Lynn Dee Green

US Patent:

5727204, Mar 10, 1998

Filed:

Jun 7, 1995

Appl. No.:

8/474422

Inventors:

Lynn Green - Brea CA

Assignee:

Hughes Electronics - Los Angeles CA

International Classification:

G06F 1730

US Classification:

395613

Abstract:

A method to organize, store and retrieve information in a database to facilitate rapid object identification. An interval set is defined as an interval on a number line. The database is built from a list of interval sets as input sets. The method organizes the interval sets such that a binary search may be used to quickly locate all interval sets of which a value is a member, i. e. , given a value, all sets that contain the element value are quickly identified. The solution sets are pre-stored or sorted on-the-fly into bins. Bins are created by superimposing all interval set boundaries onto one number line. Two successive boundaries on the number line constitute a bin. All sets which share the interval expressed by a bin are named within a bin. A binary search technique is used to search the bins, given a value, to locate an output set of the intervals which share the value. The method can be nested to accommodate any number of parameters, and can be modified to balance memory versus CPU resource utilization.