System for storing geospecific data

• US 7,068,819 B1
• Filed: 07/12/2002
• Issued: 06/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: The United States of America As Represented By The Secretary of Agriculture
• Original Assignee: the united states of america as represented by the secretary of the navy
• Inventors: Matson, Neil
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehta, Bhavesh M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): MACKOWEY, ANTHONY M
• Application Number:
  US10/192,907
• Time in Patent Office: 1,446 Days
• Field of Search: 382/113
• US Class Current: 382/113
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/05 Geographic models
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A system for storing geospecific data for use by an interactive computing environment utilizes separate terrain height data storage and image data storage. The terrain height data storage stores blocks of terrain height data which are defined as discrete terrain heights coinciding with a grid of discrete points at the surface of a planetary body. Terrain heights for each block are stored in a row major order starting with one discrete point of a grid associated therewith being referenced to a latitude and longitude. In a similar fashion, the image data storage stores blocks of image data defined as discrete image intensities coinciding with a grid of discrete points at the surface of the planetary body. Image intensities for each block are stored in a row major order starting with one discrete point of a grid associated therewith being referenced to a latitude and longitude.

Claims

1. A system for storing geospecific data for use by an interactive computing environment, comprising:

terrain height data storage for storing blocks of terrain height data defined as discrete terrain heights at the surface of a planetary body, each of said blocks of terrain height data defining said terrain heights for a grid of discrete points separated by a distance wherein each of said blocks of terrain height data tiles an area of said planetary body, each of said blocks of terrain height data having one of said discrete points associated therewith referenced to a latitude and longitude of said planetary body, each of blocks of terrain height data storing said terrain heights in a row major order starting with said one of said discrete points associated therewith referenced to said latitude and longitude; and

image data storage separate from said terrain height data storage for storing blocks of image data defined as discrete image intensities of an image of the surface of said planetary body, each of said blocks of image data defining said image intensities for a grid of discrete points separated by a distance wherein each of said blocks of image data tiles an area of said planetary body, each of said blocks of image data having one of said discrete points associated therewith referenced to a latitude and longitude of said planetary body that is the same as said latitude and longitude of said one of said discrete points associated with a corresponding one of said blocks of terrain height data, each of blocks of image data storing said image intensities in a row major order starting with said one of said discrete points associated therewith referenced to said latitude and longitude.

2. A system as in claim 1 wherein said grid for each of said blocks of terrain height data is a square grid.

3. A system as in claim 2 wherein, for each of said blocks of terrain height data, said one of said discrete points associated therewith is a southwest corner of said square grid.

4. A system as in claim 1 wherein said grid for each of said blocks of image data is a square grid.

5. A system as in claim 4 wherein, for each of said blocks of image data, said one of said discrete points associated therewith is a southwest corner of said square grid.

6. A system as in claim 1 wherein, for any of said blocks of terrain height data, said distance is the same for the entirety of said grid associated therewith.

7. A system as in claim 1 wherein, for any of said blocks of image data, said distance is the same for the entirety of said grid associated therewith.

8. A system for storing geospecific data for use by an interactive computing environment, comprising:

terrain height data storage for storing blocks of terrain height data defined as discrete terrain heights at the surface of a planetary body, each of said blocks of terrain height data defining said terrain heights for a grid of discrete points wherein each of said blocks of terrain height data tiles an area of said planetary body and wherein, for each said area of said planetary body, a plurality of said blocks of terrain height data are provided with each one thereof being defined by a unique grid resolution determined by a distance between adjacent ones of said discrete points associated therewith, each of said blocks of terrain height data having one of said discrete points associated therewith referenced to a latitude and longitude of said planetary body, each of blocks of terrain height data storing said terrain heights in a row major order starting with said one of said discrete points associated therewith referenced to said latitude and longitude; and

image data storage separate from said terrain height data storage for storing blocks of image data defined as discrete image intensities of an image of the surface of said planetary body, each of said blocks of image data defining said image intensities for a grid of discrete points wherein each of said blocks of image data tiles an area of said planetary body and wherein, for each said area of said planetary body, a plurality of said blocks of image data are provided with each one thereof being defined by a unique grid resolution determined by a distance between adjacent ones of said discrete points associated therewith, each of said blocks of image data having one of said discrete points associated therewith referenced to a latitude and longitude of said planetary body that is the same as said latitude and longitude of said one of said discrete points associated with a corresponding one of said blocks of terrain height data, each of blocks of image data storing said image intensities in a row major order starting with said one of said discrete points associated therewith referenced to said latitude and longitude.

9. A system as in claim 8 wherein said grid for each of said blocks of terrain height data is a square grid.

10. A system as in claim 9 wherein, for each of said blocks of terrain height data, said one of said discrete points associated therewith is a southwest corner of said square grid.

11. A system as in claim 8 wherein said grid for each of said blocks of image data is a square grid.

12. A system as in claim 11 wherein, for each of said blocks of image data, said one of said discrete points associated therewith is a southwest corner of said square grid.