System and method for displaying geographical information

Claims

What is claimed:

1. Apparatus for audio-visual display of geographic information, comprising:

voice input means for receiving vocal operating instructions specifying one of a plurality of geographic features including at least cities and countries;

storage means for storing data associated with said geographic features for retrieval, said data including at least location identifying data which specifies geographic coordinates of said geographic features;

map display means for displaying said specified geographic features, said map display means comprising a permanent visible globe displaying a fixed map of said geographic features; and

highlighting means for selectively visually highlighting portions of said globe corresponding to said specified geographic features in response to control signals, where said highlighted portions of said permanent visible map display are solely determined by said control signals, said highlighting means including at least one directed light beam generator located in an interior area of said globe which selectively directs a light beam onto an interior surface of said globe which is visible at an exterior surface of said globe to highlight said specified geographic feature, and rotating means for relatively moving said globe and said light beam generator in response to said control signals to align said specified geographic feature on the exterior surface of the globe with the light beam visible thereat to highlight the specified geographic feature;

processing means connected to said voice input means, said storage means, said highlighting means and said map display means for receiving said operating instructions, processing said operating instructions, identifying the specified geographic feature, retrieving at least said location identifying data associated with said geographic feature, retrieving at least said vocal location identifying data associated with said geographic features, and generating said control signals to cause said highlighting means to highlight said geographic feature.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said permanent visible map display is a permanent world globe, the apparatus further comprising:

voice template means connected to said processing means for storing and retrieving vocal data, said vocal data including at least vocal location identifying data which specifies said geographic coordinates of said geographic features; and

voice output means connected to said voice template means for vocalizing by spoken words at least portions of said vocal location identifying data of said geographic features.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said globe is a hollow shell enclosing an interior area, said shell being at least partly translucent with an interior surface and an exterior surface, and wherein said highlighting means comprises directed light beam generators located in the interior area of said globe which selectively direct light beams onto the interior surface of said globe which are visible at said exterior surface of said globe to highlight said specified geographic feature.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 further comprising rotating means for precisely rotating said globe in response to said control signals to align said specified geographic feature for viewing and highlighting.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein said rotating means comprises means for rotating said globe about a plurality of different axes and tilting said directed light beam generators in the interior of said globe in response to said control signals to highlight said specified feature.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said rotating means comprises:

a first step motor to rotate said globe in degrees of longitude and fractions of degrees of longitude;

a second step motor to tilt said directed light beam generator in degrees of latitude and fractions of degrees of latitude; and

control card means for actuating controls of said first and second step motors in response of said processing means to produce a desired globe alignment.

7. The apparatus of claim 3 further comprising moving means for moving said globe relative to said light beam to highlight different locations thereon.

8. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein a plurality of light beam generators are located in the interior of said globe, said light beam generators highlighting differently sized areas of said exterior surface.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein said light beam generators comprise:

a general light generator for continuously illuminating the overall surface of said globe;

a regional light generator which selectively illuminates a specific region of said globe; and

a spot light generator which selectively illuminates a particular location on said globe smaller than that illuminated by said regional light generator.

10. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said processing means further comprises a microcomputer means connected to said input means, said storage means, said map display means, and output means for viewing and editing data associated with said geographic feature, presenting voice output information associated with said geographic feature, and displaying and manipulating software stored in said storage means, wherein said software contains programs and processing instructions for operating said processing means.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said directed light beam generator directs a noncoherent light beam for highlighting said specified geographic features.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said voice input means comprises a microphone and a programmable voice recognition circuit connected to said processing means to provide signals to said processing means representative of said operating instructions, said operating instructions further comprising each of said plurality of predetermined geographic features displayed on various said permanent visible map displays.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said processing means comprises expert system software comprising rules of inference and artificial intelligence algorithms, said processing means executing said rules of inference to contextually identifying said specified geographic feature when the operating instructions received by said voice input means do not unambiguously identify said geographic feature and when said operating instructions do not give a predetermined command sequence.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said location identifying data includes the degrees of latitude and longitude of said geographic features.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising output means for displaying additional information related to said geographic feature stored in said storage means, said additional information comprising information not displayed on said map display means.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein said storage means comprises a video tape player and said output means comprises a video screen, whereby images related to said geographic feature are displayed as said feature is highlighted.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein said storage means comprises one or more slides and said output means comprises a slide projection system, whereby images related to said geographic feature are displayed as said feature is highlighted.

18. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein said storage means stores specific words related to said geographic feature and said output means comprises a loudspeaker connected to a sound board and a voice synthesizer, said voice synthesizer connected to said processing means, the processing means operating to retrieve specific words related to a specific geographic feature and to control said voice synthesizer to produce a verbal output of said words on said loudspeaker as said geographic feature is highlighted.

19. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein said storage means stores screen display images of said additional information and said output means comprises a means for displaying screen display images, whereby said screen display images related to said geographic feature are displayed as said geographic feature is highlighted.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein said means for displaying screen display images comprises a computer monitor displaying said additional information related to said geographic feature.

21. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein said means for displaying screen display images comprises a controllable overhead projector display device.

22. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the storage means further comprises means for storing a specific single point location on the permanently visible map display where said specific single point location is associated with the geographic feature, and said highlighting means comprises means for illuminating said specific single point location in response to the control signals generated by said processing means.

23. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the input means, storage means, map display means, output means, power supply means, and processing means are incorporated in a standalone unit with no physical connection to external processing devices.

24. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said permanent visible map display is visible when the apparatus is deactivated.

25. A method for computer-aided voice interactive learning of geography using an automatic system including a microprocessor, a storage component, a retrieval component, a display component including a permanent map display, and a speech recognition circuit with a microphone for voice input, comprising the steps of:

storing geographic information using the storage component, said geographic information relating to a plurality of specific geographic features and including, for each such specific feature, location information and one or more stored key words identifying said specific geographic feature;

electronically receiving a command from an operator in the form of a voice input using the microphone, said command including one or more spoken key words;

using said speech recognition circuit, electronically processing said voice input to identify said one or more spoken key words;

electronically comparing said spoken key words to said one or more stored key words to identify a commanded geographic feature having stored key words corresponding to the spoken key words;

electronically extracting the stored geographic information relating to the commanded geographic feature using the retrieval component;

providing at least one directed light beam generator located in an interior area of said permanent map display which selectively directs a light beam onto an interior surface of said permanent map display which is visible at an exterior surface of said permanent map display to highlight said specified geographic feature;

electronically controlling the display component to physically highlight the commanded geographic feature identified by the one or more spoken key words, on the permanent map display, by relatively moving said permanent map display and said light beam generator in response to said control signals to align said specified geographic feature on the exterior surface of the permanent map display with the light beam visible thereat to highlight the specified geographic feature.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the location information stored includes degrees of latitude and longitude of the geographic feature, and further including the steps of:

constructing inference rules associating geographic features with said geographic information and storing the inference rules on the storage component; and

applying said stored inference rules in the step of electronically extracting stored geographic information relating to the commanded geographic feature to infer the coordinates of said specified geographic feature from neighboring geographic features.

27. The method of claim 25 further including the step of constructing a knowledge base including additional information on said geographic features, and extracting said additional information from the knowledge base as an output during the step of highlighting of said geographic feature.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein said knowledge base includes digital graphic data relevant to said geographic features, said digital graphic data obtained from a video input or a scanner input, whereby relevant digital graphic data are displayed during highlighting of said geographic feature.

29. The method of claim 27 wherein said knowledge base includes vocal data and the vocal data is used to generate a synthesized speech output providing information relevant to the geographic feature during highlighting thereof.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein said speech output is provided on a loudspeaker while the information conveyed by the speech output is contemporaneously displayed on a visual display.

31. The method of claim 25 further including the steps of:

displaying the identification of the commanded geographic feature to the operator for verification prior to highlighting the commanded geographic feature; and

verifying correctness of the geographic feature identification displayed to the operator by a predetermined input before highlighting the geographic feature.

32. The method of claim 25, wherein the voice input is a voice input of a type selected from the group consisting of: a location identifier, and an inquiry about a location related to a geographic feature of interest to the operator.

33. The method of claim 22 including the further step of training the speech recognition circuit to recognize said key words.

34. The apparatus of claim 33 wherein said input means further comprises:

keyboard input means for entering geographic information including a plurality of said predetermined geographic features for storage in said storage means, and for entering operating commands for operation of said processing means; and

scanner means for scanning geographic information related to said geographic feature and storing said geographic information on said storage means.

35. Apparatus for audio-visual display of geographic information, comprising:

input means for receiving operating instructions specifying one of a plurality of geographic features;

storage means for storing data associated with said geographic features for retrieval, said data including at least location identifying data which specifies geographic coordinates of said geographic features;

map display means for displaying and highlighting said specified geographic features, said map display means comprising a permanent vis