TWI410816B - Method for searching a database for at least a location data set and data searching system - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for searching a database for at least a recorded location data set includes: (a) deciding at least one facility availability condition; (b) searching the database for at least a specific recorded location data set matching the facility availability condition; and (c) displaying the specific recorded location data set found in the database that matches the facility availability condition.

Description

Method and data search system for searching at least one location data set in a database

The invention relates to a method for searching a location data set in a database and a system thereof, in particular to searching a database in a navigator to find a point of interest (POI). Method and system.

Generally, the navigator has a database containing a plurality of stored points of interest, and the user can control navigation by inputting a location condition (such as Beijing, Taipei, New York, etc.) or type conditions (such as restaurants, theaters). The instrument displays the desired point of interest. However, information obtained from searches based on input location conditions or type conditions is not all relevant or useful. For example, if the user searches for a restaurant near the current location on the navigator at 21:00, all the nearby restaurants will be displayed. However, some of the restaurants displayed may have closed at 21:00. Or no seats available. That is to say, some of these points of interest may be unavailable, and the user must spend a lot of time checking whether these points of interest are useful.

In order to avoid that the searched interest points contain unusable points of interest, the present invention provides a method and a data search system for searching at least one location data set in a database.

The method for searching for at least one location data set in a database includes (a) determining at least one facility availability condition; and (b) searching the database to find at least matching the facility availability condition. a specific set of location data; (c) displaying the particular set of location data found in the repository that matches the availability criteria of the facility.

The invention further provides a data search system, comprising a database for storing a plurality of location data sets; an input interface; a control unit coupled to the database and the input interface for receiving at least one facility from the input interface Availability conditions, and searching the database for at least one particular data set that matches the facility availability criteria; and a display device coupled to the control unit for searching in the database This particular set of location data that matches the facility availability criteria is displayed.

By using the method and data search system for searching at least one location data set in a database, the unavailable interest points are filtered out, and the user does not have to spend a lot of time to check whether the searched interest points are Useful and saves time.

The preferred embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Certain terms are used throughout the description and following claims to refer to particular components. Those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that a hardware manufacturer may refer to the same component by a different noun. The scope of this specification and the subsequent patent application do not use the difference in name as the means of distinguishing components, but the difference in function of components as the criterion for distinguishing. The term "including" as used throughout the specification and subsequent claims is an open term and should be interpreted as "including but not limited to". In addition, the term "coupled" is used herein to include any direct and indirect electrical connection. Therefore, if a first device is coupled to a second device, it means that the first device can be directly electrically connected to the second device or indirectly electrically connected to the second device through other devices or connection means.

1 is a schematic diagram showing the operation of a method of searching for at least one location data set in a database, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Specifically, Figure 1 illustrates a user interface for the user to set search criteria for searching for points of interest. A related search interface usually provides a location condition or a type condition. In the first figure, the location condition, such as area 100, indicates that the search is performed at the current location (here, for example, the location condition may also be an administrative area or range, etc.) ), type conditions such as area 101 (restaurant), 103 (entertainment), 105 (shopping), 107 (car service) and 109 (government organization), so that users can search for points of interest in the navigator according to location conditions or type conditions. . However, according to the above description, only the location condition or the type condition cannot filter out the useless points of interest. Therefore, in this embodiment, the present invention further provides a facility availability condition (FAC) such as area 111 (business hours condition) and 113 (available seat condition), and the user can set the facility availability through the areas 111 and 113. condition. Through the set facility availability conditions, useless points of interest can be filtered out, no longer displayed, and only the facilities that are actually available are displayed.

Taking the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 as an example, the area 111 indicates that the user wants to search for points of interest that can be used at 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM. At the same time, the area 113 indicates that the available seats of the points of interest are greater than or equal to six. Therefore, in conjunction with the conditions of the areas 101, 111, and 113, the search is performed at the current position, and a restaurant that is open from 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM and has six seats available or more is searched for and displayed.

Figure 2 is a diagram showing a search for a favorite point of interest in accordance with a method of searching for at least one location data set in a database in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Fig. 2, the total number of restaurant search results is 24, and the displayed restaurants 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 match the business hours conditions and available seating conditions determined in Fig. 1. At the same time, the data and distance corresponding to the facility availability conditions (business hours and available seats) set in Fig. 1 are displayed.

Figure 3 is a flow chart showing the detailed steps of a method for searching at least one location data set in a database according to an embodiment of the present invention. These steps are only one embodiment and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. As shown in Figure 3, the steps include:

Step 301: Start.

Step 303: Acquire a specific range according to the set position condition. The location condition can be a certain level of administrative area or a specific location surrounding area.

Step 305: Acquire all points of interest in the specific range.

Step 307: Does the user specify a type condition? If yes, go to step 309. If not, go to step 311.

Step 309: Filter the points of interest according to the type condition or the location condition.

Step 311: Does the user specify a facility availability condition? If yes, go to step 313. If not, go to step 315.

Step 313: Filter the points of interest that are not available according to the facility availability condition.

Step 315: Display the filtered points of interest.

The embodiment illustrated in Figure 3 may further comprise the step of determining at least one filter condition, such as a type condition and a location condition, prior to determining a facility availability condition. In this case, the points of interest that match the facility availability conditions and filter conditions are found and displayed.

Figure 4 is a flow chart showing the detailed steps of a method of searching for at least one location data set in a database in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In particular, Figure 4 illustrates different sources of facility availability conditions. The steps include:

Step 401: Start.

Step 403: Is there any facility availability condition of the point of interest in the location information? Among them, the location information is pre-installed in the navigator. If yes, go to step 405. If not, go to step 407.

Step 405: Filter the points of interest according to the facility availability conditions.

Step 407: Does the user set the facility availability condition of the point of interest by inputting the user setting data to the navigator? If yes, go to step 409. If not, go to step 411.

Step 409: Read the facility availability condition of the interest point set by the user, and filter the interest point accordingly.

Step 411: Is the base station or network available? That is, decide whether to have any real time information about the availability conditions of the facility. If yes, go to step 413. If not, go to step 415. It should be noted that the base station or network is merely an embodiment and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention. Real-time information can come from any other resource.

Step 413: Filter the points of interest according to information from the base station or the network.

Step 415: End.

The sequence of steps shown in FIG. 4 may be diverse, and therefore, the steps shown in FIG. 4 indicate that the facility availability condition may come from at least one of the following: location information preset in the navigator (steps 403, 405), user Set the data (steps 407, 409) and real-time information (steps 411, 413).

According to the above description, a method of searching for at least one location data set in a database can be summarized as follows: determining at least one facility availability condition; searching the database to search for at least one specific data set that matches the facility availability condition ( It also exists in certain facility availability conditions where a specific data set cannot be found); and displays a specific set of location data that is found in the database that matches the facility availability criteria. Meanwhile, the facility usability condition is not limited to the above conditions, but may be other conditions such as business conditions, goods providing conditions, goods price conditions, avoiding conditions, and available seat conditions. Avoid conditions that indicate where the user does not like, do not want to arrive, or pass by, such as a cemetery, a dirty place, or a place where traffic is confusing. Therefore, if the avoidance condition is set in the facility availability condition, the specific location data set close to or located in these places is filtered and not displayed. At the same time, the facility availability condition can come from at least one of the following: location information preset in the navigator, user setting data, and real-time information.

In addition, the method of searching for at least one location data set in a database may further include the step of recording user behavior and displaying the specific location data set found in the database that matches the facility availability condition. Display a specific set of location data based on user behavior. For example, the number of times of use of the points of interest is recorded, and the step of displaying the specific location data set that is searched in the database and matching the facility availability conditions is prioritized to display the most frequently used points of interest. For example, the user likes Japanese food and often goes to a Japanese restaurant, so the method according to the present invention records such an example and displays the Japanese restaurant at the uppermost position as in the embodiment of Fig. 2.

It should be noted that the methods shown in Figures 1 through 4 are not limited to use in a navigator, and the points of interest may be other types of location data sets.

Figure 5 is a block diagram showing a data search system 500 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 5, the data search system 500 includes a database 501 (such as a storage device), an input interface 503, a control unit 505, and a display device 507, and the control unit 505 is coupled to the database 501 and the input interface. The display device 507 is coupled to the control unit 505. The database 501 is used to store a plurality of location data sets. The control unit 505 is configured to receive at least one facility availability condition or filter condition from the input interface 503 and search the database 501 for at least one particular location data set that matches the facility availability condition or filter condition. The display device 507 is configured to display a specific set of location data that is searched in the database 501 and that matches the facility availability condition or filter condition.

The data search system 500 can be used with a navigator or any other electronic device. If the data search system 500 is applied to the navigator, at least one of its database 501, input interface 503, control unit 505, and display device 507 can be shared with the navigator. Since other detailed features have been described in Figures 1 through 4, they are omitted here and will not be described again.

According to the above embodiment, useful points of interest can be effectively searched, and useless points of interest are not displayed, and problems caused by previous related search techniques can be avoided.

The above-described embodiments are only intended to illustrate the embodiments of the present invention, and to explain the technical features of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. It is intended that the present invention be construed as being limited by the scope of the invention.

100, 101, 103, 105, 107, 109, 111, 113. . . region

500. . . Data search system

501. . . database

503. . . Input interface

505. . . control unit

507. . . Display device

301 ~ 315, 401 ~ 415. . . step

1 is a schematic diagram showing the operation of a method of searching for at least one location data set in a database, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2 is a diagram showing a search for a favorite point of interest in accordance with a method of searching for at least one location data set in a database in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 3 is a flow chart showing the detailed steps of a method of searching for at least one location data set in a database in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4 is a flow chart showing the detailed steps of a method of searching for at least one location data set in a database in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 5 is a block diagram showing a data search system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

301~305. . . step

Claims (22)

A method of searching for at least one location data set in a database, comprising: (a) determining at least one facility availability condition; and (b) searching a database for at least one specific location that matches the facility availability condition a set of data sets; (c) displaying the particular set of location data found in the database that matches the facility availability criteria. The method for searching for at least one location data set in a database as described in claim 1, wherein the facility availability condition includes at least one of the following: a business time condition, a commodity supply condition, a commodity price condition, Avoid conditions and available seating conditions. A method for searching for at least one location data set in a database as described in claim 1, wherein the database is located in a navigator. A method for searching for at least one location data set in a database as described in claim 3, wherein the location data set is a point of interest data. A method for searching for at least one location data set in a database as described in claim 1, wherein the database includes preset location information stored therein. A method for searching for at least one location data set in a database as described in claim 1 wherein the database includes user data entered therein. A method for searching for at least one location data set in a database as described in claim 1, wherein the database includes real-time information input thereto. The method for searching for at least one location data set in a database, as described in claim 7, further comprising: receiving the real-time information from a base station or a network, wherein the real-time information to be received is received. Stored in the database. The method for searching for at least one location data set in a database as described in claim 1, further comprising: selecting at least one of a type condition and a location condition as one before step (a) a filter condition; wherein step (b) searches the database for the particular set of location data that matches the facility availability condition and the filter condition. A method for searching for at least one location data set in a database as described in claim 1, wherein the step (c) displays information corresponding to the facility availability condition when the specific location data set is displayed. . The method for searching for at least one location data set in a database as described in claim 1, further comprising: recording user behavior, wherein step (c) further displays the specific location according to the user behavior. Data set. A data search system, comprising: a database for storing a plurality of location data sets; an input interface; a control unit coupled to the database and the input interface for receiving at least the input interface a facility availability condition, and searching in a database for at least one particular location data set that matches the facility availability condition; and a display device coupled to the control unit for use in the database The particular set of location data found in the search that matches the facility availability criteria is displayed. The data search system of claim 12, wherein the facility availability condition comprises at least one of the following: a business time condition, a commodity supply condition, a commodity price condition, an avoidance condition, and an available seat condition. The data search system described in claim 12 of the patent application can be applied to a navigator. The data search system of claim 14, wherein the location data set is a point of interest data. The data search system of claim 12, wherein the database includes preset location information stored therein. The data search system of claim 12, wherein the database includes user data input therein. The data search system of claim 12, wherein the database includes real-time information input thereto. The data search system of claim 18, wherein the control unit receives the real-time information from a base station or a network, and stores the received real-time information in the database. The data search system of claim 12, wherein at least one of a filter condition selected from a type condition and a position condition is input to the said interface through the input interface before the facility availability condition is input. a control unit; wherein the control unit searches the database for the particular set of location data that matches the facility availability condition and the filter condition. The data search system of claim 12, wherein the display device displays information corresponding to the facility availability condition when the specific location data set is displayed. The data search system of claim 12, wherein the control unit records user behavior, and the display device displays the specific location data set according to the user behavior.