U.S. patent application number 14/631273 was filed with the patent office on 2015-09-10 for indexing geographic data.
The applicant listed for this patent is International Business Machines Corporation. Invention is credited to William J. Oliver, Wojciech J. Wyzga.
Application Number | 20150254276 14/631273 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 54017546 |
Filed Date | 2015-09-10 |
United States Patent
Application |
20150254276 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Oliver; William J. ; et
al. |
September 10, 2015 |
INDEXING GEOGRAPHIC DATA
Abstract
According to one embodiment of the present invention, a system
provides access to geographic information. The system generates an
index including information and one or more identifiers each
indicating a corresponding geographic area pertaining to the
information. The system processes a query against the index to
provide information aggregated for corresponding geographic areas.
Embodiments of the present invention further include a method and
computer program product for providing access to geographic
information in substantially the same manners described above.
Inventors: |
Oliver; William J.; (Tucson,
AZ) ; Wyzga; Wojciech J.; (Tucson, AZ) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
International Business Machines Corporation |
Armonk |
NY |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
54017546 |
Appl. No.: |
14/631273 |
Filed: |
February 25, 2015 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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14198787 |
Mar 6, 2014 |
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14631273 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
707/741 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 16/22 20190101;
G06F 16/29 20190101 |
International
Class: |
G06F 17/30 20060101
G06F017/30 |
Claims
1. A computer-implemented method of retrieving geographic related
information comprising: generating an index including information
and one or more identifiers each indicating a corresponding
geographic area pertaining to the information; and processing a
query against the index to provide information aggregated for one
or more of the corresponding geographic areas.
2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or
more identifiers include geohashes.
3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein processing
the query includes: performing a facet search of the index to
determine counts of information for the one or more of the
corresponding geographic areas.
4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the index
includes hierarchical levels of information and links between those
hierarchical levels.
5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the index
includes first and second identifiers for an information element,
wherein the second identifier indicates a portion of the geographic
area of the first identifier.
6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further including:
color coding the aggregated information and presenting the
color-coded information on a user interface.
7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the
color-coded information is presented for the one or more of the
corresponding geographic areas on a geographic map of the user
interface.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 14/198,787, entitled "INDEXING GEOGRAPHIC
DATA" and filed Mar. 6, 2014, the disclosure of which is
incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND
[0002] 1. Technical Field
[0003] Present invention embodiments relate to a geographic
information system (GIS), and more specifically, to indexing
geographic-related information, including hierarchical attributes,
in a manner that facilitates rapid access and display.
[0004] 2. Discussion of the Related Art
[0005] Managers in law enforcement organizations use computer
statistics systems to monitor activity in areas under their
jurisdiction over an interval of time (e.g., the past twenty-four
hours) and compare that activity to previous times (e.g., the
previous week, month, year, etc.). These systems typically produce
paper reports that take hours or days to compile. This limits the
usefulness of the reports to answering predetermined questions.
BRIEF SUMMARY
[0006] According to one embodiment of the present invention, a
system provides access to geographic information. The system
generates an index including information and one or more
identifiers each indicating a corresponding geographic area
pertaining to the information. The system processes a query against
the index to provide information aggregated for corresponding
geographic areas. Embodiments of the present invention further
include a method and computer program product for providing access
to geographic information in substantially the same manners
described above.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS
[0007] Generally, like reference numerals in the various figures
are utilized to designate like components.
[0008] FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic illustration of an example
environment for an embodiment of the present invention.
[0009] FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating an example manner of
preparing a geographic information record for insertion into an
index according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0010] FIG. 3 illustrates an example partitioning of a geographic
area into regions and association of geographic locations to
regions according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0011] FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating an example manner of
generating a visual display of aggregated geographic information
according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0012] FIG. 5 is an example visual display of aggregated geographic
information according to an embodiment of the present
invention.
[0013] FIG. 6 is an illustration of an example user interface for
accessing geographic information according to an embodiment of the
present invention.
[0014] FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating an example manner of
searching for geographic information and displaying results in
response to a user selection according to an embodiment of the
present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0015] Present invention embodiments relate to indexing information
in a geographic information system (GIS). In one embodiment,
geographic information is associated to predefined regions, and an
index of the information is built. Information is represented in
the index in manners that support searching, aggregation, and
drill-down of geographic and non-geographic dimensions. For
example, the predefined regions be may represented by string values
(e.g., using Geohash or other encoding). Likewise, links between
levels of hierarchical dimensions (e.g., categories and
sub-categories) may be encoded in string fields. One aspect of a
present invention embodiment includes a user interface that reacts
quickly to a user's interactive selection of filter criteria across
multiple data dimensions as a result of fast query processing using
the index.
[0016] An example environment for present invention embodiments is
illustrated in FIG. 1. Specifically, the environment includes one
or more data sources 110, one or more server systems 120, and one
or more client or end-user systems 130. Data sources 110, server
systems 120, and client systems 130 may be remote from each other
and communicate over a network 12.
[0017] Network 12 may be implemented by any number of any suitable
communications media (e.g., wide area network (WAN), local area
network (LAN), Internet, intranet, etc.). Alternatively, any number
of data sources 110, server systems 120, and client systems 130 may
be local to each other, and communicate via any appropriate local
communication medium (e.g., local area network (LAN), hardwire,
wireless link, intranet, etc.).
[0018] A data source 110 includes information associated with one
or more geographic locations. For example, a data source may
include documents of various types (e.g., incident reports, traffic
citations, arrest reports, etc.) containing or associated with a
location, date, time, motor vehicle make and model, etc. A data
source 110 may be implemented by any conventional information
storage system (e.g., relational database, file system server,
etc.).
[0019] A server system 120 may include a GIS module 122 and an
index 124 of information from data sources 110. The GIS module
and/or index may be implemented across plural server systems.
Alternatively, the GIS module and/or index may reside on a client
system 130 or other computer system in communication with the
client system.
[0020] Client systems 130 enable users to communicate with the GIS
module (e.g., via network 12). The client systems may present any
graphical user (e.g., GUI, etc.) or other interface (e.g., command
line prompts, menu screens, etc.) to receive commands from users
and interact with the GIS module, index, and/or other modules or
services.
[0021] Server systems 120 and client systems 130 may be implemented
by any conventional or other computer systems preferably equipped
with a display or monitor, a base (e.g., including at least one
processor 20, memories 30 and/or internal or external network
interface or communications devices 10 (e.g., modem, network cards,
etc.), optional input devices (e.g., a keyboard, mouse, or other
input device), and any commercially available and custom software
(e.g., index software, database software, etc.).
[0022] The server system, client system, and/or GIS module may
include one or more modules or units (e.g., GIS module, interface
module, document crawler module, etc.) to perform the various
functions of present invention embodiments described below (e.g.,
preprocessing and inserting data into the index, searching the
index, aggregating data, generating graphical displays, presenting
graphical displays, receiving user selections, etc.), may be
implemented by any combination of any quantity of software and/or
hardware modules or units, and may reside within memory 30 of a
server system and/or client systems for execution by processor
20.
[0023] In one embodiment of the present invention, index 124 may be
a reverse index. The reverse index may be managed using
conventional or other indexing tools (e.g., Apache Lucene/Apache
Solr), which support record insertion, text search, facet search,
etc. For example, the index may be managed using Lucene software,
and the GIS module may be a server based on the Solr search engine
infrastructure. Alternatively, the index may be implemented as a
relational database table or other searchable, associative data
structure (e.g., hash table, tree, etc.).
[0024] Initially, items of information associated with
corresponding geographic locations are read from data source 110,
pre-processed, and used to build index 124. For example, in the
case of a computer statistics system for law enforcement
organizations, items of information residing in data source 110 may
include traffic citations, incident reports, arrest reports, and
the like, where each item is associated with a geographic location
(e.g., the location at which a traffic citation was issued) and may
include other information (e.g., date, time, vehicle make and
model, driver, etc.). For each item of information selected from
data source 110, a record is prepared and inserted into index 124.
Each record (sometimes referred to as a "document" or a "row")
comprises one or more fields (sometimes referred to as "columns" or
"dimensions"), where each field logically comprises a name-value
pair (e.g., name="DATE", value="2014-01-01"). Fields to be included
in an aggregate may be stored in index-only mode to reduce the size
of the index. The index may be used to search for records by
specifying conditions on the values of the fields.
[0025] An example manner of creating a record for insertion into
index 124 (e.g., via processor 20 and GIS module 122) according to
an embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in FIGS. 2
and 3. In particular, an item of information (e.g., a traffic
citation, incident report, arrest report, etc.) is selected and
read from data source 124 at step 210.
[0026] At step 220, geographic information associated with the item
(e.g., an address, global positioning system (GPS) measurement,
etc.) is identified and converted into latitude and longitude
values to form coordinates of a geographic point.
[0027] At step 222, the geographic point is associated to a
geographic region. An example manner in which an area may be
partitioned into predefined regions is illustrated in FIG. 3. In
particular, the geographic area may be partitioned into predefined
regions bounded by lines of constant latitude 310 and longitude 312
that are integer multiples of a constant d (e.g., 0.05 degrees), to
form regions 320 that are "squares" in latitude-longitude
coordinates with dimensions d.times.d (not shown to scale). The
geographic point is associated to the region that contains it. This
region may be determined by rounding the latitude-longitude
coordinates of the point to those of the closest center of a
predefined region. Accordingly, geographic points 330 (FIG. 3) are
grouped together by association to one region 320, and geographic
points 332 are grouped together by association to a separate region
320.
[0028] At step 224, the coordinates of the center of the region to
which the geographic point is associated are encoded into a string.
For example, the coordinates may be converted into a string using
Geohash encoding. Geohash encoding allows for removing characters
from the end of the string to reduce its size, with an accompanying
loss of precision; the Geohash codes of nearby locations often (but
not always) have similar prefixes.
[0029] The geographic point may be further associated to one or
more additional predefined regions to provide a range of spatial
granularities. For example, the geographic area may be partitioned
into latitude-longitude squares for a plurality of values of the
constant d (e.g., 0.10, 0.05.degree., 0.0025.degree.,
0.0125.degree., 0.00625.degree., etc.), and the geographic point
may be associated to a region of each granularity. The granularity
may have any size; however, beyond five decimal places of
precision, the latitude resolution is less than one meter, which is
better than typically needed for aggregating GIS information. The
number and sizes of granularities may be user-configurable
parameters. At step 226, it is determined whether a region of
another granularity (e.g., another value of d) remains to be
associated to the geographical point. If so, processing returns to
step 222. A separate field is defined for the Geohash code of each
level of granularity.
[0030] At step 230, non-geographic attributes (e.g., date, car make
and model, etc.) associated with the item of information are
identified. These attributes may be converted into a common format
(e.g., dates may be converted to the form YYYY-MM-DD or the like).
Non-geographic attributes of the item that have a hierarchical or
dependent relationship to another attribute of the item may be
represented in a format that links a category or child attribute
(e.g., the model of the car) to its parent attributes(s) (e.g., the
make of a car). In particular, a separate field (e.g., a text
string) may be defined for each child attribute and for each parent
attribute. The value of the field for a child attribute may be
formed by concatenating the child attribute and each of its parent
attributes in order (e.g., from top-level parent to child), where
each attribute is separated and surrounded by one or more
predetermined characters. For example, a vehicle make (e.g.,
Toyota) and model (e.g., Prius) may have a field named "MAKE" with
a value "TOYOTA" and a field named "MODEL" with a value
"+TOYATA+PRIUS+", where "+" is the predetermined
separating/surrounding character. Surrounding each value completely
with the predetermined character(s) facilitates parsing and
matching the string. Storing the parent attribute(s) in the same
field as the child attribute protects against losing the
parent-child link if the child attribute is associated with more
than one parent (e.g., if two makes of car used the same model
name). These fields may be used to create facet counts with
dependent (e.g., multi-level, hierarchical, etc.) levels of
information in the index.
[0031] At step 240, a record is formed that contains a field for
each Geohash code and non-geographic attribute. The record is
stored in the index at step 250.
[0032] An example record illustrating a manner in which fields may
be defined for the indexing is shown in Table 1 below. In
particular, a field named "RecordID" has a value that is a unique
identifier for this record. A field named "Date" has a value
indicating the date of the record. A field named "Makes" has a
value for each vehicle make associated with this data item. A field
named "Models" has, for each vehicle, a string value combining the
make and model strings, so that index values and searches may
maintain the parent-child relationship of those values. A field
named "Geohash1" has a value representing the Geohash code
associated with a first region (e.g., latitude-longitude square). A
field named "Geohash2" has a value representing the Geohash code
associated with a second region of a smaller size than the first
region, and represents a finer level of granularity in spatial
location. Multiple distinct values in a single field are supported
in conventional indexing technology (e.g., Lucene, Solr, etc.)
using a multi-value field data type.
TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Example record RecordID Date Makes Models
Geohash1 Geohash2 1 Jan. 1, 2014 TOYOTA +TOYOTA + PRIUS+ 6gkzwgjz
6gkzwgjzn820 FORD +FORD + F100+
[0033] GIS module 122 may search index 124 (e.g., in response to a
query via client system 130 and network 12) to produce aggregated
data for each predefined region and generate information for a
visual display of the aggregated data on an electronic geographical
map. An example manner of generating a visual display of aggregated
geographic information contained in an index according to an
embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 4.
Initially, GIS module 122 searches the index. For example, the GIS
module may search the index in response to a query requesting a
count of records for the current year for each region (e.g., each
region of the coarsest granularity partition). The GIS module may
process the query using a facet search of the index. A facet search
is a fast procedure for returning counts of records in the index
that have a specified field value. In particular, at step 410, the
GIS module receives a set of search results. Each result comprises
a Geohash code for a predefined regions and a count of the number
of matching records for that Geohash code. At step 420, the GIS
module performs an initial loop over the results to determine the
maximum count B and the minimum count A. The GIS module then begins
another loop over the results. For reach result, the GIS module
accesses the Geohash code and count at step 430.
[0034] At step 440, the GIS module determines a boundary for the
region indicated by the Geohash code. For example, if the
predefined regions are latitude-longitude squares, the GIS module
may convert the Geohash code to latitude and longitude coordinates
that specify the center of the region. The region is bounded by
latitude (longitude) lines half the region width above and below
(left and right of) the center.
[0035] At step 450, the GIS module determines a color code to
indicate the count C of matching records in the region relative to
the maximum and minimum counts A and B. For example, the color code
may be specified by red, green, and blue intensities having values
(in hexadecimal) ranging from 00 to FF, where the red intensity is
(C-A)/(B-A).times.FF and the blue intensity is
(B-C)/(B-A).times.FF. In other words, the color tends toward blue
as the count tends toward the maximum count, and the color tends
toward red as the count tends toward the minimum count.
Alternatively, any color coding scheme may be used.
[0036] At step 460, a region with the boundary determined at step
440 and the fill-color determined at step 450 is drawn on an
electronic geographic map. Alternatively, the count C, relative
count (C-A)/(B-A), or other measure of aggregate information for
the region may be indicated using a non-color scheme (e.g.,
greyscale, text and printed within the region, a number of marker
symbols drawn within the region, elevation of the region in a
perspective view, hash line density, etc.).
[0037] The GIS module may transmit a specification of the image to
be drawn to client system 130, which may render the image on a
local display. Alternatively, the GIS module may draw the image on
a local display.
[0038] At step 470, the GIS module determines whether the search
results include another region that remains to be drawn. If so,
processing returns to step 430. Otherwise, processing ends.
[0039] An example visual display of aggregated geographic
information according to an embodiment of the present invention is
illustrated in FIG. 5. In particular, aggregate counts of records
for regions 510 with boundaries 520 are drawn on geographic map
530. The relative counts for each region 510 are indicated by
shading according to legend 540.
[0040] An example user interface for accessing geographic
information according to an embodiment of the present invention is
illustrated in FIG. 6. In particular, user interface 600 includes
views 610, 620, 630, and 640 showing count distributions for four
example dimensions: vehicle make, document type, date, and
geographic region, respectively. For each non-geographic dimension
(e.g., make, document type, and date), the number of counts for
each category or field value is shown in a bar chart 602. The
distribution of counts over geographic regions is displayed on a
map 642. A user may select a category or region for which to view
results. For example, a user may select a particular vehicle make
by clicking on the corresponding text label 614 of bar chart 612 in
view 610. Likewise, a user may select a geographic region by
clicking on a corresponding region 644 of map 642.
[0041] An example manner of searching for geographic information
and displaying updated results (e.g., via an interface module and
processor 20 of client system 130 and/or server system 120) in
response to a user selection according to an embodiment of the
present invention is illustrated in FIG. 7. Initially, an interface
module receives a user selection action (e.g., a mouse click within
view 610, 620, 630, or 640) at step 710. At step 720, the interface
module determines whether the user has made a selection for a
geographic dimension or a non-geographic dimension. For example,
the interface module may determine whether the user clicked within
a geographic view (e.g., view 640) or a non-geographic view (e.g.,
view 610, 620, or 630). If the user has made a selection within a
geographic view, at step 730 the interface module determines which
geographic region 644 the user selected. If the user has made a
selection within a non-geographic view, at step 732 the interface
module determines which category type the user selected. The
interface module then begins a loop over dimensions viewed in the
user interface (e.g., vehicle make, document type, date, and
region) to update the corresponding displayed results (e.g., bar
charts, maps, etc.). In particular, at step 740, the interface
module gets the next dimension to update. At step 742, the
interface module determines whether the current dimension and the
user-selected dimension are the same. If not, the interface module
creates a new query to request a count of records belonging to the
user-selected category or region for the current dimension at step
744. The interface module applies the query against the index and
receives results at step 746. The interface module updates the
results displayed in the user interface for the current dimension
at step 748. At step 750, the interface module determines whether
results for another displayed dimension remain to be updated. If
so, processing returns to step 740. Otherwise processing ends.
[0042] If the interface module determines at step 742 that the
current dimension and the user-selected dimension are the same,
processing may proceed to step 750 without updating the display of
results for the dimension. For example, if the user selects a
particular vehicle make from view 610 (FIG. 6), the bar chart 602
of view 610 may remain unaltered, rather than collapse to a single
category.
[0043] It will be appreciated that the embodiments described above
and illustrated in the drawings represent only a few of the many
ways of implementing embodiments for indexing geographic
information.
[0044] The environment of the present invention embodiments may
include any number of computer or other processing systems (e.g.,
client or end-user systems, server systems, etc.) and storage
systems (e.g., file systems, databases, or other repositories),
arranged in any desired fashion, where the present invention
embodiments may be applied to any desired type of computing
environment (e.g., cloud computing, client-server, network
computing, mainframe, stand-alone systems, etc.). The computer or
other processing systems employed by the present invention
embodiments may be implemented by any number of any personal or
other type of computer or processing system (e.g., desktop, laptop,
PDA, mobile devices, etc.), and may include any commercially
available operating system and any combination of commercially
available and custom software (e.g., database software,
communications software, etc.). These systems may include any types
of monitors and input devices (e.g., keyboard, mouse, voice
recognition, touch screen, etc.) to enter and/or view
information.
[0045] The various functions of the computer or other processing
systems may be distributed in any manner among any number of
software and/or hardware modules or units, processing or computer
systems and/or circuitry, where the computer or processing systems
may be disposed locally or remotely of each other and communicate
via any suitable communications medium (e.g., LAN, WAN, intranet,
Internet, hardwire, modem connection, wireless, etc.). For example,
the functions of the present invention embodiments may be
distributed in any manner among various server systems,
end-user/client and/or any other intermediary processing devices
including third party client/server processing devices. The
software and/or algorithms described above and illustrated in the
flow charts may be modified in any manner that accomplishes the
functions described herein. In addition, the functions in the flow
charts or description may be performed in any order that
accomplishes a desired operation.
[0046] The communication network may be implemented by any number
of any types of communications network (e.g., LAN, WAN, Internet,
Intranet, VPN, etc.). The computer or other processing systems of
the present invention embodiments may include any conventional or
other communications devices to communicate over the network via
any conventional or other protocols. The computer or other
processing systems may utilize any type of connection (e.g., wired,
wireless, etc.) for access to the network. Local communication
media may be implemented by any suitable communication media (e.g.,
local area network (LAN), hardwire, wireless link, Intranet,
etc.).
[0047] The system may employ any number of data storage systems and
structures to store information. The data storage systems may be
implemented by any number of any conventional or other databases,
file systems, caches, repositories, warehouses, etc.
[0048] The present invention embodiments may employ any number of
any type of user interface (e.g., Graphical User Interface (GUI),
command-line, prompt, etc.) for obtaining or providing information,
where the interface may include any information arranged in any
fashion. The interface may include any number of any types of input
or actuation mechanisms (e.g., buttons, icons, fields, boxes,
links, etc.) disposed at any locations to enter/display information
(e.g., search queries, selection criteria, etc.) and initiate
desired actions via any suitable input devices (e.g., mouse,
keyboard, touch screen, pen, etc.), and may present any number of
results in any form (e.g., bar graphs, line graphs, maps, tables,
etc.).
[0049] It is to be understood that the software of the present
invention embodiments could be developed by one of ordinary skill
in the computer arts based on the functional descriptions contained
in the specification and flow charts illustrated in the drawings.
Further, any references herein of software performing various
functions generally refer to computer systems or processors
performing those functions under software control. The computer
systems of the present invention embodiments may alternatively be
implemented by any type of hardware and/or other processing
circuitry.
[0050] The present invention embodiments are not limited to the
specific tasks, algorithms, parameters, data, or
network/environment described above, but may be utilized for
indexing and geographic information of any type (e.g., law
enforcement, weather, economic, etc.). Geographic locations may be
associated with regions of any sizes or shapes, and may be
represented using any coordinates. Any number of fields of any data
type (e.g., string, text, timestamp, integer, floating point, etc.)
may be included in a record and index.
[0051] The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing
particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of
the invention. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and
"the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the
context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood
that the terms "comprises", "comprising", "includes", "including",
"has", "have", "having", "with" and the like, when used in this
specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers,
steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude
the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers,
steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
[0052] The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and
equivalents of all means or step plus function elements in the
claims below are intended to include any structure, material, or
act for performing the function in combination with other claimed
elements as specifically claimed. The description of the present
invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and
description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the
invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations
will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without
departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. The
embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the
principles of the invention and the practical application, and to
enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the
invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are
suited to the particular use contemplated.
[0053] The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present
invention have been presented for purposes of illustration, but are
not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments
disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to
those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope
and spirit of the described embodiments. The terminology used
herein was chosen to best explain the principles of the
embodiments, the practical application or technical improvement
over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enable others of
ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodiments disclosed
herein.
[0054] The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a
computer program product. The computer program product may include
a computer readable storage medium (or media) having computer
readable program instructions thereon for causing a processor to
carry out aspects of the present invention.
[0055] The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible
device that can retain and store instructions for use by an
instruction execution device. The computer readable storage medium
may be, for example, but is not limited to, an electronic storage
device, a magnetic storage device, an optical storage device, an
electromagnetic storage device, a semiconductor storage device, or
any suitable combination of the foregoing. A non-exhaustive list of
more specific examples of the computer readable storage medium
includes the following: a portable computer diskette, a hard disk,
a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable
programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), a static
random access memory (SRAM), a portable compact disc read-only
memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD), a memory stick, a
floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such as punch-cards or
raised structures in a groove having instructions recorded thereon,
and any suitable combination of the foregoing. A computer readable
storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construed as being
transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freely
propagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves
propagating through a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g.,
light pulses passing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical
signals transmitted through a wire.
[0056] Computer readable program instructions described herein can
be downloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a
computer readable storage medium or to an external computer or
external storage device via a network, for example, the Internet, a
local area network, a wide area network and/or a wireless network.
The network may comprise copper transmission cables, optical
transmission fibers, wireless transmission, routers, firewalls,
switches, gateway computers and/or edge servers. A network adapter
card or network interface in each computing/processing device
receives computer readable program instructions from the network
and forwards the computer readable program instructions for storage
in a computer readable storage medium within the respective
computing/processing device.
[0057] Computer readable program instructions for carrying out
operations of the present invention may be assembler instructions,
instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine
instructions, machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware
instructions, state-setting data, or either source code or object
code written in any combination of one or more programming
languages, including an object oriented programming language such
as Smalltalk, C++ or the like, and conventional procedural
programming languages, such as the "C" programming language or
similar programming languages. The computer readable program
instructions may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on
the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on
the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on
the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote
computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type
of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area
network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external
computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet
Service Provider). In some embodiments, electronic circuitry
including, for example, programmable logic circuitry,
field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), or programmable logic arrays
(PLA) may execute the computer readable program instructions by
utilizing state information of the computer readable program
instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry, in order to
perform aspects of the present invention.
[0058] Aspects of the present invention are described herein with
reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of
methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products
according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood
that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block
diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations
and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer readable
program instructions.
[0059] These computer readable program instructions may be provided
to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose
computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to
produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via
the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing
apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts
specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
These computer readable program instructions may also be stored in
a computer readable storage medium that can direct a computer, a
programmable data processing apparatus, and/or other devices to
function in a particular manner, such that the computer readable
storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises an
article of manufacture including instructions which implement
aspects of the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block
diagram block or blocks.
[0060] The computer readable program instructions may also be
loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing
apparatus, or other device to cause a series of operational steps
to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or
other device to produce a computer implemented process, such that
the instructions which execute on the computer, other programmable
apparatus, or other device implement the functions/acts specified
in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
[0061] The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate
the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible
implementations of systems, methods, and computer program products
according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this
regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent
a module, segment, or portion of instructions, which comprises one
or more executable instructions for implementing the specified
logical function(s). In some alternative implementations, the
functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in
the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in
fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may
sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the
functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of
the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations
of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can
be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that
perform the specified functions or acts or carry out combinations
of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.
* * * * *