Spatial Index Entity Filtering via Backchannel Score Maintenance

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Existing relational database systems are inefficient in finding a specific number of 'best' entities that satisfy both spatial and entity filtering criteria, often requiring brute force or trial-and-error approaches that consume significant resources and are unpredictable in performance.

Innovation Solution

A method using a backchannel object to maintain spatial criteria, calculate spatial scores, and update a sorted map to efficiently find and return the 'best' entities that satisfy both spatial and entity filtering criteria, based on their spatial scores, by excluding targets that do not meet the criteria and updating the map to include entities that do.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If brute force or trial-and-error approaches are used to find the best entities, then completeness of search is improved, but resource consumption and processing time increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecompleteness of searchVSAvoidresource consumption
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies preliminary action by pre-calculating and storing spatial scores for entities in a sorted map data structure before the actual query execution. This allows the system to quickly retrieve pre-computed spatial relationships without performing expensive calculations during query time, thus maintaining search completeness while reducing resource consumption during operation.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements local quality by using a backchannel object to maintain and update only the specific spatial score information needed for the current query context. Instead of processing all entities uniformly, the system focuses computational resources on maintaining localized spatial score data structures that are relevant to the specific query requirements, improving efficiency without sacrificing completeness.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

2Measurement precision

If brute force or trial-and-error approaches are used to find the best entities, then accuracy of results is improved, but processing time becomes unpredictable

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveaccuracy of resultsVSAvoidprocessing time predictability
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies preliminary action by pre-computing spatial scores and maintaining them in a sorted map structure before queries are executed. This ensures that accurate spatial relationship data is readily available, maintaining result accuracy while enabling predictable query performance since the expensive computation has already been performed in advance.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements feedback through the backchannel object that continuously maintains and updates spatial score information based on query results. This feedback mechanism ensures that the spatial score data remains accurate and up-to-date, maintaining measurement precision while the structured approach provides predictable processing time for subsequent queries.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

3Reliability

If all entities are evaluated to find the best ones, then completeness of filtering is improved, but memory consumption increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecompleteness of filteringVSAvoidmemory consumption
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements local quality by using a backchannel object to maintain spatial score information only for entities that are relevant to the current query context. This localized approach ensures complete filtering of relevant entities while avoiding the memory overhead of maintaining data structures for all entities in the database, thus improving the ratio of useful data to total memory consumption.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Data Source

PatentEP2895966B1Efficiently finding spatially scored best entities
Publication Date: 2019.08.21 BENTLEY SYSTEMS INC
  • EP2895966B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2895966B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP2895966B1 patent drawingFigure 3A

AI summary

In one embodiment, a particular number of best entities are found in a database with a spatial index that satisfy both spatial criteria and entity filtering criteria. For each of a set of targets in the spatial index whose bounding box meets the spatial criteria, a spatial score is calculated. If the spatial score is less than a minimum spatial score in a current map of best entities and the current map is full, the target is excluded from further consideration. If the spatial score is not less than the minimum spatial score, when the target is an entity that meets the entity filtering criteria, the current map is updated to store the entity and the spatial score for the entity. When each of the targets in the spatial index has been subject to test or excluded from consideration, the current map is returned as a final result.