NZ530717A - Method for registering and searching userÆs position information and system thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and system for registering and searching for userÆs location information, stored at the distributed location information domain servers, using userÆs position IDÆs, is disclosed. The system includes: (a) a location information domain manager terminal, (b) a location information domain management server having a location information domain management database, (c) a plurality of location information domain servers, each of which has a location information database for storing the userÆs location information (co-ordinate), (d) a plurality of general domain servers, and (e) a plurality of userÆs terminals which are connected through the internet to thereby register the userÆs location information (co-ordinate) at each location information domain server, and if required, search for the userÆs location information through the domain server, with which a user terminal connects.

Description

§2>o?H 1 METHOD FOR REGISTERING AND SEARCHING USER'S POSITION INFORMATION, AND SYSTEM THEREOF Technical Field The present invention relates to a method and a system for registering and searching for user's location information using the user's position ID which is registered and stored at one of a plurality of the location information servers. Specifically, the invention relates to a method and a system for registering and searching for a location information using its corresponding position ID which is determined uniquely in the form of 'user_ID#domain_name', which can be registered and stored at a location information server. The system of this invention includes a location information domain manager terminal, a location information domain management server having a location information domain management database, a plurality of location information servers each of which has a location information database storing the user's location information with its corresponding position ID, a plurality of general servers and a plurality of user terminals, which are connected through the wired or wireless internet.

Background Art Recently, the wired or wireless Internet has been widely used and commercial transaction via the Internet has been activated. When a user (consumer) purchases goods on the Internet, a site selling the goods delivers them to the user with the help of a delivery service company or a distribution center. The site selling goods should know the location information for delivery of the goods purchased by the user. Thus, the site obtains the address of the user through subscription or by making an inquiry of the user. i - 8 OCT 2007 \ \ RECEIVED.

In prior arts, the user registered his address including the place name representing the location as subscriber registration information when the user signed in the shopping mall site. Otherwise, the user entered his address in the site when he purchased goods as a general consumer.

It is worthwhile to note that the address for some country is parcel based and limited to identify a point location because of its characteristic representing an area instead of a point.

Furthermore, the location information databases on the servers of the separate systems are independently constructed in their own data formats and manners so that they may not share jointly the location information including the address of the user.

Furthermore the place name representing a location like a firm, a building, a bank, a hotel, a hospital and others may be duplicated, and is, therefore, limited to identify its location uniquely in the world.

In case the user can't use the conventional address or the name representing an arbitrary location as in the sea or on the mountain, there is no way to inform the point location simply and exactly.

As mentioned above, there is no unified and simple method of representing an arbitrary location on the earth uniquely in the conventional method. Accordingly, it is difficult or there is no way to identify the accurate point location only with the conventional address or the location name in an area poorly readjusted.

Disclosure of Invention An object of the present invention is to provide a system constructed in a manner that a location information domain manager terminal, a location information domain management server having a location information domain management database, a 2 intellectual property office of n.2. - 8 OCT 2007 received plurality of location information servers each of which has a location information database storing user's location information, a plurality of general servers and a plurality of user terminals are connected through the wired or wireless Internet, by which the user's location information with a user's position ID (so called ePosition) can be registered at each of the location information servers and the registered location information can be shared through the Internet for some application of searching and displaying its location on the digital map, being used for car navigation and telematics and other purposes.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of registering the domain name of a location information server at the location information domain management server and registering the user's location information together with the position ID (ePosition) at a location information server using the above described system, by which a web server can search for the user's location information through the Internet using the position ID under the control of the management of the location information domain management server.

Still another object of the present invention is to register and store the user's location information in one of the plurality of the location information servers distributed in the world through the Internet.

To accomplish the objects of the present invention, there is provided a system for registering and searching for user's location information with its corresponding position ID stored in one of the distributed location information servers, comprising: a location information domain management server having a location information domain management database, the location information domain management server managing a plurality of location information servers, the location information domain management intellectual property office of n.z. 3 -8 OCT 2007 received server carrying out an operation of registering, updating, modifying or deleting the domain name of a location information server and storing information related with the operation in the location information domain management database; the plurality of location information servers each of which has a location information database for registering user's location information together with its corresponding position ID to store them in the location information databases and to manage, update, modify or delete them, each location information server searching for user's location information; a location information domain manager terminal for managing the location information domain management server ; user terminals by which users connect with desired web servers through the Internet ; general servers each of which is not registered at the location information domain management server as one of the location information servers, each general server having software required for searching for the user's location information installed therein, each general domain server having no functions of storing and managing the user's location information; and the Internet, wherein the user's location information is registered together with its corresponding position ID at a information location server and the registered user's location information is confirmed. To accomplish the objects of the present invention, there is also provided a method for registering and searching for user's location information with 'user_ID' using the distributed location information servers, the method comprising: a location information domain management server connection step in which a user who wants to register at a location information server or to search for location information connects with a location information domain management server; a location information domain registration confirming step for confirming if the same domain name of the location information server that someone wants to register has been already registered previously intellectual property 4 office of n.z. -8 OCT 2007 received or not; a location information domain registration step for registering the domain name of the location information server when it is confirmed that the same domain name of location information server has not been registered previously; a step in which the user registered at the location information server or the user who wants to search for location information can connect with the location information server; a step for confirming if the same position ID to be registered with a location information has not been registered previously; a user location information registration step for registering a position ID with its corresponding location information when the same position ID has not been registered previously at the location information server; a step in which the user carries out an operation he wants to do at a web server with which the user connects through the Internet; and a step for connecting with the location information server at which the location information has been registered to search for the point location information corresponding to a position ID.

Brief Description of the Drawings Further objects and advantages of the invention can be more fully understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 shows a system for registering and searching for the point location coordinate with its corresponding position ID stored at one of the distributed location information servers connected through the Internet in accordance with the present invention; FIG. 2 is a flow diagram for showing a method of registering a point location information with its corresponding position ID and searching for the point location coordinate using the location information server in accordance with the present invention ; FIG. 3 is a flow diagram for showing in detail the step of registering a domain name of a location information at the location information domain management intellectual property office of n.z. - 8 OCT 2007 DCOCIV/CO server among the steps of FIG. 2; FIG. 4 shows an example of a registration form provided for registration of the location information domain at the step of presenting the registration form of FIG. 3; FIG. 5 is a flow diagram for showing in detail the step of registering the location information at a location information server among the steps of FIG. 2; and FIG. 6 is a flow diagram for showing in detail the step of searching for the point location information using its corresponding position ID registered at a certain location information server among the steps of FIG. 2.

Best mode for Carrying out the Invention FIG. 1 shows a system for performing a method of registering and searching for the location coordinate using its corresponding position ID stored at one of the distributed location information servers in accordance with the present invention. Here, the location information does not mean information like the conventional address constructed of a city, a district, a block and a street number but location information including the longitude and latitude value based on a coordinate system and its position ID for identifying the location coordinates. Specifically, the TM coordinate or UTM coordinate based on the earth ellipsoid such as WGS-84 or Bessel are another examples of the location information. Accordingly, each user has his own user location information corresponding to the place like an office, a home and so on, and this location information is registered by its position ID in the form of "user_ID#domain_name". Thus, it is possible to search for point location information using its registered position ID.

The user's position ID mentioned above can be represented in a manner similar to the form of the conventional e-mail address. For instance, when the 'user_ID' is "gildong" 6 intellectual property office of n.z. - 8 OCT 2007 received and the 'domain_name' is "chollian.net," the email address is "gildong@chollian.net" where the symbol @ plays a roll of delimiter of the e-mail address.

Similarly, in case where the 'user_ID' is "gildong" and the 'domain_name' at which the 'user_ID' is registered is "chollian.net," the position ID can be represented in "gildong#chollian.net" where the symbol # plays a roll of the delimiter of the position ID. Here, the delimiter of a position ID is not limited to the symbol #, and it is intended to explain that the position ID is represented in the aforementioned manner.

The system of the present invention includes a location information domain management server 110 having a location information domain management database, a plurality of location information servers 120 each of which has a location information database, a location information domain manager terminal 130, user terminals 140 and general servers 150. These constituent elements are all connected through the Internet 160.

Specifically, the location information domain management server 110, which manages the plurality of location information servers 120a to 120n, registers, updates, modifies or deletes the 'domain_name' of a location information server and stores information related with these operations in the location information domain management server. The plurality of location information servers 120a to 120n, which manage the user's location information registered at each location information server, operate as independent and separate web servers after being registered as the location information servers The location information server 120 registers the user's location information and manages updates, modifies or deletes it. In addition, it can search for user's location intellectual property office of n.2. " 8 OCT 2007 re c eiv e 8 information, or it can request to other location information server to search for the specific location information stored at that location information server.

The information managed by the location information servers 120a to 120n is stored in the location information databases, and searching of location information is processed by the same sort of program provided to the location information server when the location information server was registered in the location information domain management server 110.

The location information domain manager terminal 130 controls the location information domain management database in the location information domain management server 110. Though the location information domain manager terminal 130 is connected to the location information domain management server 110 via the Internet 160 in this embodiment, it can be connected through a LAN.

Each user terminal 140 is a general terminal by which a user does a desired work (for example, purchasing goods) through a web server (not shown in the drawings), or registers or searches for location information through the location information server 120.

Each of the general servers 150 is a general web server that is not registered at the location information domain management server 110 and it is the existing Internet web server to which a user can have access for the purpose of purchasing goods. Though this general domain server 150 is not registered at the location information domain management server 110 and does not have the user's location information, it can request the location information server 120 for searching for the user's location information to get it. The program for requesting the location information server to search for the user's location information must be installed in the general server 150. intellectual property office of n.z. -8 OCT 2007 received Although the aforementioned constituent elements constructing the system of the invention are connected through the Internet, they are not directly connected to each other and the connection is restricted in order to prevent leak of user's personal information.

That is, the location information domain manager terminal 130 manages information about the location information servers 120a to 120n through the location information domain management server 110, and a user can have access to the location information servers 120a to 120n or the general server 150 having the program required for searching for the location information installed therein using the user terminal 140. However, the connection state between the constituent elements is not decided strictly but it can be modified into the most appropriate state under the operation condition of the system.

By using the above-described system according to the present invention, a user has access to a web server he wants to perform a required work (purchasing goods, for example). The web server obtains the user's location information required for delivering goods to the user through the location information server 120. Then, the information about the goods ordered by the user together with the user's location information obtained through the location information server 120 shall be transmitted to a distribution center for proper delivery.

The present invention has been explained with an application of purchasing goods in this embodiment but the field in which the user's location information is used is not limited thereto. That is, the user can connect with the location information domain management server 110 or directly connect with the location information server 120 in order to obtain location information according to the field in which the user's location q intellectual property y office of n.z. - 8 OCT 2007 received information is employed. Otherwise, the user can attain the location information through any other web server he wants to connect or the current web server.

The user's location information can be searched for through the following method using the above-described system of the present invention.

The principle of searching for the user's location information is as follows. A person, group or company operating the existing web server connects with the location information domain management server 110 to register the 'domain_name' of his location information server at the server 110, and the person or an individual belonging to the group or company connects with the location information server 120 at which the person or the individual wants to register a location information thereof and inputs the location information together with the position ID thereof.

The user's position ID constructed as above, instead of the location information, can be transferred to other people (or other web servers) and the other people (or the other web servers) can obtain the registered user's location information using the user's position ID. FIG. 2 is a flow diagram showing a method for registering and searching for the user's location information using the distributed location information serves in accordance with the present invention. To search for the user's location information, the required location information must be registered through a step S30 of registering 'domain_name' of a location information server and a step S60 of registering user's location information.

FIGS. 3, 5 and 6 are flow diagrams showing in detail the step S30 of registering a 'domain_name' of a location information server, the users location information registration step S60 and a user's location information searching step S80. intellectual property office of n.z. " 8 OCT 200? RECEIV E D 11 The present invention is explained with reference to the FIG. 2 to 6. First of all, a user who wants to register the 'domain_name' of a location information server 120 or obtain location information connects with a location information domain management server 110 in a step S 10. Then, it is confirmed if the 'domain name' of location information server has been already registered in a step S20 of confirming registration of 'domain_name' of location information server. When it is confirmed that the same 'domain_name' of a location information server has not been registered previously, the process goes to the step S30 of registering the 'domain_name' of the location information server. On the other hand, when the same 'domain_name' of a location information server has been already registered or it is not required to be registered (when the user connects with the location information domain management server only for searching for location information), the process goes to a step S40 at which the user connects with the location information server 120.

The step S30 of registering a 'domain_name' of a location information server is illustrated in detail in FIG. 3. When it is confirmed that the same 'domain_name' of the location information server which the user want to register at the location information domain management server 110 has not been registered at the 'domain_name' registration confirming step S20, the process goes to a step S31 where the location information domain management server 110 presents a form 170 for registration as a 'domain_name'.

The registration form 170 as shown in FIG. 4 may be an example. The registration form 170 is filled with some information required for managing the registered 'domain_name' of location information server 120. The 'domain_name' of the location information server in the form 170 must be a unique address because it is an element intellectual property ^ office of n.z. -8 OCT 2007 received 12 constructing a part of the location information for identifying a point registered uniquely as described below. Accordingly, after the information required is entered at the step S32, a duplication confirmation step S33 must be executed to confirm if the 'domain_name' of the location information server 120 to be registered is a unique address.

When it is confirmed that the 'domain_name' of the location information server 120 is not a unique one at the duplication confirmation step S33, the process goes to a step S34 of indicating an error message to inform the one who inputs the information into the form 170 that the same 'domain_name' as that of the location information server 120 to be registered already exists, and then goes back to the registration form presenting step S31 to allow the information required to be modified into the form 170.

When it is confirmed that the entered 'domain_name' of the location information server is a unique one at the duplication confirmation step S33, the location information server 120 is registered at the location information domain management database and the information entered at the step S32 is recorded therein at a step S35. Then, the registered location information server 120 downloads program for its operation as a location information server from the location information domain management server 110. This step is the program download step S36.

The program downloaded from the location information domain management server 110, which is software required for operation of the registered 'domain_name' as the location information server 120, includes a web page with which a user connects in order to make his position ID and register it, software required for confirming duplication of user's position ID and inputting user information into the location information database, a web page and software for managing user's location information, intellectual property 12 office of n.z. - 8 OCT 2007 received a web page and software for searching for a location information, maps and geographical information databases for identifying and indicating the physical location coordinates and GIS software for searching and displaying a location on the map. Here, the maps and geographical information databases can be used for identifying the location coordinate for a user when the user registers his location information. At a location information server installation step S37, the program downloaded at the step S36 is installed in the location information server 120. By doing so, the configuration of the location information server for registering and searching for the user's location information, which will be described below, is accomplished.

After registration of the location information server 120, the user who wants to register his location information at the corresponding location information server 120 connects with that server 120. This step is the location information server connection step S40 where the user directly connects with the location information server 120 or connects with the location information server 120 via the general server 150 linked to the location information server. Furthermore, a user who wants to search for location information can also connect with the location information server 120 to search for some location information.

In other words, if a user wants to connect with a general server 150 to* register his location information the general server 150, when it is linked with the location information server 120, stores the information in the location information database of the linked location information server 120 and manages it. Otherwise, the user can directly connect with the location information server 120 to register his location information thereat. It is obvious to those skilled in the art that the two aforementioned configurations are available. 13 intellectual property office of n.z. - 8 OCT 2007 RECEIVED 14 Thereafter, it is confirmed if the user's location information has been registered at a step S50. When the same user's location information has not been registered previously, the process goes to a user's location information registration step S60 where the user's location information is registered. When the same user's location information has been already registered previously, the process moves to a step S70 where the user performs a required work without doing the step S60.

The user's location information registration step S60 is shown in FIG. 5 in more detail. This user's location information registration step is similar to step S30 of registration of a 'domain_name' of a location information server.

Referring to FIG. 5, when it is confirmed that the user's location information has not been registered previously at the location information registration confirming step S50, the location information server 120 presents a registration form (not shown) at a registration form presenting step S61. Though the registration form may be similar to the one shown in FIG. 4, it can have a different configuration according to the managing scheme by the manager of each location information server. However, the registration form must be constructed in such a manner that the mandatory items such as user' address, accurate location coordinate and position ID should be included.

At a data input step S62, the required information is entered into the registration form presented at the step S61. At this time, the user's position ID is entered in the form of 'user_ID#domain_name'. Here, the 'user_ID' is a name composed of an arbitrary character string for identifying point location information registered, and the 'domain_name' corresponds to the domain name of the location information server 120 and is entered in the same form as the domain name of the existing web server. The 14 intellectual property office of n.2. - 8 OCT 2007 received delimiter symbol for the position ID is not limited to #, as described above. The location information includes maps and geographical information.

That is, the location coordinate can be entered in a manner that a location is designated with a mouse on a map displayed using maps and geographical databases.

At a duplication confirmation step S63, it is confirmed if the user's position ID among the contents entered at the data input step S62 is a duplicate one. If it is, the process goes to an error message indicating step S64 to show an error code to the user who wants to register his location information, and then presents the registration form again. When the user's position ID is confirmed not to be a duplicate one at the duplication confirmation step S63, the process goes to a location information storing step S65 where the information entered by the user into the registration form is stored together with the position ID in the location information database of the location information server 120.

After the user has registered his location information at the location information server 120, as described above, the user can connect with any of location information servers 120a to 120n or the general server 150 having program related with the location information domain management server 110 installed therein to perform a desired operation, for example, buying goods or requesting necessary information or data. This step corresponds to the desired operation executing step S70 in FIG. 2. That is, the user carries out an operation such as purchasing goods at a web server (a general server or a web server linked with the location information server) with which he connects in this step.

Upon completion of the desired operation executing step S70, the web server with which the user connects must identify the location information of the user in order to intellectual property 15 office of n.z. -8 OCT 2007 received 16 send the information or goods the user wants to obtain to the user. For this, the web server is provided with the registered position ID, connects with the location information server 120 at which the user's location information has been registered and then searches for the user's location information coordinate using the position ID of the user. This step is the user's location information searching step S80 shown in FIG. 2. FIG. 6 shows the user's location information searching step in more detail.

Referring to FIG. 6, when the user finished a desired work at the step S70, the process goes to a step S81 where the 'domain_name' of the location information server 120 registered by the user is separated from the position ID constructed by two parts of 'domain_name' identifying a location information server and 'user_ID' identifying a point location information registered at the location information server. Then, an attempt to link with the registered location information server 120 is made using 'domain_name' separated from the position ID at a step S82.

Upon connection with the location information server 120, the user's location information is searched for using the 'user_ID'. This step is the user's location information searching step S83. When the searching step S83 has been finished, it is confirmed if the searching was normally performed at a step S84. If it was, the process goes to a location information transmitting step S85 where the user's location information is sent to the web server that requests for it. If it was not, the process moves to an error code transmitting step S86 to report the cause of the failure in the searching to the server that request for the user's location information.

Through the aforementioned steps, the web server 120 or 150 with which the user connects sends the confirmed user's location information together with the one the user wants (here, goods the user wants to purchase) to a delivery company or distribution 16 "8 OCT 2007 received 17 center to allow it to deliver the goods to the user. In case where an error is generated at the searching step S80, however, searching is carried out again or an error message is sent to the user to allow the user to take an appropriate management.

Industrial applicability As described above, according to the method for registering and searching for a user's location information using distributed location information servers and the system used for the method, the user can provide his location information without signing in web servers and inputting his location information whenever he connects with the web servers, resulting in convenient and rapid processing in transactions on the Internet. Furthermore, web servers registered as the location information domain servers can share user's location information registered at each web server and, if required, even a web server that is not registered as the location information server can search for the user's location information only by installing necessary program therein. Thus, the location information can be managed more efficiently. Moreover, the present invention does not employ the conventional address information but provides location information using the position ID registered instead of the actual location coordinate so that the accurate location of the user can be found more conveniently.

In addition, since the location information domain management server manages the location information servers distributed through Internet, the user's location information registered at a location information server with its registered position ID can be managed in the same form, excluding duplicated registration of the location information. Furthermore, since it is sufficient that the user register his location information at only one location information server he wants, duplicated registration of data can be intellectual property office of n.z. "8 OCT 2007 Received 18 avoided and the location information can be prevented from being concentrated on a certain server, to result in smooth processing of information.

Although specific embodiments including the preferred embodiment have been illustrated and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, which is intended to be limited solely by the appended claims. intellectual property office of n.2. - 8 OCT 2007 RECEIVED

Claims (3)

19 What Is Claimed Is:

1. A system of registering and searching for location information stored at one of the plurality of location information servers distributed through Internet using a position ID in the form of 'user_ID#domain_name', the system comprising: a location information domain management server (110) having a location information domain management database storing the 'domain_name' of the location information server, the location information domain management server managing a plurality of location information servers (120a to 120n), the location information domain management server carrying out an operation of registering, updating, modifying or deleting the 'domain_name' of the location information server; the plurality of location information servers (120a to 120n) each of which has a location information database registering and storing user's location information together with a position ID, each location information server providing a location information searched by using a position ID; a location information domain manager terminal (130) for managing 'domain_name' of the location information server registered and stored in the location information domain management server; user terminals (140a to 140n) by which users connect a location information server (120) or general server (150) through wired or wireless Internet (160); general servers (150a to 150n) each of which has software providing operation of searching for the user's location information by the position ID installed therein, each general server having software providing the location based service using the position ID; "Intellectual property office of n.2. 19 "8 OCT 2007 received 20 and the Internet (160), wherein the user's location information is registered together with the position ID at one of the location information servers and the registered location information is searched by using the position ID.

2. A method of registering location information at one of a plurality of the location information servers by using a position ID in the form of 'user_ID#domain_name', the method comprising; a location information domain management server connection step (S10) in which a user registering location information with a position ID at a location information server (120) accesses to a location information domain management server (110) to get the IP address corresponding to 'domain_name' of the position ID; a step (S40) in which a user registering location information together a position ID at the location information server (120) connects to the location information server (120) by using the IP address corresponding to the ' domain_name'; a step (S50) for confirming if location information with the same position ID has been registered at the connected location information server (120); a user location information registration step (S60) for registering a user's location information with its corresponding position ID when the same user location information has not been registered previously at the connected location information server (120).

3. The method of searching location information registered at one of a plurality of the location information domain servers by using a position ID in the form of 'user_ID#domain_name' (S80), the method comprises: a step (S81) for separating 'user_ID' and 'domain_name' from a position ID; 20 intellectual property ofrce of n.2 31 OCT 2007 RECEIVED 21 a step (S82) for connecting with the location information server (120) by using the IP addresses which is provided by the location information domain management server and is corresponding to the 'domain_name'; a step (S83) for searching for a user's location information by using the 'user_ID' at the connected location information server at the step (S82); a step (S84) for confirming if the searching step (S83) for searching the location information corresponding to the 'user_ID' in the connected location information server has been normally carried out; a step (S85) in which the location information server transmits the searched location information corresponding to a position ID to server or terminal requesting for searching for the location information, when it is confirmed that the searching operation has been normally carried out; and a step (S86) for transmitting an error message when it is confirmed that searching operation has not been normally carried out. END OF GIAIMS 21 intellectual property ofrce of n.2. - 8 OCT 2007 RECEIVED