System and method for updating, enhancing, or refining a geographic database using feedback

A system for providing a geographic database comprising:

• a plurality of position sensors, each of said position sensors installed in a separate one of a plurality of vehicles each of which is capable of traveling on roads in a geographic region, and each of said position sensors is operative to provide outputs indicative of physical positions of said position sensor in said geographic region as its respective vehicle travels on the roads in the geographic region;
• a geographic database including data representing the roads in the geographic region, and including data identifying physical positions of said roads;
• an updating feedback program comprised of
• a first program portion that compares said outputs to said data identifying the physical positions of said roads and provides results representative of said comparisons;
• a second program portion responsive to said results from said first program portion to determine a measure of significance taking into account a number of said outputs;
• and
• a third program portion operative to modify said data identifying the physical locations of said roads based upon said measure of significance determined by said second program portion.

A method of providing a geographic database comprising the steps of:

• sensing a plurality of actual positions traveled by a vehicle while the vehicle moves;
• matching at least a portion of the plurality of actual positions with a plurality of map positions in a geographic database;
• calculating a position difference between each actual position in the plurality of actual positions and the plurality of map positions, and
• storing each actual position for which the position difference exceeds a predetermined tolerance level as a plurality of unmatched positions.

A method of updating a geographic database comprising the steps of:

• sensing a plurality of actual positions traveled by a vehicle while the vehicle moves;
• matching at least a portion of the plurality of actual positions with a plurality of map positions in a local map database;
• calculating a position difference between each actual position in the plurality of actual positions and the plurality of map positions;
• storing each actual position for which the position difference exceeds a predetermined tolerance level as a plurality of unmatched positions;
• and
• communicating the unmatched positions from the vehicle to a central geographic database.

A method of updating a geographic database comprising the steps of:

• sensing a plurality of actual positions traveled by a vehicle while the vehicle moves;
• transmitting data indicating the plurality of actual positions to a central geographic database;
• matching at least a portion of data indicating the plurality of actual positions with a plurality of map positions in the central geographic database;
• calculating a position difference between each actual position in the plurality of actual positions and the plurality of map positions;
• and
• storing each actual position for which the position difference exceeds a predetermined tolerance level as a plurality of unmatched positions.

A method of updating a geographic database comprising the steps of.

• sensing vehicle positions in a vehicle while the vehicle moves;
• determining a plurality of actual positions traveled by the vehicle from said sensed vehicle positions;
• transmitting data representing the plurality of actual road attributes to central geographic database;
• matching at least a portion of the plurality of actual road attributes with a plurality of map road attributes in the central geographic database;
• calculating an attribute difference between each actual road attribute in the plurality of actual road attributes and a respective stored road attribute in the plurality of map road attributes;
• and
• storing each actual road attribute for which the attribute difference exceeds a predetermined tolerance level as a plurality of unmatched attributes.

A method of preparing a geographic database comprising the steps of:

• sensing vehicle positions in a vehicle while the vehicle moves;
• determining a plurality of actual positions traveled by the vehicle from said sensed vehicle positions;
• matching at least a portion of the plurality of actual road attributes with a plurality of map road attributes in a local the map database in said vehicle;
• calculating an attribute difference between each actual road attribute in the plurality of actual road attributes and the plurality of map road attributes;
• storing each actual road attribute for which the attribute difference exceeds a predetermined tolerance level as a plurality of unmatched attributes;
• and
• communicating unmatched attributes from the local map database to the central geographic database.

A method for providing a geographic database comprising:

• sensing a plurality of physical features in a geographic region with a plurality of data collection systems each of which is installed in one of a corresponding plurality of vehicles;
• comparing data derived from outputs of said plurality of sensors to a geographic database that includes data representing said physical features;
• ascertaining variances based upon said comparing;
• and
• refining the geographic database using the variances

A method of refining a geographic database comprising:

• sensing a plurality of physical features in a geographic region with a plurality of data collection systems, each of which is installed in one of a corresponding plurality of vehicles;
• comparing data derived from outputs of said plurality of sensors to a geographic database that includes data representing said physical features in the geographic region;
• ascertaining variances based upon said comparing;
• and
• after ascertaining said variances, assigning a level of confidence to data in the geographic database using the ascertained variances.

An automatic vehicle guidance system for a vehicle comprising:

• a geographic database including data representing roads and data representing a type of feature located along roads, said geographic database located in the vehicle,
• a sensor capable of sensing the type of feature, said sensor located in the vehicle;
• and
• a processor coupled to the sensor and the geographic database and that executes a program that determines a road upon which the vehicle is located by matching features being sensed as the vehicle travels to said data representing the type of feature in the geographic database and then matching positions of the matched data that represents the type of feature to positions of roads represented by data in the geographic database.