Method for indicating a geographical position to a user

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for indicating a geographical location to a user. The technical effect is in simplifying the process of providing map information. The proposed computer-implemented method for indicating a geographical location to a user comprises: identifying an address expression in a text content starting with at least one special character; generating a geographical link based on the identified address expression; highlighting the identified address expression during displaying the text content; and upon tapping the highlighted identified address expression, initiating a map information display unit according to the geographical link. By means of a map information display unit in a user computing device, the method further comprises: obtaining the address expression according to the geographical link; transmitting the address expression to a geocoding unit; obtaining geographical latitude and longitude coordinates corresponding to the address expression from the geocoding unit; and displaying the geographical location on a map according to the obtained coordinates.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This application relates to the field of interaction between a user and an application used to display text content and map information, and more particularly to a method for indicating a geographical location to a user. Background Technology

[0002] The development and widespread adoption of information technology have provided users with numerous possibilities for finding desired locations through various map services. Users typically enter an address of interest into the search bar, and in response, the map service displays the object corresponding to the entered address on the map. In this document, "map unit" should be understood as an installed map application (navigation application, map application such as Yandex Maps, 2GIS, Google Maps, etc.) or a service located on a server that receives address search requests and returns map data indicating the searched object via a data transmission network for display in a browser.

[0003] In addition, modern users are exposed to a large amount of electronic text information every day, whether it is electronic text files, various information articles on web pages, or daily communication with friends, colleagues and relatives through so-called messaging applications (SMS, Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber), email and social networks (also known as text messaging applications).

[0004] When a geographical address exists in the text, in order to find the location corresponding to that address, the user must search for and select the address in the text, copy the address, open the corresponding map application, and paste the address into the search bar. All of these operations are time-consuming and inconvenient for the user.

[0005] Prior art, WO 2018 / 071127, published on April 19, 2018, discloses a method and system for interaction between an aggregation application for searching restaurants or hotels and a map application. In the first application, a user selects a hotel or restaurant of interest from a list of available hotels or restaurants, clicks on the address indicated for that hotel or restaurant, and is then redirected to the map application, which constructs a route to the selected hotel or restaurant or displays its location on a map. The interaction between the applications is performed via an application programming interface (API). The address corresponding to the hotel or restaurant in the aggregation application is represented as a dedicated location parameter, which is transmitted to the map application in this ready-made form via the API.

[0006] One drawback of the aforementioned known solutions is that the geographic address is treated as a predefined location parameter of the object being searched, which exists in a predefined object list used by aggregation applications to search for restaurants or hotels.

[0007] The proposed solution differs from known solutions in the prior art in that it includes: identifying geographic addresses in text containing any content, marked by one or more special characters; generating geographic links; and invoking an application for displaying map information by clicking the geographic link. Summary of the Invention

[0008] The technical problem solved by the claimed technical solution is to enable the map on the user's computing device to automatically display the location corresponding to the address marked by one or more special characters in text content of any format.

[0009] The technical effect achieved by solving the above-mentioned technical problems is that the process of providing map information is simplified by reducing the number of operations that users need to perform to find the location in the map service.

[0010] The claimed technical effect is achieved through a developed mechanism that identifies geographic addresses marked by one or more special characters in text of any content, generates geographic links for the identified geographic addresses, and invokes an application for displaying map information by clicking the geographic links.

[0011] According to one embodiment of the present invention, a computer-implemented method for indicating a geographic location to a user is provided. According to the proposed method, text content display software in a user computing device performs the following operations: identifying an address expression in the text content that begins with at least one special character; generating a geographic link based on the identified address expression; highlighting the identified address expression while displaying the text content; and activating a map information display unit via the geographic link when the highlighted identified address expression is pressed. Furthermore, according to the proposed method, the map information display unit in the user computing device performs the following operations: obtaining the address expression via the geographic link; transmitting the address expression to a geocoding unit; obtaining the geographic latitude and longitude coordinates corresponding to the address expression from the geocoding unit; and displaying the geographic location on a map based on the obtained coordinates.

[0012] In one specific embodiment of the proposed method, the text content display software is a text editor, and the text content is contained in a text file.

[0013] In one specific embodiment of the proposed method, the text content display software is a web browser, and the text content is contained in a webpage.

[0014] In one specific embodiment of the proposed method, the text content display software is text messaging software, and the text content is contained in text messages within a conversation.

[0015] In one specific implementation of the proposed method, a single special character used belongs to the set containing the following characters: / , >, <, ?, !, §, |, &; wherein each of two or more consecutive special characters belongs to the set containing the following characters: / , >, ?, !, \, |, and g.

[0016] In one specific implementation of the proposed method, the address expression includes at least a portion of the postal address sufficient for the geocoding unit to determine the geographic coordinates, and ends with at least one special character.

[0017] In one specific implementation of the proposed method, the address expression comprises a set of two or more words following at least one special character, the words being separated from each other by a delimiter and not containing spaces, wherein the delimiter belongs to a set of characters including ".", "," and ";".

[0018] In one specific implementation of the proposed method, the number of special characters is equal to the number of words in the address expression.

[0019] In one specific implementation of the proposed method, the geographic link includes the address expression and a command for activating the map information display unit.

[0020] In one specific implementation of the proposed method, the map information display unit is one of navigation software, map software, or a new tab in a browser.

[0021] In one specific implementation of the proposed method, the geocoding unit is located on a geocoding server or in the map information display unit.

[0022] In one specific implementation of the proposed method, displaying the geographic location on a map includes loading map information from a map server or using map information previously loaded from a map server. Detailed Implementation

[0023] In the following detailed description of embodiments of the invention, numerous implementation details are provided to ensure a clear understanding of the invention. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the invention may or may not be implemented using these implementation details. In other instances, well-known methods, processes, and components have not been described in detail to avoid unnecessarily complicating the understanding of the features of the invention.

[0024] Furthermore, it will be clear from the following disclosure that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described. Many possible modifications, alterations, variations, and substitutions will be apparent to those skilled in the art while maintaining the spirit and form of the invention.

[0025] The proposed computer-implemented method for indicating a user's geographic location is executed on the user's computing device, or on a user's computing device and a server that communicate with each other via a data transmission network.

[0026] A user computing device is any known electronic computing device, including user electronic devices, mobile phones, tablet computers, portable computers, desktop computers, etc., which is configured to execute user applications and communicate with a server through a data transmission network.

[0027] In the context of this invention, an application is software that executes on a user's computing device. Software is a set of instructions stored in the memory of the computing device and executed by the processor of the computing device. The results of the software execution are displayed to the user through a graphical interface on a display device included in the user's computing device. The graphical interface is a unit for interacting with the user. Applications can be implemented based on a microservices architecture, in which microservices are software modules that perform one or more related functions and interact with each other and with other external applications and / or software tools through application programming interfaces (APIs).

[0028] An application can be an application used to display text content, such as a text editor configured to receive user input, display the user input as text, and save it as a text file; a web browser configured to load web pages from a web server and display their text content to the user; or a text messaging application configured to receive user input, display the user input as text, and send it as a text message in a conversation over a data transmission network to another text messaging application. Text messaging applications include messaging applications (SMS, Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber, etc.), email applications, and social networking applications (VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Moi Mir, etc.).

[0029] Furthermore, the application can be a map information display unit, which includes: a navigation application for constructing and displaying routes; a map application configured to receive input of address expressions from the user and display the location corresponding to the address in the address expression on the map; or a browser tab that, after accessing a map server, also displays the location corresponding to the address in the input address expression. When the text content display application is a web browser, the map information display unit can be a new browser tab or a new browser window.

[0030] In the context of this invention, a server is an electronic computing device for processing and storing data, on which software is installed and running, and which is configured to exchange data with other electronic computing devices via a data transmission network. The server software may include a geocoding unit (geoencoder).

[0031] The geocoding unit is configured to obtain a geographic address from an address expression and return the latitude and longitude coordinates of the location corresponding to the obtained address. The geocoding unit operates according to well-known techniques (e.g., as disclosed in the article "Direct and Reverse Geocoding - Testing Popular Solutions", https: / / habr.com / ru / articles / 505500 / ).

[0032] Address expressions can contain geographic addresses in the form of regular postal addresses, including one or more of the following: postal code, country name, city name, street name, building number, unit number, landmark name, or specific structure. In this case, for the geocoding unit, obtaining a portion of the complete postal address may be sufficient to return the latitude and longitude coordinates of the location corresponding to the address (e.g., the address may omit the postal code or country, or may include a portion of a compound street name—"Sakharova" instead of "Akademika Sakharova"). Furthermore, address expressions can contain geographic addresses encoded according to a geocoding system (e.g., "What3words"), according to which the Earth's surface is divided into squares with sides of 3 meters, and each square is encoded by three words. The words included in the encoding are arbitrary; however, this does not constitute a limitation of the invention.

[0033] A geographic address can be encoded as a sequence of two to five words, which can be arbitrarily chosen in advance. Each 3-meter square is assigned a unique set of coded words that are not associated with each other or with any part of the postal address (e.g., “wander.splash.artist.nut”). Semi-arbitrarily, one or more words in the unique set of coded words assigned to each 3-meter square are associated with the name of the postal address, landmark, or specific structure (e.g., the one or more words could be a country, city, street, building number, apartment number, landmark, or specific structure name – “moscow.shchukino.puck.book”). Or fully associated, all words in the unique set of coded words assigned to each 3-meter square are associated with the name of the postal address, landmark, or specific structure (e.g., “russia.moscow.troparevo.leninskiy”). Furthermore, according to the invention, the Earth's surface can be divided into squares with sides greater than or less than 3 meters. Divisions can also include polygons of different shapes, for example, divisions based on the administrative divisions of the Earth's territory.

[0034] A server containing geocoded units is called a geocoded server. Geocoded units can be implemented as microservices and can be included in map information display units on a user's computing device. Furthermore, the server can store map information in map form; in this case, the server is a map server. The map server can contain geocoded units. The map information display unit loads map information from the map server and displays it to the user. After loading, the map information can be stored on the user's computing device and can be displayed to the user without being connected to a data transmission network.

[0035] When the text content display application is a text editor or text messaging application, it is configured to receive text input from the user. According to the invention, when entering an address expression, the user can explicitly identify the entered address expression in the text content using special characters. The special characters used to identify the address expression in the text content are those characters used least frequently in the text, whether as punctuation marks or semantic elements of the text content. According to the invention, special characters can be used individually, in which case they belong to the set containing the following characters: / , >, <, ?, !, §, |, &. Special characters can also form combinations of two or more consecutive identical characters, which belong to the set containing the following characters: / , >, ?, !, \, |, and g (e.g., / / , >>>, ????, !!!!!, \\\\, |||, gg, etc.). The inventors of the invention have determined that the optimal maximum number of consecutive identical special characters is five. Special characters are adjacent to address expressions, i.e., there are no separators or spaces between them. When a user enters an address expression containing a geographic address in the form of a regular postal address (including one or more of the following: postal code, country name, city name, street name, building number, building number, landmark name, or specific structure), the address expression begins with one or more special characters and ends with one or more special characters.

[0036] For example: / 123182, Russian Federation, Moscow, 63 Aviatsionnaya Street / ; gggMoscow, 63 Aviatsionnaya Streetggg; and so on. When a user enters an address expression containing an coded address, the address expression begins with one or more special characters (e.g., §wander.splash.artist, ggmoscow.shchukino.puck, and so on). Furthermore, the number of special characters can correspond to the number of words in the address expression. Additionally, the coded words forming the set of coded words in the address expression are consecutive without spaces and separated by a delimiter from a set of delimiters containing the following characters: ".", ",", and ";".

[0037] Users can view the specific variants of the supported special characters, their possible combinations, and the format of address expressions in the help section of the text content display application. According to the present invention, the text content display application also provides users with information about the possibility of entering address expressions using special characters through pop-up prompts. Pop-up prompts are a standard, universally accepted, and used solution (interactive user guide), a tool used to teach users about new features of applications, software tools, or software. The operation of pop-up prompts is implemented using publicly available libraries: https: / / react-joyride.com / , https: / / github.com / elrumordelaluz / reactour / tree / v1, https: / / github.com / shipshapecode / react-shepherd, https: / / introjs.com / , and https: / / github.com / alfrdmalr / walktour.

[0038] The text content display application on the user's computing device is configured to process text content and recognize address expressions within it. Recognizing address expressions in text content includes finding one or more special characters at the beginning of the address expression. When the address expression contains a geographic address in the form of a regular postal address, recognition also includes finding one or more additional special characters at the end of the address expression in the text content. When the address expression contains a geographic address in coded form, recognition includes finding the last code word in the set of code words that form the address expression. The last code word is the code word in that set of code words that has no separator following it (for example, in the address expression §wander.splash.artist, the last code word is the word "artist").

[0039] The text content display application on the user's computing device is configured to generate a geographic link based on a recognized address expression by adding a method to that address expression to invoke a map information display unit, provided via an API by a map information display unit selected by default on the user's computing device. The invocation method includes a command to launch the map information display unit. Therefore, the geographic link contains both the address expression and the command to launch the map information display unit. However, within the text content, the generated geographic link is displayed to the user as an address expression highlighted relative to the rest of the text. Highlighting may include at least one of underline, changing font color, italics, bold, changing font size, and / or changing the font.

[0040] A geolink is a mechanism for invoking a map information display unit and transmitting or receiving address expressions to or from that unit. It is activated when a user presses or clicks an address expression highlighted in text content. The invoked map information display unit retrieves the address expression via the geolink and transmits it to a geocoding unit. The geocoding unit returns the latitude and longitude coordinates of the location corresponding to the retrieved address to the map information display unit, displaying the geographic location on the map for the user. When the geocoding unit is implemented within the map information display unit, retrieving the address expression and returning the latitude and longitude coordinates are performed within the user's computing device, without the need for a data transmission network. When the geocoding unit is implemented on a geocoding server, retrieving the address expression and returning the latitude and longitude coordinates are performed between the user's computing device and the geocoding server using a data transmission network.

[0041] Therefore, according to the present invention, the map information display unit is configured to: activate when a user presses or clicks a geographic link in the text content, obtain an address expression through the geographic link, send the address expression to the geocoding unit to obtain the latitude and longitude coordinates corresponding to the address expression, and display the geographic location on the map according to the obtained geographic coordinates. This eliminates the need for the user to manually select an address in the text, copy the address, open the corresponding map application, and paste the address into the search bar, thus simplifying the process of providing map information.

[0042] The computing device that provides the data processing required to implement the claimed solution typically includes components such as one or more processors, at least one memory, data storage unit, input / output interface, input unit, and network unit.

[0043] When machine-readable instructions contained in random access memory are executed, the device’s processor is configured to perform basic computational operations required for the operation of the device or the function of one or more components of the device.

[0044] The memory is typically implemented as random access memory (RAM), and the program logic required for the necessary functions is loaded into this RAM. During the operation of the proposed solution, the memory capacity required to implement the proposed solution is allocated.

[0045] The data storage unit can be implemented as an HDD, SSD, RAID array, network-attached storage, flash memory, etc. This unit can store various types of information long-term, such as files containing user data sets, databases containing time interval records for each user's measurements, user identifiers, etc.

[0046] An interface is a standard unit used to connect and operate peripheral devices and other devices, such as USB, RS232, RJ45, COM, HDMI, PS / 2, Lightning, etc.

[0047] The choice of interface depends on the specific implementation of the device, which can be a personal computer, mainframe computer, server cluster, thin client, smartphone, laptop, etc.

[0048] In any implementation of the system implementing the method, a keyboard can be used as a data input unit. The hardware implementation of the keyboard can be any known implementation: it can be a keyboard integrated into a laptop or netbook, or a standalone device connected to a desktop computer, server, or other computing device. The connection can be wired, in which case the keyboard connection cable connects to a PS / 2 or USB port located on the desktop computer system unit, or wireless, in which case the keyboard exchanges data with a base station via a wireless communication channel (e.g., a radio channel), which in turn is directly connected to the system unit, for example, to one of the USB ports. In addition to the keyboard, the data input unit may also include a joystick, display (touchscreen display), projector, touchpad, mouse, trackball, light pen, speaker, microphone, etc.

[0049] The network unit is selected from devices that provide network data reception and transmission, such as Ethernet cards, WLAN / Wi-Fi modules, Bluetooth modules, BLE modules, NFC modules, IrDA modules, RFID modules, GSM modems, etc. This unit provides data exchange through wired or wireless data transmission channels (such as WAN, PAN, LAN, intranet, Internet, WLAN, WMAN, or GSM).

[0050] The components of the device are coupled via a common data bus.

[0051] This application discloses preferred embodiments of the claimed technical solutions. These preferred embodiments should not be used to limit them to other specific embodiments that do not exceed the scope of the claimed protection and are obvious to those skilled in the art.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for indicating a user's geographical location, characterized in that, include: - Using text content display software on the user's computing device: -- Identify address expressions in text content that begin with at least one special character; -- Generate geographic links based on the identified address expressions; -- Highlight the identified address expression when displaying the text content; -- When the highlighted identified address expression is pressed, the map information display unit is activated via the geographic link; - Using the map information display unit in the user computing device: -- Obtain the address expression using the geographical link; -- Transmit the address expression to the geocoding unit; -- Obtain the geographic latitude and longitude coordinates corresponding to the address expression from the geocoding unit; -- Display the geographical location on a map based on the obtained coordinates.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The text content display software is a text editor, and the text content is contained in a text file.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The text content display software is a web browser, and the text content is contained on a webpage.

4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The text content display software is a text messaging software, and the text content is contained in text messages within the session.

5. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that: When a single special character is used, the special character belongs to the set of characters including: / , >, <, ?, !, §, | and &; wherein each of two or more consecutive special characters belongs to the set of characters including: / , >, ?, !, \, | and g.

6. The method according to claim 1 or 5, characterized in that, The address expression includes at least a portion of a postal address, which is sufficient for the geocoding unit to determine geographic coordinates, and the address expression ends with at least one special character.

7. The method according to claim 1 or 5, characterized in that, The address expression comprises two or more words immediately following the at least one special character, and the two or more words are separated from each other by a delimiter, wherein the delimiter belongs to the set of characters including "".", "", and ";".

8. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that, The number of special characters corresponds to the number of words contained in the address expression.

9. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The geographic link includes the address expression and a command for activating the map information display unit.

10. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The map information display unit is one of the following: navigation software, map software, or a new tab in a browser.

11. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The geocoding unit is located on the geocoding server or in the map information display unit.

12. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, In the step of displaying the geographical location on the map, map information is loaded from a map server, or map information previously loaded from the map server is used.