Method for representing the vertical component of road geometry and computing grade or slope
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method of representing roads in a geographic database comprising:
- providing data indicating a plurality of locations along roads, including data indicating altitudes at said plurality of locations;
using the data indicating altitudes to provide an input to a Hough Transform to determine straight line segments and vertical curves that coincide with the roads vertically; and
storing data defining said straight line segments and vertical curves to represent an altitudinal component of the geometry of the roads in the geographic database.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A geographic database represents roads including an altitudinal component of the geometry of the roads. The altitudinal component of the geometry of roads is represented using data that indicate straight line segments and vertical curves, in particular parabolic vertical curves. The straight lines and vertical curves are determined by providing data, indicating the altitude at a plurality of locations along portions of roads, as an input to a Hough transform to determine the straight line segments and vertical curves that coincide with the portions of the roads vertically. Then, data that define the straight line segments and vertical curves are stored to represent the altitudinal component of the geometry of the portions of the roads in the geographic database. The altitudinal variation of roads is thus expressed in closed form. From this closed form representation, the slope or grade at any point along the road can be easily computed.
49 Citations
16 Claims
-
1. A computer-implemented method of representing roads in a geographic database comprising:
-
providing data indicating a plurality of locations along roads, including data indicating altitudes at said plurality of locations; using the data indicating altitudes to provide an input to a Hough Transform to determine straight line segments and vertical curves that coincide with the roads vertically; and storing data defining said straight line segments and vertical curves to represent an altitudinal component of the geometry of the roads in the geographic database. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
-
-
14. A computer-implemented method of representing roads in a geographic database comprising:
-
providing data indicating latitude, longitude and altitude at each of a plurality of positions along roads; using the altitude data to provide an input to a Hough Transform to determine straight line segments and vertical curves coinciding with the roads vertically; and storing data defining said straight line segments and vertical curves to represent an altitudinal component of the geometry of the roads in the geographic database. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
-
Specification