Patent Application
20140095303
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to interactive maps and, more specifically, to personalizing interactive maps.
2. Description of the Related Art
Interactive maps are often used to obtain information about geographically distributed features, such as roads, cities, states, businesses, rivers, lakes, and the like. The interactive map is viewed on a user device, such as in a web browser or mapping application of a laptop or smart phone, and the viewed information is provided by a remote server over the Internet. Typically, users interact with the map by commanding (e.g., by touching or clicking on the interface) the map to pan, zoom, or otherwise change the geographic extent depicted in the map viewport, and the remote server provides information responsive to these interactions. Further, users often enter search terms to cause the interactive map to depict a responsive geographic extent or request a map depicting the user's current location as determined by, for example, a GPS device in a smartphone.
The following is a non-exhaustive listing of some aspects of the present techniques. These and other aspects are described in the following disclosure.
Some aspects include a process for personalizing an interactive map that includes the following: receiving a user request to view an interactive map; determining a map extent responsive to the request; obtaining a profile of the user; generating, with a computer, a personalized interactive map based on the profile; and presenting the personalized map to the user. Generating the personalized map based on the profile may include obtaining candidate features within a geographic extent specified by the user request from a geographic information system, the candidate features having a prominence ranking determined without regard to the user profile before receiving the user request; adjusting the prominence ranking of some of the candidate features based on the user profile; for each candidate feature, using the adjusted prominence ranking to determine whether to depict the respective candidate feature; and for each depicted feature, using the adjusted prominence ranking to format the corresponding depiction.
Some aspects include a system having one or more processors and memory storing program code that when executed by the one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform the above-described process.
Some aspects include a tangible, machine-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by a data processing apparatus causes the data processes apparatus to perform the above-described process.
The above-mentioned aspects and other aspects of the present techniques will be better understood when the present application is read in view of the following figures in which like numbers indicate similar or identical elements:
While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. The drawings may not be to scale. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but to the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.
Maps are personalized in a variety of different ways by modifying a variety of different aspects of the map, but a specific example is illustrative. A given user profile may indicate a preference for Indian cuisine (e.g., due to the user rating restaurants in this category above a threshold rating), that the user resides in the United States (e.g., as indicated by an average location of the user's location history), and that the user has recently searched for hotels in London (e.g., according a search history in the user profile). Given this profile, in response to a query from the user for “London England,” some embodiments of the map server 12 present the user with an interactive map of London England with Indian restaurants and sites of interest to tourists displayed and visually formatted relatively prominently, for example with a font size and color selected for emphasis, while a user submitting the same query but without a profile would not be presented with this information in this format. A different user profile may indicate that a user resides in London and has recently searched for dog parks. An interactive map of the same extent but for the second user, in some embodiments does not depict the Indian restaurants or sites of interest to tourists, but does depict features likely to be of interest to a resident of the city who has a dog, such as a pet grooming business near (e.g., within a threshold distance of) the user's residence and a recently opened (e.g., within a threshold time) restaurant near a bar that the user frequently checks into, according to the second user's profile. Again, the information that is presented, and the visual weight, or prominence, depends on the profile of the user who requested information. In these two examples, identical requests for interactive maps yield information selected and visually formatted to direct the user's attention to features that are likely to be relevant to the individual user (but not necessarily to users in general) and avoid cluttering the map with information that is likely to be a little interest to the user, as indicated by the user's profile.
In some embodiments, the map server 12 obtains information to be presented from a geographic information system 18 and an advertisement server 20. The geographic information (GIS) 18 is operative to identify features within a map extent based on stored associations between feature names and their geographic location and stored relationships between features, e.g., which features, such as a business, are within an area of another feature, such as a city. In some embodiments, the identified features are each associated with an age of the feature, indicating when the feature was added to the GIS 18, a value which is used identify newer features likely to be of interest to residents of an area. The map server 12 requests features from the GIS 18 and determines which features are presented in a map and how those features are formatted visually in the presentation.
In some embodiments, the features stored in the GIS 18 are assigned a default rank that, in maps that are not personalized according to user profiles, affects (e.g., is the sole determinant or is one factor among others) which features are presented and the visual formatting of those features. For example, interstate highways in the United States have a relatively low rank (multiple features within a map may have the same rank, such as multiple interstate highways), and smaller roads, such as a neighborhood road ending in a cul-de-sac, have a relatively high default rank. Consequently, absent personalization of the map, at a given zoom level, the lower ranking interstate highway may be presented, while the higher ranking smaller roads is omitted from the map to avoid clutter, except at relatively detailed zoom levels, i.e., at relatively small map extents.
Further, in some embodiments, the advertisement server 20 is operative to provide advertisements to be presented with the interactive map based on, e.g., the map extent, the request that caused the map to be presented, or the corresponding user's profile, in response to a request from the map server 12 or a user device 14. After presenting an ad, the entity operating the map server 12 is compensated by an advertiser.
In situations in which the systems discussed here collect personal information about users, or may make use of personal information, the users may be provided with an opportunity to control whether programs or features collect user information (e.g., information about a user's social network, social actions or activities, profession, a user's preferences, or a user's current location), or to control whether and/or how to receive content from the content server that may be more relevant to the user. In addition, certain data may be treated in one or more ways before it is stored or used, so that personally identifiable information is removed. For example, a user's identity may be treated so that no personally identifiable information can be determined for the user, or a user's geographic location may be generalized where location information is obtained (such as to a city, ZIP code, or state level), so that a particular location of a user cannot be determined. Thus, the user may have control over how information is collected about the user and used by the system 10.
The illustrated system 10 includes three user devices 14, but embodiments are consistent with substantially more user devices. These devices may be any of a variety of different computing devices, examples of which are described below with reference to
Provided that data acquisition and use is consistent with user privacy controls, the user profile contains both data from previous sessions of the user with the interactive map and data from user interactions with other services than those provided by the map server 12. Other services include web-based or special-purposes applications in which a user device 14 communicates with a remote server and by which users review places or rate places, interact with social networks, record places and web resources of interest to the user (e.g., bookmarked places or websites), check in to places on location-based social networks. In other examples, the user profile contains a user's search history from user queries submitted to a universal search engine that is responsive to topics other than those relating to maps and user selections of search results. The profile may also include user preferences (e.g., types of events, cuisine, or activities in which the user is interested) and attributes (e.g., the location of user's residence or work) provided by the user to facilitate better personalization of maps. The data store 16 stores a plurality of user profiles, and each profile is associated with (e.g. uniquely matched to) a user device, a user account, or other value by which users are distinguished from one another by the map server 12.
The map server 12 communicates with user devices 14, the user profile data store 16, the GIS 18, and the advertisement server 20 via, for example, the Internet 22 or various networks, such as local-area networks, wireless area networks, and cellular networks. The map server 12 of this embodiment includes a map search engine 24, a user identifier module 26, a map personalizer 28, and a presentation module 34. These components, and the other components of the system 10, are illustrated as discrete functional blocks, but program code and hardware by which the functional blocks are implemented may be conjoined, distributed, subdivided, intermingled, or otherwise differently organized relative to the arrangement of
The map search engine 24 of this embodiment is operative to receive a user query for an interactive map, such as a query expressed in text by the user and naming a place, and determine a map extent that is responsive to that query. The map search engine 24 cooperates with the GIS 18 to identify terms within the query corresponding to geographic locations and a map extent corresponding to the query. For instance, a query for “Austin, Tex.,” or a query for “capital of Texas” received by the map search engine 24 causes the map search engine 24 to determine a map extent corresponding to Austin Tex., a place for which the location (including bounding area) and names are associated by the GIS 18.
The user identifier module 26 is operative to determine whether a user profile is associated with the received query and, if so, identify (e.g., uniquely identify among the stored user profiles) the corresponding user profile. For example, the user identifier 26 determines whether the user is logged in to the map server 12 or whether another identifier associated with the request, for instance an Internet protocol address, is associated with a user profile. The user identifier module 26 further determines whether user specified privacy controls indicate a user preference for using the user profile information in the manner described here and, in response, selectively permits the use of user profile information in accordance with the privacy controls.
The map personalizer 28 of this embodiment is operative to receive the user profile, the map extent, and features within the identified map extent and personalize an interactive map. To this end, the map personalizer 28 determines, based on the user profile, which features within the map extent will be presented and a visual weight, or prominence, of those features by selecting visual formatting attributes, such as fonts, line weight, drop shadows, font color, font size, and the like, among a plurality of candidate settings for such visual attributes. In some embodiments, the map personalizer 28 performs this determination in real-time (e.g. within less than one second of receiving the user's request for interactive map).
As noted above, the features received from the GIS 18 are each associated with a default rank. Some embodiments of the map personalizer 28 adjust this default rank based on the user profile if a profile is available. Features likely to be relevant to the user, as inferred from the user profile, are adjusted by decreasing the rank of those features, making the features more prominent and more likely to be depicted at a given zoom level. Conversely, features likely to be of little relevance to the user, as inferred from the user profile, are adjusted by increasing their rank. For example, a flyfishing equipment store may have a relatively high default rank, making it unlikely that that flyfishing equipment store would appear in a map of the state of California, i.e., at a relatively low granularity zoom level, but a user profile indicating a strong interest in flyfishing (e.g., one having more than a threshold amount of queries including the term “flyfishing” in the user's search history) may cause the rank of that flyfishing equipment store to be decreased to the point at which the store appears in a map depicting the entire state of California.
In some embodiments, the map personalizer 28 includes a feature selector 30 and a visual formatter 32. The feature selector 30 is operative to determine which features are presented in the interactive map among the set of features within the map extent. In an example, the feature selector 30 receives a map extent, a plurality of candidate geographic features within that map extent, and the user profile. Based on the user profile, some of the candidate geographic features are added to a result set of geographic features to be presented in the interactive map and some of the candidate geographic features are omitted from the result set of features to be presented. Examples of this determination are described in greater detail below with reference to
The presentation module 34 is operative to receive the selected features and visual formatting from the map personalizer 28 and, in response, present a responsive interactive map to the corresponding user device 14 from which the request was received. In some embodiments, the presentation module 34 renders images depicting the selected features (and omitting the unselected features) with the selected visual formatting and transmits the rendered images (which may be rendered in real-time) to the corresponding user device 14 along with instructions to display the images within the interactive map. Examples of the interactive map are described in greater detail below with reference to
In this embodiment, the process 36 includes receiving a user request to view an interactive map, as shown by block 38, and determining a map extent responsive to the request, as shown by block 40. In some cases, determining a map extent includes parsing a text query, querying the GIS 18 for geographic features corresponding to the parsed query terms, and identifying the location of those geographic features in a response from the GIS 18. In some embodiments, the map extent is determined in the received user requests, for example in a request to show the user's current location and a predefined amount of surrounding area. The map extent may be expressed in a variety of formats, for example as a center point and a zoom level or as latitudes and longitudes of the vertices of a bounding box.
The process 36 further includes obtaining a profile of the user from whom the request was received, as indicated by block 42. The profile is obtained from the user profile data store 16, which in some embodiments, includes a plurality of different data stores, each data store corresponding to a different service with which the user interacts over the Internet. Examples of data in the profile include places that the user has labeled on the interactive map in previous sessions, places that the user has rated, places that the user has identified as their home or their work, places for which the user has searched, places the user has identified in search results (e.g., by clicking on a link corresponding to the place), places that the user has saved in user-created maps, places identified in a location history of the user's device, events that the user has indicated to be of interest, categories of features that the user has indicated to be of interest, or user check-ins on location-based social networks. Further examples include any of the preceding sources of data from an adjacent node to the user in a social network, provided that the use and provision of such data is consistent with privacy controls of the other user.
The user profile includes data from a plurality of different services with which the user interacts over the Internet, such as a map search engine, a universal search engine responsive to topics other than those relating to location, a social network that documents connections between users (e.g. friends, family, coworkers, or shared interests), a location-based social network that documents check-in's to locations, user account data documenting user-provided information including the user's address and preferences (e.g. cuisine preferences, event preferences, and place preferences), and services by which the user can map their location history and document places that have been of interest to the user (e.g., by recording a unique identifier of the place that distinguishes the place from other places and some attribute assigned by the user to the place, such as a favorite designation).
The process 36 further includes personalizing the interactive map by determining whether to depict geographic features within the map extent based on the profile and formatting a depiction of the features to have a prominence determined based on the profile, as indicated by block 44. As described above, some embodiments perform this step by first receiving a set of candidate features from the GIS 18 along with a default ranking of those candidates features, where the ranking determines whether a feature is depicted at a given zoom level and the prominence arising from the visual formatting of the feature. The default rankings of the candidate features are then adjusted based on the user profile. The adjusted rank is then used to determine whether a feature is shown, with lower ranking features given priority over higher ranking features. The rank is further used to determine the appearance of a feature, with ranked features being given a higher prominence.
The rank may be adjusted based on a variety of signals. In one example, a user's familiarity with an area is inferred with a familiarity score based on previous interactions with the interactive map. The area that a user views in the interactive map during each session is logged, and views of an area are summed or otherwise aggregated over a preceding duration, such as over the preceding six months, to determine the familiarity score. Areas the user has viewed relatively frequently are likely areas with which the user is familiar. In response, relatively old places, such as major road near the user's residence, are raised in rank. In some embodiments, the default rank of a feature is obtained with a feature age, indicating when the feature was added to the geographic information system, and the default rank is adjusted based on the feature age and the familiarity score such that newer features are lowered in rank and higher familiarity scores increase the effect of feature age. For example a new restaurant near the home of a user may be more likely to be displayed than a historic building having a lower default rank.
In another example, categories of places in which the user is likely to be interested are determined based on the user profile, and the default rank is adjusted when a place category matches one of the categories. In some embodiments, the user profile includes user entered preferences for categories, such as restaurants of a particular cuisine, types of clothing stores, types of hobbies, and the like. Or preferences for categories are inferred from other data in the user profile, for example from the user rankings of restaurants or other places.
In another example, profiles of friends of the user are used to adjust the default feature rank. The user profile includes identifiers of adjacent nodes to the user in a social network graph, and those adjacent nodes are each associated with a user profile of a different corresponding user, e.g., friends of the user who submitted the request for a map. The process 36, in some embodiments, includes obtaining the profiles of the adjacent nodes and adjusting rank based on the data in those profiles. For example, the default rank of a particular place may be decreased in response to a friend of the user giving the particular place a favorable review, the friend's review being logged in the friend's user profile. As noted above, users are given control over both the collection and use of personal information. Thus, users can control whether their personal information is used in the manner described.
In another example, calendar entries in the user profile are used to adjust the default rank. For instance, a scheduled appointment at a particular address within a threshold duration of time in the future causes the rank of the feature associated with that address to be decreased, making the feature more likely to appear and to appear prominently. For example, a calendared doctor's appointment for later in the day when the request for a map was received causes the doctor's office to be lowered in rank.
In some embodiments, the process 36 includes inferring based on context what a user intends to do in an area being depicted. For example, an intent to engage in tourism may be inferred by determining that a location of the user is more than a threshold distance from the map extent requested. In response, the rank of features associated with tourism in the GIS 18 is decreased, such that points of interest to a tourist are more likely to appear and to appear prominently in the interactive map. In another example, the residence or location of adjacent users in the social network is inferred to indicate that the user submitting the request is interested in the residence or location of a friend, and this feature is lowered in rank, making the feature more likely to appear and to appear prominently.
In another example, rank is adjusted based on the search history of the user. For example, features within the map extent having a name appearing in the search history may be decreased in rank, or features may be decreased in rank in response to determining that the features have a name appearing in a website that the user clicked on in search results.
The prominence of a depiction of a feature is determined by a variety of attributes of the depiction, which may be selected individually or in combination. Examples of such attributes include the font, the font size, the font color, a drop shadow, transparency, a feature color, a feature transparency, depiction of the feature in 3-D (e.g. an isometric view), line weight, line color, and the like. In some embodiments, each feature rank corresponds to a different style of depicting that feature, and each style defines a group of visual formatting attributes applied as a group.
The process 36 further includes presenting the personalized map to the user, as indicated by block 46. In some embodiments, presenting the personalize map includes rendering images depicting the map or portions of the map based on results of step 44. In one example, only those features determined in step 44 to be low enough ranking to be depicted at a given zoom level are presented, and the prominence of those features is selected based on the prominence determined in step 44. The presented personalize map is received at the user device and displayed on a screen of the user device, for example in a browser window or in a special-purpose mapping application executing on the user device.
The map 52 further includes a drycleaners 62 and a gas station 64 in response to to the user of
The interactive map websites 48 and 50 further include links 68 to other services, the use of which by the user updates the user's profile, and interfaces by which the user requests changes to the map 52 or 54, including a text search input box 70 for submitting queries, a panning tool 72 for requesting that the map be panned, and a zoom tool 74 for requesting a higher or lower zoom level.
As discussed above, some embodiments personalize maps based on user profiles. Personalizing maps reduces the burden on users otherwise viewing information likely to be of little interest to the user. And personalization highlights for the user features in which the user is likely to be interested, potentially alerting the user to areas of interest of which the user was not aware. Personalized maps improve the user experience relative to systems that present the same information to every user.
Computing system 1000 may include one or more processors (e.g., processors 1010a-1010n) coupled to system memory 1020, an input/output I/O device interface 1030 and a network interface 1040 via an input/output (I/O) interface 1050. A processor may include a single processor or a plurality of processors (e.g., distributed processors). A processor may be any suitable processor capable of executing or otherwise performing instructions. A processor may include a central processing unit (CPU) that carries out program instructions to perform the arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of computing system 1000. A processor may execute code (e.g., processor firmware, a protocol stack, a database management system, an operating system, or a combination thereof) that creates an execution environment for program instructions. A processor may include a programmable processor. A processor may include general or special purpose microprocessors. A processor may receive instructions and data from a memory (e.g., system memory 1020). Computing system 1000 may be a uni-processor system including one processor (e.g., processor 1010a), or a multi-processor system including any number of suitable processors (e.g., 1010a-1010n). Multiple processors may be employed to provide for parallel or sequential execution of one or more portions of the techniques described herein. Processes, such as logic flows, described herein may be performed by one or more programmable processors executing one or more computer programs to perform functions by operating on input data and generating corresponding output. Processes described herein may be performed by, and apparatus can also be implemented as, special purpose logic circuitry, e.g., an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or an, ASIC (application specific integrated circuit). Computing system 1000 may include a plurality of computing devices (e.g., distributed computer systems) to implement various processing functions.
I/O device interface 1030 may provide an interface for connection of one or more I/O devices 1060 to computer system 1000. I/O devices may include devices that receive input (e.g., from a user) or output information (e.g., to a user). I/O devices 1060 may include, for example, graphical user interface presented on displays (e.g., a cathode ray tube (CRT) or liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor), pointing devices (e.g., a computer mouse or trackball), keyboards, keypads, touchpads, scanning devices, voice recognition devices, gesture recognition devices, printers, audio speakers, microphones, cameras, or the like. I/O devices 1060 may be connected to computer system 1000 through a wired or wireless connection. I/O devices 1060 may be connected to computer system 1000 from a remote location. I/O devices 1060 located on remote computer system, for example, may be connected to computer system 1000 via a network and network interface 1040.
Network interface 1040 may include a network adapter that provides for connection of computer system 1000 to a network. Network interface may 1040 may facilitate data exchange between computer system 1000 and other devices connected to the network. Network interface 1040 may support wired or wireless communication. The network may include an electronic communication network, such as the Internet, a local area network (LAN), a wide area (WAN), a cellular communications network or the like.
System memory 1020 may be configured to store program instructions 1100 or data 1110. Program instructions 1100 may be executable by a processor (e.g., one or more of processors 1010a-1010n) to implement one or more embodiments of the present techniques. Instructions 1100 may include modules of computer program instructions for implementing one or more techniques described herein with regard to various processing modules. Program instructions may include a computer program (which in certain forms is known as a program, software, software application, script, or code). A computer program may be written in a programming language, including compiled or interpreted languages, or declarative or procedural languages. A computer program may include a unit suitable for use in a computing environment, including as a stand-alone program, a module, a component, a subroutine. A computer program may or may not correspond to a file in a file system. A program may be stored in a portion of a file that holds other programs or data (e.g., one or more scripts stored in a markup language document), in a single file dedicated to the program in question, or in multiple coordinated files (e.g., files that store one or more modules, sub programs, or portions of code). A computer program may be deployed to be executed on one or more computer processors located locally at one site or distributed across multiple remote sites and interconnected by a communication network.
System memory 1020 may include a tangible program carrier having program instructions stored thereon. A tangible program carrier may include a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium may include a machine readable storage device, a machine readable storage substrate, a memory device, or any combination thereof. Non-transitory computer readable storage medium may include, non-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory, ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM memory), volatile memory (e.g., random access memory (RAM), static random access memory (SRAM), synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM)), bulk storage memory (e.g., CD-ROM and/or DVD-ROM, hard-drives), or the like. System memory 1020 may include a non-transitory computer readable storage medium may have program instructions stored thereon that are executable by a computer processor (e.g., one or more of processors 1010a-1010n) to cause the subject matter and the functional operations described herein. A memory (e.g., system memory 1020) may include a single memory device and/or a plurality of memory devices (e.g., distributed memory devices). In some embodiments, the program may be conveyed by a propagated signal, such as a carrier wave or digital signal conveying a stream of packets.
I/O interface 1050 may be configured to coordinate I/O traffic between processors 1010a-1010n, system memory 1020, network interface 1040, I/O devices 1060 and/or other peripheral devices. I/O interface 1050 may perform protocol, timing or other data transformations to convert data signals from one component (e.g., system memory 1020) into a format suitable for use by another component (e.g., processors 1010a-1010n). I/O interface 1050 may include support for devices attached through various types of peripheral buses, such as a variant of the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus standard or the Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard.
Embodiments of the techniques described herein may be implemented using a single instance of computer system 1000, or multiple computer systems 1000 configured to host different portions or instances of embodiments. Multiple computer systems 1000 may provide for parallel or sequential processing/execution of one or more portions of the techniques described herein.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that computer system 1000 is merely illustrative and is not intended to limit the scope of the techniques described herein. Computer system 1000 may include any combination of devices or software that may perform or otherwise provide for the performance of the techniques described herein. For example, computer system 1000 may include or be a combination of a cloud-computing system, a data center, a server rack, a server, a virtual server, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a server device, a client device, a mobile telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile audio or video player, a game console, a vehicle-mounted computer, or a Global Positioning System (GPS), or the like. Computer system 1000 may also be connected to other devices that are not illustrated, or may operate as a stand-alone system. In addition, the functionality provided by the illustrated components may in some embodiments be combined in fewer components or distributed in additional components. Similarly, in some embodiments, the functionality of some of the illustrated components may not be provided or other additional functionality may be available.
Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that, while various items are illustrated as being stored in memory or on storage while being used, these items or portions of them may be transferred between memory and other storage devices for purposes of memory management and data integrity. Alternatively, in other embodiments some or all of the software components may execute in memory on another device and communicate with the illustrated computer system via inter-computer communication. Some or all of the system components or data structures may also be stored (e.g., as instructions or structured data) on a computer-accessible medium or a portable article to be read by an appropriate drive, various examples of which are described above. In some embodiments, instructions stored on a computer-accessible medium separate from computer system 1000 may be transmitted to computer system 1000 via transmission media or signals such as electrical, electromagnetic, or digital signals, conveyed via a communication medium such as a network or a wireless link. Various embodiments may further include receiving, sending or storing instructions or data implemented in accordance with the foregoing description upon a computer-accessible medium. Accordingly, the present invention may be practiced with other computer system configurations.
It should be understood that the description and the drawings are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but to the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims. Further modifications and alternative embodiments of various aspects of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art in view of this description. Accordingly, this description and the drawings are to be construed as illustrative only and are for the purpose of teaching those skilled in the art the general manner of carrying out the invention. It is to be understood that the forms of the invention shown and described herein are to be taken as examples of embodiments. Elements and materials may be substituted for those illustrated and described herein, parts and processes may be reversed or omitted, and certain features of the invention may be utilized independently, all as would be apparent to one skilled in the art after having the benefit of this description of the invention. Changes may be made in the elements described herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as described in the following claims. Headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description.
As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). The words “include”, “including”, and “includes” and the like mean including, but not limited to. As used throughout this application, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” include plural referents unless the content explicitly indicates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to “an element” or “a element” includes a combination of two or more elements, notwithstanding use of other terms and phrases for one or more elements, such as “one or more.” The term “or” is, unless indicated otherwise, non-exclusive, i.e., encompassing both “and” and “or.” Terms describing conditional relationships, e.g., “in response to X, Y,” “upon X, Y,”, “if X, Y,” “when X, Y,” and the like, encompass causal relationships in which the antecedent is a necessary causal condition, the antecedent is a sufficient causal condition, or the antecedent is a contributory causal condition of the consequent, e.g., “state X occurs upon condition Y obtaining” is generic to “X occurs solely upon Y” and “X occurs upon Y and Z.” Such conditional relationships are not limited to consequences that instantly follow the antecedent obtaining, as some consequences may be delayed, and in conditional statements, antecedents are connected to their consequents, e.g., the antecedent is relevant to the likelihood of the consequent occurring. Further, unless otherwise indicated, statements that one value or action is “based on” another condition or value encompass both instances in which the condition or value is the sole factor and instances in which the condition or value is one factor among a plurality of factors. Unless specifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the discussion, it is appreciated that throughout this specification discussions utilizing terms such as “processing”, “computing”, “calculating”, “determining” or the like refer to actions or processes of a specific apparatus, such as a special purpose computer or a similar special purpose electronic processing/computing device. In the context of this specification, a special purpose computer or a similar special purpose electronic processing or computing device is capable of manipulating or transforming signals, for instance signals represented as physical electronic, optical, or magnetic quantities within memories, registers, or other information storage devices, transmission devices, or display devices of the special purpose computer or similar special purpose processing or computing device.
