GEOSPATIAL OBJECT PROPERTY ASSESSMENT APPARATUS, ASSESSMENT SYSTEM, EDITOR APPARATUS AND METHOD OF ASSESSING PROPERTY OF A GEOSPATIAL OBJECT

• US 20120158746A1
• Filed: 04/23/2010
• Published: 06/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tomtom Global Content B.V (TomTom NV)
• Original Assignee: Tomtom North America Incorporated (TomTom NV)
• Inventors: Johnson, Terry William, Lawler, Patricia Jane, Moeykens, Peter Aloysius
• Granted Patent: US 8,782,055 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/748
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3867 Geometry of map features, e.g. shape points, polygons or for simplified maps
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/102 using electrical means

Abstract

A geospatial object property assessment apparatus comprises a processing resource (102) arranged to support a geospatial object property processor (206) comprising a subject data source input (212) capable of receiving a first metadata associated with 10 quality of current source information content used to define a property (408) of a geospatial object; a resource data source input (214) capable of receiving a second metadata associated with quality of candidate resource information content for updating the definition of the property (408) of the geospatial object. The apparatus also comprises an assessment processor (208) operably coupled to the inputs (212, 214), the 15 assessment processor (208) being arranged to use the first metadata and the second metadata in accordance with a predetermined ruleset in order to determine whether the candidate resource information content constitutes a qualitatively better resource to define the property of the geospatial object than the current source information content.

Claims

1. A geospatial object property assessment apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

a processing resource arranged to support a geospatial object property processor, the geospatial object property processor including;

a subject data source input capable of receiving a first metadata associated with quality of current source information content used to define a property of a geospatial object;

a resource data source input capable of receiving a second metadata associated with quality of candidate resource information content for updating the definition of the property of the geospatial object; and

an assessment processor operably coupled to the subject data source input and the resource data source input, the assessment processor being arranged to use the first metadata and the second metadata in accordance with a predetermined ruleset in order to determine whether the candidate resource information content constitutes a qualitatively better resource to define the property of the geospatial object than the current source information content.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein

the first metadata comprises an indicator of quality of the current source information content associated with the property of a geospatial object and a first resource identifier for identifying a source dataset comprising the current source information content currently employed;

and

the second metadata comprises an indicator of quality of the candidate resource information content associated with the property of the geospatial object and a second resource identifier for identifying a resource dataset comprising the candidate resource information content to be assessed.

4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the property of the geospatial object is a geometry of the geospatial object.

5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the geospatial object property processor further comprises:

a data retrieval controller operably coupled to the subject data source input and the resource data source input, the data retrieval controller being arranged to request retrieval via the subject data source input of the first metadata and retrieval via the resource data source input of the second metadata;

wherein

the data retrieval controller is arranged to request the retrieval in response to identification of the property of the geospatial object by received property identifying data.

6. An apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein the geospatial object property processor further comprises:

a property identity input arranged to receive the property identifying data to identify the property of the geospatial object to be assessed.

10. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the assessment processor is arranged to calculate a first score using the first metadata.

11. An apparatus as claimed in claim 10, wherein the assessment processor is arranged to calculate a second score using the second metadata.

12. An apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein the assessment processor is arranged to use the first score and the second score in accordance with the predetermined ruleset in order to determine whether the candidate resource information content constitutes the qualitatively better resource to define the property of the geospatial object than the current source information content.

13. An apparatus as claimed in claim 12, wherein the first score and second scores are assessed using a tolerance factor applied in accordance with the predetermined ruleset.

14. An apparatus as claimed in claim 10, wherein the assessment processor is arranged to include use of a first degradation factor to calculate the first score.

16. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the rule set comprises the following equation for performance of an evaluation:

s=((v_c+v_d)*m)−

f_d

where;

s is the score;

v_c is a confidence value;

v_d is a deviation value; and

f_d is a degradation factor; and

m is multiplier in months used to support degradation by a percentage point for m months.

17. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the assessment processor is capable of receiving a further metadata associated with another candidate resource information content, the assessment processor being arranged to employ a different criterion to assess the further metadata than a criterion employed by the predetermined ruleset to assess the second metadata.

18. An apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein the data retrieval controller is arranged to identify third metadata associated with quality of another current source information content used to define another property of the geospatial object in response to the determination that the qualitatively better resource is available to define the property of the geospatial object than the current source information content.

19. An apparatus as claimed in claim 18, wherein another candidate resource information content has a fourth metadata associated with quality of another candidate resource information content for updating the definition of the another property of the geospatial object, the assessment processor being arranged to use the third metadata and the fourth metadata in order to determine whether the another candidate resource information content constitutes a qualitatively better resource to define the another property of the geospatial object than the another current source information content.

20. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a data editor arranged to update the property of the geospatial object by replacing the current source information content used to define the property of the geospatial object with the candidate resource information content.

22. An apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein the current source information content associated with the geospatial object is updated in response to evaluation of an expression using the first and second scores in accordance with the predetermined ruleset.

23. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the geospatial object property processor is arranged to update the current source information content in response to a plurality of determinations by the assessment processor that a resource dataset comprising the candidate resource information constitutes a qualitatively better dataset resource to define respectively a plurality of geospatial object properties than a source dataset comprising the current source information content.

24. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a third metadata associated with quality of another candidate resource information content for updating the definition of the property of the geospatial object;

wherein

the assessment processor is arranged to use the first metadata and the third metadata in accordance with the predetermined ruleset in order to determine whether the another candidate resource information content constitutes a qualitatively better resource to define the property of the geospatial object than the current source information content, the assessment processor being arranged to select one of the candidate information content and the another candidate information content in response to respective evaluations of the predetermined ruleset, the selected one of the candidate information content and the another candidate information content having a superior evaluation result and being used to update the current source information content.

25. An editor apparatus comprising the geospatial object property assessment apparatus as claimed in claim 1.

26. An apparatus as claimed in claim 25, further comprising an alert generator, the alert generator being arranged to generate an alert in response to the determination by the assessment processor that the candidate resource information constitutes the qualitatively better resource to use to define the property of the geospatial object than the current source information content.

27. A geospatial object property assessment system comprising:

the spatial object property assessment apparatus as claimed in claim 1;

a database of currently used geospatial data to be analysed, the database of geospatial data comprising the current source information content associated with the definition of the property of the geospatial object; and

a database of candidate geospatial data comprising the candidate resource information content associated with the geospatial object;

wherein

the first metadata is associated with the database of currently used geospatial data and the second metadata is associated with the database of candidate geospatial data.

3. (canceled)

7-9. -9. (canceled)

15. (canceled)

21. (canceled)

28. A method of assessing a property of a geospatial object, the method comprising:

receiving a first metadata associated with quality of current source information content used to define a property of a geospatial object;

receiving a second metadata associated with quality of candidate resource information content for updating the definition of the property of the geospatial object; and

assessing the first metadata and the second metadata in accordance with a predetermined ruleset in order to determine whether the candidate resource information content constitutes a qualitatively better resource to define the property of the geospatial object than the current source information content.

29. A computer program element comprising computer program code means to make a computer execute the method as claimed in claim 28.