Google Inc.

Andrew Miller

Keith Ito

Michael Siliski

Iljya Kalai

Jerry Howard Morrison

Salih Burak Gokturk

Vincent Olivier Vanhoucke

Munjal Shah

Xiaofan Lin

Azhar H Khan

Diem Thanh Vu

Navneet Dalal

Hans-olav Cavelie

Thomas Gregory Nourse

Ronghui Zhu

Dan Chiao

Andrey Yuryevich Ulanov

Jacquie Phillips

Mark Moran

Brian Patrick Williams

Jeffrey C Reynar

David Nolan Sunderland

Harlan Hile

Daniel J Yehuda

Hannah Tang

A computer server prepares application-specific map data responsive to a request from a client device. The application-specific map data includes map feature data and label data which itself includes information that specifies one or more zoom levels for which the label information is appropriate to display. When generating the label data, a type table that designates label style information by feature type and by zoom level may be used at the server. The map feature data may also include a relative rank for each feature that is passed to its corresponding label. The display order allows the map client, when generating the map, to select the most appropriate labels to display when the display of all possible labels would cause clutter or otherwise violate label display rules.

Keeping map labels consistent across multiple zoom levels

An indexed list of vertices is generated to represent a polygon. The indexed list is ordered so as to define one or more boundaries of a polygon, where each element in the indexed list of vertices specifies respective coordinates in an at least two-dimensional space. A description of several component shapes that make up the polygon is generated, where the description includes indices into the indexed list of vertices. The indexed list of vertices and the description of the component shapes are provided to a computing device for rendering the polygon.

Encoding polygon data for fast retrieval and rendering

A path made up of several points including an origin, a destination, and intermediate points, is determined. Map data is fetched from an external map database to a local memory of a client device prior to detecting a need to use the map data for rendering maps at the client device. To this end, respective priorities of the points are determined, amounts of map data to be fetched are determined based on the determined priorities, and map data is fetched in accordance with the determined priorities, so that a first amount of map data is fetched for a point with a first priority and a second amount of map data for a point with a second priority, where the first amount is greater from the second amount. Respective digital maps of the one the geographic areas are generated using the pre-fetched map data stored in the local memory.

Pre-fetching map tile data along a route

A computer-implemented method and system for pre-fetching remote resource data from a remote mapping system for display on a client computing device is disclosed. Data received at a client device from an online mapping system in response to a query from the client device includes vector and remote resource data. Vector data is rasterized by the client device to depict graphical elements that are easily described by mathematical formulas. Remote resource data includes digital map elements that are not easily described by vectors, but instead, must be relayed to the client device as either bitmaps or references (e.g., URLs) to remote resources that are resolved at the backend or the client device. This remote resource data is prefetched to a client device so that it will be available for subsequent mapping application searches without resolving a corresponding reference to the remote resource data for each search.

Method and apparatus for pre-fetching remote resources for subsequent display on a mobile computing device

Systems and methods of route guidance on a user device are provided. In one aspect, a system and method transmit partitions of map data to a client device. Each map partition may contain road geometries, road names, road network topology, or any other information needed to provide turn-by-turn navigation or driving directions within the partition. Each map partition may be encoded with enough data to allow them to be stitched together to form a larger map. Map partitions may be fetched along each route to be used in the event of a network outage or other loss of network connectivity. For example, if a user deviates from the original route and a network outage occurs, the map data may be assembled and a routing algorithm may be applied to the map data in order to direct the user back to the original route.

Method and apparatus of route guidance

The present application describes techniques for fetching map data as a selected subset of entire map data available, by selecting map data tiles corresponding to an area that encompasses a first route and to an area encompassing a secondary route based on the first route. An amount of map data accessed may be adjusted based on a priority of the secondary route.

Method of pre-fetching map data for rendering and offline routing

The present application describes techniques for fetching map data as a selected subset of entire map data available by selecting map data tiles corresponding to an area that encompasses a route. An amount of map data accessed may be adjusted based on a priority assigned to areas or points along the route. A sequence of map data may be accessed based on a priority assigned to sets of map data.

A server supporting mapping applications serves map data to a client device. The map data includes one or more references to copyright information about a feature or image in the map data. The reference may be used to locate the copyright data when the feature is requested and the copyright information is also served to the client device. Alternatively, copyright information can be associated with a tile that includes some or all of the features. When map data contains copyrighted content, a size threshold of the feature or zoom level can be used to determine if the copyright information is to be displayed.

Content oriented copyright display

Images are analyzed by programmatic mechanisms for assessing one or more remote web pages to retrieve content on display at remote web pages. The retrieved images may be analyzed to determine information about an object shown in a corresponding images of the content on display. At least a portion of the object shown in the corresponding image of the content on display may be made selectable and associated with the determined information. This determined information may subsequently be used, in for example, search applications.

System and method for enabling image recognition and searching of remote content on display

Images are analyzed by programmatic mechanisms for accessing one or more remote web pages to retrieve content on display at the remote web pages. The retrieved images may be analyzed to determine information about an object shown in a corresponding image of the content on display. At least a portion of the object shown in the corresponding image of the content on display may be made selectable and associated with the determined information. This determined information may subsequently be used, in for example, search applications.

A method for providing map data to a client device includes receiving, at a server from the client device over a network, a request for parameters related to map data for a region of interest, where each region of interest is a separate geographic area. The method also includes providing, for use by the client device, a local zoom table indicating each zoom level for which new map data is available and usable by the client to determine whether or not to request new map data in response to a zoom command. Providing the local zoom table includes generating the local zoom table by analyzing tile data from multiple zoom levels to determine a progression order of map tile zooms to be requested by the client.

Growing community of inventors

Seattle, WA, United States of America

Andrew Miller