Generating land cover for display by a mapping application

• US 9,305,380 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2012
• Issued: 04/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Sethia, Saurabh U.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoang, Peter
• Application Number:
  US13/631,997
• Publication Number:
  US 20130328883A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,283 Days
• Field of Search: 345/441
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3815 Road data
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3819 Road shape data, e.g. outline of a route
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3867 Geometry of map features, e.g. shape points, polygons or for simplified maps
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/387 Organisation of map data, e.g. version management or database structures
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3878 Hierarchical structures, e.g. layering
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3881 Tile-based structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/00 2D [Two Dimensional] image generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/20 Drawing from basic elements, e.g. lines or circles
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/05 Geographic models
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0004 Industrial image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/00 Control arrangements or circuits for visual indicators common to cathode-ray tube indicators and other visual indicators image data processing or generation, in general G06T

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a method for conflating geometries to a road in a map region for an electronic mapping service. The method receives a first geometry representing a road. The method receives several geometries arranged such that a gap representing the road is between the geometries. The gap is not aligned with the first geometry representing the road. The method expands the geometries toward the first geometry such that the geometries converge at the first geometry. The road geometry is for drawing over the plurality of other geometries by a client mapping application.

Claims

1. A method for conflating geometries to a road in a map region for an electronic mapping service, the method comprising:

receiving a first geometry representing a road;

receiving a plurality of geometries that are arranged about the first geometry and that represent items in the map region that are about the road, wherein at least one gap exists between a boundary portion of the first geometry representing the road and a corresponding boundary portion of a second geometry of the plurality of geometries; and

expanding the corresponding boundary portion of the second geometry towards the boundary portion of the first geometry such that a size of the second geometry is increased, wherein the expansion of the second geometry converges with the first geometry to fill the gap and overlap a portion of the first geometry, wherein the road will be drawn by a client mapping application after the client mapping application draws the plurality of geometries.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of geometries represents a particular type of land cover.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the particular type of land cover is a first land cover type, the method further comprising rasterizing the second geometry before said expanding in order to convert pixels that neighbor the corresponding boundary portion of the second geometry and that are a second land cover type to match the first land cover type during said expanding.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

vectorizing the second geometry after said expanding in order to reduce a number of vertices of the second geometry; and

determining a union of the expanded pixels adjacent to each geometry.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the road is a first road, the method further comprising:

receiving a third geometry that represents a second road adjacent to the first road;

after said expanding, determining a space between the first and third geometries where the plurality of geometries did not expand; and

marking the space so that the client mapping application interprets the space for rendering as a particular land cover type.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the client mapping application renders the space as one of (i) a road divider, (ii) green space, and (iii) pavement.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of geometries comprises a set of geometries representing bodies of water, the method further comprising removing the set of geometries representing bodies of water, wherein the set of geometries representing bodies of water are for drawing on a separate layer by the client mapping application.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the boundary portion of the first geometry is a first boundary portion and the gap is a first gap, wherein a second gap exists between a second boundary portion of the first geometry and a corresponding boundary portion of a third geometry of the plurality of geometries, the method further comprising expanding the corresponding boundary portion of the third geometry towards the second boundary portion of the first geometry such that the third geometry converges with the first geometry to fill the second gap.

9. A method of conflating land cover boundaries by analyzing boundary data in a map region for an electronic mapping service, the method comprising:

receiving first and second adjacent geometries that represent first and second items in the map region, the first and second adjacent geometries not having two aligned boundaries, wherein (i) a first boundary portion of the first adjacent geometry and a second boundary portion of the second adjacent geometry overlap each other and (ii) a third boundary portion of the first adjacent geometry and a fourth boundary portion of the second adjacent geometry are separated by a gap;

identifying that the first geometry has more data points on the boundary than the second geometry; and

adjusting the boundary of the second geometry by (i) removing the second boundary portion that overlaps the first boundary portion and (ii) expanding the fourth boundary portion towards the third boundary portion such that both first and second geometries'"'"' boundaries are identical.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

identifying a set of overlapping portions in the first and second adjacent geometries;

performing said receiving, identifying, and adjusting for each identified overlapping geometry;

identifying a set of gaps that separates the first and second adjacent geometries; and

performing said receiving, identifying, and adjusting for each identified gap.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein identifying the set of gaps comprises subtracting all geometries of identified overlapping geometries from the map region in order to obtain a list of all remaining gaps.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein subtracting comprises subtracting the second boundary portion of the second geometry until the second boundary portion is identical to the first boundary portion.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the geometries represent either different administrative regions or different land cover types.

14. A method of conflating land cover boundaries in a map region for an electronic mapping service, the method comprising:

receiving a first geometry representing a first land cover type from a first source;

receiving a second geometry representing a second land cover type comprising a boundary that corresponds to a boundary of the first geometry that is not identical to the boundary of the first geometry, wherein (i) a first boundary portion of the first geometry and a second boundary portion of the second geometry overlap each other and (ii) a third boundary portion of the first geometry and a fourth boundary portion of the second geometry are separated by a gap, the second geometry received from a second source;

identifying that the first data source is more reliable than the second data source based on land cover types represented by the received first and second geometries; and

adjusting boundary portions of the second geometry by (i) removing the second boundary portion that overlaps the first boundary portion and (ii) expanding the fourth boundary portion towards the third boundary portion such that both first and second geometries'"'"' boundaries are identical.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising identifying at least one boundary portion of the first geometry that overlaps the corresponding boundary portion of the second geometry.

16. The method of claim 14 further comprising identifying a gap between the boundary portion of the first geometry and the corresponding boundary portion of the second geometry.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein identifying comprises calculating a threshold value based on a shape of the geometry determined to be from the less reliable source, the threshold value for determining which portions of the identified gaps between the boundaries to resolve.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the threshold value is calculated by dividing an area of a geometry by a perimeter of the geometry to obtain a quotient and multiplying the quotient by a scaling factor.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the less reliable boundary portion that is next to a gap is adjusted when more than a predefined number of points are within the calculated threshold value.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the predetermined number of points is at least one.

21. The method of claim 14, wherein identifying that the first source is more reliable is further based on past experience with the source of the first and second sources.

22. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a computer program for conflating land cover geometries to a road for an electronic mapping service, the computer program for execution by at least one processing unit, the computer program for, the computer program comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving a first geometry representing a road;

receiving a plurality of geometries that are arranged about the first geometry and that represent items in the map region that are about the road, wherein at least one gap exists between a boundary portion of the first geometry representing the road and a corresponding boundary portion of a second geometry of the plurality of geometries; and

expanding the corresponding boundary portion of the second geometry towards the boundary portion of the first geometry such that a size of the second geometry is increased, wherein the expansion of the second geometry converges with the first geometry to fill the gap and overlap a portion of the first geometry, wherein the road will be drawn by a client mapping application after the client mapping application draws the plurality of geometries.

23. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 22, wherein the second geometry represents a first land cover type, the program further comprises a set of instructions for rasterizing the second geometry before said expanding in order to convert pixels that neighbor the corresponding boundary of the second geometry and that are a second land cover type to match the first land cover type during said expanding.

24. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 22, wherein the boundary portion of the first geometry is a first boundary portion and the gap is a first gap, wherein a second gap exists between a second boundary portion of the first geometry and a corresponding boundary portion of a third geometry of the plurality of geometries, the program further comprising a set of instructions for expanding the corresponding boundary portion of the third geometry towards the second boundary portion of the first geometry such that the third geometry converges with the first geometry to fill the second gap.

25. A system comprising:

a set of processing units for executing sets of instructions; and

a non-transitory machine readable medium for storing a program which when executed by at least one of the processing units conflates land cover geometries to a road, the program comprises sets of instructions for;

receiving a first geometry representing a road;

receiving a plurality of geometries that are arranged about the first geometry and that represent items in the map region that are about the road, wherein at least one gap exists between a boundary portion of the first geometry representing the road and a corresponding boundary portion of a second geometry of the plurality of geometries; and

expanding the corresponding boundary portion of the second geometry towards the boundary portion of the first geometry such that a size of the second geometry is increased, wherein the expansion of the second geometry converges with the first geometry to fill the gap and overlap a portion of the first geometry, wherein the road will be drawn by a client mapping application after the client mapping application draws the plurality of geometries.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the second geometry represents a first land cover type, the program further comprising a set of instructions for rasterizing the second geometry before said expanding in order to convert pixels that neighbor the corresponding boundary of the second geometry and that are a second land cover type to match the first land cover type during said expanding.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the boundary portion of the first geometry is a first boundary portion and the gap is a first gap, wherein a second gap exists between a second boundary portion of the first geometry and a corresponding boundary portion of a third geometry of the plurality of geometries, the program further comprising a set of instructions for expanding the corresponding boundary portion of the third geometry towards the second boundary portion of the first geometry such that the third geometry converges with the first geometry to fill the second gap.