Geographic database with detailed local data

• US 20070118278A1
• Filed: 11/18/2005
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Navteq North America LLC (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Bennett, James, Borak, Jason, Finn, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,660,666 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/208
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases

Abstract

A method is disclosed for representing locations in a geographic database in a manner that facilitates navigation and routing. A core map database includes data that represents public roads in a geographic region. Each of a plurality of location map databases includes data that represent facilities, such as businesses, stores, offices, or other places, that are physically located away from the public network and access to which requires travel on paths away from the public road network. Each of the facilities represented in the location map databases is assigned a location reference code that is associated with data from which a path connecting the facility and the public road network can be determined.

Claims

1. A geographic database system comprising:

a representation of a main road network in a geographic region, including representations of roads of which said main road network is comprised;

representations of access points, wherein each of said access points corresponds to a location at which the main road network is accessible from locations away from the main road network, and wherein each of said access points is associated with a corresponding location reference code that indicates the location of the represented access point; and

representations of facilities that are physically located away from the main road 1 1 network and access to which requires travel on paths other than said main road network, wherein each of said representations of facilities is associated with a corresponding location reference code that indicates the location of the represented facility, and further wherein each of said representations of facilities is associated with an indication of a path to an associated access point.

2. The geographic database system of claim 1 wherein said representations of a main road network, access points, and facilities are stored on a computer-readable medium.

3. The geographic database system of claim 1 wherein said representations of said facilities is updatable independently of said representation of said main road network.

4. The geographic database system of claim 3 wherein said representations of said facilities is updatable by personnel of said facilities via a web portal.

5. A geographic database system comprising:

a core database that includes data that represents a public road network in a geographic region; and

a plurality of location databases, each of which represents features located physically away from the public road network,

wherein each feature represented in one of the location databases is represented by a location reference code, and

wherein each location reference code is associated with data that indicates a way to access the feature from the public road network.

6. The geographic database system of claim 5 wherein the data that indicates the way to access the feature from the public road network indicates either a position on the public road network or another feature represented in the location database that is represented by a location reference code associated with data that indicates directly or indirectly a position on the public road network.

7. The geographic database system of claim 5 wherein the data that indicates the way to access the feature indicates either a position on the public road network or another feature represented in the location database that is represented by a location reference code associated with data that indicates, directly or via one or more other location reference codes, a position on the public road network.

8. The geographic database system of claim 5 wherein the plurality of location map databases are updatable independently of the core database.

9. The geographic database system of claim 5 wherein the location map databases are used to represent an internal footprint for internal detail of a POI, an enhanced building footprint, entrance points associated to stores and other POIs, extended POI attributes, enhanced cartographic representation, and additional internal features.

10. The geographic database system of claim 5 wherein the core database comprises a basic portion and an extended portion.

11. The geographic database system of claim 10 wherein the extended portion of the core database is used to represent parking lot geometry, including access roads on private property for reaching parking for a POI, building footprints, mall footprints, including details of mall anchors, POI location with vanity addressing placed upon extended road geometry, parent-child relationships for buildings and associated parking, internal POIs, and other related features.

12. The geographic database system of claim 10 wherein the basic portion of the core database is used to represent public roads in the geographic region.

13. A database for geographic data comprising:

(i) representations of public roads in a geographic region;

(ii) street address information associated with said representations of public roads;

(iii) representations of facilities having street addresses along said public roads, but which are physically accessible via non-public roads;

(iv) representations of said non-public roads;

(v) data indicating locations along said public roads at which said non-public roads are accessible; and

(vi) data associating said facilities with the non-public roads via which said facilities are accessible.

14. The database for geographic data of claim 13 wherein said representations are stored on at least one computer-readable medium.

15. The database for geographic data of claim 13 wherein said representations of said facilities is updatable independently of said representations of said public roads.

16. A method for representing facilities located off a public road network comprising:

identifying geographic positions of facilities located off the public road network;

identifying geographic positions of one or more points that define a path connecting each of said facilities to the public road network;

assigning location reference codes to said geographic positions; and

associating with each of said location reference codes data that defines a path that connects each geographic position assigned a location reference code and the public road network via one or more geographic positions to which geographic reference codes have been assigned.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

associating with any of said location reference codes assigned to a geographic position not on the public road network data that identifies another of said location reference codes in order to define a path that connects any geographic position assigned a location reference code and the public road network via one or more geographic positions to which geographic reference codes have been assigned.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein some of said geographic positions to which location reference codes are assigned correspond to portals.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein some of said geographic positions to which location reference codes are assigned correspond to parking lots.

20. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

storing said location reference codes and data associated therewith on a computer-readable medium.

21. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

associating with at least some of said location reference codes data that identifies a geographic position corresponding thereto.

22. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

associating with at least some of said location reference codes data that identifies optional attributes.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein said optional attributes include:

type of feature, name of feature, vanity address of feature, phone number, hours of operation, promotions, street address on the public road network.

24. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

associating with at least some of said location reference codes information that can be used for landmark-based guidance.

25. The method of claim 16 wherein said public road network is represented by a core database.

26. The method of claim 16 wherein said location reference codes are unique.

27. The method of claim 16 wherein said location reference codes are alphanumeric strings.

28. A method for determining a route to a desired destination at a facility comprising:

using a database that includes representations of facilities that are physically located away from a main road network and access to which requires travel other-than-on said main road network,

upon determining one of said facilities as the desired destination, accessing data associated with said representation of said facility that indicates a path to the facility from an associated access point, wherein said access point corresponds to a location at which a main road network is accessible from locations away from the main road network;

using a data representation of the main road network to calculate a route to the access point associated with the one of said facilities determined to be the desired destination; and

combining the calculated route with the indicated path from the associated access point data to the one of said facilities determined to be the desired destination.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein at least part of said path is for pedestrian travel.

30. A method for calculating a route to a destination comprising:

receiving a specification of a desired destination;

using the specification to search a location database for a potential destination that matches the specification;

using a core database to calculate a route between an origin and an access point on a road network; and

using the location database to determine a path between the access point and the potential destination, wherein the path is determined by data stored in the location database that indicates paths connecting points to which location reference codes have been assigned back to the road network via one or more other points.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein at least part of said path is for pedestrian travel.