Method for representing the vertical component of road geometry and computing grade or slope
First Claim
1. A navigation system comprising:
- a positioning system that collects data indicating a position;
a computer readable storage medium storing a geographic database comprising altitudinal road geometry data defining straight line segments and vertical curves determined using a Hough Transform having an input of a plurality of altitude data points indicating altitudes at a plurality of locations along roads, wherein the altitudinal road geometry data representing straight line segments and vertical curves determined using the Hough transform have a data size less than a data size of said altitude data points; and
a navigation-related application that uses said altitudinal road geometry data to provide a navigation-related feature, wherein said navigation-related feature includes at least one of;
a map display, a route calculation, a route guidance, an adaptive cruise control and an adaptive lighting control.
2 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.
12 Citations
18 Claims
-
1. A navigation system comprising:
-
a positioning system that collects data indicating a position; a computer readable storage medium storing a geographic database comprising altitudinal road geometry data defining straight line segments and vertical curves determined using a Hough Transform having an input of a plurality of altitude data points indicating altitudes at a plurality of locations along roads, wherein the altitudinal road geometry data representing straight line segments and vertical curves determined using the Hough transform have a data size less than a data size of said altitude data points; and a navigation-related application that uses said altitudinal road geometry data to provide a navigation-related feature, wherein said navigation-related feature includes at least one of;
a map display, a route calculation, a route guidance, an adaptive cruise control and an adaptive lighting control. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A computer implemented method of representing roads in a geographic database comprising:
-
providing a plurality of altitude data points indicating altitudes at a plurality of locations along roads; using the altitude data points to provide an input to a Hough Transform to determine straight line segments and vertical curves coinciding with the roads vertically; storing data representing said straight line segments and vertical curves to represent an altitudinal component of the geometry of the roads in the geographic database, wherein the stored data representing straight line segments and vertical curves have a data size less than a data size of said altitude data points; and storing said geographic database on a computer readable data storage medium. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
-
Specification