Geographic area verbal identification method

Abstract

The invention relates to a verbal identification method for a geographic area. The technical effect consists in improving the accuracy of identifying geographic areas of various sizes on the whole earth surface. The proposed computer-implemented method for identifying a geographic area comprises: creating a layer of a digital geographic map in the form of a grid of square cells of base size covering the entire earth surface using a geocentric coordinate system; extracting map making data about the geographic object of each created square cell from the corresponding map layer; iteratively subdividing each square cell containing at least a part of geographic objects into four equal square cells; at least one vocabulary and one vocabulary from a common spoken language vocabulary set are allocated to each square cell which is not divided, the at least one vocabulary represents a geographic name of a geographic object at least partially contained in the square cell, and the allocated vocabulary jointly forms a unique identification word group; and providing access to the created layer to the remote computing device by referencing the undivided square cells based on the geographic coordinates to obtain the corresponding unique identification phrases, or by referencing the unique identification phrases to obtain the geographic coordinates of the corresponding undivided square cells.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This technical solution relates to data processing of digital geographic maps, and in particular to a method for verbally identifying geographic areas. Background Technology

[0002] Modern mapping services offer users a wide range of functions for determining location, planning routes, and obtaining information about specific geographic objects, such as their names, addresses, and descriptions of additional details about those objects.

[0003] However, in some situations, the above options are insufficient, such as when it is necessary to specify or identify geographic objects without addresses (buildings under construction, buildings or structural elements without default addresses, intersections of roads / paths / sidewalks), parts of large geographic objects with the same name or address (building entrances or lobbies, woodlands / parks, road sections, parks, woodlands, rivers, lakes, oceans, bodies of water and their coastal areas), and geographic objects with the same address or name (streets with the same name in a settlement). In these cases, users cannot accurately specify the final location of the meeting, arrival, or completion of the route, or the user's location when calling emergency services (e.g., in a dangerous situation near a park, body of water, or extended road segment).

[0004] Information source WO2014 / 170646, known in the prior art and published on October 23, 2014, discloses a method and apparatus for identifying and communicating location. The known invention comprises the following: the Earth's surface is divided into equal square cells of 3 meters by 3 meters, and each such cell is assigned a combination of three commonly used colloquial words from the same language.

[0005] The drawbacks of the known schemes are that the identification word combinations are generated by arbitrary sets of words that are not related to the names of addressable geographic objects (e.g., two adjacent cells belonging to the same geographic object are identified by a combination of three words that are completely unrelated to each other), which makes it challenging to remember and use them later; the constant small cell size (3 meters by 3 meters) is too small and unnecessarily tiny for the internal areas of geographic objects (such as fields, forests, rivers, oceans, or highways) that do not require such high spatial precision.

[0006] The proposed solution differs from existing solutions in that it generates a grid of square cells with different sizes to avoid excessive granularity when identifying regions within homogeneous and large geographic objects, while increasing granularity when identifying smaller geographic objects (especially in urban environments); and uses the name of the addressable geographic object (country name, city, district, house address, park name, water body, road segment, etc.) in the identifier phrase of each cell. Summary of the Invention

[0007] The technical problem addressed by the technical solution claimed in this claim is the need to assign text names (addresses) to the following geographic objects: Various elements of a structure, such as the entrance to an apartment or office building lobby, the corner of a building, a subway station exit, a public transportation station, etc.

[0008] Any geographic object without an address, such as a new private residence or a building that has not yet been assigned an address, a small residential building, or a non-residential building.

[0009] Any geographical area, including locations in parks, forests, fields, and at sea for meetings, events, or calls for rescue.

[0010] The technical effect achieved by solving the above-mentioned technical problems is that by generating square cell grids of different sizes and a unique identifier for each cell and a link to the name of the geographic object, the accuracy of assigning addresses to smaller features of geographic objects or geographic regions and buildings without addresses is improved.

[0011] In one embodiment of the present invention, a computer-implemented method for identifying geographic regions is proposed. The proposed method is based on a software implementation executed on a server and provides the following: creating a layer of a digital geographic map in the form of a grid of square cells of a basic size using a geocentric coordinate system; iteratively dividing each square cell containing at least a portion of a geographic object into four equal square cells based on the geographic object type; and after the iterative division is completed, assigning at least one word (which is the geographic name of at least one geographic object contained in the square cell) and a word selected from a set of commonly used colloquial terms to each undivided square cell in the layer constituting the digital geographic map; and forming a unique set of identifier words relative to all identifier words assigned to the remaining undivided square cells when at least one word that is a geographic name and a word selected from the set of commonly used colloquial terms are assigned to each undivided square cell.

[0012] In specific embodiments of the proposed method, specific types of geographic objects include countries within administrative boundaries, national regions within administrative boundaries, settlements within administrative boundaries, settlement jurisdictions within administrative boundaries, or structures, nature reserves, forest parks, parks, road network segments, water bodies, or points of interest.

[0013] In a particular embodiment, the proposed method further includes adding at least one additional word to the identified word group when the identified word group is duplicated due to the exhaustion of available options in the common spoken vocabulary set. This word is the geographical name of at least a second geographical object that is at least partially contained in the square cell.

[0014] In a particular embodiment of the proposed method, the method further includes adding at least one additional colloquial word to the identified phrase when the identified phrase uses the geographical names of all geographical objects (at least a portion of each geographical object is contained in the square cell) and the identified phrase is repeated due to exhaustion of available options in the common colloquial vocabulary set.

[0015] In a specific embodiment of the proposed method, the number of iterations for dividing a square cell containing at least a portion of geographic objects is calculated starting from the division of the basic-size square cell and is determined by the type of geographic object.

[0016] In a specific embodiment of the proposed method, the geographical name includes at least one of the following: country name, region name, city name, urban district name, street name and house number, nature reserve name, forest park name, park name, road network segment name, water body name, or point of interest name.

[0017] In specific embodiments of the proposed method, the base dimensions correspond to 182, 160, 128, 96, 80, 64, 48, or 32 meters on the Earth's surface.

[0018] In a particular embodiment, the proposed method further includes receiving user input containing instructions for square cells that need to be further divided into four equal square cells, and / or instructions for adding additional words from a set of commonly used spoken words or user-suggested words to the identified word group to generate a new unique identified word group.

[0019] In a particular embodiment, the proposed method further includes receiving user input containing instructions to replace words in the identifier phrase that are geographical names and / or words from a set of common spoken words with another word from the set of common spoken words or words suggested by the user, in order to generate a new unique identifier phrase. Attached Figure Description

[0020] Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are used to explain the essence of the invention and are in no way limiting the scope of the invention. The following drawings are attached to the application: Figure 1 An exemplary scheme for generating a grid of square cells with different sizes according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown. Detailed Implementation

[0021] The following detailed description of embodiments of the invention provides numerous details of the embodiments to ensure a clear understanding of the invention. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art how the invention can be used, with or without these details of its embodiments. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, and components have not been described in detail to avoid unduly complicating the understanding of the features of the invention.

[0022] Furthermore, the foregoing description will clearly demonstrate that the invention is not limited to the embodiments presented. Many potential modifications, alterations, variations, and substitutions that retain the essence and form of the invention will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art.

[0023] The proposed computer-implemented method for verbal identification of geographic regions is used in digital geographic maps.

[0024] Digital geographic maps are regional digital models created using digitized cartographic resources (such as satellite imagery, aerial photographs, scanned paper maps, etc.). After digitization, geographic objects in the image are distributed across corresponding layers in the digital geographic map; specifically, road networks are represented as branch maps in one layer, while planar objects (such as countries within administrative boundaries, national regions within administrative boundaries, settlements within administrative boundaries, settlement districts within administrative boundaries, buildings, structures, nature reserves, forest parks, parks, and bodies of water) are represented as polygons in another layer, and point objects, such as points of interest (POIs), gas stations, public transport stations, subway station entrances, and building entrances or lobbies, are represented as points in yet another layer. Digital geographic maps can contain multiple layers, each containing geographic objects of the same type or nature. Each object in a given layer is described by its inherent dataset, including the object name, parameters, and object characteristics. Furthermore, when generating digital maps, their layers are georeferenced, for example using a system such as WGS-84, so that information in one layer of the digital geographic map is correlated with information in another layer, and objects in one layer can be correctly combined with objects in other layers when processing and applying layers to display the entire digital geographic map. This generation of digital maps makes it possible to extract relevant information about geographic objects from each layer based on geographic coordinates. On a digital geographic map, a point is represented by a pair of geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) with a given precision, which corresponds in reality to a circular area with a specific radius on the Earth's surface. For example, latitude and longitude coordinates defined to six decimal places correspond to a circular area on the Earth's surface with a diameter of 3 meters. Therefore, by specifying geographic coordinate pairs with a given precision, relevant information about objects within the corresponding circular area can be extracted from each layer. Similarly, by specifying the coordinates of any geometric vertices that constitute a polygonal geometry, information about geographic objects that fall entirely or partially within that geometry can be extracted from each layer of the digital map.

[0025] In addition, map data can also be sourced from OpenStreetMap (OSM), an open-source cartographic database.

[0026] A dataset describing each geographic object can include a name (if the object is a country, region, or settlement) or an address (if the object is a building or structure). When a geographic object is a road network segment, it can be a street or part of a street within a settlement, a road or highway, or a railway. In this case, in addition to the name of the segment itself, the dataset can also include the name of the highway to which the segment belongs, the street name, and additional information such as the distance in kilometers from the origin. When a geographic object is a point object, if it is a point of interest, the dataset can include the name and description of the point of interest; if it is a public transport station, it can include the name and route number; if it is a gas station, it can include the name and opening hours; if it is a subway station entrance, it can include the station name and entrance number; if it is a building entrance, it can include the building address and lobby number or shop name, etc.

[0027] Although digital geographic maps contain a wealth of information about geographic objects, in some cases such information is insufficient for the intended purpose. For example, there may be point objects without names or any naming conventions, buildings or structures without addresses, large polygonal objects that only have names covering the entire area but cannot be referenced outside of specifying geographic coordinates for smaller parts of the polygonal object, geographic objects with names or addresses that are difficult to remember, and geographic objects with the same name or address.

[0028] To eliminate the aforementioned and related drawbacks and inconveniences, the authors of this invention propose an additional layer for generating digital geographic maps, which represents a georeferenced grid consisting of uniquely identifiable square cells of different sizes.

[0029] The method proposed in this invention first creates a layer of digital geographic map in the form of a grid of square cells of a basic size using a geocentric coordinate system. The cells of the basic size cover the entire Earth's surface. In a specific embodiment of the invention, the cells of the basic size cover a portion of the Earth's surface, such as a geographic region of a continent, country, or area. At this stage, all cells are identical. The side length of the basic size of each square cell corresponds to 160, 128, 182, 80, 64, 96, or 32 meters on the Earth's surface; in a preferred embodiment, this size is 80 meters. The created layer is georeferenced using a geocentric coordinate system (such as WGS-84). Each undivided square cell forms a polygonal object, where each vertex has a pair of geographic coordinates.

[0030] Next, using the four pairs of geographic coordinates that define the square cell polygon object, we extract information about geographic objects that are wholly or partially superimposed on it from other layers of the digital geographic map. Specifically, we use the POLYGON function from the public source http: / / postgis.net / workshops / postgis-intro / geometries.html to check for intersections (or overlaps) of the square cell polygon with geographic objects in other layers, such as: polygons of regions, settlements, parks, nature reserves, etc. in polygon geographic object layers; road segments, streets, etc. in map-based geographic object layers; and gas stations, public transport stations, subway station entrances, building entrances or lobbies, landmarks, etc. in point object layers. Information from other sources is extracted for each base-size square cell.

[0031] Based on information extracted from other layers of the digital geographic map about geographic objects that fall entirely or partially within each base-size square cell, a decision is made as to whether to further divide the base-size square cell into four equal square cells.

[0032] Next, in a similar manner to the above, information about geographic objects that fall entirely or partially within each of the square cells generated after dividing the base-size square cells is extracted. This process of dividing the square cell into four identical square cells (also known as "quadtree partitioning") is performed iteratively until the side length of each resulting square cell corresponds to the type of geographic object that falls entirely or partially within that square cell.

[0033] Table 1 below shows examples of square cells with a base size of 80 meters and the corresponding geographic object types covered by such cells on digital geographic maps.

[0034] Table 1

[0035] It should be noted that the base size used may include the following values: 182, 160, 128, 96, 80, 64, 48, or 32 meters above the Earth's surface, with the square cell size similarly halved during iterative partitioning. The preferred choice of base size is determined by the specific embodiment of the invention, the requirements of each particular case, and / or hardware capabilities.

[0036] As clearly shown in Table 1, the number of iterations for dividing a square cell containing at least some geographic objects is calculated starting from the division of the basic-size square cell and is determined by the type of geographic object.

[0037] Figure 1This paper presents an example of a final scheme for generating square cell grids of different sizes for individual portions of a digital geographic map according to embodiments of this application.

[0038] Once the square cell layer is generated, each square cell that does not contain smaller nested square cells is assigned two words to form a unique identifier phrase. The first word represents the name of the geographic object that falls wholly or partially within that square cell. The second word represents a word from a set of commonly spoken words in the same language. Examples of such identifier phrases could include: “Russia.country”, “Moscow.Vladimir”, “Odintsovo.book”, etc.

[0039] In the context of this invention, an identifier phrase is considered unique if it contains at least one word or the word arrangement within the phrase differs from other identifier phrases. Therefore, in the context of this invention, identifier phrases composed of the same words but arranged differently within the phrase are also unique relative to each other and to all other identifier phrases.

[0040] In a particular embodiment of the invention, the following word order is used, wherein the first word is the geographical name of the largest geographical object, the second is the geographical name of the smaller geographical object (when it exists in a square cell), and so on, ending with a word group from a set of commonly used colloquial vocabulary.

[0041] If a cell is overlaid on multiple geographic objects (e.g., buildings, settlement districts, settlements, country regions, or countries), the identifier phrase in this embodiment of the invention will use the geographic name of the largest geographic object covered by that cell as its first word, such as the country name. In another embodiment of the invention, the first word of the identifier phrase is the name of the geographic object corresponding to the geographic object type in the final partition (in the example above, this is the address of the building, i.e., the street name and building number).

[0042] In certain embodiments of the invention, the selection of geographical names is based on relevance, depending on which geographical name most accurately describes the geographical area. Such geographical names are not necessarily the names of the largest geographical object (such as a country); they can be, for example, the names of parks / cities. Furthermore, if the same geographical name has already been used in the names of other areas, geographical names of larger or smaller polygons, or another word from a commonly used set of spoken vocabulary, can be added to the phrase. In certain embodiments, the relevance order that most accurately describes the geographical area can be based on external sources or reference resources that determine the geographical names with the highest recognition and usage. The relevance order can also be determined using a formula that divides the frequency by the geographical area of ​​the polygon, or resident population information can be used instead of usage frequency.

[0043] In certain embodiments of the invention, the adapted geographical name is used for brevity and recognizability, as the official name may be uncommon or too long. For example, "Pereslavl" can be used instead of "Pereslavl-Zalesky".

[0044] In certain embodiments of the invention, additional vocabulary using geographical names is provided to improve address recognizability. For example, few people know where the city of Bugulima is located. Therefore, to make the address more easily identifiable, it can be supplemented with the name of the republic, such as "Tatarstan Bugulima".

[0045] When the available vocabulary in the set of common colloquial terms used to generate unique identifier phrases with a geographical name is exhausted, the identifier phrases for the remaining unidentified square cells will be generated by adding the name of the second geographical object that the cell covers. For example, if a square cell is overlaid on a district of a city, then the identifier phrase for that cell could be "city name.district name.common colloquial phrase". Similarly, a third word (the name of the third geographical object that the cell covers) can be added to the identifier phrase.

[0046] When the available vocabulary in the common colloquial vocabulary set used to generate unique identifier phrases with one or more geographical names is exhausted, and no additional geographical names can be added, the identifier phrases for the remaining unidentified square cells will be generated by adding another colloquial word from the common colloquial vocabulary set.

[0047] In one embodiment, the maximum number of words in the identified phrase is 5.

[0048] Therefore, once the verbal identification method for geographic areas is completed, a layer of a grid-based digital geographic map is generated. This grid consists of square cells of various sizes, each assigned a unique identifier phrase. It can be seen that, according to the present invention, small geographic objects are covered by small cells, while large geographic objects are covered by a sufficient number of square cells to ensure the necessary granularity for the geographic objects. The uniqueness of the identifier phrase provides an explicit reference to each cell, thereby enabling the identification of any geographic area.

[0049] In an additional embodiment of the invention, a layer of a digital geographic map created according to the invention can be modified by receiving user input. This grid contains square cells of varying sizes, each with a unique verbal identifier and georeferenced to a geographic object name. The user input includes instructions for square cells to be divided into four equal square cells, and / or instructions to add additional words from a set of commonly used colloquial terms or user-suggested words to an identifier phrase to generate a new unique identifier phrase, and / or instructions to replace words in the identifier phrase that are geographic names and / or words from a set of commonly used colloquial terms with other words from the set of commonly used colloquial terms or user-suggested words to generate a new unique identifier phrase. This allows the user to customize the layer of the digital geographic map created according to the invention to their needs. Thus, the user can specify points of interest within a building, such as the entrance to a shop, or meeting places in a park, beach, etc. In the additional embodiment, such options can be temporary, i.e., they can be valid for a period of time.

[0050] A collection of commonly used spoken vocabulary represents the basic vocabulary of Russian, encompassing a wide range of words covering various aspects of daily life and social interaction. This vocabulary consists of words widely used in everyday language and in various types of texts, from spoken to scientific. It includes words representing basic concepts, objects, and actions, as well as adjectives, pronouns, etc.

[0051] The proposed computer-implemented method for verbal identification of geographic areas is executable on a server. In a particular embodiment of the invention, a user device is used when information is input by a user.

[0052] 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 designed to communicate with other electronic computing devices via a data network.

[0053] Digital geographic maps can be stored on a server with executable software or on a separate storage server.

[0054] Server software enables remote computing devices (such as other servers or user computing devices) to access, via data networks and registration and access control systems, a layered digital geographic map created according to the present invention.

[0055] User computing devices refer to any known electronic computing device, including user electronic devices, mobile phones, tablets, laptops, desktop computers, etc., designed to run user applications and communicate with servers via data networks.

[0056] In the context of this invention, an application program is software executable 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 software output is displayed to the user through a graphical user interface (GUI) on a display device included in the user's computing device. The GUI is a means of interaction with the user.

[0057] The digital geographic map containing layers created according to the present invention can be accessed from a user's computing device via a dedicated application or web browser through a registration and access control system running on a server.

[0058] Applications can be based on a microservices architecture, where microservices are software modules that perform one or more related functions and communicate with each other and with other external applications and / or software tools through application programming interfaces (APIs).

[0059] Furthermore, the application can be designed to receive user input containing instructions for square cells that need to be further divided into four equal square cells and / or instructions for adding additional vocabulary from a set of commonly used colloquial words to the identifier phrase to generate a new unique identifier phrase, and to send the received user input to a server having a layered digital geographic map created according to the present invention.

[0060] In general, computing devices that ensure the data processing required to carry out the claimed invention include components such as one or more processors, at least one memory, data storage devices, input / output interfaces, input devices, and networking devices.

[0061] When executing machine-readable commands contained in RAM, the device processor is configured to perform basic computational operations required to perform the functions of the device or one or more of its components.

[0062] The memory is typically designed in the form of RAM, where the necessary program logic is loaded to ensure the required functionality. The memory capacity required to implement the proposed solution is allocated when using the proposed solution.

[0063] Data storage devices can be designed in the form of HDDs, SSDs, RAID, NAS, flash memory, etc. These devices can store various types of information for long periods of time, such as files containing user datasets, databases containing time interval records of measurements for each user, user IDs, etc.

[0064] An interface is a standard means of connecting and operating peripheral devices and other devices, such as USB, RS232, RJ45, COM, HDMI, PS / 2, Lightning, etc.

[0065] The choice of interface depends on the specific design of the device, which can be a personal computer, mainframe, server cluster, thin client, smartphone, laptop, etc.

[0066] In any embodiment of the system implementing the method, a keyboard can be used as a data input device. The keyboard can have any known hardware design: it can be a built-in keyboard used on a laptop or netbook, or a standalone device connected to a desktop computer, server, or other computer equipment. The connection can be wired, with the keyboard cable connected to a PS / 2 or USB port located on the desktop computer system unit, or wireless, with the keyboard exchanging data with a base station via a wireless communication channel (e.g., a radio channel), and the base station being directly connected to the system unit, for example, via a USB port. In addition to a keyboard, input devices can also include joysticks, displays (touchscreens), projectors, touchpads, mouse controllers, trackballs, light pens, speakers, microphones, etc.

[0067] Networked devices are selected from equipment that ensures data reception and transmission over a network, such as Ethernet cards, WLAN / Wi-Fi modules, Bluetooth modules, BLE modules, NFC modules, IrDa, RFID modules, GSM modems, etc. These devices are capable of exchanging data via wired or wireless data communication channels (such as WAN, PAN, LAN, Intranet, Internet, WLAN, WMAN, or GSM).

[0068] The components of the device are connected via a common data bus.

[0069] These application materials disclose preferred embodiments of the claimed technical solutions, which should not be used to limit them to other specific embodiments that are obvious to those skilled in the art and fall within the scope of the claimed legal protection.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for identifying geographical regions, characterized in that, Software implementations executed through data storage and processing servers include: A layer of digital geographic map in the form of a grid of square cells with a base size created using a geocentric coordinate system; Based on the type of the geographic object, each square cell containing at least a portion of the geographic object is iteratively divided into four equal square cells; After the iterative partitioning is completed, each unpartitioned square cell constituting the layer grid of the digital geographic map is assigned at least one word and a word from a set of commonly used colloquial words. The at least one word represents the geographic name of at least one geographic object that is at least partially contained in the square cell. The assigned geographic name word and colloquial word form a unique set of identifier words relative to all identifier words assigned to the remaining unpartitioned square cells.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, Specific types of geographic objects include one of the following: a country within administrative boundaries, a country region within administrative boundaries, a settlement within administrative boundaries, a settlement jurisdiction within administrative boundaries, a building, a nature reserve, a forest park, a park, a road network segment, a body of water, or a point of interest.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, When the unique identifier phrase is repeated due to the exhaustion of the common spoken vocabulary set, at least one additional word is added to the unique identifier phrase, which represents the geographical name of at least a portion of the geographical object contained in the square cell.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that, When at least a portion of each geographic object is contained in the unique identifier phrase, and the geographic names of all geographic objects in the square cell have been used in the unique identifier phrase, and the unique identifier phrase is repeated due to the exhaustion of the common colloquial vocabulary set, add at least one additional colloquial vocabulary to the unique identifier phrase.

5. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, When dividing a square cell into units that contain at least a portion of geographic objects, the number of iterations performed is calculated from the division of the square cell into units of the base size and is determined by the type of geographic object.

6. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The geographical names include at least one of the following: country name, region name, city name, city district name, street name and house number, nature reserve name, forest park name, park name, road network section name, water body name, or point of interest name.

7. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The basic dimensions correspond to 182, 160, 128, 96, 80, 64, 48 or 32 meters on the Earth's surface.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1, 3, or 4, characterized in that, It also includes receiving user input, which indicates that a square cell needs to be additionally divided into four equal square cells, and / or instructing the addition of additional words from a set of commonly used spoken words or user-suggested words to the unique identifier phrase to form a new unique identifier phrase.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1, 3, or 4, characterized in that, It also includes receiving user input, wherein the input instruction replaces the words representing geographical names in the unique identifier phrase and / or words from the common spoken vocabulary set with another word from the common spoken vocabulary set or a word suggested by the user, to form a new unique identifier phrase.

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