Generating elevation data for maps

• US 9,267,798 B2
• Filed: 12/09/2014
• Issued: 02/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Strava, Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Strava, Incorporated
• Inventors: Kitchel, Davis
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheung, Mary
• Assistant Examiner(s): BRUSHABER, FREDERICK M
• Application Number:
  US14/564,911
• Publication Number:
  US 20150160027A1
• Time in Patent Office: 441 Days
• Field of Search: 701/533
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2503/10 Athletes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/024 Detecting, measuring or recording pulse rate or heart rate A61B5/0205, A61B5/021 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1112 Global tracking of patients, e.g. by using GPS
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/14 Geo-tagging, e.g. for correlating route or track location data with specific information related to that specific location
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 24/0062 Monitoring athletic performances, e.g. for determining the work of a user on an exercise apparatus, the completed jogging or cycling distance
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/34 Route searching; Route guidance
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3461 Preferred or disfavoured areas, e.g. dangerous zones, toll or emission zones, intersections, manoeuvre types, segments such as motorways, toll roads, ferries
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3484 Personalized, e.g. from learned user behaviour or user-defined profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3667 Display of a road map G01C21/3614 takes precedence; guidance using 3D or perspective road maps G01C21/3635
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 5/06 by using barometric means
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/13 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/19 Sporting applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Generating elevation data for maps is disclosed, including: selecting a barometric data candidate user activity from a plurality of user activities that matches an edge; normalizing a recorded elevation corresponding to each of at least a subset of a plurality of data points associated with the selected barometric data candidate user activity based at least in part on obtained elevation data associated with the edge; storing the normalized recorded elevation corresponding to each of the at least subset of the plurality of data points associated with the barometric data candidate user activity as a set of elevation data associated with the edge in a user preference map; and using the set of elevation data associated with the edge in the user preference map to determine a suggested route based at least in part on a user input route preference associated with a desired route elevation.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processor configured to;

select a barometric data candidate user activity from a plurality of user activities that matches an edge, wherein at least some of the plurality of user activities are recorded by a plurality of geographical positioning satellite (GPS) recording devices, wherein the barometric data candidate user activity comprises a plurality of recorded elevations corresponding to respective ones of a plurality of data points;

normalize each recorded elevation of the plurality of recorded elevations corresponding to each of at least a subset of the plurality of data points associated with the selected barometric data candidate user activity based at least in part on obtained elevation data associated with the edge, wherein to normalize each recorded elevation corresponding to each of the at least subset of the plurality of data points comprises to generate a corresponding normalized recorded elevation based at least in part on adjusting the recorded elevation using the obtained elevation data associated with the edge;

store the corresponding normalized recorded elevation corresponding to each of the at least subset of the plurality of data points associated with the barometric data candidate user activity as a set of elevation data associated with the edge in a user preference map;

use the set of elevation data associated with the edge in the user preference map to determine a suggested route based at least in part on a user input route preference associated with a desired route elevation; and

display the suggested route; and

a memory coupled to the processor and configured to provide the processor with instructions.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to obtain the elevation data from a third party source.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:

generate a respective buffer at each of one or more locations along the edge;

include a user activity that matches the respective buffer at each of the one or more locations along the edge in the plurality of user activities that matches the edge; and

filter any user activity from the plurality of user activities that matches the edge that comprises non-contiguous points across the respective buffer at each of the one or more locations along the edge.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein to select the barometric data candidate user activity from the plurality of user activities that matches the edge comprises to:

determine a subset of the plurality of user activities that matches the edge that is recorded with barometric data;

determine a respective difference between a recorded start elevation and a recorded end elevation associated with each of the subset of the plurality of user activities that matches the edge that is recorded with barometric data;

obtain a first obtained elevation associated with a first endpoint of the edge and a second obtained elevation associated with a second endpoint of the edge;

determine a difference between the first obtained elevation associated with the first endpoint of the edge and the second obtained elevation associated with the second endpoint of the edge;

rank the subset of the plurality of user activities that matches the edge that is recorded with barometric data in a ranked list based at least in part on comparing the respective difference associated with each user activity of the subset of the plurality of user activities that matches the edge that is recorded with barometric data to the difference between the first obtained elevation associated with the first endpoint of the edge and the second obtained elevation associated with the second endpoint of the edge; and

determine the selected barometric data candidate user activity based at least in part on the ranked list.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein in the event that the selected barometric data candidate user activity meets an ignore condition, the processor is further configured to select another user activity from the ranked list to use as the selected barometric data candidate user activity.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to normalize a distance associated with the selected barometric data candidate user activity based at least in part on a distance associated with the edge.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein to normalize the recorded elevation corresponding to each of at least the subset of the plurality of data points associated with the selected barometric data candidate user activity based at least in part on the obtained elevation data associated with the edge comprises to:

obtain a first obtained elevation associated with a first endpoint of the edge and a second obtained elevation associated with a second endpoint of the edge;

normalize each of a first recorded elevation corresponding to a first endpoint of the selected barometric data candidate user activity and a second recorded elevation corresponding to a second endpoint associated with the selected barometric data candidate user activity based at least in part on a difference between the first recorded elevation corresponding to the first endpoint associated with the selected barometric data candidate user activity and the first obtained elevation associated with the first endpoint of the edge;

determine a difference between the normalized second recorded elevation corresponding to the second endpoint associated with the selected barometric data candidate user activity and the second obtained elevation associated with the second endpoint of the edge; and

normalize a recorded elevation corresponding to a current data point of the selected barometric data candidate user activity based at least in part on an elevation normalization amount associated with a previous data point of the selected barometric data candidate user activity.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the recorded elevation corresponding to the current data point of the selected barometric data candidate user activity is further normalized based at least in part on an interval distance between the current data point and the previous data point relative to a distance associated with the edge and the difference between the normalized second recorded elevation corresponding to the second endpoint associated with the selected barometric data candidate user activity and the second obtained elevation associated with the second endpoint of the edge.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of elevation data comprises one or more absolute elevation values.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of elevation data comprises one or more relative elevation values.

11. A method, comprising:

selecting a barometric data candidate user activity from a plurality of user activities that matches an edge, wherein at least some of the plurality of user activities are recorded by a plurality of geographical positioning satellite (GPS) recording devices, wherein the barometric data candidate user activity comprises a plurality of recorded elevations corresponding to respective ones of a plurality of data points;

normalizing, using a processor, each recorded elevation of the plurality of recorded elevations corresponding to each of at least a subset of the plurality of data points associated with the selected barometric data candidate user activity based at least in part on obtained elevation data associated with the edge, wherein normalizing each recorded elevation corresponding to each of the at least subset of the plurality of data points comprises generating a corresponding normalized recorded elevation based at least in part on adjusting the recorded elevation using the obtained elevation data associated with the edge;

storing the corresponding normalized recorded elevation corresponding to each of the at least subset of the plurality of data points associated with the barometric data candidate user activity as a set of elevation data associated with the edge in a user preference map;

using the set of elevation data associated with the edge in the user preference map to determine a suggested route based at least in part on a user input route preference associated with a desired route elevation; and

displaying the suggested route.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising obtaining the elevation data from a third party source.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of user activities that matches the edge is determined by:

generating a respective buffer at each of one or more locations along the edge;

including a user activity that matches the respective buffer at each of the one or more locations along the edge in the plurality of user activities that matches the edge; and

filtering any user activity from the plurality of user activities that matches the edge that comprises non-contiguous points across the respective buffer at each of the one or more locations along the edge.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein selecting the barometric data candidate user activity from the plurality of user activities that matches the edge comprises:

determining a subset of the plurality of user activities that matches the edge that is recorded with barometric data;

determining a respective difference between a recorded start elevation and a recorded end elevation associated with each of the subset of the plurality of user activities that matches the edge that is recorded with barometric data;

obtaining a first obtained elevation associated with a first endpoint of the edge and a second obtained elevation associated with a second endpoint of the edge;

determining a difference between the first obtained elevation associated with the first endpoint of the edge and the second obtained elevation associated with the second endpoint of the edge;

ranking the subset of the plurality of user activities that matches the edge that is recorded with barometric data in a ranked list based at least in part on comparing the respective difference associated with each user activity of the subset of the plurality of user activities that matches the edge that is recorded with barometric data to the difference between the first obtained elevation associated with the first endpoint of the edge and the second obtained elevation associated with the second endpoint of the edge; and

determining the selected barometric data candidate user activity based at least in part on the ranked list.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein in the event that the selected barometric data candidate user activity meets an ignore condition, further comprising selecting another user activity from the ranked list to use as the selected barometric data candidate user activity.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein further comprising normalizing a distance associated with the selected barometric data candidate user activity based at least in part on a distance associated with the edge.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein normalizing the recorded elevation corresponding to each of at least the subset of the plurality of data points associated with the selected barometric data candidate user activity based at least in part on the obtained elevation data associated with the edge comprises:

obtaining a first obtained elevation associated with a first endpoint of the edge and a second obtained elevation associated with a second endpoint of the edge;

normalizing each of a first recorded elevation corresponding to a first endpoint of the selected barometric data candidate user activity and a second recorded elevation corresponding to a second endpoint associated with the selected barometric data candidate user activity based at least in part on a difference between the first recorded elevation corresponding to the first endpoint associated with the selected barometric data candidate user activity and the first obtained elevation associated with the first endpoint of the edge;

determining a difference between the normalized second recorded elevation corresponding to the second endpoint associated with the selected barometric data candidate user activity and the second obtained elevation associated with the second endpoint of the edge; and

normalizing a recorded elevation corresponding to a current data point of the selected barometric data candidate user activity based at least in part on an elevation normalization amount associated with a previous data point of the selected barometric data candidate user activity.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the recorded elevation corresponding to the current data point of the selected barometric data candidate user activity is further normalized based at least in part on an interval distance between the current data point and the previous data point relative to a distance associated with the edge and the difference between the normalized second recorded elevation corresponding to the second endpoint associated with the selected barometric data candidate user activity and the second obtained elevation associated with the second endpoint of the edge.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the set of elevation data comprises one or more absolute elevation values.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the set of elevation data comprises one or more relative elevation values.

21. A computer program product, the computer program product being embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

selecting a barometric data candidate user activity from a plurality of user activities that matches an edge, wherein at least some of the plurality of user activities are recorded by a plurality of geographical positioning satellite (GPS) recording devices, wherein the barometric data candidate user activity comprises a plurality of recorded elevations corresponding to respective ones of a plurality of data points;

normalizing each recorded elevation of the plurality of recorded elevations corresponding to each of at least a subset of the plurality of data points associated with the selected barometric data candidate user activity based at least in part on obtained elevation data associated with the edge, wherein normalizing each recorded elevation corresponding to each of the at least subset of the plurality of data points comprises generating a corresponding recorded normalized elevation based at least in part on adjusting the recorded elevation using the obtained elevation data associated with the edge;

storing the corresponding normalized recorded elevation corresponding to each of the at least subset of the plurality of data points associated with the barometric data candidate user activity as a set of elevation data associated with the edge in a user preference map;

using the set of elevation data associated with the edge in the user preference map to determine a suggested route based at least in part on a user input route preference associated with a desired route elevation; and

displaying the suggested route.