Geographic Database Segmentation for Off-Road Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional navigation and routing systems often fail to provide accurate guidance for destinations located off the public road network, such as buildings with private access roads or stores within shopping malls, as they lack detailed data on access paths and features like parking lots and entrances.
Innovation Solution
A geographic database system comprising a core database for public road networks and location databases for facilities and features off the public road network, using unique location reference codes to associate access paths and features, enabling determination of paths from these locations to the public road network.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional navigation systems use only public road network data, then the system complexity remains low, but the system cannot provide accurate guidance for destinations located off the public road network
Solution Approach 1:
The geographic database is segmented into multiple layers: public road network data and off-road feature data (parking lots, driveways, walkways, buildings). Each layer is stored separately but linked through location reference codes, allowing the system to handle off-road destinations while maintaining manageable complexity through modular organization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a nested database structure where off-road features are nested within the broader geographic context. Location databases contain facilities and features that are physically located away from the public road network, while the core database contains the road network. These nested databases are connected through location reference codes, creating a hierarchical structure that resolves the complexity issue.
2Loss of information
If the database includes detailed off-road feature data, then routing guidance to destinations like mall stores becomes accurate, but the data storage requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
Location reference codes serve as intermediaries that link the core database (public road network) with location databases (off-road features). Instead of storing complete detailed information for every off-road feature in the core database, the system uses reference codes to connect to external location databases, reducing data redundancy while maintaining information completeness.
3Ease of operation
If navigation systems provide detailed access paths to off-road destinations, then user satisfaction improves, but the system requires more complex path calculation algorithms
Solution Approach 1:
The routing process is segmented into distinct phases: first, calculate the route from the user's location to the access point on the public road network using the core database; second, use the location reference code to transition to the location database; third, calculate the final segment from the access point to the specific destination through off-road features. This segmentation simplifies the overall routing algorithm by breaking it into manageable segments that can be handled separately.
Data Source
AI summary
A method is disclosed for representing locations in a geographic database in a manner that facilitates navigation and routing. A core map database includes data that represents public roads in a geographic region. Each of a plurality of location map databases includes data that represent facilities, such as businesses, stores, offices, or other places, that are physically located away from the public network and access to which requires travel on paths away from the public road network. Each of the facilities represented in the location map databases is assigned a location reference code that is associated with data from which a path connecting the facility and the public road network can be determined.