MapFusion’s Geo-code Sub-System (GSS) is a proprietary engine enabling its existing ASP architecture to accurately transform a description of a feature location, such as a street address, into a georeferenced location (geometry) via a spatial database. The development of the underlying components required the ability to provide a tool which was flexible enough to incorporate data from various data providers but rigid enough to return fast and accurate results. The architecture was designed to provide support for exceptionally high performance and high transaction throughput to minimize the costs of hardware associated with scaling the software. The system provides multithreaded connectivity to minimize latency time as simultaneous requests are received. The underlying data is housed in a standalone proprietary database structure so that the GSS is not reliant on third party database software.

The engines unique geo-coding ability does not end at just street addresses, but provides results for a variety of location types far above what is offered in the industry. Some of the more familiar types of geo-codes provided are intersection, postal, zip, side of street, city, state/province, and country. A number of other unique geo-coding methods have also been built into the system. Most geo-coders snap to the nearest road segment; however the MapFusion geo-coder is able to use any spatial data as reference points. Polygon geo-coding allows users to quickly and efficiently locate a variety of land use types within geographic regions or find land parcels identified by name, ID or any other type of label. Results can also be provided which adhere to size and shape restrictions or other rules which help to further pinpoint the desired land polygons which are associated with unique attribute information. Business rules can be assigned to any type of geographic spatial object to more accurately return qualifying matches and improve the accuracy of the desired results.		Locate a variety of land use types with pinpoint accuracy

The integration of the GSS into the current iSPACE architecture provides even more advanced geo-coding possibilities. The dynamic data integration, which iSPACE provides, allows live data feeds to be integrated into the results. Spatial objects without static locations, such as moving vehicles, people, packages, or containers, can all be easily located and identified wherever they reside at any particular time. As these moving objects change location, static or non-static objects can be referenced to find the nearest location based on the users needs.

The system was also built to provide third party access to these unique geo-coding capabilities. A simple SOAP interface allows anyone with Internet access to query the engine so that the results can be integrated into their applications. Microsoft’s .Net architecture has assisted in the acceptance of the per transaction pricing model in the web development community. It has now become standard for many web enabled software to integrate into their systems information obtained dynamically from multiple data sources. As the growth of the Internet continues so does the ability to serve disparate clients using the per transaction model.

MapFusion’s Reverse Geo-code Sub-System (RGSS) is a proprietary engine enabling the input of real world latitude and longitude coordinates to determine an address, place or associated attribute information. The architecture takes advantage of MapFusion’s vector based layering to provide a multitude of possible results depending on the specific layer of spatial data which is used to query member objects. The system provides multithreaded connectivity to minimize latency time as simultaneous requests are received. The underlying data is housed in a standalone proprietary database structure so that the RGSS is not reliant on third party database software.

Although most reverse geo-coders in the Location Based Services (LBS) industry are used to determine a street address from a point, the MapFusion RGSS has been architected to manage diverse datasets to maximize the flexibility and value. Mobile assets, which are monitored using location tracking devices, require a method of determining where an asset is located in an easy to understand format. Standard reverse geo-coding systems will provide a city, state and country as output whereas advanced reverse geo-coding systems will provide street level addressing which includes street number and street name.

MapFusion's RGSS provides very accurate street level addressing which has been developed to solve a number of very complex problems found in most other systems. Due to the overwhelming number of anomalies inherent in the reverse geo-coding problem, most systems have great difficulty in providing accurate results. Some of the most common problems which exist in the industry include reverse geo-coding to parking lots, on ramps (to or from highways), intersections, bridges which span other roads, truck stops, gas stations, GPS dither and stationary vehicles where scattered GPS signals are common. To help solve these problems the proprietary algorithms incorporate a number of additional “cues” to further improve the accuracy. For example, one such problem would involve a set of coordinates which places an asset in the middle of an intersection. Traditionally, this point could be assigned an address on each of the two streets which intersect. The RGSS uses additional data such as the last known street address, the asset’s heading and the proximity to the side of the street. These additional cues dramatically improve the accuracy of such problems.

MapFusion's RGSS provides further improvements over other advanced systems. Using multiple geographically layered data, rather than just street networks, the RGSS can solve problems which are independent of the street network. Attribute data can be retrieved to provide information on particular demographics variables, such as crime rate in area, percent of English-speaking, soil type, vegetation, land use, or any other data which can be attributed to the area in which the point is located. Another unique type of solution is water body reverse geo-coding, which is used to determine the location of water vessels. The output provided will include the name of the water body on which the vessel travels as well as the nearest geographic landmarks, cities, towns, or villages which can be used as further reference points.

The MapFusion RGSS has been developed to solve complex industry problems and to provide this functionality to other third party web application developers using a simple SOAP interface. This allows anyone with Internet access to query the engine so that the results can be integrated into their applications. It has now become standard for many web enabled software to integrate into their systems information obtained dynamically from multiple data sources. The ability to provide a reverse geo-coding service to a growing market of web development houses allows MapFusion to reach new markets and further capitalize on its technological advancements.

See how the Geo-code application is applied to the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Transportation Logistics Management (TLM) Solutions:

CRM Geo-code
TLM Geo-code