Abstract: A geographic database for use with a navigation application program that provides navigation features to an end-user. The geographic database includes data entities that represent segments of roads and additionally includes data entities that represent aggregations of segments of roads. The data entities that represent aggregations of segments of roads are used during a route calculation by the navigation application to suppress evaluation of roads of lesser functional rank thereby enhancing performance of the navigation system. According to one aspect, each of the data entities that represent segments of roads that represents a segment of a road that together with at least one other segment of a road forms part of an aggregation which is represented by one of the data entities that represent aggregations of segments of roads includes a reference thereto.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
March 16, 1998
Date of Patent:
March 14, 2000
Assignee:
Navigation Technologies Corporation
Inventors:
Richard A. Ashby, Paul M. Bouzide, Srinivasa Doddapaneni, Robert P. Fernekes, Matthew Friederich, Vijaya S. Israni, John C. Jasper, Asta Kavakh, William McDonough, James A. Meek, Senthil K. Natesan, Nicholas E. Smith