographic database having a same format, the method comprising the steps of: providing copies of interface layer programming to manufacturers of said navigation systems implemented on different hardware platforms, wherein said interface layer programming provides a common interface from which a navigation application in each of said navigation systems implemented on different hardware platforms can request geographic data contained in a geographic database associated therewith, wherein the geographic database associated with each of said navigation systems is in said same format; and installing said copies of said interface layer programming in each of said navigation systems implemented on said different hardware platforms.

Claim 52

Dependent Claim 71 words

The invention of claim 34 further comprising the steps of: when operating each of said navigation systems implemented on different hardware platforms, using said navigation application to request geographic data from said interface layer programming according to said common interface; and using said interface layer programming to access and read data from the geographic database in the same format associated therewith to satisfy requests for geographic data from said navigation application.

Claim 53

Dependent Claim 68 words

The invention of claim 34 wherein said interface layer programming further comprises: query logic programming that receives requests from the navigation application for geographic data; data transformation programming that transforms geographic data from a physical storage format of a physical storage medium upon which said geographic database is stored; and data return programming that provides said transformed geographic data to said navigation application in response to said requests.

Claim 54

Dependent Claim 72 words

The invention of claim 45 wherein said interface layer programming further comprises: indexes management programming responsive to said query logic programming and comprising: programming that associates said requests from said navigation application with parcel identifiers associated with parcels in said physical storage format containing geographic data; and programming that provides said parcel identifiers to memory management library programming to obtain said parcels to provide to said data transformation programming for transformation therein.

Claim 55

Dependent Claim 46 words

The invention of claim 46 wherein said indexes management programming further comprises: programming that obtains said parcel identifiers from said geographic database, and programming that obtains pointers to parcels on said physical storage medium containing geographic data for responding to said requests by said navigation application.

Claim 56

Dependent Claim 34 words

The invention of claim 46 wherein said programming that manages indexes further comprises: programming that translates specific entity identifiers passed from said navigation application to parcel identifiers for parcels on said physical storage medium.

Claim 57

Dependent Claim 33 words

The invention of claim 46 wherein said programming that manages indexes further comprises: programming that takes index specifiers and query parameters from said query logic programming and returns a set of parcel identifiers.

Claim 58

Dependent Claim 115 words

A computer program product for use in a navigation system wherein the navigation system includes a navigation application program for providing navigating features to a user of the navigation system and a geographic database stored on a physical storage medium in a computer-readable physical storage format, said computer program product comprising an interface layer comprising: programming that provides a C language data structure view to the navigation application program; programming that accepts and processes requests for geographic data from the navigation application program; and programming that translates geographic data from said physical storage format and provides said geographic data to said navigation application program as a C language data structure in a fully decompressed form.

Claim 59

Dependent Claim 115 words

A computer program product for use in a navigation system wherein the navigation system includes a navigation application program for providing navigating features to a user of the navigation system and a geographic database stored on a physical storage medium in a computer-readable physical storage format, said computer program product comprising an interface layer comprising: programming that provides a C language data structure view to the navigation application program; programming that accepts and processes requests for geographic data from the navigation application program; and programming that translates geographic data from said physical storage format and provides said geographic data to said navigation application program as a C language data structure in a fully decompressed form.

Annuity Stage	Window Opens	Payment Deadline	Surcharge Period Until	Estimated Fee	Status
3.5 Years (Year 4)	2003-04-04	2003-10-04	2004-04-04	$2000.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8)	2007-04-04	2007-10-04	2008-04-04	$3760.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12)	2011-04-04	2011-10-04	2012-04-04	$7700.00	Window Closed / Lapsed

Interface layer for navigation system

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