Method and system of polyline generation for rendering a richly attributed representation of a geographic region
AssigneeNavteq North America, LLC
InventorsWilliam Gale, William McDonough
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system of polyline generation for rendering a representation of a geographic region is provided. Within a database containing geographic data, polyline data entities represent geographic features. Each polyline data entity is associated with a drawcode that defines attributes of the data entity, and organized within the database based on the drawcode. During a rendering process, a processor can read a group of data from a database stored on a disc that is organized to contain all polyline data entities associated with the same drawcode. The processor can then render all geographic features in an area that are similar using one or a minimum number of disc reads.
Claims46
A computer-readable medium having computer readable data structure stored thereon for representing geographic features in a geographic region, the computer readable data structure comprising:
- data entities that represent geographic features located in the geographic region;
- and
- a plurality of drawcodes, wherein each drawcode represents a unique combination of attributes associated with the geographic features represented by the data entities, and wherein each of the data entities that represent the geographic features is associated with one of the drawcodes, and wherein each drawcode is associated with information that identifies drawing characteristics for rendering the geographic features represented by the data entities associated therewith.
A method of producing a geographic database comprising:
- identifying combinations of attributes associated with geographic features located in a geographic region that are in common among the geographic features;
- associating drawcodes with the combinations of attributes, wherein each drawcode is associated with a distinct combination of attributes;
- and
- storing data entities in the geographic database to represent the geographic features, wherein data entities having the same drawcode are stored together in groups.
A method for storing computer readable data for representing geographic features in a geographic region, wherein the computer readable data includes a plurality of data entities, each data entity representing a geographic feature located in the geographic region, the method comprising;
- associating each data entity with a drawcode, wherein each drawcode defines a distinct set of attributes associated with the geographic features;
- sorting the plurality of data entities into groups by drawcode;
- and
- storing in a computer-readable database, the sorted plurality of data entities.
A method for displaying images of portions of a geographic region on a computer display, wherein the images portray geographic features located in the geographic region, the method comprising:
- reading from a computer readable database stored on a computer readable medium a group of data entities, wherein the data entities represent the geographic features, and wherein each data entity in the group has an associated drawcode which defines a combination of attributes associated with the represented geographic feature, the drawcode being associated with information that identifies drawing characteristics for rendering the represented geographic feature;
- and
- rendering on the computer display images of the geographic features that correspond to the data entities in the group.
A system comprising:
- a geographic data set stored on a computer readable medium, the geographic data set including data entities representative of geographic features in a geographic region, wherein each of the data entities is associated with one of a plurality of drawcodes, each of which represents a unique combination of attributes associated with a represented geographic feature;
- a navigation application for providing navigation features to an end user;
- and
- a processor operable to access the geographic data set to read a group of data entities and to execute the navigation application to display images on a computer display, wherein geographic features represented by data entities having the same drawcode are rendered with lines having the same color and thickness.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.