US Patent 7865836 Geospatial prioritized data acquisition analysis and presentation

The invention as disclosed is a method to identify and monitor/track ships as they traverse waterways. The earth's surface is partitioned into geospatial regions with attributes of each region being stored. A priority is assigned to each partitioned region. A variety of data sources are used to collect data about ships in the geospatial regions. The data is merged and presented in geospatial or tabular formats on a graphical user interface, where the data itself, the data accuracy, and the age of the data can be visually determined graphically and chromatically from the display.