Shared image database with geographic navigation
View Patent ↗There is disclosed a method and device for operating an image database shared by a plurality of users. In an embodiment, each image captured by a user and stored in a shared image database is associating with the geographic coordinates of the location at which the image was captured. A search engine for the image database is configured to accept geographic coordinates as a search criterion for locating at least one captured image stored in the shared image database. The images having location coordinates within a predefined range of geographic coordinates is displayed to the user.
1. A computer-implemented method executed on a computing device, the method comprising:
obtaining a plurality of geographic coordinates from a geographic subsystem on the computing device, the plurality of geographic coordinates defining a geographic region;
causing a search of a shared external image database for all images within the region defined by the plurality of geographic coordinates, the causing including sending, to the external database, the plurality of geographic coordinates; and
displaying a plurality of images from the search.
2. The computer-implement method of claim 1 , wherein the geographic subsystem is a mapping application.
3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the obtaining is based on a selection of the geographic region.
4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein causing the search based on the geographic coordinates comprises searching for one or more images within a predetermined range of the geographic coordinates.
5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the computing device is a wireless communications device.
6. A computing device for searching an external image database, the computing device comprising:
a processor configured for obtaining a plurality of geographic coordinates from a geographic subsystem of the computing device, the plurality of geographic coordinates defining a geographic region;
an interface for causing a search of a shared external image database for all images within the region defined by the plurality of geographic coordinates, including sending, to the external image database, the plurality of geographic coordinates; and
user interface comprising a display for displaying a plurality of images from the search.
7. The computing device of claim 6 , wherein the geographic subsystem is a mapping application.
8. The computing device of claim 6 , wherein the processor is configured to obtain the plurality of geographic coordinates based on a selection of the geographic region.
9. The computing device of claim 6 wherein the interface is configured to cause the search based on the geographic coordinates by searching for one or more images within a predetermined range of the geographic coordinates.
10. The computing device of claim 6 wherein the computing device is a wireless communications device.
11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions in code which when loaded in memory and executed by a processor of a computing device cause the device to:
obtain a plurality of geographic coordinates from a geographic subsystem on the computing device, the plurality of geographic coordinates defining a geographic region;
cause a search of a shared external image database for all images within the region defined by the plurality of geographic coordinates, including sending, to the external image database, the plurality of geographic coordinates; and
display a plurality of images from the search.
12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the geographic subsystem is a mapping application.
13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the code that obtains the plurality of geographic coordinates utilizes a selection of the geographic region.
14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 wherein code that causes the search based on the geographic coordinates comprises code for searching for one or more images within a predetermined range of the geographic coordinates.
15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 wherein the computing device is a wireless communications device.