Patent ID: 6751629
Filing Date: 2004-06-15
Classification: G01C,Y10S

Abstract:
A method of organizing map data on a physical storage medium, wherein the map data represent geographic features in a region, the method comprising:separating the map data into a plurality of parcels, wherein each parcel contains a portion of all the map data and wherein each parcel contains a separate plurality of data records; and for each parcel, storing the map data for the parcel together on data storage medium; wherein the map data in each parcel represents the geographic features located within a separate, respective one of a plurality of rectangular areas into which the region is divided; wherein all the rectangular areas that are adjacent to each other in an east-west direction form a row of rectangular areas that all have northern east-west boundaries at a common latitude and southern east-west boundaries at another common latitude; and wherein the rectangular areas within a row have north-south boundaries that are selected so that the data size of a parcel containing the map data that represents the geographic features located within the rectangular area is approximately a predetermined size.